Turning 44...

I turned 44 last week. I'm not complaining. I think I've earned every minute of those 44 years and I'm thankful for (almost) every one of them. (There are a few minutes here and there that I could really have done without but you take the bad with the good, I suppose.)

For my birthday, I got to participate in an interview for a job that A) I'm pretty excited about and B) A little bird tells me that I "nailed" the interview. (It always helps to have a good friend on the hiring panel.) It was fun and not a painful way to start the day. Now I just have to wait for the official word that I've got the job (fingers crossed!) before I can pull the trigger on changing up the hectic makeup of my professional life. 

The interview was in NH and since it was my birthday, A decided to come up for the day and overnight. I really wanted to go for a hike so he brought the dogs with him and we hiked Mt. Belknap. 

The hike was relatively short - only .8 miles up to the fire tower - but it was pretty much straight up and the roughest trail we've been on in a while! There was a constant flow of water down all of the trails (we went up one and down another) that appeared to be present all the time. It has washed out a lot of footing and made much of the exposed rock slick. Even the dogs had a hard time in some spots.

The view from the top of the fire tower was worth the effort though! We could see about 50 lakes including Lake Winnipesaukee and the view was gorgeous!

Even the dogs enjoyed taking a break to look around. 

From the fire tower we took several pictures - some of which came out well and some of which didn't. We tried to use the timer to get a decent picture of the two of us but that didn't work out and I was paranoid about reaching for the camera on the steps and knocking it down four flights of stairs so we did the usual arms-length self portrait. 

At first we thought we could bring the dogs up the tower stairs with us. But after Glacier scrambled to the top of the first flight, we realized that coming up was one thing but going back down was going to be potentially dangerous. Glacier demonstrated what could happen by going back down the stairs head-first with gravity causing her to pick up too much speed. Had the stairs been 4-5 steps longer her butt would have beat her head to the ground by catapulting over her shoulders. Thankfully A was waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs and just kind of tapped her rump on the way by to help it maintain contact with the last few steps. Phew!

So we did the undignified thing and tied them up... like dogs... to the post at the bottom so we could climb the tower. Having seen what just happened with Glacier, neither really fussed too much. 

After the hike we got cleaned up and met some friends for dinner in Concord. We went to a steak and seafood place called "O's" that was phenomenal! I had Chilean sea bass over a bed of garlic steamed mussels and spinach - so delicious!

So... With a day like that to start my 44th year, it's obvious why I can't complain!