It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

 I'm talking, of course, about my birthday.

 My mother, a very wise woman, told me once that when you're an adult, no one but yourself is going to make sure you have a nice birthday. So make a big deal about your birthday. So I decided to make a day of it at Tracy Aviary. I'd never been that I remember, and we get in free with our dinosaur park passes. What's not to like about that?

 My mom and sister were kind enough to come with me. I really appreciated the extra help in chasing certain children around.

Case in point: Nathan got a little too interested during the bird show. I volunteered to help and got to pretend to be a tree and have a parakeet jump on my arms. When he got to my second arm, he stopped and looked at me for a second, drawing a remark from the bird show man. I think he was just wishing me a happy birthday. Or wondering why I had plastic foliage on my head.

 And what's a birthday outing without a little rain and hail?

 It seems to run in the family.

 And we got to see a duck sitting on her brood of nine eggs.

And then home just in time to go to my presidency meeting. And here's the blessing of going to my meeting instead of going out to a birthday dinner (I wanted to go to Taggart's): When it was time to go home, I was stranded two blocks from my house instead of up past Morgan. (It turned out to be a dead battery, easily fixed the next day.)

I got a ride home, the naps-less kids let loose their tyranny, and I couldn't activate my new cell phone. Angry. I was.

We ended the day in defeat, eating Arby's and watching mediocre sitcoms.