Bakelite

I don't know how it happened, but somehow I think we both forgot that it is OilMan's birthday today. Fortunately, our neighbor Cindy who 1) manages to find out when friends' birthdays are, 2) keep track of them 3) and send an appropriate message did so this morning. OilMan says he wants no observances other than caprese made with 'his' tomatoes , skirt steak and homemade cookies. He wasn't called the 'Cookie Monster' for nothing by our kids.

Happy Birthday OilMan! You have done more than your share to keep this ship afloat and I love you for it. Therefore, my (pathetic) contribution for 
today has been to go to the store, buy the skirt steak (and mushrooms and onions) and make the cookies. You are a rock and I would probably have floundered long ago without you.

After class this morning, I wandered into a huge antique collective/store in Railroad Square near Flying Goat coffee, thinking I might be able to find an old road sign for his man shed, but alas, most of them were Harley Davidson signs and he just isn't a Harley Davidson type…

I did, however, enjoy wandering around looking at the most amazing assemblages of stuff…old telephones…remember the 'Princess Phone'?
Or the 'Pay Phone'? Or the old black Bakelite phones with an actual dial that would go 'click' 'click' 'click' when your finger returned  it back to the little silver rest?

And speaking of Bakelite…next to several shelves filled with costume bling, I found this wonderful display of Bakelite jewelry. I must go back and check it out when I'm not pretending to buy something for OilMan for his birthday….