School!

School!

Audrey and Charlotte just finished their first full week of school!

Audrey loves Kindergarten at Herbert Hoover Elementary School. She's starting the year with a substitute, Mrs. LeCount, and assistant teacher Mrs. Wood. The regular teacher, Mrs. Pietropaulo, is on bed rest awaiting the birth of her first child. She should be back around Thanksgiving.

Of course that doesn't matter at all to Audrey. What matters to her is playing with new friends. Her favorite is a boy named Aiden because he also is obsessed with Star Wars. Every day I ask Audrey what her favorite part of Kindergarten was that day. Her response has been consistent every day: "Recess!"

Charlotte is in a "three's" class Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday mornings from 9-12 at the Franklin Early Childhood Education Center, part of the Melrose Public Schools. She loves her teacher Mrs. Cataldo and her assistant Sean. Charlotte's favorite part of school so far is art.

It was a short Labor Day week, but Carol enjoyed her first two mornings off. She's looking forward to some time that she can do with what she wants.

We had a very social Labor Day weekend. On Saturday we held a garage sale. We ran out of energy in Seattle so we just had the movers pack everything and we sorted out garage sale stuff as we unpacked. We had plenty of traffic. We didn't make a lot of money, but we got rid of a lot of stuff which was the goal. As we always do, the girls picked out toys to sell and after the garage sale we took them to Toys R Us to pick out new toys with their money. Audrey of course chose Star Wars Lego. Charlotte chose a Lego puppy and dog house, plus a purple "My Little Pony". Carol and I have put the wings back on Audrey's spaceship at least 300 times, I think.

On Sunday we saw some friends of mine from when I lived in Boston in the 90s: Connie and her husband Mark, and Marielle and David and their two sons Alex (10?) and Nicholas (7?). We all met at the Stone Zoo about a mile from our house (the smaller of two Boston zoos) to see a live bird performance called "Lord of the Wings". It was a great 30-minute program that featured about 8 large birds: an eagle, a hawk, a macaw, a parrot, a vulture, a very large owl and a few I've forgotten. The birds flew literally inches above the audience's heads. It was impressive.

After that we all came back to our house and had a casual spaghetti dinner. The kids played very well together while the adults ate, drank and talked. It was a very enjoyable afternoon and evening.

Then on Monday we went to the home of Isabelle and Christophe. Carol met them through mutual friends in Seattle because they were also transferring to Boston this summer. Carol had hooked up with Isabelle and their two kids Antoine (6) and Fannie (same age as Charlotte) a few weeks ago to go to the beach. They invited us over for brunch, which was delicious. Again, the kids played very well together while the adults swapped observations on the quirks of Boston drivers and culture.

My school started again a few weeks ago. That decision back in May to take summer semester off was a very good one! I only have one class this semester and it is the last in my program: in December I'll earn my Masters Degree in Engineering, Bioinformatics specialty, from the University of Illinois. The class this semester is Engineering Law. It only takes a couple of hours a week (so far) so much easier than last school year.

My work is hectic and a little stressful but also very rewarding. I'm very busy when I'm at work but I work normal hours and don't bring the stress home with me. I vent it all on Boston drivers during my bike commute home! In October I'll deliver the biggest and most important of the projects I manage. It'll be on time and contain more features than required even though it was fast track, started with no team and unclear requirements, and featured a 3,000-mile move of the team in mid-project. I'm feeling rather proud of myself in case you can't tell.

On Monday my parents will arrive and stay the week before embarking on a cruise to Canada. We're really looking forward to their visit and to the girls getting to see them. Then in October Carol's parents will visit during the autumn leaf season. So the girls will get to see all of their grandparents. Wonderful! Carol and I might even sneak in a couple of date nights. We've also purchased our tickets to visit all of the grandparents in their Tucson and Palm Desert winter homes in February. It will be wonderful to escape in the middle of the Boston winter.

In between the grandparents' visits I think I'll try to accomplish the light kitchen remodel we're planning. We're going to change the door to the deck from a double door (only one side opens) to a single door to gain more space for cabinets; then we're going to replace the cabinets while swapping the locations of the range and refrigerator to make the kitchen work better. I'll do most of the work myself but we have names of two highly recommended carpenters if I need help.

I think that's about it for now. Time to go relax with my wife.