Thank you, Kitty Mama

I went to bed at a reasonable time last night, read for a while, and then went to sleep. At 3:30 a.m., Kitty Mama, who was curled up next to my head, decided to hack up a hairball.

Needless to say, I was fully awake for quite a while after that. Sigh.

There's quite a brou-ha-ha going on at UniTown these days. The Faculty Senate was asking for input on issues it should address this coming year, and someone brought up the increasing number of administrative positions--vice this, assistant that, associate whatever--that are being created. The college prez weighed in, saying he was watching this discussion with great interest, and someone popped off a rather snarky e-mail back to him. Seems office size, parking space, and salaries are points of contention. Interesting to watch, this is.

Less interesting and more anxiety-producing is what is going on in my own department. One faculty member, the most likely to be chair should we decide to morph into a real academic department, is taking on what I think to be more of a decision-making and behind-the-scenes discussing with the deanery and other players, including our faculty and current director, than I am comfortable with. I called him on it when we were in Wisconsin, and last night, after receiving an e-mail from him that seemed to be more of the same, shot him another e-mail asking who gave him authority to have these conversations without the rest of the faculty present. Some of us don't even know he has had these conversations at all. His big issue with the present leader is, supposedly, "transparency"--so I asked him if this activity, which to me smacks of machinations behind our backs, is an example of what his idea of transparency.

As of yet, no response. My fear is that his irritation with our director over loading and other issues is building because he can't stop picking that scab, and he is going to cause a rift in the relationship between the rest of the faculty and our director. We have been an extraordinarily collegial faculty group, and I do not want to see that relationship ruined. Argh.

Too much crap going on everywhere (don't get me started on national stuff). One piece of good news--Eldest Daughter's bank was very gracious yesterday when she had a problem, and she has been approved for 20 more weeks of unemployment. We are still praying, though, for a job, and quickly.

Still nada from Lenovo

So I called them again. Went through the whole story again. The guy says "Let me put you on hold for two minutes."

I proceeded to tell him exactly what was going to happen--first, on hold for two minutes. Then he'll come back and tell me that they processed the refund June 29. Then I will tell him my bank has not received it. He'll ask me if I have checked with my bank. Then he will put me on hold for three to five minutes. Then he will come back and say he will initiate a request to track the money, and I should wait two MORE business days.

He says "I haven't said that, I just want you to hold for two minutes." I said sure, but you WILL say that.

Guess what? I was right.

But this time, I demanded a valid e-mail address, a call from a supervisor within two business days, not from a line operator, and an urgent troubleshooting request, not a typical "Where did we put that money that no longer belongs to us?" casual query. Got the e-mail address and the agree to escalate the problem.

I've asked the bank for an official letter stating the money never arrived into my account. Let's see what happens now.

Still waiting for my Lenovo refund

They are supposed to call me today with information on where it is. I am not holding my breath. Every time I call them, the first question is "Have you checked your bank account?"

No, dipwad, I just thought I would assume it's not there. Argh.

In another annoying news, I stupidly read Elizabeth Gilbert's book "Eat, Pray, Love". I plead temporary insanity. What a whining bunch of nonsense, and she manages to insult Republicans repeatedly (her sister said the worst thing would be if her unborn child turned out to be a Republican) and equated Christians with the Taliban. I suppose she doesn't think Republicans or Christians read, or at least doesn't want us to read her writing.

She plays to the Democrat liberal audience, and that is all she is interested in. They have to establish their bona fides as liberals--by bashing Bush (even still, when he's out of office), by equating conservatives/Republicans with the Taliban, and outright calling us "creepy fundamentalists" because we believe in God and His desires for us.

I know a woman who is contemplating marrying an Anglican priest, but who doesn't believe in Christianity. He is from the liberal branch of Anglicanism that denies the basic tenets of Christian teaching. Why call yourself a Christian if you don't believe the theology? I don't understand it. What do they teach in church, then? Anything but the Bible? Well, actually, that does happen. I went to my friend's Presbyterian church a couple of times many years ago. The first time, the "sermon" was a travelogue on Chicago. Second time, a book review (not a religious book). The third time, God--and anything remotely connected to Him was mentioned only 8 times in the whole service. That's incomprehensible to me.

Anyway, bashing Bush and Republicans and Christians (specifically, Catholics and fundamentalist/evangelical Protestants) is like gang symbols. That's how they identify each other, and they assume everyone thinks like them so they never realize how insulting they are. But of course they are "tolerant" and how dare we suggest they aren't.

