It was my birthday last Friday. Thanks to everyone who took the time to send birthday wishes. I had been on the road last week and arrived home late Thursday evening to find that Wendy had an amazing candlelit dinner waiting for me. I walked in the back door and the scent of her Italian fried chicken combined with fresh baked Italian bread filled my nostrils and stirred my heart (It's a guy thing – you know, "the way to a man's heart…"). We had a wonderful evening celebrating quietly together.

On Friday morning I took off early with my friend,Matthew and we headed to the Playhouse. We have a deadline to get the basement finished by August, so I planned a weekend with the guys to work on it. My dad has been down there and did an awesome job framing out the place. There was relatively little framing to do, but electric had to be run, insulation had to be installed, and then drywall could begin going up. Matthew and I arrived and got the job site ready, received our shipment of 93 sheets of drywall, and made what would be one of several trips for supplies.

My friends, Chad and Dave, arrived Friday evening. The weekend was a great time, the four of us building together. We had excellent conversation while we hammered, drilled and sawed. More great conversation over meals, and then out on the deck or the dock. We ate a lot thanks to Wendy's abundant provisions and Grandma Jeanne's lemon cake, which was waiting for us when we arrived. There's still a lot to be done, but we made a lot of progress. I arrived back home late Sunday.

My birthday was perfectly capped off last night as Taylor & Madison came over for dinner and a celebration. They bought me a pair of Toms shoes (how appropriate)!

A few pics from the weekend below. More here if you care to see.