"Every night I worked at the terminal, when I'd come home, the lights would be off and you'd be asleep," remembers Alvin. "So I knew something was up when I opened the door and saw the living room lamp on. You were just sitting there on the couch, looking miserable. Or maybe just looking drunk - it was kinda hard to tell. I sat down, and you filled me in on what was going on with Ross, the pending RCA deal, all of that.

"I tried cheering you up. Because to me, at first, it didn't seem that bad at all. Yeah, we had to give up the Chipmunks brand, but there was no reason that we three had to give up performing. We could just do the Little Rocks thing all over again - pick a new band name, and perform under that. But then you told me that Simon really didn't want to be in a band anymore. Did we really want to try building something new if Simon wasn't going to be part of it? And I didn't really have an answer for that."

We stayed up until the wee hours, drinking and talking about The Chipmunks, past present and future. We even pulled out my old Chipmunks albums and played them, laughing and cringing at what we heard. "Near the end of the night, you propped up the 'Go Go' album cover - that one none of us sang on. And we drank a toast to those three drawings on the cover. 'To AL-VIN, his brother Simon, and the one who giggles known as Theodore. May you sons-of-bitches make us all stinking rich.'" Alvin grins. "We had no idea, did we?"

The next morning, I managed to drag myself out of bed to make my way back to the job site to install some shelves. And while I was out, Alvin placed a call to Simon. "I told him that I was excited for the RCA deal. But I also felt really bad for you, and I wanted to try to make it up to you somehow. Our monthly Chipmunks gig was coming up in less than two weeks, and it looked like it might be the last one we'd get to do. So I suggested that we go all out for that one - sort of farewell party to the Chipmunks: The Live Months."

Alvin and Simon started scheming, and they decided to keep the whole thing a surprise for me. My only clue that something was up - which I of course didn't pick up on - was coming home one day to find Alvin trying to play "I've Seen All Good People" on his guitar.

"Simon said your band used to play this song," he said, "with you singing lead."

"Yep. Almost ten years ago, now."

"Wow - that's a kind of strange one for you guys to do." He started the song again. "You still remember the words?"

I shook my head. "Probably not. But let's see." I started singing, and we worked our way through the first half of the song. Surprisingly, I only made one little screw-up, which Alvin found rather impressive. We then laughed a bit, then wandered off to the next room to get back to work, and I didn't give it any more thought.

Gig night finally came around, and Alvin and Simon conspired to have us run late. "I stated that I had mislaid the power cord for my synthesizer," Simon recalls. "Although the probability of me mislaying anything at all - let alone something of such importance - was exceptionally small, as you know how obsessively I organize everything in my home. Thankfully, you were a bit too flustered by the upcoming gig to give it much consideration. This deception enabled us to arrive at Riley's with barely sufficient time to prepare the stage before the gig commenced."

Just before we began, Alvin walked over and whispered to me, "Don't wear yourself out". That was all the warning I got. I wasn't sure what to make of that, but I decided that it just meant we were going to play more songs than normal.

We started the set wearing our Little Rocks jackets, without a setlist - we just yelled out suggestions to each other. In addition to favorites like "Rock Around the Clock", "Telstar", and "Walk Don't Run", we pulled out some tunes we hadn't played in years - "Red River Rock", "Wild Weekend" and even "Spanish Omelets for Breakfast". At one point, I told Simon, "How's about we do some Nutty Squirrels songs?", but Simon just sort of waved that suggestion away. I was a bit miffed by that, but I figured he knew what he was doing.

We finally played "Wipe Out", which would traditionally mean the end of our Little Rocks set. But Alvin indicated for me to keep my jacket on, then turned back to the audience. "This will probably be our last Chipmunks gig for a while," he said. "So we're going to do our best to make it one you won't forget. Hopefully in a good way." The crowd laughed, and Alvin grinned back. "We're going to need some help on these next few numbers, so please help me welcome, on saxophone, James Duncan!"

James walked out, and, surprised, I got up to shake his hand. He had played a few Cemented dates with us, but never with the Chipmunks. Alvin called out the songs, and we did three total with James - "The Twist", "Tequila" and (yay!) "The Girl From Ipanema - Surf Tempo". I shook his hand again when he left stage, and thought to myself that that was a nice treat for my brothers to give me.

Next, Alvin and Simon took off their Little Rocks jackets, so I took mine off as well. Alvin then unslung his guitar and handed it to Simon. This was usually the sign that we were going to do a few Nutty Squirrels songs, but I was surprised to see Simon lean his bass onto its rack rather than hand it off to Alvin. Alvin instead just approached the mic again and said, "Back when I was a teenager and goofing off with my friends, my brothers wrote and recorded some jazz numbers. The three of us sometimes play a couple of them, with me playing bass. But tonight, I thought you might like to hear them with a real bass player. So, please welcome, formerly of the Hector James Quintet - Marcus Green!"

