Weekend update
Saturday was spent helping to teach ten people how to be good Scoutmasters at our council's training facility. The classes were fun, and there was a lot of good interaction with the students. A few were fairly new to Scouting, but several were veteran leaders who were transitioning into a new role.
At home, we had the maple tree in our back yard cut down. Our kids grew up climbing in the tree, and finding favorite perches to read, curl up with cats and while away the summer. It got hit by lightning two years ago, and has gradually been dying, so it was time for the tree to go. We have several sections of the trunk saved for each of the kids (and us) to make endtables. We also dropped our middle daughter off at a county MRDD facility for respite care. She's been there before, and has a grand time on this type of "adventure".
On Sunday, we all went to a combined service with another Episcopal church and parish picnic. My wife, mari4212 and I stayed through the service, then drove down to the University of Evansville to drop mari4212 at school. Her classes start on Wednesday, but this gives her a few days to get settled in, and it helps with our schedule as well. We made good time going down, and got her settled in her dorm in reasonably good order, save for a temporarily missing computer cable. (See her post for moving in tales and room rants.) We also met with the rabbi and his wife at dinner. mari4212 thoroughly enjoyed her class with him last spring, and positively squeed about taking an independent study course this semester. After meeting him, we can understand why she got along so well with him in class. We then returned to home, leaving from Evansville at 8:15 our time (EST). naturally, Cincinnati traffic was snarled up, with three lanes merging into a single lane through a construction zone where NOBODY WAS WORKING. We made it home at 1:30 in the morning. I think I fell asleep before my head hit the pillow.
I was rudely reminded that things were shifting back to our almost kidless state at 5:00 AM, when Blackie, mari4212 's cat woke me up to have his head cuddled, and water added to his (almost) full water bowl. He's been sleeping curled up against her, and sleeping in late all summer, but now that she's gone, he needs to be reassured that somebody loves hime early in the morning.
Wednesday we start a road trip to take our son to Hampshire College. One LONG day of driving, moving him into the dorm on Thursday, a family orientation late on Thursday and all day Friday, then my wife and I have three days to ourselves before I'm due back at work. There'll be a stop in Boston, and another in Fall River, where my wife grew up. It'll be the longest alone time we've had with each other since we became parents. Too bad there'll still be fourteen hours of driving home in it.
At home, we had the maple tree in our back yard cut down. Our kids grew up climbing in the tree, and finding favorite perches to read, curl up with cats and while away the summer. It got hit by lightning two years ago, and has gradually been dying, so it was time for the tree to go. We have several sections of the trunk saved for each of the kids (and us) to make endtables. We also dropped our middle daughter off at a county MRDD facility for respite care. She's been there before, and has a grand time on this type of "adventure".
On Sunday, we all went to a combined service with another Episcopal church and parish picnic. My wife, mari4212 and I stayed through the service, then drove down to the University of Evansville to drop mari4212 at school. Her classes start on Wednesday, but this gives her a few days to get settled in, and it helps with our schedule as well. We made good time going down, and got her settled in her dorm in reasonably good order, save for a temporarily missing computer cable. (See her post for moving in tales and room rants.) We also met with the rabbi and his wife at dinner. mari4212 thoroughly enjoyed her class with him last spring, and positively squeed about taking an independent study course this semester. After meeting him, we can understand why she got along so well with him in class. We then returned to home, leaving from Evansville at 8:15 our time (EST). naturally, Cincinnati traffic was snarled up, with three lanes merging into a single lane through a construction zone where NOBODY WAS WORKING. We made it home at 1:30 in the morning. I think I fell asleep before my head hit the pillow.
I was rudely reminded that things were shifting back to our almost kidless state at 5:00 AM, when Blackie, mari4212 's cat woke me up to have his head cuddled, and water added to his (almost) full water bowl. He's been sleeping curled up against her, and sleeping in late all summer, but now that she's gone, he needs to be reassured that somebody loves hime early in the morning.
Wednesday we start a road trip to take our son to Hampshire College. One LONG day of driving, moving him into the dorm on Thursday, a family orientation late on Thursday and all day Friday, then my wife and I have three days to ourselves before I'm due back at work. There'll be a stop in Boston, and another in Fall River, where my wife grew up. It'll be the longest alone time we've had with each other since we became parents. Too bad there'll still be fourteen hours of driving home in it.