Wiped out and pizza in the dark

What a week--Thursday and Friday in Wisconsin for a conference, then Saturday and Sunday at Dad's church for their 40th anniversary and Dad's 10th anniversary as pastor. I made two batches of cookies on Wednesday for the celebration, then was up at 4:30 a.m. Thursday to get to the airport. Up at 4:30 a.m. again on Friday for the conference sessions (5:30 Wisconsin time, but 4:30 our time) then we got to UniTown around 12:15 a.m. on Saturday. Ugh.

The anniversary went well; my aunt and uncle and three cousins came in from states south of here; Little Brother flew in from North Carolina, and friends T and J and their kids drove from Indiana. Eldest Daughter arrived Friday which made me very happy and she picked me up from the airport, bless her heart.

Big Brother and I did okay on The Holy City despite only 20 minutes of practice an hour before we had to perform it. We had a guest soloist sing the lyrics and at some point in this piece each of us covered up somebody else's mistakes, ha ha. The piano part has a lot of octaves and it's been months/years since I've played anything like that, so my hands were pretty sore by the time we were done. I looked at BB and said "Gee, we should do this again!" He didn't seem enthralled by that idea...

After the service we all went to a Chinese restaurant and much food was consumed. The relatives left for home, Mom and Dad took LB to the airport, and ED and I went back to the condo to flop tiredly on the sofa. She left Monday morning after a mandatory shopping trip to the best grocery store on the planet, and I went back to bed for the afternoon. I could still use a couple more hours of sleep, but tomorrow is a graduate seminar and I have two students presenting. Maybe Friday I can relax. We shall see.

Today, after my usual Tuesday meeting, I went to Mom and Dad's to install a new ink cartridge in her printer. I hadn't had any lunch, and it was 5 p.m. and I was hungry, so I invited them to come with me for pizza. We scooted over to the condo to pick up Youngest Daughter and went to Salvatore's for a white pizza. It had just started to rain when we got there. YD had brought a small umbrella, and I offered to get my big huge one out of the truck for Dad and Mom, but he said he didn't think we needed it.

WELL. Just as we were diving into our white pizza, there was a huge crack of thunder and the power went out. Suddenly all the bantering and chatter in the kitchen area completely stopped. The lights came on a minute or so later, and the pizza guys, looking a little shaken, came out front to check the TVs and to take a look out at the torrential downpour. We teased them about the silence, and one said "It is really dark back there!" A couple minutes later there was another big crack of thunder, followed by the sound of the frightened delivery guy yelping like a little girl, but the power stayed on.

A few minutes later he came out with a delivery bag, saw the rain, and went back into the kitchen to get a hoodie and a plastic bag. Poor guy, he had to go out in that torrent. We had a good chuckle at his expense.

By the time we were done eating the power had gone off and on again, but the rain had let up quite a bit. It's coming down pretty steadily now, though.

These look like C4 to the airport X-ray machines...

as my colleagues and I found out yesterday, en route back to UniTown from the very nice and welcoming community of Menomonie, Wisconsin.

Now THIS is a Presidential First Pitch

Monday, Monday

I have a ton of work to do this week, getting ready to go to the exciting metropolis of Menomonie, WI for a conference on Thursday and Friday, then my dad's church's 40th anniversary on Saturday and finally his 10th anniversary as pastor on Sunday.

Big Brother and I are playing a special for Sunday (well, he is playing solo trumpet and I am accompanying him on the piano) and our only chance to practice will be Saturday night. I won't have any chance to practice the accompaniment until then either, so it will be an exercise in sight reading for both of us. I've played this piece before, but a long time ago. And therein lies a tale...

My dad plays trumpet too, and this piece, The Holy City by Stephen Adams, is one of his favorites. He practiced and practiced and practiced it, and finally the big day came when he was to play it for Sunday service. I was accompanying him, and things were going pretty well until I noticed out of the corner of my eye that he was beginning to sway back and forth to the music, swinging his trumpet as he moved. "That can't be good," I thought--and then it happened. He swung the horn a bit too much and it collided with the music stand. Pages of music scattered all around us and we came to an abrupt halt. Dad made a lame joke, re-assembled the music, and we finally finished the song. Whew.

So of course, when Dad told me BigBro was going to play this song, I *had* to remind him about this little fiasco. Hee hee.

Big Bro e-mailed me a few days later, and we did the "He said/No he didn't" shuffle about who Dad said had (or was going to get) the music. I found it online and we are all set for Sunday but I sure hope there's no repeat of the last time!

Anyway, I am making good progress on non-work-related stuff such as Eldest Daughter's pillowcase and my bagpiping, but I need to get down to business with two journal papers and two projects I am doing for the Dean and my Director. Oh, and that conference presentation. And a journal article review due the 24th. And a batch of chocolate chip cookies for this weekend, when the family from Neighboring State will be at my parents' after the anniversary celebration. Ack!

