-30F

it is cold here tonight. we have a house full of 9-10 year old boys here for a birthday party. i do not think we ever had sleepovers when i was a kid. probably just a peculiarity of my own upbringing. my daughter is sleeping over someone else's house tonight herself. maybe this is the modern version of getting a sitter for the night. maybe we just do not have enough time for the kids to spend together during the day. these young ruffians have eaten DQ ice cream cake, munched on pizza and grapes and pineapple and sucked down gallons of soda. should be an interesting evening as they start to drop off (it is just after midnight now).

modern relationships have strange and amorphous boundaries. i worked this party with my wife and ex-wife and ex's boyfriend for a while. these kids all play basketball or soccer or go to the same after school program together. they have had a blast. i thought we should let them choose their own activities. my wife thought we should go out in the arctic weather to find a movie that these kinetic energy balls have not seen. inertia proved to be smarter than all of us. as some of the kids arrived later than others they were able to blend into activities already started. you can only imagine the energy that Naruto and Cartoon Network can generate.

i will wake the boys up in the morning and make them all breakfast while my wife dashes off to church. she is dancing tomorrow. i will miss Sunday School.