Second Star on the Left

As a child, I remember with extreme glee each and every time my parents took us to the infamous Chuck E. Cheese pizzaria and entertainment emporium. Not only did I get to eat nature's goodness in pie form, but there were games.

Games, I tell you, games!

Star Wars, Tron, PacMan, Mrs. PacMan, Dragon's Lair, and something to do with a mallet and rodents who pop their heads out of the ground.

It was my Graceland.

Now, some two decades later, I walked into the local Chuck E. Cheese, took one look around and thought, "What a lot of noise."

Justice will be going from nine years old (single digits) to ten years (the fabled double-digits). It's a mark of her maturity that she picked five different places that she wanted to go on her birthday, and could only whittle her guest list down from 112 to 110.

With coaxing (i.e. saying no) we managed to persuade her (told her) that less, in some cases, is actually more (we threatened to cancel the birthday party, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas until she turns 25).

She was remarkably amiable to our suggestions.

So, come the weekend, we will trek for four hours to this bastion of childhood glory to behold the electronic world of games and excitement punctuated by half-cooked, half-edible pizza and caffiene on tap.