Late afternoon, half-past four, although the hour feels later. The Brewers are up 2-0 on the Giants and will sweep the series if Parra keeps his shit together for five more innings.

Today was a pretty good day. This morning I woke at five, thank you, T, for cranking the television again at 5AM. After letting Shadow out I hit the futon again and got a couple additional hours of sleep. By seven I was up. The boys played on the computer or watched television while I ate breakfast (a good egg sandwich) and cleaned the house while M and T went to the store for last minute party supplies and S and N played upstairs. After a shower I finished cleaning the office to Bevis Frond’s “New River Head” (love that album, hadn’t heard it in forever) and burned an eels mix CD for some GR friends. I sat on the couch and listened to the disc before lunch. Man, the eels are good. I hadn’t sat and taken in their music in a while. I read for a while (the so-far excellent “Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao”, which I started last night) before S’s birthday party started. Between one and three about ten kids under ten spazzed out in my house and backyard. M kept the party moving with scavenger hunts and water balloons. I used my teacher voice a couple times and was pleased to discover I can still quiet down a group of rowdy children. Yay me. M also made her irresistible ice cream cake, of which I had half a piece, although I wanted to finish the entire circle myself. I worked out to the first couple innings of the Brew game, took another shower, and sat down with the computer.

I forgot to mention last night’s fireworks debacle. The city or fish day organizers or whatever decided to shoot off the fish day fireworks despite thick fog. I have yet to hear of anyone who could see a single flash of light. This week’s “letters to the editor” section should be interesting.