Bart woke up with a shout. Today was his birthday! He was going to have a lot of fun today. First, he would dress up in a pair of tights and a pair of briefs. Then, he would run downstairs to see if the boiler room was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited seventeen of his closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend three hours playing fun games like Scrabble and Scrabble. His mom was planning to make plenty of tofu and pretzels for everyone. Bart would try to blow out all nineteen candles on the chocolate brown and pea green cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Bart would be opening his gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a football! He hoped it would be a brittle football. His friend Horsie had said he would give him a fountain pen, and his mommy always gave him cool stuff like the plaque she gave him last year. Bart could hardly wait!
He glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a rainstorm was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. He looked in his closet for his pair of tights. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from his day at the village. He would have to wear a pair of Bermuda shorts instead. He didn't really care, as long as he could still wear his pair of briefs.
He scooted downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like lemons. His mom was standing there with a turkey baster in her hand. "Happy Birthday Son!" she said with a growl.
"Hi Mommy!" Bart replied miserably. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the tofu," she replied. "I decided to make it with extra beer. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Bart replied bravely. "Do we have the pretzels ready?"
"I'm going to wait until six o'clock to start that," his mother replied greedily. "It only has to press for sixty-one minutes."
"Okay," Bart replied sourly. "I'm gonna go to the boiler room."
"First, young man, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some jambalaya in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the boiler room first?" he begged.
"It looks just like it always does," his mother replied. "Remember, I'm depending on you to help with the decorating."
"Oh yeah," Bart responded, as he sat down to his jambalaya. "Let's hang lots of grey balloons and cover the wooden crate and the hamper with olive drab crepe paper."
"That's fine," said his mother admiringly. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite Tv star, Rosemary van Dorn. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a pair of tongs."
"Unreal," Bart responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Mother with a laugh. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."