my little bro's b-day

My little brother is turning 8 in four days. I'm so excited! He and his girlfriend (yes, I know it sounds wrong, but he is deep in the throes of being a ladies' man, believe me) are going into New York City today to the huge Toys-R-Us in Times Square. With my mom, they are going to shop like the maniacal second-graders they are and ride the weirdly giant Ferris wheel pictured here, which features compartment-thingies, or whatever they're actually called, with different cartoon characters molded on. Some examples are the Cabbage Patch Kids--which terrify me enormously--the Monopoly guy, and Mr. Potato Head, captured in this photo with some other starchy lumps of plastic who are probably supposed to be his mistresses. (The womanizer!)

Then my little brother's girlfriend will be dropped off, hopefully in one piece, back at her nice suburban house, and we will have the dinner of his choice at home. I'm going to try to be nicer to him this year because I've been irrationally mad at him for everything he does lately. I don't know, maybe it's all the holiday crap I've been gorging on; unfortunately, I'm an unstoppable eater.

And this might seem a little drastic, but I thrive upon comments, so...when is your birthday? Got any siblings? Ever been to the Toys-R-Us in Times Square?