I was awakened this morning to the sound of sand hill cranes flying overhead and acorns thudding on the roof. I was lying there thinking about what an idyllic precursor to fall it was until my neighbor started screaming at her dog. �Sydney. Sydney! SYDNEY!!! GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE NOW!!!!!� SYDNEY!�

Ah, yes, the peace and quiet of suburbia. Frankly, I�d rather hear the dog bark.

Thus far I have spent most of my morning trying to distract AJ sufficiently that he will stop demanding to know how long it is until we go to the circus.

AJ: Mommy, I�m ready to go to the circus now.
Harriet: Not for a long time. Not for six and a half hours.
AJ: Six and a half? That�s not bad. How many minutes?
Harriet: About 390.
AJ: That�s a lot of minutes!
[brief pause]
AJ: How many minutes is it now?
[repeat ad nauseum]

He is now supposed to be sleeping but is, I suspect, plotting his next escape. Mrs. Stein is lying in wait outside his door. If he makes it out, she'll no doubt be trying to purr him into submission.

I too am planning an escape, first to the shower, which I still haven�t managed to climb into today, and then to the farmer�s market in search of real tomatoes, peaches and blueberries, and then to find a suitable congratulatory card to send my brother who has just been offered his dream job. He�ll be moving to Bangkok in a couple of months, where I hope to visit him in the not-too-distant future. From desert to jungle. My nieces aren't going to know what hit them.

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