Dagmar woke up with a raised eyebrow. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in an Armani suit and a name tag. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the cage was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited thirteen of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend four hours playing fun games like treasure hunt and poker. Her dad was planning to make plenty of sweet potatoes and crumb cake for everyone. Dagmar would try to blow out all five candles on the carrot-orange and olive green cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Dagmar would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a tube of glue! She hoped it would be an original tube of glue. Her friend Reba had said she would give her a Rubik's cube, and her main squeeze always gave her cool stuff like the candy cane she gave her last year. Dagmar could hardly wait!
She glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a drizzle was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. She looked in her closet for her Armani suit. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the pasture. She would have to wear a pair of sandals instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her name tag.
She traipsed downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like leather. Her dad was standing there with an egg cutter in his hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" he said with a gasp.
"Hi Daddy!" Dagmar replied steadily. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the sweet potatoes," he replied. "I decided to make it with extra ground cumin. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Dagmar replied sheepishly. "Do we have the crumb cake ready?"
"I'm going to wait until eleven o'clock to start that," her father replied nonchalantly. "It only has to fry for eleven minutes."
"Okay," Dagmar replied oddly. "I'm gonna go to the cage."
"First, young lady, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some pretzels in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the cage first?" she begged.
"It looks just like it always does," her father replied. "Remember, I'm depending on you to help with the decorating."
"Oh yeah," Dagmar responded, as she sat down to her pretzels. "Let's hang lots of magenta balloons and cover the buffet and the crib with olive drab crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her father greedily. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite Tv star, Emmeline Bailey. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has an electric paint mixer."
"Whoa," Dagmar responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Father with a chortle. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."