I had a birthday this past week -- my 29th, in fact. We celebrated it Tuesday by going out to Ruen Thai, an excellent Thai restaurant about 20 minutes away. (Roast duck stir fry, mmmm! We also had shrimp spring rolls and purple rice ice cream. I love Thai food.) My church small group made a cake for me and gave me some Napoleon Dynamite magnets.

My birthday wasn't on Tuesday, but on my actual birthday, I was at a conference in Atlanta. The International House of Prayer in Atlanta had their annual Passionate Pursuit conference, and my friends Corey Russell and Allen Hood were preaching. There was some great preaching, but the best part was that Allen gave me an hour with him one-on-one. Now, I've known Allen for 10 years, but he's an important guy, and especially as a conference speaker, everybody wants a piece of his time. On top of that, some family of his came from Birmingham to visit, so it was really cool for me that he gave me a full hour undisturbed.