Here Kitty, Kitty (Hello Newman mix)

I don't know how or why these things enter my mind. They just do. I won't apologize for them either. Friday was my son Paul's sixteenth birthday. Sweet sixteen. Over the years, I can count on one partially-fingered hand the number of his birthdays that have fallen on a visitation weekend. I had to make this one special. Well, I didn't have to. I wanted to. My mind, cleared of all but the most innocuous of baseball statistics, an idea entered. Reared really. Hello Kitty. Hello Kitty? Hello Kitty! Purrfect. What a theme for a sixteen-year-old boy's birthday. Indeed. At the store the whim snowballed when, perusing the book of special order cakes, I saw it. The Hello Kitty cake. Complete with pink transparent plastic Hello Kitty purse and Hello Kitty compact embedded in the icing. Oh yeah! But the cake would not be enough Dear Reader, now would it? No. In the days preceding the event, I managed to acquire a vinyl Hello Kitty placemat, a couple of Hello Kitty plates, some Hello Kitty stickers, and Hello Kitty wrapping paper for Paul's presents, which were not Hello Kitty themed. But wait! There's more! Paul's girlfiend Sarah was going to be in town as well, visiting her grandparents. This just gets better and better, doesn't it? Well, Susie agreed to pick up Paul and Sarah to bring them to our party, and to get Sarah to her grandfolks afterward. Words, Dear Reader, simply cannot do justice to Paul's, and Sarah's reactions to the cake, with sixteen candles ablaze. For the record, it was chocolate cake, with chocolate buttercream frosting and raspberry filling. Suffering succotash. Oops. Wrong cat.