Surprise!

Last year, level_head posted an entry mentioning that he had gone out to dinner for his birthday.

I am not, ordinarily, all that good at remembering birthdays. Once I've been told, I can usually recollect the month (Tufty was born sometime this month, for example) but the exact dates elude me. However, since Sir Level Head had put up an entry on it, when March rolled around this year, it wasn't too hard to poke through his journal and find the date. So I did -- it was April 9 -- and then I thought: "Well, I should do something for him; this is one of those milestone birthdays that should not be neglected. But what?"

April 9th was a Friday, and Level Head had mentioned in a prior conversation that his hometown airport was a hub. This was an important detail, because it made him much closer than I'd originally realized. I checked some flight schedules, and tickets were available for not much more than it costs to visit Kage and Sophrani, and for a shorter overall travel time (even though Level Head lives, in miles, about twice as far away.)

The thought flickered through my mind: "What if I surprised him by showing up for his birthday?" And I just as quickly discarded it. A surprise visit wouldn't work; he might have plans for that weekend, and I wouldn't want to impose, and there was no way of knowing what the case would be, and ....
( Waitaminute )