Three Things for Friday

1. Dave did an experiment yesterday and is doing one today and Monday, too. He got home well after I went to bed, and when I asked him this morning how it went, he chuckled ruefully and said, "Well, I'm remembering why I decided to switch careers!" The surgery on the rat went well, but his first two pipettes had bubbles in them, and then the cells that he was finally able to isolate didn't stick around long enough to give him data. 14 hours in the lab for nothing. Except character building, I suppose. In any event, he really wants to get a couple of additional data points for this paper he's finishing up with his PI, so here he is, a week away from his new job, stuck in the throes of his old job. It's been important to him to do well by his PI and to finish his work with as much honor as possible, and I'm proud, in a gloomy sort of way, of his willingness to continue going back in, months after the paychecks have actually ended. Anyway, this will make his new job all the sweeter, when it starts in a week and a half.

2. The kids and I have been doing a Meals on Wheels route for a couple of months now. We drive the route about two Fridays a month and deliver to six or seven homes. Polly finds this tremendously fun (Get in the car! Get out of the car! Knock on doors! Ask questions!). Cici finds this tremendously distressing (Try to beat Polly to the door! Cry when she can't knock first! Get really excited about going in someone's house! Cry when we have to leave one minute later!). The first time around, I left the kids in the car and just ran up to doors and delivered the food. Polly howled in protest that she couldn't come along. So the next time, I just brought Polly with me. Cici howled in protest at being left behind. And that brings us to the current state of events--howling from someone at almost any point in time. Sigh. We're only driving one more time before we move, and maybe in Baltimore I'll vet my volunteering a little more thoroughly for the howling factor involved.

3. I just uploaded some pictures to the blog from my phone--hopefully they're up by now. Last night after dropping dinner off for Dave, I took the kids to Marilla Park to enjoy the absolutely gorgeous evening. There's been a strange quietness to our life, in the midst of preparations for a move. Somehow knowing that everything about our lives will be changing in just a few weeks has given me permission to not worry as much about bedtimes, routines, chores. An hour and a half in a park on a nice evening is far better than shepherding the kids home, plopping some food in front of them, and then getting frustrated with them until bedtime. When, I wonder, will I feel back in the rhythm of whatever it is that we've gotten out of?