Making a new start with August, at least in the birthday party department. There were five weekends in July, and Shelly and I had birthday parties scheduled on four of 'em.

We had Maggie's cousin Joseph's party on the weekend of the fourth. Kinder-Care pals had birthdays on the weekends of the 10th and 24th (at Chuck E Cheese and Pump It Up respectively). Finally a pal from Maggie's swimming lessons had a party yesterday.

As for gifts, the cousin (turning five) got the Schoolhouse Rock collection, which is a really great gift if you've got a kid on your gift-list.

The kinder-care pals were both turning three, so we got 'em the Leap's Letter Factory videos. It's a really great video for 2 and 3 year-olds, as it teaches kids what all the letters sound like. About a year ago, Maggie studied this video over and over, watching it about once a day for about three weeks until she knew all the sounds. Did I mention I have a driven kid?

(Note to Terri. If you don't have this one, you can borrow ours. Dee's probably about ready to start watching it.)

The girl at the party yesterday got a Polly Pocket pool-set. Polly Pocket is a little like Barbie, but much smaller. Speaking as a father, it's easier to put clothes on a Polly Pocket, as they're all little rubber outfits that snap on fairly easily. I always dread when Maggie presents me with a Barbie and an outfit for Barbie to wear, because putting clothes on a Barbie is nearly impossible. The only drawback to Polly Pocket is that small items like shoes and purses are nearly microscopic and are almost immediately lost inside of vacuum cleaners.



Had a funny moment a couple of days ago. Went out to dinner with Geek of All Mothers and her movie producer hubby (I wanted his name to link to a picture of Jethro Bodine dressed as a movie producer, but I couldn't find one on the web). After dinner, we headed over to the local Half Price Books down the street. While Rick and I were looking through the software, I noticed a package of my games in one of the displays. I pointed this out to Rick and, donning my Pompous Ass Hat(tm), made it clear that he should really be in awe of having such a successful game programmer in his midst. His reply was along the lines of "Yeah, I could show you some of my stuff, but we'd have to go to BLOCKBUSTER!"

To quote the l33t-SpEaK kiddies, I was pwned.