My grandmother has arrived at my mom and dad�s and she sounds good. Very good, actually. She sounds really happy to be there and she was positively raving about her new place, which she�s moving into tomorrow. My mom sounds exhausted, but positive and my dad sounds like he�s trying to keep everyone happy, something at which he excels.

My brain has been flitting from one thing to the next today, so I finally threw in the towel on the dissertation for the day and opted for gardening instead. AJ spent several hours at his friend N�s house this afternoon, giving me plenty of time to wrestle with the thistles in the traffic island opposite our house, which have grown back with a vengeance while we were on vacation. He is now sleeping peacefully. I, on the other hand, am typing while covered in mud. It rained copiously last night so the deep taproots of the thistles slip easily out of the soil, but I am left covered in a paste of thick black mud. In fact, it looks remarkably like the Dead Sea Body Mud my brother brought me from Jordan, and which I was considering trying out this evening while I gave myself a pedicure. I must say, this is much more economical, although there is a definite lack of exotic mystique in Midwestern Suburban Mud.

Tomorrow our new neighbors move in. In a June Cleaver moment last weekend, I baked them cookies and took them over to introduce ourselves. They seem very nice, youngish and outdoorsy like us, although the wife may be terminally perky. They have two kids, a boy of about 7 or so and a girl AJ�s age. In fact, it turns out that she was in AJ�s preschool class two years ago and will be in his class again this year. Holy Toledo, I may have found myself a carpool. The two kids have drawn a starting line and a finish line in blue chalk at either end of their driveway. They�ve been racing each other between the two, the boy on his bike, the girl on her tricycle. As soon as AJ notices what they�ve been up to, I�m pretty sure he�s going to want to join in the fun.

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