The photos posted here illustrate two points. The first point, in keeping with the title, is "It's Dan's birthday tomorrow!" The second point of the pictures is to let the grandmas see Kate's new hair cut. I took her to get her bangs trimmed the other day because she was starting to look like the guy from Flock of Seagulls. Now we have cute bangs instead.

In less than 12 hours, we here in the Wachdorf house are embarking on what Dan has dubbed "The Weekend of Dan." Tomorrow is his birthday, and Sunday is Father's Day, so he has taken the opportunity to just call a three-day holiday in his honor and plan an elaborate series of celebrations, some of which I think will be more amusing than others. Let's see if you can pick that part of the story out for yourselves. The plans for tomorrow are as follows:

1. Breakfast at Einstein's Bagels.
2. Ice cream cake. Dan loves him some ice cream cake. Seriously, seriously loves it.
3. Presents. I am probably looking forward to this more than Dan is, just because it will mean that he will know what I got him and will therefore be able to stop asking me about it every. ten. minutes.
4. Having secured a babysitter for the evening, Dan and I will go to restaurant of his choosing (he still hasn't made up his mind, so for all I know, we're going to Taco Bell.)
5. After dinner, we will go to an indoor shooting range for target practice.

Yes. That's right. My husband, when told that I was up for whatever he wanted to do for his birthday, chose a romantic evening at the firing range. The back story on this is that Dan recently purchased a hand gun. I am fine with this, since we have taken very extensive security precautions with it in light of Kate's presence in our home. Still, at no point have I expressed a desire to shoot the thing. In fact, I think I may have expressed the exact opposite sentiment, something along the lines of hoping that we never, ever have reason to use the gun. It's not that I have anything against guns. In a recent conversation, some friends from Alabama and I agreed that when you grow up in the South, guns are just kind of around, like scenery. People shoot guns recreationally, they hunt with them, they have them in their trucks. In fact, you can pretty much bet that several people around you at any given moment in Mississippi are packing. So it's not that I recoil at the sight of a gun. But my first thought upon seeing one is about the kind of extreme circumstances in which one might have need of a gun, and those thoughts do not make me go "Woohoo!" This, I am starting to understand after six years of marriage, is not how men think, or at least not how my husband thinks. My husband sees a gun and thinks "I need to shoot that gun. And so does my wife." So off to the shooting range we go.

The ostensible reason for this jaunt to the land of ammo and testosterone is that since we do own a gun now, I need to learn how to handle it reliably and safely, and that's probably true. But I know that once we're past all the safety stuff, it's going to turn into a competition. So I invite you, dear readers, to place your bets now: Can I outshoot Dan? Here is all the relevant information you need: I have fired a gun before, but not for a very long time. I am, however, not a terrible shot once I remember what I am doing. Dan on the other hand has been target shooting for a while now, and claims that he is pretty good. I, on the other hand, am very good at distracting Dan when he's trying to concentrate, and I am totally prepared to play dirty, so that may even the playing field a bit. Leave your birthday wishes, predictions and wagers in the comments section, and I'll let you know what happens. That is, after I finish grand marshalling the festivities Dan has planned for his Father's Day celebration, which include more gifts, more ice cream cake, and the grilled shish-kabobs he wants me to cook for him. If Kate knew how much ice cream there is going to be in this house this weekend, she would stay awake counting down the hours until tomorrow.