This weekend has been full of cleaning and home repair. I have made not one but two trips to IKEA in the last three days. As a result, I now have a desk chair that doesn�t shed screws right and left (my old one was purchased used in 1989, so its retirement is long overdue), a new kitchen light fixture (which I have already installed), and a new lamp. AJ has also acquired a new and unbreakable piggy bank, as his two previous banks have both met with an untimely and somewhat violent demise. A plumber has been called to fix the sink that�s been dripping for months. We have purchased a dining room table at last (unfortunately not in time to receive it by Thanksgiving). We are all about industry this weekend.

Last night, however, we did manage a break in the activity and hired an actual babysitter, thus allowing for one of the rarest events ever to occur in our house: we both left the house AT THE SAME TIME and WITHOUT AJ. We even drove far, far away! I realize that this may be hard to believe, but it happened nonetheless. We had a lovely dinner with friends at one of our favorite restaurants in Chicago. We even got to meet the executive chef, whom I once met at his other, fancier restaurant but would not have recognized in his rather scruffy-looking off-duty clothes. We had a long discussion about an enormous pumpkin in the front of the restaurant, which he assured us he had grown himself. We all submitted guesses as to its weight in hopes of winning a free dinner at some future date. I determined that it was much heavier than AJ but not quite as heavy as the suitcase of books I dragged around the city of Chicago on Friday and wrote down 98 pounds and 3 ounces (the determination of the ounces was my husband�s contribution). We arrived home to a calm and clean house. AJ had a great time with babysitter C., who despite her youth (she�s 13) appeared to be vastly more mature and a much better sitter than the summer�s nanny K. I hope she�ll come back.

I need to do final tweaking of my paper and handouts and make copies of said handouts and possibly one more overhead transparency, but I should be able to accomplish all of that tonight and tomorrow morning while AJ is at school. I am essentially ready to leave on Wednesday. Now is the time I start worrying about stupid things like whether the airport shuttle will actually arrive on time, whether my computer batteries will hold out until Seattle, and whether I�ll remember to order my Thanksgiving turkey before I go.

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