Here's the latest view of the pillowcase, although I've done more since I took this.

Loooonnnnnng day

Had to take the truck in to get the oil changed and the headlamp fixed (I was a One-eyed Jack for a couple of days). That meant two hours plus, waiting at the dealer's. Their Starbucks kiosk was closed. I hadn't had any breakfast or lunch, so I got a Snickers and a bag of chips from the vending machine. Ugh.

But, now I'm home and happily ensconced in my chair with a big steaming mug of tea. Ahhhhhh. There are very few situations that are not made better by a nice big steaming mug of tea.

A fantastic e-mail

posted on one of my friends' blogs:

"If George W. Bush had made a joke at the expense of the Special Olympics, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had given Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom , a set of inexpensive and incorrectly formatted DVDs, when Gordon Brown had given him a thoughtful and historically significant gift, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had given the Queen of England an iPod containing videos of his speeches, would you have thought this embarrassingly narcissistic and tacky?

If George W. Bush had bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had visited Austria and made reference to a non-existent 'Austrian language,' would you have brushed it off as a minor slip?

If George W. Bush had filled his cabinet and circle of advisers with people who cannot seem to remember to pay their own income taxes, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had been so Spanish illiterate as to refer to "Cinco de Cuatro" in front of the Mexican ambassador when it was the fourth of May (Cuatro de Mayo), and continued to flub it when he tried again, would you have winced in embarrassment?

If George W. Bush had mis-spelled the word advice would you have hammered him for it for years like when Dan Quayle was when he spelled potatoe as "proof" of what a dunce he is?

If George W. Bush had burned 9,000 gallons of tax-payer funded jet fuel to go plant a single tree on "Earth Day", would you have concluded he's a hypocrite regarding environmental issues?

If George W. Bush's administration had okayed tax-payer funded Air Force One flying low over millions of people followed by a jet fighter in downtown Manhattan causing widespread panic, would you have wondered whether they actually "get" what happened on 9-11?

If George W. Bush had been the first President to need a teleprompter installed to be able to get through a press conference, would you have laughed and said this is more proof of how he inept he is on his own and is actually being controlled by smarter men behind the scenes?

If George W. Bush had failed to send relief aid to flood victims throughout the Midwest with more people killed or made homeless than in New Orleans , would you want it made into a major ongoing political issue with claims of racism and incompetence?

If George W. Bush had ordered the firing of the CEO of a major corporation, even though he had no constitutional authority to do so, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had proposed to double the national debt in one year, which had taken more than two centuries to accumulate, would you have approved?

If George W.. Bush had then proposed to double the debt yet again within the following 10 years, thereby putting your children and grandchildren in such massive debt that it threatens the national treasury, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had reduced your retirement plan's holdings of GM stock by 90% and given the unions a majority stake in GM, with no constitutional authority to do so, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had spent hundreds of thousands of tax-payer dollars to take Laura Bush on a 'date night' to a play in NYC, would you have approved?

So, tell me again, what is it about Obama that makes him so brilliant and impressive? Can't think of anything?

Don't worry. He's done all this in a mere 5 months -- So, you'll have three years and seven months to come up with an answer.

Naive, incompetent, and uninformed American voters did this to themselves.

Real Americans are starting to wake up. Let's hope it's not too late."

Breathing again but stressed anyway

So the tenure thing was a mistake. They had the wrong date on their records, although my hiring letter had the correct one. That means I can relax a bit, since I don't have to rush with CAREER now, and I don't have to worry about getting the tenure packet ready. Whew. All this excitement is exhausting!

Just got an e-mail from my colleague S, who wants to meet to talk about our meeting with the provost and the assignment he gave us--we have to write a white paper about our vision for our department. Meetings, meetings, meetings. This summer is a tale of meetings and doctor appointments (people and pets alike!).

I had the bright idea that after dropping Youngest Daughter off at school in August Spouse and I could go on to visit a couple Civil War battlefields. We could do that in one day, and return to HomeCity late at night, so at most we'd be gone 48 hours. He said no, because he is worried the robbers will return. I am so sick of being held hostage to the house and those (#*$&#*%&^@ thieves. The conversation went downhill from there, as every suggestion I had about fixing things up--from putting in a more secure door to getting an alarm system--was met with a litany of excuses why we can't do that, or why it's hard, or what other things need to be done first. I'm a more impulsive person, I guess, because I figure what you don't start never gets done. So Friday, after I go to the eye doc and get new contacts, I'm buying a wallpaper steamer at Lowe's, pricing steel doors, and tackling some of the things on the "must-do" list because otherwise--well, nothing will get done. It was up to me to do such basic things as shut the d*** dresser drawers that the (*&#% thieves left hanging open, for Pete's sake, and I want this house sold and out of my hair by summer 2011, so time is a-wasting and apparently I'm the only one who is willing to tackle the job.

