Charles Apple

I’m overwhelmed by all the kind e-mails and Facebook greetings you’ve sent today wishing me a happy birthday.

In fact, I’m having a terrific day. Sharon made me my favorite banana nut bread for breakfast:

And then she gave me a truly unexpected birthday present.

Without a full-time job, y’see, I’m pretty much been forced to drop out of my favorite hobby, which is collecting action figures. Knowing how much I’m missing the new Star Trek movie toys, Sharon went out and bought me the entire set of six-inch-tall figures:

On the far right is the new Lt. Uhura figure, the rarest of the bunch. I can’t believe she was able to find one so easily:

After a nice breakfast, we decided to take a stroll on the beach, which is just a few miles away. It’s a wonderful day here in Virginia Beach: 93 degrees and not a cloud in the sky:

Until the Thursday before Memorial Day, you can take your dog to the beach. Spock, Sharon’s cocker spaniel, just loves getting his paws wet and chasing sea gulls:

To answer a question I get a lot: No, the name wasn’t my idea. That was Sharon’s way of trying to get my buy-in when we first got the dog, eight years ago. I never really wanted a dog in the first place. I’m a cat person.

Here’s Sharon, Spock and Elizabeth. At least she’s not named after a Star Trek character:

Spock, of course, waited until we were on the beach to give me his own birthday present. Here, Sharon and Elizabeth debate who’ll dispose of it:

As we prepared to leave — before we got sunburned — we ran into a crowd of people holding some kind of dance event on the lawn of the bandshell, near the oceanfront Hilton:

We couldn’t find a sign to see what they were doing, but they sure seemed to be having a lot of fun:

And, of course, stately King Neptune kept a watchful eye on the merry crowd:

Tonight, Sharon made my favorite for dinner — pot roast –and then we broke out the birthday cake:

No, it’s not sugar-free. But if eaten in moderation, it’s not deadly, either. At the moment, anyway.

Luckily, I believe in moderation in all things:

Tonight, I’ll recruit Elizabeth to help me open all the new Trek figures.

Thanks again for all the kind wishes!

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 26th, 2009 at 3:40 pm and is filed under Charles Apple. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.