Odds and Ends

Just a few updates, for those who wonder what has caused the past week's silence:

* Football season is over. In a cavalcade of football excess, we watched a grand total of five football games this weekend. Both boys played in our parochial league flag football tournament, and Eric's team was sadly defeated in the semi-final round of his tackle league championship playoffs. Despite sadness (wink) over the end of the season, one mom is doing the happy dance in her laundry room...

* Nana and Gramps swung through town on a visit for three wonderful days. They have flown out for next week's baptism of my newest nephew and are splitting their time between Stockton and Fresno. They are too popular - everyone wants them to visit and they try, with great diplomacy, to make themselves available on a fair basis. We tried locking them in the guest room to keep them in town, but they picked the lock and escaped to Stockton. Oh well, I guess we must share...

* The boy with the stick is a fencing fool. He had his first formal lesson, which turned out to be a private one, and it was just amazing. I think he's found his sport. Since the lesson, he has learned to jump rope (strangely, I'd never taught him that skill...does your child know how???). He is conditioning, stretching, jumping rope, practicing his footwork, working on his home made foil (concocted from an old curtain rod) and counting the days until his next lesson.

* No sight of the frogs, perhaps denoting a climatological shift towards winter, and Max the hamster is eating up a storm (come to think of it, so are the rest of us!).

* Life, sweet as it is, races on!