If you missed D.J.’s birthday party at the pizza parlor, you missed a lot of commotion and noise, but a lot of fun, too. There were many kids there that I didn’t know, plus four that I did, and they all seemed to be enjoying themselves. D.J.’s actual tenth birthday was a week ago, but he blew out candles tonight. They were trick candles, which amused both D.J. and Aiden, whose idea it was. In fact, Aiden wants everyone to know that the trick candles were his idea.

That was pretty much the highlight of my day, as you would expect, this being Sunday and all. If I ever even leave my house on a Sunday, it’s almost always for a family event. Most of the day I spent reading and noodling around on the Internet, so I had the best of both worlds, and I’m ready to face another week. I even got some work done, so I got a head start on Monday. That’s never a bad idea.

Obviously, Mom didn’t go to the party, but she has been to enough of them that she can imagine what this one was like by remembering every other birthday pizza parlor party over the last several decades. She was feeling a little better every time I talked to her today. Even though the symptoms are still present, they’re not as bad as they were, and she now believes that this ordeal will be over. I think she had her doubts for the first couple of days.