Best Birthday Ever!

What a wonderful day.

First, my dressings for my wisdom teeth fell out Tuesday night and I didn't have to taste that foul clove oil all day long. Big plus to start the day.

Magi and Sera gave me their gifts in the morning. They got me the
Fantastic Four and Silver Surfer - Complete Comic Edition, as well as the
Amazing Spider-Man Complete Comic Book Collection on DVD. I can read the entire runs of both of these titles, which are my favorite Marvel books. I like X-Men as much as the next guy, but the FF has always been my favorite superhero team. I'm a sucker for matching uniforms.

My dad sent me a 12" Bowie knife, the handle of which he made from an elk antler, just what every father of a toddler needs. My father has a history of giving me gifts that only he would like. But, it's still kind of cool that he made the handle himself.

On the way into school, I heard about the trade between the Florida Marlins and my Detroit Tigers. The Tigers received pitcher Dontrelle Willis and third baseman Miguel Cabera for prospects Cameron Maybin, Andrew Miller, and four other minor leaguers. This makes the Tigers one of, if not the best team in baseball...on paper. Is it April yet? I'm ready for opening day!

After school, I headed over to Buy Me Toys to get my comics for the week. Included in this week's batch was the trade paperback of Superman/Batman: Saga of the Super Sons. These were classic stories in World's Finest from the 1970s where Superman and Batman had teenage sons. I remember these stories fondly, especially because Batman Jr. had a Bat-bicycle. I wanted one too! I think I actually have all of these issues, but I thought this paperback would make good reading for my classroom.

I stopped at Sam's Club on the way home to pick up my birthday cake. Last week at school, someone had picked up a cake that tasted like a custard-filled long john, my favorite doughnut. I asked where it had come from, and found one just like it at Sam's. It was called Parisienne Cream.

We headed out to dinner with most of my friends who are going to be playing in the new Mutants & Masterminds game that starts on Sunday. We met at Eddie's Steak Shed and as usual, Magi and I split the Sirloin for Two, which is a 32-oz. slab of meat that looks like it should be served with a bell around its neck. We each had the baked potato, a salad, and we shared a boat of mushrooms, sauteed with butter and finely chopped garlic. What a meal! We took a picture of Sera in front of Eddies' Christmas tree. Our Christmas tree is a pathetic-looking thing, akin to Charlie Brown's sad tree. Theirs was much nicer.

Afterward, we got Sera to bed and I dropped in on City of Heroes, where my friends Carl, Ben, and Fabian were going it alone since most of us who had gone to dinner were absent from the game. We ran a few missions and then I headed off to bed.

Magi was worried that she hadn't done enough for my birthday. I laughed. This was one of the best birthdays ever. I have a wonderful wife, a charming and beautiful daughter, good friends, a home the likes of which I never thought I would own, and a life that I would not trade for anyone else's. And it's all thanks to her. She's directly responsible for everything good in my life. Not done enough, indeed. Take a look at this face and tell me I'm not the luckiest man on the face of the Earth!