Birthday gratitude: Overflowing with love and joy 🎂❤️"

We had an absolutely amazing day for an adventure.
It was very warm, a bit windy, but when isn't it?
Traffic wasn't terrible since it's not yet prime tourist season.

Badger took me back to the “Alcatraz East Crime Museum.”
We spent the afternoon absorbed in true crime and staring at dead bodies.
It’s actually fascinating, but the exhibits don’t change.

After we got out of there, we headed over to the Island. 
We walked around for a bit, and then we lost Raven in a store. 
He accused me of ditching him, but Cowboy told me he'd gone on ahead. 
So, we went on to the next store. 
He'd already walked around the Island before he met us at the museum. 
I don’t think he really minded being ditched. 
He went on to his former partner’s house because she needed him to watch the kids.

Badger bought me a gnome pen, and I found an elephant keychain with his trunk raised for luck.
But everything is so expensive over there, so mostly we just look.
Oh, and two magnets. 
Duffy is like me and Badger; you just can't find our names on anything. 
Sometimes you just do what you have to do.

From there, we headed to Mel's Classic Diner.
The last time we'd been was in September for Badger's birthday; it was packed then. 
It was practically empty today. 
I do wish that I had just got the chicken salad and not the sandwich. 
It was good, but I think it would have been better without the bread.
Also, the waitress looked at me like I was nuts for ordering a chanana shake, even though it was written exactly like that on the menu. 
Badger and Cowboy didn't complain, so that was good.

Mel's sells t-shirts, mugs, and shot glasses, so Badger bought me a coffee mug.

They have sample t-shirts hanging up, but the shirts themselves are kept behind the register, and they mustn't be organized by type, just by size.
She bought herself a t-shirt thinking, and asking, for the grits t-shirt.
A line was starting to form, so she didn't check to see what she got. 
She got it home, and she got this:

Other than never having been even near The Dragon, she's not too disappointed.

Our last stop was Goodwill.
We found Badger an office chair; she Googled, and originally it was $199. 
I paid $20.

That was a fun trip back home. 
Cowboy couldn't shove it in our trunk, so he crammed it in the backseat with Badger. 

We got home, Cowboy took care of his chickens, came in, and took a nap. 
Badger disappeared into her room, and I was online for a bit.

We were all enjoying a good rest. 
Today was tiring.

Then at 7 p.m., Raven popped up on IM to say he was bringing Vier down because the other parent needed a rest. 
I’m not sure how bringing one kid here helps while the others stay with her.

I reminded him that the kids were sick, really sick, and now he says the other parent isn’t feeling well either. 
She said they had flu, strep, and norovirus.
We definitely don’t want to get sick, and we certainly don’t need to.

He didn’t respond, as usual.
So I told him, okay, you can bring her down, but, and I don’t care what your daddy says, please keep her in your bedroom. 
It’s best to keep her away from Daddy for now.

Neither Cowboy nor I have had a flu shot.

So we quickly put the poor cats back in the laundry room, put the dogs in the bedroom, and put away all the cat toys. 

I do think it’s a bit inconsiderate to bring a kid down here after saying she’d been sick all week.
Especially with everything going around, flu, strep, norovirus, it puts the rest of us at risk. 
And since he was up there with them, we’re already exposed.

He's been fairly good at keeping her in his room; she was right in Cowboy's face once, briefly.
For the most part, he's kept her in his room.

And yes, we did run around Pigeon Forge all day, but we haven’t gone without a mask in five years.

I'm heading back to bed; Peacock is supposed to be up in the morning.