  Birthday Stuff I got up early,  around 9: 20am,  and immediately resumed cleaning house.  I vacuumed my room and bathroom,  cleaned the kitchen floor and cat litter area,
 cleaned my bathroom,  took out more trash,  cleaned off the kitchen table a bit,  swept the porch clean and then washed the table and chairs out there.  All this,  and all the cleaning I did all week,
 mainly because I was expecting my friend Sue over and I wanted the place to be comfortable and presentable for her ( seeing that she's a chick and chicks tend to like cleanliness)  Anyhow,  that worked out real well.  she never showed.  I'm not real happy about that either,
 not only because I didn't get any kind of communication saying " I guess I'm not going to make it after all"  but also because my sister went and bought extra steaks and stuff because I told them she and JP ( my two best friends)  would be joining us.  Grrrr!
 To make matters worse,  my sister showed up three hours late herself,  and then JP didn't show up until almost dark,  long after dinner,  but at least he did come over.  Hell,
 he even stayed until almost Midnight.  So.  the day got off to a rocky start,  but it did get better.  My sister,  her husband,
 and the kids got here right around 2pm.  Danny ( my brother- in- law)  brought his gas grill with him (
he gave it to us)  and I helped him unload it,  then him and my sister helped me set up the badminton net.  Mom had been busy cooking all day.  She made a ton of food:  potato salad,
 rum cake,  pineapple upside- down cake,  deviled eggs,  baked beans,  etc.
 and a little after everyone arrived,  she and my sister ran out to the store,  Danny left to visit some friends in the park,  so I took the kids outside and we played badminton for about 45 minutes then we went in for a water break and a rest.  It was hot out,  but there was a nice breeze blowing all day which made the heat semi-
bearable.  While we were inside,  I remembered to check an eBay auction I was watching and I just caught it before it ended.  Luckily,  I got my bid in on time and I won it,  another huge ass lot of cassette tapes,
 268 in all,  plus it comes with three 100- count Napa Valley wooden storage cases,  which sell on eBay for around $ 20- 30 each by themselves.
 I got everything for a total of $ 62. 01.  Some of the better tapes in the lot are:  AC/ DC "
Live"  ( 2- tape set)  " Let There Be Rock"
 " Powerage"  " Highway To Hell"  " If You Want Blood You Got It"
 " '74 Jailbreak"  " Flick Of THe Switch"  " Blow Up Your Video"
 &  " Ballbreaker"  Alice Cooper " Billion Dollar Babies"  Black Sabbath "
Black Sabbath"  " Sabbath,  Bloody Sabbath"  " Vol.
 4"  " Paranoid/ Heaven and Hell"  ( 2-
on- 1)  " Sabotage"  and " Mob Rules"
 Dio " Holy Diver"  Deep Purple " When We Rock We Rock And When We Roll We Roll"  The Doors " L.
A.  Woman"  " Morrison Hotel"  " Strange Days"
 Eagles " Hotel California"  Faith No More " The Real Thing"  Iron Maiden " The Number Of The Beast"
 " No Prayer For The Dying"  " Piece Of Mind"  " Fear Of The Dark"
 &  " Killers"  Jethro Tull " Minstrel In The Gallery"  "
Thick As A Brick"  &  " Aqualung"  KISS " Love Gun"
 The Kinks " The Kink Kronikles"  " One For The Road"  &  "
Tired Of Waiting For You"  Led Zeppelin " The Song Remains The Same"  ( 2- tape set)
 Metallica " Master Of Puppets"  &  " Ride The Lightning"  Nazareth "
Hot Tracks"  Ted Nugent " Double Live Gonzo"  Ozzy Osbourne " Bark At The Moon"  "
The Ultimate Sin"  " Diary Of A Madman"  &  Ozzy Osbourne/ Randy Rhoads "
Tribute"  Robert Plant " Pictures At Eleven"  Pink Floyd " The Dark Side Of The Moon"  &
 Wish You Were Here"  Pantera " Cowboys From Hell"  Tom Petty " Into The Great Wide Open"  The Ramones "
Ramones Mania"  Scorpions " Best Of Rockers And Ballads"  Twisted Sister " Come Out And Play"  &
 " Stay Hungry"  T Rex " Electric Warrior"  The Who " Meaty Beaty Big &
 Bouncy"  Yes " The Yes Album"  &  " Close To The Edge"
 Wow!  Great titles!  And those are just the ones I need,  there are a ton that I will take to work too ( more AC/ DC,
 more Led Zeppelin,  more Iron Maiden,  etc.  I can only hope that they'll arrive in great condition though,  there was no scan and the seller didn't describe condition much more than a few cracked cases.  I won't be able to pay for them until next week though (
because of my screwed up payday)  so,  sadly,  it'll be a few weeks before I actually get them.  We wound up playing my " Who wants To Be A Millionaire"
 PC game for awhile,  then,  after everyone came back,  Danny started cooking the steaks ( huge,  and I mean HUGE porterhouse steaks plus a couple delmonicos)
 burgers and hot dogs,  and we all played badminton some more,  until the food was ready.  Mom taped some of the " game"  with her new video camera (
the one JP sold her)  We all chowed down.  big time.  My steak was marinated with Stavros' sauce ( Mom got some extra last time she was there)  and it was awesome.
