but it was a surprise theme at least. I had schemed with our usual Friday night friends about my husband's 42nd birthday. Of course, since 42 is the answer, I wanted to have a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy themed party. Our usual Friday night friends are geeks like us, and have all read (memorized) the five book trilogy, and all geeked out when I suggested the theme. It was going to be a surprise party. With sherlock on vacation all week, stryker was going to take the afternoon off from work to take sherlock to the movies. Stryker had strict instructions not to return home any earlier than 630p, to give me and F&K time to decorate, lay out food, etc. Only, the egg donor, learning sherlock was off from work, gave him RTY in the afternoons. Which is fine, and stryker was going to then take both of them to the movies, only sherlock was reluctant to leave (read: chained to the phone so that the egg donor could call to say she was coming to retrieve RTY). Then, the plan altered so that we'd order take out, and the three boys would go retrieve it, giving me and K the opportunity to decorate and lay out food while they were gone. But that stryker called in the food order far too early, and sherlock refused to leave until RTY was gone. Meanwhile, can't keep a secret or be discrete RTY was itching to help me, as I was discretely smuggling various items into the house and hiding them in her room. I encouraged RTY to not worry about what I was doing, and told her to keep daddy occupied so that I could do what I needed to do (namely: inflate a ginormous whale - a really big task, actually). By that point, sherlock knew we were up to something, and not-discrete RTY was being overly obvious that she was keeping something from daddy. F and stryker left to retrieve dinner while RTY called the egg donor to find out if she was eating with us or when the egg donor would be retrieving her. RTY tried to be secretive, but sherlock kept following her around. She finally went outside and had her conversation beside the garage door. From the door to the garage (which was open), I heard her telling the egg donor that she wanted to stay for sherlock's surprise birthday party, and how much she was helping by keeping sherlock distracted while K and I finished with the whale. The egg donor gave RTY permission to stay the night, and I tasked RTY with getting daddy outside and keeping him in the back yard so that K could go home (they live around the corner) to get food and such to bring in through the front door. While RTY kept sherlock on the swing out back, K came back to the house with a car load of goodies. We placed the whale in the dining room and taped a "I wonder if it will be friends with me" thought bubble onto it's head. K made a really creative and cute bowl of petunias with a thought bubble that read, "Oh no, not again!" We cut "42" out of construction paper to hang on the wall. There were three different types of Babel fish: cheddar and parmesan (that looked suspiciously like goldfish crackers) and gummy Swedish Babel fish. K made cupcakes and brought a tea pot so we could all have tea. We piled presents onto the table. It wasn't too bad for a hasitly thrown together party. Sherlock wasn't surprised by the party, but at least the HGTG theme, and especially the ginormous whale, were a surprise for him. We had a Vogon poetry reading while we had desert. After we ate and after presents, we started watching the original BBC DVD of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It was a good evening.

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