It's inevitable, isn't it?
So, I came home from my accupuncture appointment last night and ate the last two pieces of my birthday cake in the dark watching Friends. Does that make me a bad person?

That last question was rhetorical, for those of you who were gearing up to email me an answer.

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You know how excited I was about bowling with my family to celebrate my birthday? Well, it turned out to be a great day! We only had two lanes, so we couldn't get a lane for Kate that had the bumpers up. I was confident she would have no need, and boy, was I right. She would lob her chosen orb from between her legs and we would all wait, frozen in time, for the ball to make it's lazy way down the lane. She would stand there each time, hands on hips, confident that in the end her aim would be true. She was rarely wrong. The occasional time she was, she would throw her hands up in the air, looking very exasperated and making the rest of us giggle. This little four and a half year old actually beat me in the first game!

Now, before you go off, talking smack about my bowling abilities, I'll let you in on something: I bowl Ten Pin. I have a bag, a (monogrammed) 13-pound ball and my own shoes. I wangled all those goodies when I worked a summer job behind the snack bar at one of the higher-end bowling alleys in my hometown. I got really good, thanks to my friend Kit, who took time out of his busy day to critique my style (HA!) and give me pointers. So, in the end, I am now programmed to throw a rather large ball with just the right amount of spin to net me the occasional strike and the respect of my Ten Pin Peers.

Sadly, on Sunday I found I was unable to adjust to the size and heft of the little baseball-type dealie I found myself standing there with. As ball after ball found it's way into the left-hand gutter, my Dad sunk farther and farther into apoplexic fits of laughter. It was humiliating.

Well, at least I had fun watching everyone else excel, even The Boy, who had informed me ahead of time that he would not be taking part in this birthday activity. He told me, sweetie that he is, that he would sit with my sister, who you will all remember broke her back in September of 2000 and is still healing. That turned out to be all for naught when she pissed off to the arcade. So, after watching all of us whip the balls willy-nilly, he decided he couldn't do any worse and rented some shoes. And he kicked ass, my friends.

That Boy can do anything he sets out to do, except hit the hamper with his socks and underwear.

Okay, long story short, I failed miserably while having fun, then took an extra day off work because my knees had swollen incredibly by Tuesday morning.

Behold, the gates of Old-dom loom before me.

Posted at 1:17 p.m.