Stan woke up with a chortle. Today was his birthday! He was going to have a lot of fun today. First, he would dress up in a tam o'shanter and a space suit. Then, he would run downstairs to see if the rec room was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited one of his closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend three hours playing fun games like charades and ring around the rosie. His mom was planning to make plenty of cabbage rolls and crumb cake for everyone. Stan would try to blow out all eighteen candles on the sparkly and crimson cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Stan would be opening his gifts. Maybe the first package would contain an iPod! He hoped it would be a gruesome iPod. His friend Jeremy had said he would give him a teddy bear, and his grandpa always gave him cool stuff like the stopwatch she gave him last year. Stan could hardly wait!
He glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a gale was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. He looked in his closet for his tam o'shanter. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from his day at the outback. He would have to wear a pair of handcuffs instead. He didn't really care, as long as he could still wear his space suit.
He capered downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like tar. His mom was standing there with a bare foot in her hand. "Happy Birthday Son!" she said with a flutter.
"Hi Mommy!" Stan replied menacingly. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the cabbage rolls," she replied. "I decided to make it with extra cracker crumbs. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Stan replied sadly. "Do we have the crumb cake ready?"
"I'm going to wait until two o'clock to start that," his mother replied sympathetically. "It only has to boil for thirty-seven minutes."
"Okay," Stan replied hastily. "I'm gonna go to the rec room."
"First, young man, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some hot dogs in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the rec 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," Stan responded, as he sat down to his hot dogs. "Let's hang lots of turquoise balloons and cover the washstand and the toilet with orange crepe paper."
"That's fine," said his mother hysterically. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite Tv star, Julia Haddad. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a knife."
"You don't say," Stan responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Mother with a smirk. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."