This morning my friend J., a friend from high school whom I just discovered lives about 15 minutes from here (here being a place where it is at least an hour to anywhere), came over with her two boys, one a year older and one a year younger than AJ. I hadn�t seen J in 8-10 years, so we had a lot of catching up to do. Our boys got along fabulously. They had pulled out every piece of sporting equipment of any kind in the place and were all busily playing all the games simultaneously. My favorite moment of the day was when they had pulled out two golf sets and a croquet set and had a selection of 10 mallets and clubs in front of them and yet mysteriously all three wanted to use exactly the same club at the same moment (fortunately a well-timed break for milk and cookies got them to forget all about it before World War III broke out in my family room). It was a lot of fun to watch them tearing around the house. They all cried when it was time for them to go home. AJ woke up from his nap this afternoon thinking that it was time to go over to their house to play. Hopefully we�ll do just that after Christmas. I think we all had fun.

It�s funny how sometimes you can just pick up with people you haven�t seen in years. It�s not that J. was my best friend or anything, but it was amazingly comfortable seeing her again considering how long it�s been since we�ve seen each other. And it�s nice to find a friend in the area. It was also nice for AJ to meet some new kids.

AJ was particularly interested in the older boy T and demonstrated his interest by copying his every move. At one point all three boys were sitting at the table in AJs room drawing pictures. T. drew a house with a door and windows, each with crisscrosses to indicate the panes of glass. He signed his name. AJ then carefully drew boxes with xes in theml, mimicking T.�s windows without the house. He signed his name too. T. handed his drawing to his mother for approval. AJ followed suit. Then AJ struck out on his own and drew a huge grinning face with curly hair and inscribed it with the name of a girl in his class, about whom we�ve heard only �She poked me in the nose.� Apparently physical violence has not discouraged him.

Shortly before our guests left, however, some actual nose-poking took place. T., frustrated with his little brother E�s grabbing hands, shoved him a little too hard, splitting his lip. E wailed piteously until I presented him with a juice pop, whereupon he fell silent. Behold the power of sugar!

After our guests left, our new dining table was delivered, so after putting AJ down for his nap, I was forced to spend the next half an hour admiring it. It�s beautiful. I kind of want to sleep on it. I spent the rest of AJ�s nap time loading software on my husband�s new laptop and upgrading software on my own. After the usual dinner and bedtime routine, I got a phone call from another old friend, B. whom I met studying in France. We stay in touch less frequently these days and generally only by e-mail, so it was a nice surprise to hear his voice on the phone. There are several things you should know about B. 1. He is a composer and a professor at a well-known institution of higher learning in the northeast. 2. He is brilliant and funny. 3. He has twice written me music as a birthday present. The first time, he wrote a Bach-style chorale on the tune of Happy Birthday, complete with German lyrics and arranged for a performance of it at the end of a concert we were attending. The second time was on the occasion of my 29th birthday. The friend throwing me a party requested that guests bring 29 of something to mark the occasion. B. brought me a piece of 29 notes. The reason for tonight�s call was that he�s coming to town over the holidays, so we made plans to get together during the week between Christmas and New Year�s. Hooray!

All in all it has been a lovely day, despite (or perhaps because of) a noted lack of work.

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