Happy Birthday, Husband 2.0, you hard-partying bird nerd!

We conspired. The Mother-in-Law and I. The Nashville Zoo has a new exhibit featuring 30 Carribean Flamingos complete with a lagoon. And, to rev up for the grand opening, their clever keepers offered a promotion where individuals could donate $100 to have a friend's yard flocked with pink plastic replicas of the feathered friends. Individuals could also purchase, for the same amount, "anti-flocking insurance."

We conspired to get Husband 2.0 out of the house for the scheduled flocking. The promotion has been so popular, we couldn't schedule today, Husband 2.0's actual birthday. So, Zoo volunteers flew in early. Another friend invited Husband 2.0 over for drinks early evening and then Husband 2.0 met The Mother-in-Law and I at Davinci's Pizza (the best damn gourmet pizza in Nashville). The Mother-in-Law then requested a ride downtown to see our city lit for the night. So, by the time Grace and I arrived home, we confirmed the birds successful landing had occured in their three-hour destination window. Yet, Husband 2.0 drove right by them–like the former racer that he is–zooming to the back of the carport, and had to have them pointed out to him. Apparently, only live birds catch his attention. (And do they ever.) Once called to his attention, he liked the idea.

The next day, a Zoo employee telephoned me to talk about "the situation." "What situation?" I asked quizzedly. True, we'd only had a small flock of flamingos land in our yard–about six. We had thought there would be more. True, the employee confirmed. There was supposed to be about 15 to 20 flamingos in our yard. But, when the volunteers gathered the birds for delivery, only the ones that perched in our yard were available. Apparently, the promotion had been so wildly popular, thieves had lifted flamingos from yards across town. EVEN with the sign explaining the purpose of the flocking. (We didn't get one of those either. Stolen.) Oh, well. We enjoyed our small flock for 24 hours until, just as they landed, volunteers flew them away. And, some of our donation will go to help feed one of the live flamingoes.

Which all brings back memories of 1973, when, lucky brat that I was, I spent two weeks in Tanzania and Kenya, visiting my father's sister who was a 40-year veteran missionary on the continent. She took us to the most memorable Lake Nakuru, Kenya, where real flamingos wade into the soda lake. "The caustic soda is so concentrated that it rapidly crystallizes around their legs, entrapping them." (Husband 2.0, my hard partying bird nerd, wrote that sentence, unaware that I was writting this post about him.) We descended from a hill down to the lake, with the pink ring around the water–dozens of flamingos deep–coming into focus. Brilliantly gorgeous.

Plastic or feathered, I love flamingos. Don't you? And did you know their pink color comes from their diet of shrimp? (Fact ala Nashville Zoo, who's done a grand job of building excitement and promoting community involvement for their newest members.)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEE! I LOVE YOU!