Seeing James had been a nice surprise, but seeing Marcus was more of a shock. He had done a Cemented gig with us really early on, but I hadn't seen him in almost six years. I jumped up and pumped his hand excitedly, which he endured with his usual coolness. And apparently, Simon had been teaching him the Nutty Squirrels repertoire. As Alvin sat offstage, Simon, Marcus and I worked our way through "Zowee", "Uh-Oh!", "Salt Peanuts", and "Uh-Huh". We got a good round of applause for that set, and Marcus gave me a happy high-five on his way offstage.

But my brothers still weren't done. They brought Ross Jr. on stage to sing lead on "Witch Doctor", which he did quite well on. Then they brought Kenny on stage, along with Franklin, a keyboardist that had done a few Cemented gigs with us. Alvin turned to me, grinned broadly, and played the opening guitar lick from "I've Seen All Good People". Apparently, that run-through with Alvin several days before had been a test to see if I still knew the words. I grinned back, pulled my microphone closer in, and started singing.

"We had one further surprise that unfortunately did not pan out," admits Simon. "We managed to track down Joan Castro in Los Angeles, and offered to pay for her accommodations if she would fly out and perform 'Bluesette'. Sadly, she had a very young child at the time and was unable to make the journey."

Both Kenny and Franklin stayed on stage after the Yes cover to help out on "Call Me" and "Refugee", marking the only time The Chipmunks ever played those songs live. But I think, from the audience's point of view, we saved the best song for last. After playing our Knack, Linda Ronstadt and Billy Joel covers, Alvin moved his microphone down off the riser to the front of the stage. He and I picked up our rarely-used ukuleles as Simon started a slow waltz line on his bass. After he played a few measures, Alvin and I began strumming a few chords. And a few measures after that, all three of us leaned into the microphone and began singing.

"Christmas, Christmas time is near..."

And the crowd went completely nuts. I may have gone off-key during the second line, because I literally couldn't hear myself at all. But we stuck with it, only singing the one verse, slowing down the last line for a dramatic finish. That was the one and only time we three ever performed "Christmas Don't Be Late" live on stage, and it brought my birthday concert to a close. In fact, it marked the last time The Chipmunks ever performed on stage under that name.

Things started to move fast after that gig. We signed our contracts with RCA, and Ross asked Alvin to fly back to Los Angeles with him. "RCA did have facilities out in New York, but the people who were pushing the deal were in California. Since I was the one who was most expendable, job-wise, we decided that I would fly out there to sort of act as a representative for all three of us. We'd talk about their plans for the next album, start plotting out the new cartoon, all of that. So I quit my job at the terminal, packed my suitcase, and headed back to California."

Alvin left so suddenly that I was sort of left in the lurch. I had a lot of HalFlat projects booked for the next few months. Without an assistant, I was looking at either a ton of overtime, or telling customers I wouldn't have their projects ready on time. I briefly thought about asking Rusty to help out, but he was pushing fifty, and one of the head honchos at the terminal. I sort of doubted that he would want to come help me build stuff in his spare time. But I figured he might know somebody who would be interested in being my new assistant, so I stopped by his apartment to ask.

As always, Rusty mulled it over before answering. "I believe I might know somebody, neighbor." He turned around and left the room, and then returned with his daughter. "Grace has been looking for a part time job."

"And not at the terminal with Dad," Grace said emphatically.

Rusty sighed. "Teenagers."

I looked at Grace skeptically. "How old are you now, Grace?"

"Seventeen."

"You know anything about woodworking?"

"Took two semesters of industrial arts - straight As," she said defiantly. I glanced at Rusty, who nodded his confirmation.

"Hm. Well, let me show you what I'm in the middle of, and you can see if you might want to get involved."

I led her back to my place, but she stopped short in the living room, looking up at my drum set. "Been hearing you play a lot more recently."

I frowned. "It's not bothering you, is it?"

"Nah, it's cool. Not really loud or anything. And you play pretty good."

"Thanks. I had a lot of gigs recently, and had to learn a lot of songs. But it'll probably be a lot quieter now." I led her into the work room, and showed her the project I was working on. She seemed to grasp what was going on, so I had her start sawing some pieces. It was clear from her first cut that she definitely knew what she was doing. Once she finished, I offered her the job. I was going to have to have Simon help me handle all the paperwork, but it looked like I had my new assistant.

As we headed back, Grace glanced back up at my drum set. "Dad's kind of confused. He thinks you were one of those chipmunks on that old cartoon show."

I gave her a smile. "Yeah, I get that sometimes."