Surprise!!

Mike turned 60 on the 11th and Steve came out from NY to surprise him.

Mike has lunch with his friend Dave every week, so I thought it would be a perfect time for "Surprise!"
Their lunch was on Friday so I picked up Steve from his brothers house. His brother has 3 LARGE dogs - 2 St. Bernard and a Mastiff, and Steve spent the night there Thursday. Needless to say, he was very happy to see me pull into the driveway on Friday morning and escape from dog hair and slopper.

We surprised Mike at the restaurant.
Mike is not one for surprises. He is a man of very few words and would rather the attention be on someone else, but he was happy to see Steve and we had a great lunch.

Well Steve was staying for a week so we put him to work.
First they installed my new front door. Brian had a huge hand in helping also.

While Mike was at work Steve offered to help me paint the Adirondack chairs Mike had made me. I already had the paint so we spent the afternoon together in the garage, listening to music and painting the chairs - "claret wine". They were in badly in need of a paint job and my front porch needed color. 2 coats of paint and 2 sore backs they were done.
Yes, I know the deck needs paint too, but look past that at the beautiful chairs and door.

Steve is heading back to NY tomorrow and I am going to miss him.
We don't have to have big plans when he comes to visit. I like that about him. We usually eat out a few nights and Mike and him always take in a movie. He gets to take as many naps as he wants and sleep as late as he wants, without his dogs to bother him. (though he really misses his babies).
Friends like him are hard to find and I am proud to call him MY friend too.

And for all you readers who are also on Facebook - Steve made Mike a carrot cake (he used chopped apples instead of raisins) with a cheesecake filling. AND they taste as good as they look.