My biggest worry is that Waxman-Markey will get signed into law and we will be, essentially, screwed. The cost of refitting this old house to meet some arbitrary and probably unreachable energy standard will doom us. At that point, we'd be better off to just abandon the place and move anyway. I think that will happen to a lot of places; between the massive tax hikes to pay for Obamacare and the porkulus bill(s), middle class people won't have the funds for expensive retrofits but will also be unwilling to be stuck in dangerous neighborhoods like ours has become. So the outcome of this pie-in-the-sky idealism over energy (I am being charitable; I really think the aim of the Dems is to shut down our economy totally, and turn us into a socialist state) will be abandoned buildings, bankrupt homeowners, a ruined real estate market, and high home prices. Thanks a pantload, Congress.

The waiting game

I'm still waiting to hear about the tenure thing--whether or not it's a clerical error, or if the dean wants me to go up now. In the meantime, I've started the CAREER grant just in case I have to submit it this year.

Today is full of meetings with students and with the uni's data analyst. Tomorrow is Shot Day for Youngest Daughter, and Friday I go to the eye doc to get my eyes checked. I seriously need new contacts! It's getting so that I am only comfortable reading without them, which means it's time for a prescription change. Ugh. I wonder how bad they can get; I've had glasses since I was 8, and they are always getting stronger.

Kitty Mama is doing well after having three teeth removed last Tuesday. I am watching to see when she starts eating hard food again, because the soft stuff just STINKS to high heaven. Kitty Son is on my BadKitty list for waking me up before 6 a.m. almost every morning for the past week. Yesterday it was 4:30!!

We hold these truths...

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

---

The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the positions indicated:

Column 1
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
George Walton

Column 2
North Carolina:
William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton

Column 3
Massachusetts:
John Hancock
Maryland:
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton

Column 4
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Franklin
John Morton
George Clymer
James Smith
George Taylor
James Wilson
George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney
George Read
Thomas McKean

Column 5
New York:
William Floyd
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon
Francis Hopkinson
John Hart
Abraham Clark

Column 6
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett
William Whipple
Massachusetts:
Samuel Adams
John Adams
Robert Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins
William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
William Williams
Oliver Wolcott
New Hampshire:
Matthew Thornton

"Democrats have no honor"

My youngest made that observation in 2000 during the contested presidential race. It goes double today, as this disgusting post appeared on the Huffington Post (it has since been removed--see Greg Pollowitz at NRO:Surely there are more important (and more dangerous) people in the world to denigrate than Sarah Palin and her family. Kim Jong Il is firing missiles in our direction, Russia is flexing her muscles, the mullahs are laughing at our naive and wimpy President, and the left goes after a kid with Down Syndrome. Good move, there.

Well, THIS will kill the housing market

Thanks a pantload, Congress:

From National Review:

Your Green House [Stephen Spruiell]

After I posted this item yesterday, a reader sent me the following question:

No personal reply desired, but I've heard on other websites that the Waxman-Markey bill contains a little-publicized provision that would require private homeowners to retrofit their homes to meet federally-mandated energy-efficiency standards when they put their homes up for sale. If this is true, it deserves much wider publicity. I believe many people who are not conservatives would deeply resent this intrusion of the federal government into their personal affairs.

It is true. Kevin Williamson and I came across this provision when compiling our 50 things wrong with Waxman-Markey, up on the home page now. "Your Green House" is no. 24:

The bill requires the EPA to establish environmental standards for residences, meaning a federally dictated one-size-fits-all policy for greening every home in America. When you’re retrofitting your home according to EPA guidelines, it will come as little comfort to know that the government is reimbursing you for your troubles, especially if you’re doing the work around April 15.

There are 49 more where that came from, so read on and spread the word.

Oh phooey

I missed garbage collection. Drat. Totally forgot that today was garbage day.

Youngest Daughter comes home today, although she just called and said her flight has been delayed. I'll have to wait to hear from her before making the three hour drive to the airport. Eldest Daughter goes to visit Son today, and the first leg of her flight has been delayed because of bad weather. That will make her miss her connection, so we are trying to change her to a different flight. Blast.

Other than the travel stuff (hmm all the females in our family are traveling today, either by plane or by car--interesting) there's not a lot new. Oh! YD's diploma is in the mail, so she is officially graduated!