I have the best friends

Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate my birthday with me. It was a very fun time. Of course, I'm easy - I was having fun already in the car, just from the simple fact of traveling in relative style (the dealership's simplest car beats the best Egged bus any day of the week) and the temporary total freedom from responsibility.

But I'm pretty sure it would have been very fun by higher standards, too.

Of course, the friends who gave the most weren't even there. They were hosting all of my kids for a sleepover.

As I heard the next morning, some highlights of the evening were:

- A, N and their friend E demonstrating remarkable teamwork in getting D up from sitting on S's head.
- Baby S's bed being found empty - it turned out she'd climbed into bed with A in the middle of the night (awww).
- D's bed being found empty - it turned out she'd climbed into bed with the friends' parents in the middle of the night (any parents will do in a pinch, I guess) (to be fair, D doesn't climb in next to us, she climbs onto our feet. So it may not be that she didn't care who she was sleeping on so much as that she didn't realize whose bodies the feet were attached to).

***

About a day later I wasn't feeling so great. I had a bit of a headache and was unusually tired.

I realized that between the drinking during Thursday night's celebration, the late night that night coupled with the brutal trifecta of work, homework and cooking the next day, and the fact that I have after all been getting older, there was only one reasonable explanation - carbon monoxide poisoning.

For some reason, others did not agree.

Fortunately, I felt fine by yesterday. The carbon monoxide must have left for someone else's house.
***
A very random quote from the kids (context: explaining how very, very bad something would be):

"חס ושלום! חס וחלילה! בעזרת השם - לא, רגע, לא בעזרת השם!"

(rough translation: "God forbid! Heaven forbid! With God's help - no, wait, NOT God's help!")