It’s just one birthday after another around here, with all the accompanying shenanigans. Last night the frosting on the cake was blue, and I still have blue on my hands.  Yeah. I eat my cake with my hands. It was a birthday party, not High Tea with the Queen!

This was a REAL birthday party- for Denver the owl guy, in fact. He is going home to Montana on Monday, and we wish him well.

I also had the pleasure of accompanying a few UTEP kids to town to watch the boxing match with a heap of Mexicans. Adrian offered a pity invitation, and I called his bluff and accepted. He was surprised for me to show interest, as were Sandra and Sergio, who think I am antisocial. Of course, I was the only non-Spanish speaker, so “social” proved to be difficult. I did a lot of smiling and nodding. It was nice. I like blood. And fights. And halibut soup- I pretended that it wasn’t hotter than I’m used to and they pretended to believe me. It was very good though. A nice change from Asian food every day.

Today we had the pleasure of yet another birthday party in town. This party was for Craig, the UTEP PI. The persons who protested on this blog about the “birthday” I had last week (when my birthday is of course in November) would be correct to suspect that Craig did not know that his “birthday” was today. They told him stories about the various other “birthdays” that have been celebrated this summer… the most successful being that of a German gentlemen who reportedly turned red as a lobster…!

Our 24 hour trip to Atqasuk proved a great success, though the timeliness of the airplane (as usual) was less than stellar. Fortunately Jeremy and I had company while we sat at the “airport” and waited. A baby caribou and its mother had a grand time checking out the facility.

Fortunately the blue teeth and lips that accompanied the blue hands had disappeared by the time Sergio and I finished inventing new words with the refrigerator magnets.  I do have my dignity.