Success!

As some of you know, tonight was my mother's surprise or it would have been if she hadn't figured it out over the weekend birthday party. She was skittish about going, because she doesn't really like being the focus of attention, but she appreciated the effort I had put into it so she agreed to "behave." It went wonderfully. Everyone loved the desserts (I got a lot of awed compliments), and once my mother realized that these really are all people she likes she was able to relax. There was a lot of smiling and laughing. The last few stragglers didn't leave until after 11 (it started at 7:30), and my mom just called to thank me and say how much she enjoyed it. Yay! The only less-than-ideal aspect was that I apparently was too optimistic about how much people would eat, so there's quite a bit left over. But we can deal with that. I'm just very pleased and relieved that it went so well and she did enjoy it in the end. I'll try to post pictures in the next day or two so you can see the desserts. :-)

OK, back to Arisia mail...

Not good

We found out why there were police cars all over the neighborhood when we got home from my mom's birthday party last night... this happened right across the street from us. It's kind of surreal. This really is a quiet neighborhood, the worst disturbance we've had in the 3 1/2 years we've lived here was people screaming out of windows after the Red Sox won their championship. Presumably this was an isolated incident, but still, it's not what you want to hear. I hope they find the people responsible soon, and that this doesn't have a negative effect on our property values...