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WOW!!! What a BIG day for the new 6 year old! I was tired just doing the things I did. I think it's great that he went to my favorite restaurant to celebrate---and zoo lights too! Wow!!! Thanks for letting me be part of the fun too!

Awesome cake! Did you make it, Jennifer?

I should be working, but instead will tell the tale of Harrison's birth, as seen from the viewpoint of the MNF men.

It was a cold and blustery December day. We had gathered at Sabino's house for the annual Den of Iniquity gathering, which in our case means lots of Mario Kart on the Nintendo, and coke and pizza in our bellies. I seem to recall that the group included Jeff, Joel, Roger, Sabino, and myself.

The women were gathered at Julie's to bake Christmas cookies. One of them called to let us know that Jenn had given birth to a little tyke. "Uh-huh," we said, and went back to playing Mario Kart and WaveRace.

Later in the day, the women stopped by. They were headed to the hospital, and wanted us to come. They encouraged us — nay! demanded us — to stop our iniquitous behavior and accompany them.

"No way," we said.

"Get out of here," we said.

"What do we want to go see a little squawking baby for?" we said. Besides, we had Nintendo to play.

And the women left, fuming. We felt pretty smug. Except I felt a little guilty. I hadn't seen much of Jeremy in a long time, and Jenn was a cypher to me, but maybe we should go see them.

"You know what would be funny?" I said. "It'd be funny if we snuck up to the hospital and took Jeremy out to eat in celebration."

And that is exactly what we did. I no longer remember the precise order of events, but the five of us piled in a car, snatched Jeremy from the hospital, drove him to The Outback steak house where we plied him with tobacco and alcohol (and a fine steak) and then we sped him back to the hospital. Somehow, we managed to miss contact with the women during this entire time. Somehow, everyone kept it a secret.

We hurried back to Sabino's where we returned to our iniquitous ways. When the women came back an hour later, it looked as if we hadn't budged an inch. They were not pleased.

It would have been great had we been able to keep this secret for a while, but we couldn't. We snickered and snorted and shared how we'd managed to pull one over on them. Ha ha! Weren't we a bunch of funny fellows?

And that's what I remember about the day Harrison was born.

(That and Jeremy's insistence that he was going to call the boy "Hank". You see, this isn't some arbitrary name I've invented for him. I'm just doing what his dad suggested.)

I'm still trying to remember when it was that I dropped water in his eye. He must have been just under a year old, eh? That was the event that made me feel responsible for Harrison, feel as if I needed to make things up to him. And then I grew to love him so that now he's my favoritest kid. Yay Harrison!

Yes, I made the cake. I have a book of kid cakes and every year the kids get to choose one of the fun ideas. Harrison chose the football game. The teddy grahams are wearing frosting jerseys of orange and white OSU Beavers vs. green and yellow U of O Ducks. The goal posts are made from chocolate covered pretzel sticks. Lisa, let me know if you ever want to borrow the cake book.