The Olympics is playing havoc with my free time these last several days, but there have been enough Americans in contention in enough different sports to keep it interesting. After the men's road race was a washout for the US squad, it was good to see Tyler Hamilton >and< Bobby Julich come through in the time trial today. They even showed three minutes of highlights this evening during the prime time coverage on NBC.



Saturday was Justin's birthday and now the little monkey is six years old and off to kindergarten in a couple of weeks. For his actual birthday on Saturday he spent the day opening presents (having already opened all the ones that had come in the mail from the Illinois relatives as they arrived), then we drove up to Burlington for dinner at his restaurant of choice, the Rainforest Cafe. Sunday was the official party, and the venue was the Build-a-Bear at the Natick Mall, a small intimate gathering followed by cake and ice cream in the food court. Short on ambience but the kids didn't care, and everybody got to take home a stuffed bear or pig or whatever. By keeping the party small he also didn't end up with an outrageous pile of presents, which is good as the house is already full. And since a Build-a-Bear person is running the party, I could duck out and go shopping for an hour, not that there was anything worth buying.



It was a cool, rainy October day around here this past Sunday, remnants of Hurricane Charlie putting a damper on things, so it was just as well the party was inside (although we plan it that way in expectation of it being too hot, but you never know). We came home in time to have pizza for dinner, and that was it. Chloe's birthday will I'm sure be a much more elaborate affair, so it's good to start off the season with a relatively low-key party as a warmup for the festivities to come.