Y-y-yawn!

Geh.

Eh.

Ngh.

Hi.

I feel like lead. I'm a little behind on the sleep and a little caught up on the taiko. Today is a lounging around in pajama pants and go shopping at L.L. Bean for clothes I will never own kind of day. If I were to complete my wish list today, I would need about 600 dollars, I think. There are some cute corduroy pants, and the rest are shirts. I like the colors this year. Dark purple, dark blue, dark green.... If you haven't spent quality time with your L.L. Bean catalog yet, you should.

Josh is listening to the book on DVD of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on his commute to work. So, I'm reading the book at home, too. Hey, it's almost like doing something together. Josh is on his new schedule now. He's here until almost 9 in the morning, and doesn't come home until after 7. He sleeps later, and doesn't do any of the things he used to do in the mornings, like let the dog out. And we have already eaten dinner when he gets home. One doesn't often consider the impact one's schedule has on one's happiness. And he finds them frustrating. He says they sit around a lot. Sorry, by "them" I mean the employees in the new department.

Josh doesn't make Abbie do the things he's asked her to. If you tell the kids to clean up, Grant will, and Abbie will place herself just out of sight and play. When I'm here, I go and drag her back to whatever she was meant to do, and stand there until she does it. Josh, no. I'm not boiling over about it, though. I mentioned it, and hopefully we can be consistent and convince Abbie that the rules apply to her, too.

I want to watch Prince Caspian. I own it, but have never seen it. In fact, lying around in bed watching movies for me and eating desserts sounds like a wonderful, albeit unrealistic, way to spend today.

Oops. I haven't returned The Da Vince Code to the library. Maybe that can be the tomorrow plan.

Gonna make chicken thighs and green beans and new potatoes tonight for dinner. Sounds ambitious, considering my current state of mind, no?

Grant's issues lately involve pretending to cry when he doesn't get his way, which I have told him that 5-year-old boys don't do. Other than that, he is a pretty darn nice kid. That's not to say is perfect, he is a little boy, you know! So there are infrequent instances of pushing or arguing with Abbie, but he's mostly a great guy.

They're not doing too bad. I just wish it would cool off again so I would feel better about turning them loose in the back yard. I was talking to my mom about next summer, and between the two of us we have made great plans for assorted sports and swimming lessons.

I didn't see any meteors last night. I was stuck in traffic on K on the way home and was at a dead stop for 10 minutes. No meteors. None when I got home and stared off my deck, either. And during the 3 times I found myself awake during the night, there were also no meteors. It reminds me, though of when we were kids on Mimosa Court in Rolla. My mom would wake us up and we would sit on the front porch in blankets staring at the sky....and not seeing any meteors. I think in all the years we did that, Brother and I maybe saw 10, if you added both of ours together. I don't know if Mom even saw one. But any time they said meteors were coming, out we would go, to the chilly front porch.

The taiko gang are still in Japan. The sightseeing part of the trip has ended, for the most part, and now they are practicing and performing with the taiko dojo in Suwa. So, fewer pictures are being sent our way, but it is still very exciting. I hope they are doing great and having fun. Meanwhile, we are here getting ready for the next big thing, the Japanese Festival. It's about time I invited everyone I know to that. My family won't be coming this year, with the potential exception of Josh, so I am hoping to get some sort of representation.

Well, I must go. Abbie is being Little Bo Peep. "Sheep! Wheyayou? Mommy, please find me sheep." Funny! Happy Wednesday to you.