After a week in residence, we bid farewell to the lake house, the lake, the fish, and the worms. It was a very relaxing week, and we really enjoyed seeing family, and eating way too much of my grandmother’s cooking. Anna had to bring a bag of tortillas along for the road.

We are now situated in Auntie K. and Uncle T.’s house, and actually have a proper broadband connection! All hail the Internet. Moreso, I no longer have to enter my blog posts on a 12-key phone keypad. All hail the proper Keyboard. Grandpa K. and S. have also arrived, so I’m sure there are some sort of family-oriented things going down in the next week. I just don’t know what they are.

We also had yet another celebration for my birthday. I haven’t made a big deal about my birthday, either as a event to be mourned or celebrated. Auntie K. seems more affected by it than I am, since she is a number of years younger than Jen and I, but close enough that the fact of our aging makes the fact of her aging all the more imminent. It is what it is.

This being the Vacation of Personal Growth for Anna, in which she has expanded her glittery pink Princess World to include things like swimming in the same water with fish and touching worms, she has continued to petting dogs. Anna is very afraid of dogs, but has now spent a full day in the same house with Augie, who is like a dog, only much smaller. Augie is a very affectionate, active little doglet with a penchant for licking faces. Anna still can’t be in the same room with an unfettered Augie, but she is warming up to the idea. Note that the photo of Augie to the right is actual size.

This vacation so far has been an exercise in lack of exercise. Actually, that’s not true because there was a lot of work to do to prepare for the family reunion, but that’s over. Anna has really settled in. This trip has been sorely needed for our little princess. She has been swimming in the lake, fishing, and even spent an entire afternoon playing with worms. She named one Squishy.

I’m tired. Jennifer was packing until 4am. At which point I got up and continued until we left the house at 6:30. Even though we had a direct flight, the lameness of DTW made what should have been an 8 hour day into a 10 hour day. We are all pretty fried at thir point, though the girls are acting like they are ready to begin their day.. 3 hours too early.

I’m finally getting to the point at my work where I know what I am and am not going to be able to finish. In some ways, this is a load off, because I don’t feel like I have to work some parts that I can’t finish before the deadline. Still, there’s a lot to do and only two days to do it. And I haven’t even thought about packing.

Tara was feeling pretty miserable today. She burned two of her fingers on the oven a few days ago, badly enough to get a couple blisters. She didn’t mind the blisters, but after they burst and we put band-aids on her, she was fairly upset. Today she had a fever and was fussy and lethargic, but since her fingers actually look pretty good, I don’t think its related. More importantly, neither did the pediatric nurse. I just hope she’s feeling better by the time we need to travel.

In July, I’ll head off by myself to Washington DC, where I have never visited. I’ll be in a class for five days, but I’ll have the evenings and a Saturday to do some sightseeing. Wednesday night I’ll definitely be attending Tara Brach’s insight meditation class. I thought of seeing a Nationals game, but RFK stadium is nothing special, so I probably won’t. It looks like there’s a lot places to eat and a nice Chinatown. I’ll probably spend at least part of Saturday at the Smithsonian. It’s been a while since I’ve been to a tourist destination, and without the kids I don’t know what I’ll do with myself.

But the end is in sight. I have been working every free moment to meet a deadline on Tuesday. Jen has been watching the girls while I have been working late nights, late mornings, late afternoons. At this point, I still have more work to do than I have time to do it in, but I believe I can present something reasonable.

Yesterday, Anna had her second dance recital. Photos will be posted soon.

This morning I just realized that on my upcoming trip to Washington DC, I’ll have a chance to attend a meditation session led by Tara Brach, the Buddhist teacher who inspired my daughter Tara’s name. I’m very excited for the chance to meet her and bring her a picture of my little girl.

Today is Father’s Day, an Jennifer just arrived home with Starbucks, so I’m going to go enjoy my day and hopefully I’ll have more chances to post in another week or so on vacation.

I appreciate that the president perceived a need to spend a lot of money to drop some bombs on al-Zarqawi, but can he please do something about the fact that Raffi, that Ned Flanders of the music world, continues to terrorize my house on a daily basis? I know, he sounds harmless, but I believe his incessant nasal drone is withering my brain, and who knows what sort of brainwashing is happening to my children. Even my usual coping method¹ for dealing with repetetive childrens’ songs is powerless against Raffi’s endless, campy blather. Seriously now, even God must get sick of hearing Kumbaya. I’m going to write a letter to the president and see if he can send some smart bombs Raffi’s way–he’s an Armenian living in Canada, exporting his influence to the United States, so he clearly deserves as much scrutiny as the average American. Hopefully the bombs will be smart enough not to obliterate my Canadian readership.

¹ Making up obscene alternate lyrics and humming them to myself.

This is yet another post about how I am too busy to post. My new job is taking up what little free time I used to have; hopefully I can get a little closer to a 40 hour work week after my big deadline later this month. After the deadline, we have two weeks in the midwest, and I just today got a jury duty summons starting immediately after we get back. Ick. Lately I am constantly tired, and my day at work is fairly rushed from the moment I sit down to my desk, usually reaching a frenetic pace right before I’m supposed to leave, then I finally tear myself away from the middle of something an hour late. I’m almost sure there is an end in sight.

Tomorrow we interview a nanny candidate. I hope it goes well, as she’s immediately available. We also discussed the nanny prospect with Anna, and she was surprisingly enthused about the idea. At least for the summer, it would mean she wouldn’t have to rush to get ready in the morning (dressing, eating, and brushing teeth and hair in less than two hours is considered rushing). I made the comparison to Eloise’s mostly companion, but in retrospect, I should probably avoid encouraging Anna to be any more Eloise-like than she already is.