My Cat the Dog

One of the many endearing traits about my cat is that whenever we are outside, he follows us around. So if we go for a walk around the neighborhood (and he is around to notice us go) he trots along behind us, much to the amusement of everyone we pass.

So this afternoon I decided that since it was such a nice day Ben and I would walk to Becca's day care to pick her up. Normally this is not practical, since I also have to pick up Ben in the afternoons, and his preschool is not in walking distance. But today Ben was already home. So we set off for the day care, which is basically in our subdivision, but out by one of the main roads that you enter our subdivision from. It's about a 10 minute walk.

When we got to the end of our street I noticed Ulysses was following right behind us. I considered picking him up and carrying him back to the house and putting him inside but I didn't feel like walking all the way back up the street and I must admit I was slightly curious to see if he'd follow us the whole way.

He did. Which made me rather nervous in the end since we needed to cross the main road that goes through our subdivision, which is not highly trafficked since it's usually only people who live here driving on it, but it was 5pm and it's a very wide road with a median with trees in the middle. So I picked Ulysses up when we got to that point and carried him across. Then I was nervous again in the parking lot at the day care, because he followed us right across the parking lot and up to the door.

After retrieving Becca we then had to look around a little bit to find the cat again -- he'd wandered off into the bushes. But once he saw us he trotted right back over and we all set off for home again. He followed us all the way home.

We passed many joggers and bikers on our round trip who all gave our strange procession a double-take: woman, baby in stroller, little boy, cat. Maybe I should get him a leash.

Happy New Year

This afternoon I took Ben to the children's Rosh Hashanah service. I figured that since he had the day off for Rosh Hashanah he might as well get something out of it besides spending the day cooped up at home watching me work and complaining of boredom. Which is oh so much fun for both of us.

I should have known it was asking for trouble, since he'd been cooped up with me all day and as soon as we got out of the car he spotted two of his preschool friends. My Ben was replaced by deaf-obnoxious-Ben-on-speed, which is what usually happens when Ben spends time with other boys his age outside of school. He was relatively well behaved during the service itself thankfully though there was a fair amount of whispering to his friends, who we (unwisely) sat with.

Afterwards, when his sitting-still-and-listening quotient had been entirely depleted for the day, he was rowdy with his friends on the way outside and took off across the parking lot against my orders so I sent him to his room when we got home.

I just don't understand how he can be so calm and sweet with me, and then as soon as another four year old boy enters the room his emotional maturity drops about six years (putting him in negative numbers somewhere).

Becca's 12 Month Progress Report

Today was Rebecca's 12 month checkup, so a fine time to report on her milestones also.

First the doctor's appointment - she is 21 lbs 15 oz (70th percentile), 30 inches long (75th percentile), and her head circumference is 18 1/2 inches (90th percentile... hmm, another big headed kid...) She got her vaccines and her hemoglobin rechecked. Joel was relieved to hear it is not too low anymore -- apparently having an iron deficient child would make him the laughingstock of his profession.

As for her milestones:

FEEDING: Is eating mostly solid foods although as previously mentioned her favorites are cheerios and crackers. She also loves yogurt, and usually I manage to force feed her something marginally nutritious such as soft fruits, cooked veggies and pasta. After having no teeth for almost her entire first year she's now got three coming in all at once! (Two bottom, one top).

LANGUAGE/EXPRESSION: Fairly unambiguously says "dada", "mama", "hi", "uh oh" and "yay!"

GROSS MOTOR: Crawls very fast, pulls herself to standing, "cruises" a little bit but does not stand unassisted or walk yet.

BEDTIME: Usually sleeps from 7 to 6:30, at which time she gets a bottle and falls back asleep if I am lucky.

My Cutie Pies

I am going to ignore the gas shortage, failed bailout package, plummeting Dow, takeover of Wachovia, etc etc and instead post a video of my cutie pies playing together... enjoy!

The Week in Preview

This is probably going to be kind of a hectic week. It started off this morning with a dentist appointment for Ben. It was the second time he's been to the dentist, and it went well despite my misgivings. For some reason they prefer that the parent waits in the waiting room, and I did not think Ben would be cool with that (I went in with him last time since it was his first time) but the nurse won him over by discussing Power Rangers: Jungle Fury with him in detail, and after a couple of minutes he marched off with her, talking a mile a minute. He returned with chocolate-minty breath, a super bouncy ball, and a thumbs up sign from the dentist. They were even able to take x-rays. Good job Ben!

