Diane woke up with a yawn. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in a pair of boxing gloves and an 'I'm with Stupid' shirt. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the pool room was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited nineteen of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend four hours playing fun games like charades and leapfrog. Her dad was planning to make plenty of crumb cake and beef bouillon for everyone. Diane would try to blow out all eight candles on the azure and chartreuse cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Diane would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a carrot! She hoped it would be a chic carrot. Her friend Krista had said she would give her a water bottle, and her sister-in-law always gave her cool stuff like the book she gave her last year. Diane could hardly wait!
She glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a bit of precipitation was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. She looked in her closet for her pair of boxing gloves. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the landfill. She would have to wear a ribbon instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her 'I'm with Stupid' shirt.
She bounded downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like fish. Her dad was standing there with a napkin in his hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" he said with a yawn.
"Hi Daddy!" Diane replied blankly. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the crumb cake," he replied. "I decided to make it with extra graham crackers. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Diane replied caustically. "Do we have the beef bouillon ready?"
"I'm going to wait until two o'clock to start that," her father replied sweetly. "It only has to braise for eighty-six minutes."
"Okay," Diane replied blankly. "I'm gonna go to the pool room."
"First, young lady, 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 pool room 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," Diane responded, as she sat down to her hot dogs. "Let's hang lots of black balloons and cover the chair and the safe with striped crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her father languidly. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite singer, Lakshmi Garland. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has an ice pick."
"Zounds," Diane responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Father with a smile. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."