October 8, 2000 11:49 AM EST

I am sooooo tired! The bad news is that we overslept this morning and missed the 10K race. Boooo! I'm disappointed about that, and we don't get our registration fee refunded, but oh well. There are other races coming up -- we'll try again. :(

The good part? We had a great time at the BBQ! Everyone seemed to have fun, the kids had a ball on the trampoline and looking at the reptiles, the babies were in good spirits.

The rocket launchings went well. Greg brought his launch pad and between him and Paul they had enough rockets for everyone to get to launch one. Some of them were really spectacular -- but there was one that really was sort of funny/slash sad. Greg, my BIL, used to have a certain rocket when he was a boy and it was lost after a launching. It just flew up so high and then drifted off because of the wind that no matter how hard the boys chased after it, they couldn't keep up. Then it drifted down into the woods and was never seen again.

Paul spent a long time trying to find the model kit for that rocket style again, couldn't find it, so then rebuilt it from scratch and gave it to his brother for his birthday. He told me he had a secret dread of launching that one, but ignored it. His brother put it on the launch pad, launched that one himself, and it took off beautifully, flew straight and true, was the highest one up in the sky... and then it started to come back down. And the wind caught it. And it started to drift off course.

"Oh no! NOT AGAIN!" screamed Greg.

"RUN!" screamed Paul.

And the two brothers took off running down the field trying to catch up with this runaway rocket.

"I can't believe this happening to me again!" moaned Greg.

"Well, all we need are some briar patches about waist high to be running through and it would be just like the last time!" exclaimed Paul. Then they strated cracking up at each other, still chasing this runaway rocket, jumping the neighbors fences.

The rest of the rockets were launched, and they went out again through the neighborhood on the bikes, but as evening fell and no rocket was found , they came back. I promised to put an ad in the community newsletter about a missing rocket and hopefully it will turn up. Paul told me later, after everyone left, that even though it's really sad that Greg only got to launch his birthday rocket once, it was sooooo funny and soooo appropriate this rocket be cursed because it's former counterpart had also been cursed.

"I know I built it from scratch, and it took forever, and I had this feeling of dread when he was getting ready to launch it and it's not really nice.... but it was worth it just to see the expression of joy on his face when he opened it, the expression of joy when he launched it, and then the expression of DOOM when the rocket started to veer off. Talk about poetic justice! Muahahahahahaaha!"

I think later today we will canvas the neighborhood again and try to find the rocket on our bikes. How far could it have gone?!

Anyhow, got to meet Hannah (mom) and Isabelle (9 yrs old) and Joe (7 yrs old) at last. Joe is my Patient Hero for NF. Hannah is also racing for Joe at the Disney Half Marathon, and then she's going on to the South Carolina marathon the next month. They were very nice, and the kids were a pleasure -- I love being around good kids. I got to tell Hannah I had just broken a grand with fundraising! I still have a ways to go, but it feels good to have met my minimum goal. While Hannah and I talked about NF and her races in the past, the kids were more into playing with the trampoline with my 2 yr old niece. I can't remember if it was Isabelle or Joe who told me I had a nice house, but that made me laugh.

I suppose from a child's point of view, our house is pretty fun -- between the swing in the tree, the trampoline, the iguanas, turtles, snakes, PowerPuff Girl paraphanelia, sprinklers, wading pool, burgers, and the bright, happy furniture nobody cares if you spill on -- it is kid dream home. The only thing missing is the dog, and the kids.

Got a lot of abuse via some of my birthday cards.

From Angie's card:

Happy Birthday To a great Sister-in-law. My brother made a really good choice when he married you! What YOU were thinking, I'll never know.

From Mom B.:

Happy birthday to a Terrific and Special Daughter-in-law. A Woman who is bright enough to understand this nutty family...and was brave enough to marry into it anyway!

Paul and I also got a LOOOOOOOT of "so when are you having kids?" from EVERYBODY. ACK! It was good-natured teasing, so it really didn't bug us, and we both had a good time playing with our baby nieces. Paul told me his mom told him she'd been watching my parents with the girls and thinks my parents are set to be grandparents. My mom completely went ga-ga over Sarah, the 6 month-old, and my Dad was having a ball with Amanda, the 2 yr old. Nobody could decide who stole the show most -- Sarah, who was very smiley and has her mother's dimples who was waving around and "dancing" anytime anyone would sing at her or Amanda who had her own ideas about things.

Paul gave me a wading pool for a birthday present and when I opened it up and Amanda saw the picture of the people sitting in a pool on the cover of the box she screamed "Pool!" and took off all her clothes before anyone could stop her. Clad in just her diaper she ran over to the box and jumped on it, trying to get into the pool. This cracked everyone up.

Someone tried to explain to her that the pool was inside the box, so she couldn't be in it because it didn't have any water. She got off the box and went running down to the other side of the yard screaming. "Water!" She wound up in front of the turtle decks pointing through the mesh of the covers wanting to be let into the "pool" in there with the turtles. Paul filled up my pool with enough water to splash in and her mom put her in her bathing suit and she got to wade in it. Paul stayed with her while everyone was at the other end of the yard eating BBQ and later he told me she kept trying to get him to let the turtles out of their cage to come be with her in her pool.

The raspberry-chocolate cake was a smash -- none of that left. Nobody realized it was vegan (ie: "different") but Paul knew and told me my baking is getting really good. Mom's chicken-veggie kabobs were also wiped out. What am I going to do with all the other leftovers?! There's enough left to have another party!

Astrophe