Living the retirement life

I must admit to a small amount of teasing when Mom and Dad began living the epitome of retirement: driving from their home in St. Louis to their home in a retirement community in Phoenix in an old RV and joining the 40s and 50s Club to "meet young people" among other novelties.

Then there were the rock shows. And I'm not talking about Paul Anka. There was so much rock collecting and rock polishing that I even gave Dad a book about rocks for Christmas. He loved it.

So when Mom told me that I needed to find out my right-hand-ring size because they were making me a ring in one of their classes I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. I thought that was pretty cool, but kind of put it out of my mind, really. I had a note on my desk for several weeks reminding me to find out my ring size, but I just never got to it. I guess, honestly, I didn't take the ring very seriously. (Bad me!)

Earlier this week, Dad said he had put the ring in the mail. He had meant to give it to me last time we saw each other, but he forgot. I was excited to see it and so incredibly flattered.

So when this amethyst (my birth stone) beauty showed up, I couldn't wait to show it off! I quickly took pictures of it this morning so I could put it on the Web and literally show the world. I e-mailed pictures to friends and showed it off to everyone at work, all of whom said in awe, "Your Dad made this?"

"Yeah," I said. "Isn't it cool?"