Saturday, November 15, 2003
Ate breakfast (ham croissant and "looks like creme brulee" chai tea for me, ham croissant and almond croissant and coffee for Patrick) and picked up pastries (rugulach and blackberry rolls) from Ambrosia Bakery. Went to Jeremy's 4th birthday party, which had the most people we'd ever seen in my sister's family's house. Jeremy got a lot of presents from his many friends—more than we could count. Lots of new clothes to wear, two talking globes of the earth, a Crayola shoot paint out of a gun onto spinning paper toy, a rocket stomper which launches styrofoam rockets out of a tube connected to an air bulb you step on with your foot, books, and more. Mom and Dad got him rollerblades—he's going to be the next roller hockey star! Patrick and I got him a LeapPad from amazon.com which came with a book called Leap's Pond. We also got him a LeapPad book about Thomas the Train, which is one of Jeremy's favorite storybook characters. (We chose the LeapPad because our friend Amy works there and thereby introduced us to that company's educational toys.) In the kitchen there was a lot of food, too: cheesy ham and eggs frittata and cheesy frittata, Aidell's sausages. The birthday cake was an inventive mountain of a variety of Krispy Kreme doughnuts. After Jeremy blew out his candles, each of the zillion kids crowded around the table got his or her own doughnut—how easy is that? Jeremy's little brother Matthew is walking now, which we don't remember him doing when we last visited on the 4th of July. Of all his presents, Jeremy seemed to most enjoy having someone read to him out of a Richard Scarry book called "What Do People Do All Day?" which teaches young kids about people's professions and how things get done: firepeople fighting fires, doctors healing people, road workers making roads. All the party guests were personally thanked by Jeremy as they left to other activities, and they each got a treat bag filled with some of Jeremy's favorite candy, too! Lani and Rob sent us home with some of the yummy leftovers. After the party Patrick and I got a $2 car wash at the nearby Valero gas station, which was fun because we got to stay in the car while it got washed in about 4 minutes. I wish we had a Valero gas station near our home. At that price, I'd get a car wash several times a month! After that, we returned home. He stayed up and did Lodestar work and studying while I ate leftovers, shopped for cable management solutions and a new computer, then napped. Dinner at home with Patrick: Seniore's veggie combo pizza. (No salad this time.) Read A List Apart: "Tackling Usability Gotchas in Large-scale Site Redesigns" by Jeffrey Zeldman and "How to Save Web Accessibility from Itself" by Joe Clark. The former article was well-written and informative. The latter article was somewhat confusing and so considerably tiring that I had to quit reading before I reached the middle. Sore throat from a week ago is almost all gone. Yesterday I e-thanked Mikey Anitas for sending me an American Greetings Super Sparkle Collector Series III birthday card which had a photo of Aaron Carter. The pop superstar was surrounded by multicolor glitter snowflakes, and he was looking either sleepy or drugged out. He wore diamond earrings in both ears, a white hat, white tank top, and white baggy pants. Over his shoulder was slung a white jacket (I presume, since it's mostly hidden). His name is in the top right corner in something very similar to helvetica neue 77 bold condensed oblique—"aaron" in orange, "carter" in red-orange. Over his crotch are the words "Life is a Party!" spelled out in multicolor glitter (same font as before). Mikey replied with the smartest rhetorical question anyone I know has asked in recent memory: "Why would an adult let him pose like that?"