Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 12:00 a.m. in "The City."

Yesterday was Mary's 65th birthday. It seems like only yesterday when I met a fresh-faced 20 year old. I guess time has a way of getting away from you. Since it was a great day for a short walk with the fur-children, we took the camera and set out to see what we could see and photograph. In this case, Mary used her macro lens for some exquisite close-up shots of some of the local flora. Some of that local flora was found right in our own back-forty. I have included some of the pictures that Mary took in a random order. Mary also got a chance to talk to her brother, Ed, who now resides in TX. Adam also called to wish his mother a happy birthday.

Our own flora.

Near the private residence that was once a church.

Same here.

Once again, in our own vast gardens.

This too was taken in our gardens. Note the detail that is possible with Mary's macro lens in all of these pictures.

Of course, what is a beautiful summer day in GH without a birthday cookout. I was in charge of getting the grill going and doing the grilling, while I left the food preparation in Mary's more capable hands. Early yesterday morning, I was surfing the net and found what looked like a great recipe for marinated portobello mushroom steaks. I never thought that I would become a fan of eating mushrooms, but maybe it was just the way my mother made them.

In this case, Mary made the marinade and the mushrooms were allowed to sit for several hours. In addition, Mary prepared the ears of corn that we picked up on our road trip to Hudsonville last week and also the zucchini that we purchased at the same time. Once the grill was going, I followed the suggestions that Mary found on the web for time of grilling for the corn, the mushrooms, and the zucchini. In 20 hot minutes, everything was ready to eat. I say hot minutes, because the grill was hot enough to singe the hair off my arm. Mary took pictures to memorialize our collective efforts. I'll include them from start to finish.

Our chimney made getting the grill started a snap

I had on my Oven Gloves to make cooking bearable.

Once the charcoal in the chimney was ready, I added it to the main pile.

Ready to go!

On the grill and nearly ready.

All done and waiting, with Ginger in my lap on our deck.

All in all, the meal came together nicely and we enjoyed our time outdoors. Of course, Ginger was eager to partake too, but we weren't sharing.

In addition to her efforts for the grill-a-thon, Mary prepared and baked a vegan pastrami. We've had that before and it tastes great, especially after it has had a chance to chill in the refrigerator.

I did the post meal clean-up in the kitchen, and then we moved up to the media room to watch Die Hard, which was first released on July 25, 1988, when Mary was just a lass of 35. Of course, the movie was a delight.

Well, the All-Star™ break is here, so no new baseball news until Friday of this week, unless you count the All-Star Game™ and the Home-Run Derby™ that is part of the events during the All-Star™ break. However, the baseball news on the Major-League™ level yesterday was excellent. All of my teams won.

My beloved, 68 - 30 Red Sox, who are in 1st place by 4.5 games over the 2nd place Yankees in the AL East, did a nice job of dropping the 4th place. 43 - 52 Blue Jays, 7 - 4. The Red Sox have the best record in the Major-Leagues™.

The 55 - 38 Cubs, have the best record in the National League™ and a 2.5 game lead over the 55 - 43 Brewers in the NL Central. The Cubs are sending Kyle Schwarber, Javier Baez, and Jon Lester to the All-Star Game™ in Washington D.C.

The 41 - 57, 3rd place in the AL Central Tigers, surprised Justin Verlander, a former Tiger, and the 64 - 35, 1st place in the AL West Astros yesterday, as the Tigers tagged Verlander for four home runs, en route to an all too rare, 6 - 3 victory.

The 7th place in the MWL East, West Michigan White Caps, lost again to the 1st place in the MWL West, 47 - 44 Beloit Snappers, 1 - 8. That's all I have to say about that.

We have a current temperature of 75° with a relative humidity of  78%, making the temperature seem warmer than it actually is. The NWS is forecasting a new weather pattern that will push through the Midwest and the Northeast and produce rain showers, and in our case, a 30% chance for T-storms later this morning. Also according to the NWS forecast, the week will be dry until Friday and Saturday, when the chance for scattered T-storms and showers is 60%. Sorry Adam.

Today, we plan to kick back and do some reading after we lie in bed. That's before we feed and walk the fur-children. I am still reading another novel and I have two to return to the library and one to pick up. I also have to select two more books to finish the requirements for the Library's Rock/Beachcombers Book Bag. I have been trying every season to garner the "Free" prize from the library.

That looks like enough for one day. Ciao.