John Turns Seventy

This posting is my 600th, hard to believe. Also impossible to believe is that my husband turned 70 yesterday. As many people our age are wont to say: "where have the years gone?"  We were thankful to have at least one of our children with us for John's big day. Our son Michael did a great job in helping to make it special for him. We wanted to do Disneyland but at this time of the year it is probably not the best place to be because of long lines. Mike instead obtained tickets for us to see a taping of the Tonight Show, which was John's second choice for his birthday. We did end up standing in line to get into the show for over an hour, but at least that was the only line we had to deal with. It was quite interesting to watch a talk show being produced. I counted at one time about 13 people surrounding the stage and Jay Leno. There were the usual camera men, and producers as well as the security detail. During the commercial breaks cameras are moved, cue cards are reviewed, and Leno's face gets powdered.  Numerous pages were everywhere keeping the audience in line and encouraging us to applause and cheer on cue. One of Leno's special guests for the show last night was Thomas H. Church, the actor from the current movie now showing in theaters We Bought A Zoo. He brought to the show one of the animals used in the movie, some kind of a shaggy furred creature which looked a bit like an anteater.  Another guest was the turtle man Ernie Brown Jr. from the television show Animal Planet. He showed off a few different turtles, including a most fascinating snapping turtle.  Singer Johnny Mathis concluded the show singing a Christmas medley of songs. Speaking of age, he is now 76. His voice still has the warm mellow sound which I always enjoyed listening to.  If you watched the Tonight Show last evening you pretty much saw everything I mentioned here. The show was produced at 4 in the afternoon.  After the show Mike treated us to supper at Prosecco Trattoria in Toluca Lake. We had a wonderful meal, good service and John had a big slice of bread pudding for his birthday cake (a dessert specialty of the restaurant).