This afternoon Ben's preschool lets out at 3 for Rosh Hashanah and is closed tomorrow and Wednesday. Tomorrow Becca has her 12 month checkup, and I have no babysitter for Ben, and I will try to be at my desk for at least part of the day because we are entering our busiest (pre election) season. Wednesday I have a babysitter for Ben from 10 to 4 so I just have to drop him off and pick him up at his friend's house, who I'm sharing the babysitter with.

Complicating things is the gas shortage, which is ongoing. Joel was finally able to find gas this morning, which was a relief since his tank was on E and he visited 5 gas stations yesterday with no luck. I've got about 1/4 tank now, which I am going to try to conserve. I don't want to have to wait in a long line for gas tomorrow with Ben in tow, so I'm going to try to wait a couple of days.

Let the fun begin...

Party, Party, Party

Here it is, the obligatory first birthday party slide shows and video...

Birthday Girl And Her Cake:



As you can see, she did not do much in the way of cake smearing. She sort of took delicate fistfuls. It was somewhat disappointing.

The Video - Is That Cake All For Me? (Uhhh... yes. Maybe I went a little overboard...)

And a couple of footnotes...
Boys Eat Cake:

Boys on Sugar High Demolish Room:

A Strange Observation

I have noticed something odd about Rebecca. Whenever I need her to hold still for something -- changing her diaper, dressing her, etc -- she wriggles around like a maniac, screams, cries, rolls over, tries to throw herself off her changing table... it gets to the point where I am afraid she will do herself bodily harm in her struggles. This is not the something odd. What's odd is that when I bring out the fingernail clippers -- and I mean every single time, without fail -- she holds perfectly still and lets me clip her fingernails to my heart's content. Even if she was struggling madly during a diaper change an instant before.

I am trying not to read too much into this.

Dry County

Charlotte seems to be running out of gasoline. Neither of the stations I usually fill up at had any this morning. Fortunately I was not actually looking for gas, because I have about half a tank. (My gas guzzling SUV should run a few more days on this). However I am slightly worried about Joel's car, which has less than half a tank, is driven more than mine, and Joel tends to wait till the gas light to come on before going in search of gas. Joel's parents report having had to visit 6 stations yesterday before they found any. According to this newspaper article, relief is on the way... I sure hope so. A city without gas for even a short period of time is not something I wish to experience. It's already making me nervous.

This Date in History: September 25, 2007

At 9:25 am, Rebecca Elizabeth was born. Her birth was much less stressful than Ben's was. She was a planned c-section for starters so everything was very, well, planned: Ben was with Joel's parents, my sister was able to fly in from Boston and both she and Joel were allowed into the operating room. We did not find out the baby's sex beforehand, so there was much anticipation and excitement, bets being made, etc. We had a great OB and anesthesiologist and it really was almost a party atmosphere in the operating room as the delivery got underway. (the following weeks were not very party-like I might add though). Anyway, I remember as she was delivered everyone yelling "It's a girl!" simultaneously, followed by the OB asking who in my family has red hair? Needless to say I was shocked -- I had been fully expecting another dark haired little boy and instead I ended up with a blue eyed strawberry blonde little girl. It was a wonderful surprise. And here's my birthday girl this morning, who woke me up at 5:45... I guess she was excited that today is her birthday...

Almost a Birthday Girl

Like Christmas in September... Sort of

The upside to the fact that the amount we charge each month to our American Express gold card over the last year has pretty much doubled from what it was before we moved to Charlotte is that we rack up lots of rewards points in short order - probably $700 worth in the last year I'd guess. I always redeem the points for gift cards. So last week I redeemed 20,000 points for a $100 Cheesecake Factory gift card (arrived in the mail Saturday, haven't used it yet) and a $100 Lands End gift card, which came in the mail today and I just used it to order Ben a new winter coat, a pair of cargo pants, and a shirt from landsend.com. The coat will be desperately needed once it gets cold -- I did not buy him a new coat last winter. He used the one he had from the winter before, which I bought big so he'd be able to use it for two winters. Suffice it to say that he's not going to get a third winter out of it.

Home Again

I arrived home from Harrisburg last night. The trip went as well as it could have gone, considering the circumstances (which I have been advised by counsel not to discuss - seriously! Imagine the irony, if you will, of not being able to blog about the only interesting thing that's actually happened in my life in the last few months). I will have to make one more trip in a few weeks.

