R* Turns Nine

We celebrated R*'s birthday yesterday with a party for her and fourteen girls at a local bowling alley. It was a simple affair with them dividing into three groups and richocheting bowling balls for 45 minutes. Good thing there are guards which prevent the ball from going in the gutter! This was followed by 30 minutes in a party room for food and the birthday cake Jenny made.

R* was thrilled that her best friend gave her a Tamagotchi which is the big craze at her school at the moment. Every kid seems to have one in their pocket. I thought this horrible idea of virtual pets had died but, no, Bandai launched a new and vastly improved version last March. The original was launched in 1996 and sold 40 million units. Looks like virtual pets are here to stay; at least they're clean. They're popular enough to provoke an Anti-Tamagotchi category on Yahoo!