Birthday

Had a really nice birthday. Skip took me out to a new Mexican restaurant in Duesseldorf (hard to find here!) and the surprise was that he invited several of our friends to join us. We had a great time. The restaurant is called Sausalitos and is a chain here in Germany. Some of us had eaten at the one in Aachen--about 40 minutes down the road--and were excited to see they had come to Duesseldorf. Mexican food probably tops most American's list of what-I-miss-about-America.

I really got the special treatment because those same friends took me out for coffee the morning of my birthday because they didn't want me to think they weren't doing anything.

Today I pre-cooked 120 spareribs that will be barbequed and sold tomorrow from the American booth at the ISD International Fair. The International Fair is the main fundraiser for ISD and is quite the production. All of the countries represented at ISD have booths with food and drink from their home countries. The Americans will be selling ribs, hot dogs and lemonade. The Germans are selling beer and pretzels. You could pre-order some noodle dishes from the Koreans and of course, obtain meatballs from the Swedes who share a booth with the Norwegians. There are also games for the kids to play and a huge silent auction.

Cousins Joerg and Annalee will be joining us. They are coming down from Lubeck in the a.m.

Should be a fun day.