Ain't it Nifty? Timmy's Fifty!

Yesterday we celebrated the 50th birthday of one of our closest friends, Tim. His birthday was earlier in the week but Saturday was the party.

Many of Tim's friends showed up for the party. Tim's mom from Minnesota and his older brother from California also flew in to be there.

There was plenty of food including Hot Cheesy Chicken sandwiches - an authentic Minnesota hot dish. Oh yum, yum.

Karl got the fire going early in the evening. As long as there isn't a burn ban, this group always enjoys having a fire going whatever the occasion.

The Fire Master

Later on, a few tricksters decided to play a joke on Tim. It involved a couple of pickets from the deck rail that Tim has spent a lot of time building and staining and some old scrap wood that looked similar in shape to the pickets.

The pickets were unscrewed from the railing when Tim wasn't looking and hidden from sight. Then the scrap wood was tossed into the fire.

Picket, Picket, Who's Got the Pickets?

A New Kind of Firewood?

"Hey Tim, we were running out of wood so we used a couple of your deck pickets!" The look on Tim's face was a keeper. He was not thrilled at all. About 20 minutes passed before Tim was let in on the joke.

Luckily, the pickets are easy to reinstall, just not in the dark. Hopefully today all was made right with the deck rail.

It was good spending the evening with Tim and his family who treat us like part of theirs, as well as hanging with friends that we haven't seen in a while.

Happy Birthday, Tim! Hope you had a great time.