I have been pouring over minute print of newspaper articles reduced to fit on a single page in order to fill in gaps in the chronology of one of the ensembles I�m working on. Despite my hefty magnifying glass, my eyes begin to swim very rapidly. I am working at a snail�s pace today.

AJ�s been fascinated by the magnifying glass, in part because he�s taking a shine to Nate the Great recently. We�ve been reading it aloud several times a day. Nate, a pancake-eating, hard-boiled detectie in a trench coat and tennis shoes, was probably my first exposure detective fiction, a genre that continued to capture my imagination for much of my youth. AJ has begun trying out Nate�s Sam-Spadesque delivery, demanding pancakes for every meal and painting three headed monsters.

AJ has been positively angelic this morning and quite obligingly slipped into a nap immediately after lunch. This comes on the heels of three days during which he behaved like a holy terror. We feel for our lives on the two days of driving that lie in the week before us.

The manic preparations for our departure have already begun. Inevitably, there are things we have forgotten about. We remembered the interim hotel reservations, but forgot to find someone to cut the lawn. We remembered to stop one paper, but not the other. Hopefully we�ll get our act together by the end of the week.

Complicating matters is the absolutely spectacular weather, which is making it nearly impossible to stay indoors and is making us wonder why we decided to exchange it for heat, humidity and hurricanes. Sometimes the best vacation, though, is the one that makes you happy to be home again. But I�m pining for the ocean.

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