Though the pics don’t show it, our “surprise” birthday party for Sagittarians Rebecca and myself, both elders in this village, turned somewhat chaotic. Mostly because of the dogs, who were so good last week! What happened? Well, it turns out Griffy, now 12 weeks old,

has entered new stage in his puppyhood; he wanted to chew on everything and, what’s more, peed twice inside. The other dogs, especially young, nervous rat terrier Hank, wanted to bark at him incessantly, and did so, despite being banished outside periodically. Meanwhile, when it came time to sing Happy Birthday over the delicious persimmon pudding, especially the real birthday girl Rebecca (she was born December 14th), she was nowhere to be found. I checked! Not even next door at her house! Huh? What happened to her? Mariella had to leave soon, to put the kids, Asiri and Juakim,

to bed — so what to do? I made an “executive decision,” to sing Happy Birthday without Rebecca. Which we did, and then of course Rebecca reappeared. She was in the greenhouse momentarily, she said. Okay, sing it again.

Oops! Didn’t even get a pic of the birthday girls, Rebecca and myself, together. Here I am, cutting the pudding, before Rebecca walked back in . . .

The real star of the evening, as far as I was concerned, was Katarina, who used to live here, who organized the crew that got the neighborhood signs, and who now lives in Paoli, stirring up a storm there. Here she is with Rachael —

and with Mariella —

Meanwhile, the spread, this time, was scrumptuous, varied, and filling.

After the noise died down, Kat brought in her dog Harper, who had been in the car, and the chaos revved up again . . . sigh!

In any case, Katarina is organizing this week’s Community Dinner, which will also serve as our annual Solstice event. Thursday, December 21, for which I made another “executive decision” : no non-resident dogs, please!