Three beautiful, birthdayish things from my past week:

1. I spent five hours at the pool hall with friends last Friday. We ate pizza and cupcakes and had many, many games of pool, with loud cheering and high fives for successful shots and close failures.

2. Texts, calls, gifts, and cards poured in through the weekend, from a container of muffins left on the stairs to our apartment to several boxes that the cats were delighted to claim as their own. (I kept the contents.)

3. On the morning of my birthday, Rudi and I went out for a doughnut breakfast and then headed to the zoo to meet the new pandas, who made their public debut late last month. It was a bluebird day, if a bit chilly, so the outdoor animals were largely recharging in the sun. It’s been a couple years since I’ve been to the zoo, which I always enjoy, particularly when it’s less crowded.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?