 I was stuffed.  I also had some potato salad and some baked beans.  Some Pepsi too,  a rarity anymore.  We've got a ton of leftovers,  so I know what I'll be eating all day tomorrow.
 After dinner,  we all went back outside and played badminton some more.  Jesse kept hitting the birdie up on the roof and Austin kept hitting it over the fence,  so there were several trips up on the roof and over in the neighbor's yard throughout the day.  In fact,  one of my good birdies is over in her back yard right now.
 They need to get it tomorrow,  before she throw it in the garbage.  She wouldn't think to just throw it back over the fence,  she never has done that,  which is why,  long ,
 long ago,  she earned the nickname " Haggy"  Eventually,  the sun started heading down and it got nice and cool outside and everyone was having a really fun time playing badminton.  It was nice.
 JP finally pulled up around then.  He'd called twice today,  both times saying he'll be over soon,  but by the time he'd gotten there,  we'd already eaten and it was getting dark out.  He joined us playing badminton and then after it was dark out,
 the game got much more difficult to play,  but we had fun trying.  Danny turned his heasdlights on and that helped out a little,  but finally,  we had to give it up for the day.  We played football instead.
 JP and Austin vs.  Danny and Jesse with me quartebacking for both teams.  We played that for a really long time,  stopping for water a couple times along the way.  I guess it was around 9pm then,  and my sister started talking about going home soon,
 so we came in and had cake and I read the cards that the kids all made for me.  They each got me a box of Samoas as well,  and Mom gave me the Chillow she'd ordered for me.  I wasn't expecting anything from them,  so that was very nice.  Mom's rum cake turned out awesome and she bought vanilla ice cream to go with it (
I didn't have any ice cream myself)  After we had cake,  my sister,  her husband,  and my niece went home and the two boys stayed here.  JP,
 the boys,  and I played football some more,  for quite a while,  taking water breaks here and there.  It was fun.  While on our last water break,
 we decided to go over to the ice skating rink and have a snowball fight ( behind the rink,  they dump the shaved ice from the zamboni and it's soft like snow)  JP and I wound up fighting against the boys.  Jesse was nailing us left and right,  but we almost never hit him.
 Austin,  we nailed plenty.  I got pooped after a while and I watched them play.  We were there for hours.  By the time we were done,  we were soaked and tired.
 Our feet were sore as hell from being water logged ( wet shoes &  socks)  so the walk home took extra long and we stopped to sit down for a few minutes on the way.  JP wound up having to carry Austin p[ art of the way home,
 which is rough when you're exausted yourself ( I know because I had to carry him * all*  the home from there once)  It felt really damned good to get home and kick off the shoes and socks,  I will tell you that.
 Poor JP had to drive all the way home in his wet shoes and socks.  As I said before,  he split around Midnight.  He'd had fun playing with the kids too and was about as worn out as I was/ am.  After he left,
 I sent the boys in to take a bath.  After that,  we sat back in Mom's room and watched TV a while.  I can tell they were both worn out too because when I told them I was going to get ready for bed,  there was no begging to stay up later or anything,  just "
goodnight"  It was a very good night,  and,  for the most part,  it was a very good day as well.  Definitely a day we'll all remember forever,
 which is what I really wanted for my birthday more than anything else.  It's really late and I am completely wiped out.  I'm going to bed now.