I am happy to report that both children were clean upon my return, and snug in their beds. Ben's first drowsy words upon seeing me this morning when I went in to wake him up were: "Mommy! Did you bring me a present?" Becca's first words to me this morning were "[screech screech screech!]"

I am happy to be home! This is going to be a busy week, with preparations for Becca's first birthday party (this Saturday) getting underway...

Tooth Sighting!

That's right, I have spotted Rebecca's first tooth, finally! Just 4 days shy of her first birthday. It has not come in far enough for me to get a picture of it, it's just peeking in. But I thought I'd record the moment for posterity anyway. Well actually the moment was yesterday so I am a little behind.

"Doers"

Joel frequently complains that we don't "do" enough stuff - "we're not doers," he says. "We need to become doers." Certainly we have our share of excuses as to why we never seem to do anything -- chief among them over the past year has been the fact that Joel has had to work every third weekend, and the fact that we did after all have a baby just about a year ago. But now that the weather's not too hot any more and Becca's a little bit older and Joel's down to working every fourth weekend, we've decided that on the weekends he's not working we need to be planning excursions.

So today was the first one on the list - the U.S. National Whitewater Center. Granted, this would have been a lot better without two kids in tow (three actually since we met our friends Javier and Crisi and their baby Alejandro there). We might have been able to, you know, "do" something while we were there, like whitewater rafting, rock climbing, etc. We settled for watching other people do those things, and we walked around and did a small amount of hiking (very small) and ate lunch. That's a start, right...?

Here are some pictures. In retrospect showering might have been a good idea this morning. Oh well.

AFK

That's "away from keyboard" for those of you who don't speak computer-nerd. Though I am also defining it as "away from kids" for the purposes of this post. This is what I will be from Sunday afternoon until Monday night. I have a meeting in Harrisburg, PA first thing Monday morning. You can do many things remotely these days -- I've worked from home for almost four years and I can count on the fingers of one hand* the number of times I've actually had to go somewhere. But apparently when the attorney general's office wants to talk to you, a conference call just won't cut it. Who knew?

It will be the first time I have spent a night away from the baby, and the first time since being hospitalized for the birthing of said baby that I have spent a night away from Ben -- yes I know what you're thinking: I need to get out more! I am trying to make the best of the situation, and am looking forward to going out with friends in Harrisburg Sunday night who I have not seen in a long time, and Mom and Dad will make the drive from Philly to have lunch Monday before I head back home. And, it will be a nice dry run for Joel for when I go to Cancun. I expect the children will tolerate my absence just fine.**

*It might be a mutant, six-fingered hand though.

**Although they may be pretty dirty when I get back, since Joel tends to avoid bathing them when I am not home to do it myself.

And Now, a Word From our Sponsors

BabyLegs! They're warm, versatile, protect little knees from carpet burn without reducing mobility, and best of all they make diaper changes really easy (no pants to take off). I ordered her 3 pairs, and she wears them with onesies. Rebecca has a big wardrobe problem which is that she has about eighteen billion onesies and no pants. I am not quite sure how that happened except that it's been like 80 billion degrees out the last several months so she hasn't needed them. Anyway now she has something to keep her legs warm until it gets colder and I have to break down and buy actual pants for her. And possibly actual socks and shoes. (She's gone barefoot 90% of the time for the last several months also, even to day care. Does that make me a bad mommy? I never really look around to notice if the other babies are socked and shoed.... probably most of them are). Anyway until then she has been getting lots of compliments on her BabyLegs.

It's That Time of Year Again

It's that time of year again -- the time when I suddenly realize that half of Ben's clothes don't fit him any more. He has been wearing nothing but shorts and t shirts for a good four months now at least, and since he is so skinny a lot of his shorts from last summer still fit him for this summer. I bought him some new t shirts, and a couple new pairs of shorts at the beginning of the summer but otherwise we've been all set.

Then the other day Ben complained that he gets cold at preschool during naptime (even though he has a blanket) and asked if he could bring a sweatshirt. I said sure, and brought out one of his sweatshirts from last winter. When he put it on I noticed his wrists were sticking way out of the sleeves. So I went out the next day and bought him a really big sweatshirt.

