Just a brief Update

It's been an odd few days. Cliche/sexist as it may be, it's true that a man seems defined largely by his job. I am, at times, at a loss as to how to describe myself since the layoff.

Case in point: I ran into my *pre-school* teacher for the first time in 30 years Saturday. She recognized my unusual name and asked me what I 'do' for a living. Uh, yeah, uh, about that . . . I'm kinda between gigs right now. Where the heck was she a week ago?

[true admission: sometimes I think I have largely useless flashes of premonition. The night before, while submitting a resume, a security question asked for the name of my first teacher. Unable to recall the name of my kindergarten teacher [Sr. Pat] I thought back to pre-school and listed 'Penny'. Twelve hours later I saw her for the first time since 1978. That happens to me more often than you'd think.]

[2nd sidenote, this time from the small world department: she works as a teacher at a nearby school and knows our friend Chris' kids]

On the subject of jobs, there's been some progress but I'll not jinx myself by writing about the news. I will say this much - in addition to tomorrow's opportunity I've also lined up an interview for Thursday.

The Journal-Sentinel, btw, has written to say they've accepted one of my columns and will publish it prior to December 19th.

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On a very sweet note, some of my old employees/co-workers are getting together for drinks Wednesday and sent me an invite. :) Lisa works that night, so I'm not sure I can pull it off, but it's a grand gesture and much appreciated.

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As for the kids: report cards for both girls, including a surprisingly positive one for YaYa. We'd assumed, based on some homework, that she was struggling. The opposite appears to be true. On Saturday she also passed her Red Cross Level One swim test with 'excellent' marks, falling short only in the backstroke.

Lu's report card was more pedestrian, but in the conference the teacher said she'd lowballed the report card and that LuLu was doing great.

The next day Lu was in the kitchen and hit the back of her head against the table as she tumbled from a chair. It bled a decent amount, as scalp cuts are prone to do, and to be safe I took her to the ER for stiches, but none were required. Good thing it happened when I had company over, or I'd have been stuck taking all four kids along with me (Lisa was atwork) instead of leaving the others behind with the makeshift babysitter.

The part that ticked her off the most? The nurses messed up her ponytails while examining the cut. She glared at them until they got the hint and offered to redo both 'tails.

Smiley had a '50's party to celebrate the 50th school day of the year and wore a white T-shirt and cuffed jeans. He had a blast.

The Lump is just darn adorable, and fully mobile, getting up the stairs to the bedrooms with ease. I love skinny bald babies :)