Anyway, we had a "mad scientist" themed birthday for her, due to the place we had the party finding a "science guy" for their parties (they have a whole party "menu" with clowns, magicians, etc.). She had a pretty good turn-out, 15 kids (including her and her sister), along with about 10 parents. It was painfully expensive, but still not as bad (I guess) as going to one of the museums for one of their packages. If we count feeding/entertaining the parents it wasn't too bad on a per-head basis, but it's owwy signing that credit card receipt! Still, it was quite the party, and at 9, she'll probably have good memories of it for the rest of her life, which (figuring that depreciation) makes the expenditure easier to take.
Today I was heading off to a fund-raiser for #1's school's athletic department ... watching the Bears at a sports bar (yeah, I know, "tough duty"), and The Wife took The Girls down to Navy Pier (she got a pretty good pic of them with Sanity Clause ... may scan that and send out versions with the Xmas cards). As some of you are aware THE BEARS KICKED THE VIKINGS' BUTTS in a surprise win behind the quarterbacking of Chad Hutchinson, who not many weeks ago was out of football and riding the waves in California. The day was only sweetened by having the Packers be humiliated by the Eagles.
I have been away from the computer for huge chunks of time, and out of my office in general for most of the weekend ... which actually feels like some sort of a vacation. One of the things that folks who don't work from home don't appreciate about the reality of working from home is that you never get away from the office ... some project is always a few steps down the hall, and if you're not working on something you feel like you're slacking!