We love parties, and we especially love parties we don’t have to host. So when the effervescent Candace invited us to the birthday party she was throwing for her husband George, we were delighted to accept.
It had people from our regular social circle
as well as George and Candace
and their associates. Two of the associates we hadn’t previously been aquainted with brought kegs of their own homebrewed beer. Peter, who’s experienced more rancid, chunky homebrew that he cares to remember in Wisconsin, was truly amazed at the quality of Candace’s friends’ brew. It was on par with what the best microbreweries around here are putting out.
Neil immediately disappeared upstairs to the game room, to play with Ichi and Ichi’s girlfriend, Kate, on George’s Nintendo Wii. 
I thought it was just another hyped game system, until I checked in on Neil and played a round myself. George has set up the console with a series of arcade actions that showed off the Wii’s versatility. It’s as kinetic as the Eyetoy, but not as flaky, and the game was pretty funny too. I successfully picked a huge nose, but failed at shoving a TV onto a truck.
Despite the hubbub of sociability going on downstairs, Neil probably had the best time at the party of anyone. He would happily have moved into the game room with the Wii (and Ichi for company), but we had to go. So George and Candace game him a huge, brand-new HO train set. Yes, it was George’s birthday, and George did get lots of fun gifts. But Neil, just for gracing the party with his presence, got one, too. Oh, if only we could all be so popular.
So thanks for a great party, George and Candace!
Thanks for coming! We had a blast, and everyone got along so well. I’m glad Neil likes the train set!