By late evening, the guest list had swelled to include neighbor kids and kids I don’t even recognize. Look closely. My kids are in there somewhere.

My birthday started like any birthday. I was ignored and forgotten. When, later in the day, my family could avoid me no longer, they condescended to a family bicycle ride. We rode through town being sure to find the busiest streets with uncontrolled crossings. Then we had a pleasant time riding through the traffic-free bicycle trails. My tough little kids and my lazy older kids rode seven long miles.

I spent the evening grumbling in front to iMovie, trying to splice a little video together. I spoke threats as I tried, unsuccessfully, to legally add copyrighted music to my movie. I had to settle for the least lame, free music I could find. At about midnight, following the direction of my teen-aged daughters, I made final revisions, and I published the video.

Thank you, Nikole and kids for going on a ride with me while I careened dangerously all over the trails looking into the LCD of my point-and-shoot camera. Thank you, Dad for hanging out with me and drinking coffee while I made this silly video and gave you half of my attention.