November 25, 1999: Thanksgiving
	November 4-7, 1999: We Visit Lowery and Ron in Florida
	Return to the Index for 1999

This Saturday, Fred has helped me host a party for my 53rd birthday. These gatherings are traditional for us; it is an excellent way to gather together the folks we don't see all that frequently, and catch up on what they have been doing. It is also nice to have a meal together and allow the various guests to catch up with each other. So the purpose of the gathering is rather less the birthday being celebrated as the opportunity to get lots of our friends together in one place.

Our Group Picture

We had quite a few people this year, and I can use our traditional group picture to introduce them to you. Standing, in back, from left to right, were Don Greever, a good friend of Mike Racke's; a friend whose picture has been temporarily removed at his request; Mike Racke, our good friend and camping buddy; Dr. Brent Whitley, the doctor we met in Fort Lauderdale who has now begun a long-distance relationship with Mike; Ron Mathis, one of my oldest friends here in Dallas and an engineer for Texas Instruments; and myself.

Seated, from left to right, are Chris Young, Ron Mathis's partner; Nancy Gleim, Prudence's sister; Nancy's husband Karl; our politically-oriented friend from Oak Cliff Tom Harris; Fred; Prudence Ruckman and her husband Ron; and, finally, my mother Olga.

We spent the first part of the evening having drinks and hors d'oeuvres (chips and nuts) and talking. As I often do, I put a supper together for everyone and we spent the next part of the evening eating together- in the den, the dining room and the kitchen. (Townhouses are not designed for large dinner parties.) Afterwards, I served the cake that we'd gotten at Sam's Club. (We seem to alternate between a sheet cake one year and a Black Forest cake the next. This was a Black Forest year, so there was no cake with writing on it to take a picture of.

Click on the Image Above to View the Slideshow

Speaking of pictures, Fred and I just snapped some casual pictures during the evening, and also a second group picture like the one above. I've decided to put these pictures in a slideshow.

To view the slideshow, just click on the image at right and I will open the slideshow in a new window. In the slideshow, you can use the little arrows in the lower corners of each image to move from one to the next, and the index numbers in the upper left of each image will tell you where you are in the series. When you are finished looking at the pictures, just close the popup window.

This was a particularly nice gathering, and one of the reasons was that it was the first time that our other friends had been introduced to the new Mr. and Mrs. Ruckman, since at our last birthday gathering they had not yet married.

Our thanks to everyone who attended!

You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page.

	November 25, 1999: Thanksgiving
	November 4-7, 1999: We Visit Lowery and Ron in Florida
	Return to the Index for 1999