Now this morning was the first day it has been cool enough for long pants since at least May. (70 and raining today). So I dressed him in a t shirt and a pair of size 5 jeans that had plenty of room to grow in them last spring, and noticed they have absolutely no room to grow in them any more. They cover his ankles when he's standing but they don't touch the tops of his sneakers anymore.

I see a shopping trip coming soon in my future... afraid to know how his long sleeved shirts from last winter will fit him...

Double Standard

I am the recipient of Rebecca's double standard. She will not eat any solid food from me except for crackers and cheerios. If I put food on her tray, she will smash it, smear it, throw it, etc... unless it is a cracker or cheerios. Trying to spoon feed her does not work well at all. First she will try to push the spoon away or grab it from me. If the spoon somehow makes it past her hand to her mouth she will clamp her lips shut. If the food somehow makes it into her mouth, she will actually reach into her mouth and pull the food out. (Unless, of course, it is a cracker or a cheerio).

Now, imagine my surprise when I picked her up at day care today and her teacher tells me that she ate a hamburger and french fries for lunch! And swears she actually witnessed her eating it, not just playing with it.

So I took her home thinking maybe she will finally eat for me now... but no... she smashed her green beans into pulp then smeared them around on her tray, and ate about 2 bites of pasta before she started fishing it out of her mouth and smearing it around also. So after a while I gave in, took her dinner away, and gave her some crackers... sigh...

Hearing Things?

On the way to Joel's parents' house for dinner tonight Joel and I both swear that Rebecca said "Uh oh" (her one confirmed word) plus three more -- "dada," "hi," and "yay!" She said "dada" and "hi" when Joel adjusted the rear-view mirror to say hello to her while he was driving, and then when we applauded her, she clapped also and said "Yay!" Joel will back me up on this, I swear. Though after months of listening to baby-babble, it is tempting to chalk it up to auditory hallucinations...

An Accident of Geography

Last night I was lying on one of my new couches trying to find something to watch on my new TV and I came across the one of the stupidest shows I have seen in quite a while. It was a true crime story about a murdered woman in "Amish country" -- Lancaster, PA. Now, having lived in Lancaster during my four years of undergrad, I stopped to watch it for a moment. Right away I noticed that it was not actually about anyone or anything Amish, and the murder mystery in question was actually set in the largely Hispanic, working-class city of Lancaster. Which bears no actual relationship to anything Amish except that it happens to be located in Lancaster county. But the voice over kept saying stupid things like "A murder in Amish country?!" while showing scenes of rolling farmlands and Amish buggies. Then they'd cut back to the row-houses where the story actually took place. It was monumentally stupid. It held my attention for about ten minutes, as I waited for an actual Amish connection to develop. I turned it off when it became apparent that the claim to anything Amish was about as solid as Sarah Palin's claim to foreign policy experience -- i.e, an accident of geography.

My Little Car Seat Model

Here she is, modeling her new seat, which arrived this morning (having been manufactured in Charlotte, it did not have very far to travel).

Yes, I know what you're thinking you car seat Nazis: She does not turn 1 for another two weeks and here she is forward-facing! I know you're shocked, but she'll live, I assure you. She is 22 pounds already, after all. She really seemed to like facing forwards (though she only rode in her seat for a total of two minutes today, home from day care). She had this (above pictured) little smile on her face for those whole two minutes, anyway ;)

Remembering a Day I'd Rather Forget

On the first anniversary of 9/11 I was working at the state capitol building in Harrisburg, PA. As you might imagine it was a place that lent itself to ceremony. They had scheduled a number of services to comemmorate the anniversary, beginning with the "rolling requiem" in which orchestras around the world began playing at precisely the moment (local time) in which the first plane hit the World Trade Center. It was something I'd been hoping to avoid but they had set up the orchestra in the rotunda and I ended up having to pass close by at the appointed time. I stopped to listen. It seemed like an appropriate memorial to me: a thing of beauty to counteract the memory of evil; an attempt to reclaim a small piece of a day that has left small or large scars on all of our hearts, and on our soul as a nation. On the way back to my cubicle I ran into my boss. "I just want this day to be over," he said to me as he passed.

Every year on this day I experience a similar sentiment. Every year it gets a little easier. Last year I made it through most of the day without remembering what day it was. This morning I was not so fortunate. I flipped on MSNBC, as is my custom, as I sat down at my desk to begin work for the day. They were replaying their broadcast from the morning of 9/11. For a few minutes I watched even though I didn't want to, experiencing that morning all over again complete with the news anchors' discussion, speculation and sorrow. I watched all over again as a symbol of national prosperity turned into a symbol of tragedy in the space of a few moments.

