scratch that... it works. i had another plugin test running that was interferring with this one. i also found one minor grammatical error:
PHP Code:
<phrase name="cybabgreeter_message_user"><![CDATA[{1} member is celebrating birthday on {2}:
{3}
Happy Birthday!]]></phrase>
should read...
PHP Code:
<phrase name="cybabgreeter_message_user"><![CDATA[{1} member is celebrating their birthday on {2}:
{3}
Happy Birthday!]]></phrase>
add "their" between "celebrating ### birthday".