The Very Interesting Birthday

One of my people had a birthday today. At first it promised to be a low-key day - cheesecake in P-town around lunchtime, her choice of dinner at home, the usual cake and presents, and a movie with her friend MK. BUT. The Universe had other plans and a nice set of enormous monkey wrenches to go with them.

1) After a casual morning, we met Dada at his place of work, parked Charlotte the minivan and walked to the Italian restaurant (name rhymes with Shmama Shmia), which until today was Brennan and Bella's favorite birthday lunch spot. We ordered an antipasti plate, some garlic bread, and dessert. The antipasti was okay - I tried pate for the first time. Dessert arrived and we dug in. About halfway through, Brennan noticed a MOUSE running around the floor under another diner's table, about eight feet away from us. A MOUSE. Then Bella saw it too, and we all started to feel a little ... gross.

I walked over to the seating hostess and whispered to her that a mouse was wreaking havoc on the floor of the restaurant. This is the first thing she said, in a calm, nonchalant voice: "Well, it's an old building." Yeah, really? You don't say. I guess we should be glad we don't have bats raining poop from the ceiling onto our fresh mozzarella. Her second brilliant response: "We're so close to the waterfront." What? That prevents you from, you know, not having mice?

"Thank you for mentioning this so calmly," it finally occurred to her to say, as I'm walking back to my grossed-out and possibly hantavirus sickened family. We watched as she quietly mentioned to the couple that the mouse was crawling all over the woman's purse and asked if they would like to move tables. They said they were fine where they were. (Oh, are you?) I hope she at least offered to comp their lunch. As for us, we paid our bill and left, NEVER to return. Like, seriously, never.

2) On the way home, traveling on the interstate, Charlotte pulled her latest trick. She likes to wait until we're going slowly down the road (say around 25 mph) and then just die. Fortunately it always happens when I'm slowing down for a stop sign or what have you, and she always restarts, but this was the first time she'd ever done it on the freeway, and would not restart. Great. We were less than a mile from the bridge, so almost home. I called Hubby and he called ODOT, and soon a nice ODOT guy helped steer us out of the lane and onto the strip between the right lane and the on ramp (!!).

And why not.

This was at the time of day when the kids start getting out of school and I make the rounds of picking people up. Carter and Roz both had track practice so they were fine for a while, but Harrison would be locked out if he went home, so we texted him and told him to stay at school. He was fine with that.

Since we were so close to home, Brennan and Bella decided to take off walking. I gave them the house key and they were so sweet, asking me if I'd be okay. Yep, it's all good. Hubby left work, got on the express bus, rented a car in our town, and drove back to help me jump the battery. My hero. The battery lasted about ten seconds before the car died again. Looks like a new battery is happening.
Hubby took the battery and went to the car parts store and picked up Roz. Meanwhile, the big kids made it home and we asked our friend Chrisie G. to grab Carter.

While Hubby was gone, ODOT guy #2 came by and asked what was wrong. I told him that our battery had died and he asked if he could check the alternator. Yep, that's what it was. DANG IT.

Hubby came back, put in the new battery, and we finally made it home. I had been in the car for about three hours.

So handy

 After a lengthy "I was in the car for three hours" rest, I got up and made Bella's birthday dinner - Ranch chicken and broccoli, and frosting for the cake Brennan made (thanks, Manny). For the last couple of birthdays, we've been making a Mega Cake - a layer cake with two 9x13 layers. It lasts a little longer at our house than the traditional round cake does. Hubby had to go to a quick soccer meeting (couldn't miss this one, he's actually going to get paid for coaching this year and had to show up), and he came home and Bella blew out her candles and we ate cake and went to bed. Except Bella, she and MK went to their midnight movie and had a good time.

Happy 19th, Bella. Sorry your birthday was so ... memorable :)