Perhaps MSNBC sees this as the only way they can remember 9/11 in a "pure" sense, free of the politics of the current election cycle and free of the last seven years of hindsight. But I can't watch their broadcast. It is too painful to see it again, even after seven years. Instead I will remember the rolling requiem, and wait for this day to be over.

A Thing of Beauty

The TV installation was just completed. The only problem was the fact that Circuit City forgot to give us the power cord for the TV (since the TV we got was an open box). But the Firedog guys were awesome -- they cheerfully went to Circuit City to pick up the power cord and then came straight back to finish up.

Mmmm, Grilled Pickles and Cheese...

I know what some of you are thinking, and no I am not pregnant. (At least I don't think I...)

Last night at the gym I was watching Rachel Ray and she was making soup and sandwiches. The soup does not merit mentioning, but the sandwiches she made were grilled swiss cheese on pumpernickel with dijon mustard and, yes, dill pickle slices right there inside the grilled cheese... I was so intrigued that I had to try it. So I stopped at the store this morning after I dropped the kids off and picked up the necessary ingredients (thanks to our fridge fiasco earlier in the week I needed everything including the mustard and pickles). So for lunch just now I made myself a grilled pickle-and-cheese sandwich, and what do you know? It was pretty good! I don't know if I'll make it again... well, I have a lot of mustard and pickles and swiss cheese to use up now so probably I will!

TV update coming soon -- install is almost done!

A Very Long Car Seat Post

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the finer points of car seat shopping, this may be very boring for you. But I don't care.

For some strange reason, I really enjoy shopping for car seats. Well, maybe not "enjoy", but maybe "obsess over"? Maybe it is a strange thing to obsess about but then again, you have to remember that the kids are in their car seats every day of their lives, which means Mom is buckling, unbuckling, untwisting straps, tightening, loosening, scraping squashed food off of, etc said car seats multiple times a day.

So when it comes time for a new one, a lot of thought goes into the buying process. With Ben, his height and price were always the main factors. He outgrew his infant carrier seat when he was 4 months old, and I switched him to a budget convertible car seat that I hated - I could never get the straps adjusted properly, they were forever tangling, etc. He outgrew that also in about a year anyway, and I shopped extensively for a car seat I could afford that would allow him to remain harnessed for as long as possible. I finally got him a Cosco Apex 65, which advertised that it could be used with the 5 point harness to a height of 53 inches. (Well, not the point of this story but he's nowhere near 53 inches and he is still about to outgrow this seat because the seated height limit is 17.5 inches, which he's just about at). Besides that, his seat is okay - not wonderful, but not bad either. The straps twist, it's basically impossible to take the cover off to wash, and it's kind of ugly.

Okay back to the point. What was the point? Oh yeah - Rebecca! Since she is not absurdly tall like Ben, and since I got a larger than normal infant car seat just in case she turned out to be -- she is still on car seat #1. I congratulate myself on my foresight in buying a slightly larger than normal infant car seat. However, it is extraordinarily ugly (black and gray), and since it is a little larger and is rear-facing and is located behind the driver's seat it is a little cramped if a person taller than, say, me, is driving because the back of the seat juts out and prevents the driver's seat from being put back very far. But I put up with this because a) I have to and b) the car seat was only $30 (instead of $130) because it was mismarked at Target and the clueless cashier was, well, clueless. (No I really do not have any remorse over not pointing it out to her). So, you know the expression.... never look a gift horse in the mouth... well, never look a $30 car seat in the mouth.

But now as she approaches her first birthday I have been shopping for a forward facing seat for her, since she will be able to sit forward facing when she turns 1 (being already over the 20 pound weight requirement for forward facing). I just ordered her a Britax Marathon, in a lovely pink and yellow floral pattern, and yes it was rather pricey but I feel that having put up with several inferior car seats in the past and having paid only $30 for her first car seat, I am justified in spending the extra money for a top of the line seat. It was on sale for $50 off (the actual price of which I am carefully ommitting from this post in case Joel reads it and complains) and free shipping, besides. Yay! I am so excited to finally have a decent car seat for one of my kids!

