ThirTEEN

Saturday was Zach's birthday party, and I gained a lot of useful information.

1) Just barely teenaged boys don't eat as much as just barely teenaged girls, BUT they like it either full of sugar or covered with orange fake cheese powder.

2) Standard seventh grade type gift: cash or gift certificate. Only kid toting actual object was a sixth grader playing up.

3) There is a gene for playing pro sports. One kid at the party flies all over the country playing competitive tennis and is projected to go pro within 2 years. No other tennis players in the family, but dad played defensive end for the Atlanta Falcons and brother is probably going to play PGA golf.

The tennis star situation made me nervous, because we threw a big liability party: jumping on the (three) trampolines, biking through the trees and over the bmx dirt jumps, skateboarding on the driveway. In the end, thank goodness, no-one even got road rash.

The kids all had a great time, and I had fun meeting them. Nice kids. They did eat a 6x batch of homemade oreos, 2 pounds of doritos, 3 pizzas, and 36 pops. The ruffles and the bowl of apple slices remained virtually untouched.