April showers brought May showers

There's a lot to celebrate these days in Virginia. First, it is, in case you've forgotten, Allergy and Asthma Awareness Month, National Salad Month, and National Hamburger Month. Then there was the always festive Cinco de Mayo, a day we let slide by too easily this year.

Yesterday, conveniently, was International No Diet Day AND Don's Birthday, which meant we could all eat our fair share of jalapeno-cheddar bread, coleslaw, and slabs of the world's heaviest (literally, it weighed a ton!) German chocolate cake.

Here, Don waves away the smoke from a few too many candles (though hopefully the wishes didn't blow away!). Maybe he's lucky the boxes only come with 36 candles each... ;-)

Next week, we continue the festivities with Mother's Day and Doogie's birthday, both of which we celebrated in advance last night. Someone got a unique orchid specimen and the other got natural, local peanut butter biscuits. Can you guess which is which?

(That photo doesn't do justice; Don was taking centered, competing pictures, and Ben and Sue turned my way after my flash startled them. Hopefully, we'll redeem this with one of the better shots Don took. In the meantime, would you get a load of that orchid?!)

(And here's Doogie a few months ago, looking up at me and thinking, "Ha! I'm not standing up for you! At least, not until I smell some heady Whole Foods biscuits in my future. I know where you shop! Stop holding out on me, interloper!" Let's just say, I got the message, pup. And lots of weird looks while I scanned the pet food aisle looking for your perfect treat while trying to avoid all the animal bones and hides and other veggie-unfriendly items your lot seem to enjoy.)

Luckily, the celebrating just keeps on through the month: we've got Twilight Zone Day, National Blueberry Cheesecake Day, and, of local significance, the beginning of the Lewis and Clark expeditions.

Thankfully, my grotesque, swollen-shut eye decided to appear on the National Day of Reason, which isn't a day I'd ordinarily celebrate one way or the other. Be grateful, dear readers, I am not including a photo of that.