What a Day!

	First, briefly -- Friday night after Geoff and I finished babysitting baby Ben, Doug came and picked us up and for a larf or guffaw we went over to the Salem Willows. Doug figured blowing up some aliens in an arcade game would be fun. That and pizza for dinner. And, the musical monkeys are there.
I love the musical monkeys. I took this nice closeup one of the one with maracas -- they look like boobies and it always makes me laugh. And this guy looks kind of wicked, like he's thinking lascivious thoughts. Naughty Monkey!	Geoff and I can barely be seen in the reflection in back. Not quite Mirror Project material but we wer there for the monkeys, not the digital photography art opportunities, don'tchaknow...
If you've never seen the musical monkeys in action, it's hard to explain. Circa, oh, I don't know... 1950? these monkeys rock out to big band sound on record, and cost a dime to get their jive up. A couple of them are in ill repair, their heads look like they are going to go flying off, and I always feel a twinge of fear and guilt when I feed my dime in to get them started. But they totally crack my shit up.
Geoff and I had fun playing air hockey. An action shot here, the best one of the night. Jessica is in the way far back playing Tetris.	Doug fired up the guns to blast the crap out of the brain sucking zombies. He had quite a bit of fun at the Simpsons pinball game as well.
	And here's a quick shot of the arcade as we were leaving. All the punk kids come after dark, so we ran frightened back to the truck. Actually, Geoff melted down, so we knew a good thing had come to an abrupt end...

As for today...

As I mentioned in the 11am part of this entry, I knew a busy day awaited me. But, as my 90 day review rings true even in my homelife, organizational skills and preparation are not my strongest suits.

We had a gift to buy, laundry to wash and dry, and pack, and all kinds of other insanity to do before leaving the house. I barely got all Jessie's clothing dried and packed in time to rush out the door, and still think I probably should have packed one pair of long pants for her, but ... she'll live.

A tad harried, we left here at 1 and got caught in Red Sox game day traffic. So we got to the party fashionably late. But the hanging out on the patio and the Red Stripe beer combined with awesome cheffing up of chicken and sausages by Mr. Duncan himself made for a wicked pissah of a day. Chloe's birthday party was a smashing success.

Here are a few pictures.

Jessica got to hang out with Austin, and Austin got to chew up the plastic cup. Rock on, Austin!	Me and Bonnie girl hamming it up right before we had to speed off into the sunset!
What a great birthday cake!!! Dig them crazy tasty bugs!	And isn't she just a doll? Happy birthday babe!!! I love this kid!
The party goers all feasted and chatted, rocking the patio with uncompromising force.	Geoff serenaded Miss Chloe, and after we were all done singing, he shook her hand, said "Congratulations!" and walked away. She was confused.
Miss Brooke and cousin Chloe. Absolutely gorgeous darlings!	And here's Geoff, after getting soaked in the wading pool. I think he looks astonishingly like my father in law right here... I gave him Billy Idol Hair, and he's saying "Oy, it's a noice day for a whoite weddin'"
	The piece de resistance for me today was this awesome bottle top opener of a wicked evil cat. Check out those teeth! I must have one of these! I must!!! Anyway -- we left before I could see if Chloe loved my monkey gift (today's monkey reference, by the way) and rushed up to drop Jessie off at sleep over camp. We made it there 15 minutes late, but the check-in lady hadn't closed up shop yet. And tonight, she's at camp. There's a kind of hush all over my house, tonight. All over my house... it is the kind of hush that means a sister has gone away to overnight camp, the boy has collapsed into bed after way too much fun and excitement, and Doug's reading and waiting for me to come to bed. So I'll finish this up.

I'm going to go brush teeth and look at me -- planning ahead, I'll make Geoff's lunch before bed tonight so that I don't have to burn 10 minutes tomorrow morning doing it.

Be proud of me. Really.