and I am a wee bit exhausted. The two brothers he invited over are lovely. For instance, they told me my pancakes were delicious and thanked me. Their boisterousness didn't stress me out, it was tone.

They'd be running around the house chasing each other with Nerf guns, and I could hear "That one didn't count!" or "I got you. You're out!" Which can be said gently and lovingly or with a nasty meanness. I was on guard against meanness. At one point, I heard David saying, "No, no, no, no, no!" I came in and pointed out that was a lot of nos. He explained he was just rejecting game cards for people they had never of. Fair enough. But at the park the first 45 minutes were great, and the last 10 were bad tone city.

We mostly kept it in check, but there were many transitions to attend to--getting the table set, dinner, getting the table unset, the park, Shrek 2, all on the futon together, two on the futon/David in bed. At 9:30 I turned out the light and lay in the doorway until they were all asleep.

At 4:30 someone was crying for his lost blankie. They got back to sleep, but I didn't. We'll do it again after I get some sleep.