Watching: The second A&E Hornblower movie. Tab is making me laugh by uttering lewd remarks in a bad English accent and creating lascivious puns from Hornblower's name.

Listening to: Lorraine screaming at her dogs. She claims she will be getting rid of the extra dogs and will only keep four. I hope she is telling the truth.

Boys Will Be Boys

Daniel's party yesterday at Discovery Zone was a great success. He and his little kindergarten pals have been counting the days to the big event. They spent the first hour running through the maze like wild things, hardly stopping to catch a breath. Stephen and Matthew know Daniel's classmates and happily joined in the mayhem.

My mother-in-law came along with us, but I don't think she really enjoyed it. She finds it hard to let the boys out of her sight, and it upsets her when they disappear into the maze. And then there is the disturbing sight of her diminutive grandsons dwarfed by all those bigger and rougher kids running around. Poor Stephanie.

We retired to the party room for the second hour of the party, where one of the DZ employees, a high school aged girl named Lisa, served as "hostess." The kids ate pizza at the table, while the parents sat on the chairs lining the walls and chatted. The DZ-provided cake was edible, at least. The kids enjoyed the tug-of-war, especially when the teams were parents versus kids and the kids won. They also liked getting their faces painted. After the party proper, the kids ran around for another hour and spent the tokens they had been given. Stephen, in particular, liked the games and was disappointed when he'd spent all his tokens.

After dinner Daniel amused himself at home by playing with his birthday gifts. His favorite is an army vehicle with a built-in missile launcher. Just what I thought we needed...small plastic projectiles flying all over the place. Daniel hangs an action figure by the arm from the cherry-picker bucket of his Little Tikes truck. Then he takes careful aim at the action figure and tries to shoot it down with a missile. I asked Tab, "Is this something we should worry about?" As a former boy himself, he was able to reassure me. "This is what we do," he answered.

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