It was a darn busy four day weekend, celebrating the birthday of our country from heinous English oppression and celebrating the birthday of youngest daughter eight years ago. Perhaps the biggest gift for eight year old was the return of the AFs, they came into town late Thursday, left late Sunday afternoon, and we spent lots of time with them. In addition, my sister_in_law and her nearly eight year old daughter spent Sunday night at our house. I'm oversocialized.

We were expecting guests, at least sil and daughter sleeping over, maybe the AFs, and we expected the AFs to stop by, so we did a lot of cleaning, cleaning that hasn't been done in the house in a long time. We're talking vacuuming up spiderwebs off the walls and ceilings, vacuuming up dust, cleaning up cluttered desks, a maniacal amount of cleaning, and we didn't even get into nearly_thirteen year old's ADD meds. Our recycling bins are overflowing!

So yes, the AF's turned up, and eight year old was able to spend lots of time with her old bff, including swimming at a far suburban YMCA pool, at our house, and at my parents house for her party (more below). They didn't spend Friday or Saturday night together, but the AFs had lots of other friends in town to visit.

I ended up spending lots of times at my parents. Friday I went there to get ready for the party, late Saturday afternoon we went there for ribs, scooter rides and fireworks (I still have all ten fingers, despite the windy conditions), Sunday was the fairy party. Yes, scooter rides, I took nearly thirteen year old around my parents subdivision on my dad's scooter, it made me really miss my bike (more below).

Some of the bottle rockets I saw Saturday must have been getting old. One went up about ten feet before exploding, another slowly rose to about four feet high, and eventually exploded. The reckless criminal engaged in such acts quickly backpedaled. He also recommends punks in windy conditions.

The fairy themed birthday party went really well, at the max there were 14 kids there, including 3 boys (totally unlike nearly thirteen year old's parties at that age). In addition to the AFs, the preschool's showed up, teacher_girl was there, and Porsche_girl came along too. Everyone had a good time, we went through three pizzas and several bowls of punch. I overheard one of the dad's say he was a programmer, I thought about scaring him by saying I was his worst enemy, but he seemed introverted, he wouldn't even look at another person's shoes. I'll have to keep an eye out for him at school gatherings.

Speaking of Porsche_girl, she taught nearly thirteen year old a new car game, SCORE! You get a point for each yellow vehicle (car, truck, bus, construction vehicle, bike, motorcycle, even stroller) you see. Another excuse for backseat bickering.

Somehow, I fit in some wrenchin'. I did get my horn fixed, my EE classes were useful. I started tracing voltage from the hot wire, then checked to see if the horn switch grounded the ground wire, no luck. Then I tried manually grounding the horn, no luck. It was a broken horn (had a spare) and a corroded horn switch, which prevented the horn from grounding. I like old tech, a little dissassembly and emery paper and the switch worked. A few days later I bought a few gallons of gas, filled it up, put in some carb cleaner, turned the petcock and watched gas leak out all over. I did get it to start, I see float checking in my future.

In other bike news, I went to my bud's house after work to look at his Virago, he's suspecting clogged main jets since it really dogs going from 50-60. I was able to take it for a ride yesterday, that's the biggest bike I've ever ridden, and the first V-twin. I rode up and down Monroe, and up and down 490 to test it at speed.

I liked it, but it really made me miss my Kz. The shift lever was not where I expected it to be, so I had to really hunt around for it. The cruiser seating is different from my perched on top standard. There was indeed a flat spot between 3-4k under load, I'm not sure if it's part of the torque curve, or a clogged jet. We did put a few glugs of B-12 chemtoool in it, maybe that will clean it up.

I ended up staying up late last night hunting for my title to I can register it. I should be quasi-legal by this time next week (under the temporary ten day inspection).

Mrs. Ha is thinking about applying for a preschool teacher's assistant job. Her therapist is not encouraging, saying six jobs on four years doesn't look very stable. I've know her 20, she's had about 11 jobs in those 20 years, and a few years at home with the kids. I don't think she's ever come to the conclusion that there's a reason it's called work.

We're having a camping out overnight party for nearly thirteen year old Saturday night, and the weather looks iffy. It's looking like newspaper_girl, Porsche_girl, and two or three other girls I have no nick for will show up.

In other nearly thirteen year old news, I taught her to play Stratego and beat her, I figure it's another game you're likely to find at many houses. I also showed her Magic Realm.