Glass Half Full, Refrigerator Mostly Empty

I awoke to a broken refrigerator this morning. Neither the refrigerator nor the freezer side were cooling/freezing. Everything in the fridge was almost room temperature, and everything in the freezer was dethawed.

After I dropped the kids off I filled a cooler with ice and tried to salvage what I could. I filled two trash bags and put them out by the curb with the rest of our trash since today is trash day and they hadn't come yet. Then while I waited for the repair man I took advantage of my empty fridge and cleaned it thoroughly. It was totally disgusting. I took out all the shelves and bins and everything and washed them in the sink with soap and water.

The repair man spent 10 minutes replacing a burned out relay and overload -- whatever that means -- and charged me $180. Nice racket. But since I am a glass-half-full kind of girl, I didn't particularly mind. I mean, I minded, obviously, but I choose instead to focus on the fact that my fridge is now cleaner than it's been since the day we moved in, and I am rid of all the year old half-used containers of pickles and other superfluous items that we tend to accumulate. I shall not dwell on the ruined food, lost productivity, or lightened wallet that accompanied my clean fridge...

So - glass half full.

Sleep, Interrupted

11 PM - went to bed

11:30 PM - Rebecca wakes up crying, but it's OK because I haven't managed to fall asleep yet. I rock her for five minutes, she falls asleep.

12:15 AM - Ben wakes up crying (wants a drink of water and to go to the bathroom). I was dozing lightly at that point - still awake enough so that as soon as the first sound came over the baby monitor I was out of bed and heading for Ben's room.

1:30 AM - the phone rings. Joel answers it and reports that it's a recording of a Fleetwood Mac song (?!)

3:00 AM - Rebecca sits up in her crib and starts rocking back and forth so that her back is thudding against the side of the crib. I go lay her down - she falls right asleep and doesn't seem as though she was even really awake.

6:00 AM - ditto 3:00 AM. I ignore her.

6:30 AM - Ignoring thud-thud-thud-thud becomes impossible; I take a bottle to her. She falls back asleep.

7:30 AM - Ben climbs into bed with me and asks to turn on his Justice League DVD.

YAWN!

TV Update

The new 52 inch TV is now sitting on the floor next to the fireplace, along with the tilt mount and really long HDMI cables (we picked up the TV and all the accessories today since when Joel bought everything he did not have my car with him so couldn't fit the TV). The mounting of the TV over the fireplace is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon. From what I understand it is a 3 hour process. I can't wait for it to be finished so that I can finally enjoy my new furniture to its full potential ;)

Rebecca's First Word... Sort of

"Uh Oh" counts as a word, right?

Gross and Grosser

(I suppose that should be "more gross"). When we lived in Blackstone, Ulysses (mild mannered kitty by day, stalker of small animals by night) used to leave dead rabbits by the back door. Now he leaves dead snakes on the front porch. I am not seeing this as much of an improvement.

G is for Gustav

This is a picture Adina emailed me from our Virginia Beach trip a couple weeks ago.

The current hurricane activity - Gustav, Hanna, Ike, Josephine - has Ben fascinated. He saw Anderson Cooper on CNN covering Gustav from New Orleans, and after watching it, transfixed, for a few minutes he turned on a fan, stood in front of it, and played "hurricane" (pretending to be blown away by the wind). Every morning on the way to preschool this week he has asked me to put on CNN radio because he wants to hear about the hurricanes. It is too soon to tell if he has truly inherited his father's fascination with weather phenomena, but the early indicators seem to point in this direction.

If he also inherits his father's fascination (obsession?) with presidential politics, I may have to take an extended vacation every four years. (Says she who's had MSNBC on 16 hours a day for the last two weeks...)

Biting the Bullet

Yesterday afternoon marked our third unsuccessful attempt to buy a new TV for the living room. Finding a TV wasn't necessarily the problem, the problem has been resigning ourselves to the cost of having it mounted over the fireplace. We came home discouraged, but after a pep talk over dinner from Javier and Crisi (thanks guys), Joel went back out by himself and bought a 52 inch Samsung LCD. Circuit City had it on sale, then in addition they had an "open box" one which was several hundred dollars off the sale price, and then somehow Joel talked them down another 10%. And Circuit City's installation crew is coming Thursday night to look at the room and give us an exact installation estimate. My dream is inching closer to becoming reality...

Photo Essay #8: A Small Distraction

Three Day Weekend: Monday Morning

Can I go back to work yet?