So, yesterday I turned 37. I had a great birthday weekend nonetheless.
It started Friday morning, when the first words I heard from my dear wife upon awakening were “We really need to wash that gray off your temples.” Hmm. Maybe not. I earned this gray, dontcha know. Anyway, we had dinner plans with our friends Matt and Anita to celebrate my birthday and Anita’s (a week early, but who’s counting?), after which we planned to watch a movie on the projector.Mom and Dad agreed to keep the boys overnight so we could make an early-morning trip to the Detroit temple. We had a great dinner at Biaggi’s, but I noticed that Arlene was acting a little oddly– before we left the house, she closed all the blinds, and at dinner, she jumped up from the table and (almost literally) ran off to the ladies’ room at one point, and I saw her fiddling with her phone under the table– usually I’m the one doing that as I check mail or my calendar _ When we got back to our house, I walked into the kitchen and heard an odd sound accompanied by a bright flash of light– followed immediately by shouts of “Surprise!” I just about fell over; I never in a million years would have expected Arlene to throw me (or, more properly, “us” since it was Anita’s party too) a surprise party. I suppose that’s what makes it surprising! We had a delightful time with our friends (thanks to everyone who came!) and hit the rack for a 5am wake-up the next morning.
Our temple trip was wonderful. I always enjoy going to the temple, but this time I’d taken the time to prepare better through prayer and scripture study. What a wonderful learning experience! Since we accepted President Hinckley’s challenge to try to read the entire Book of Mormon before the end of the year, I’ve definitely noticed that I have been more attuned to spiritual experiences, and this has made attending the temple much more rewarding. I’ll make an extra effort to go to the Seattle temple when I’m there this week.
To top things off, we were able to stop off at the Whole Foods in Troy and load up with gluten-free goodies (plus some more of my favorite potato chips), followed by a delicious in-car breakfast (organic banana, a bottle of some kind of smoothie, and a really tasty raspberry cream cheese croissant). Matt and Anita are wonderful conversationalists, so the trip passed quickly in both directions.
Saturday night we had the Rotary auction, which is always fun. There weren’t any good electronics (apart from the ones I donated), but I got some Mud Hens tickets, a year of lawn treatments, and a few other cool odds and ends. The highlight of my evening came when I beat Cory Eckel (our bishop, a former BYU football player who has more athletic talent in his pinky than I do in my whole body) in two games of mini-basketball 🙂
After two late nights, Sunday was best of all– we didn’t do much of anything, in keeping with it being a day of rest and all. Matt and David were both sick, so it was a fairly low-intensity day.
Monday was my actual birthday; the boys got me some sweatpants and a new bicycle pump (since they broke the old one), and Arlene gave me a much-needed Books-a-Million gift card and a big pot of chicken and sausage gumbo. We also got our outdoor Christmas lights put up. It may seem early to those who live in more temperate areas, but while we were hanging the lights it was about 45 degrees, overcast, with a steady 10-15kt wind. That’s as good as it’s going to get until April or so.
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