After a morning spent supervising a bunch of five-year-olds running around an indoor amusement park with the Hyper-Perky Mom and the Complainer, I came home with a headache and a desire to have a beer a little too early in the afternoon. Then I logged on to diaryland and read five ranty entries off my buddy list in a row and felt better � apparently everyone�s having a bad day.

My return from screaming kid hell was met with another rejection letter. This time the job went to a colleague of mine who defended last year. I�m a little more irked about this one, because I think I would have been a good fit for that program, but it is yet another message that the applicant pool is such that if you haven�t defended yet, you�re probably wasting your time. The person they hired had a somewhat different field of research, so perhaps they were really looking for something different from what they said they were looking for. Also, that school has posted another job for next year, so perhaps I�ll have another shot post-defense. And I�ll stop rationalizing now, yes I will.

I need to gear up for more yelling children. The school AJ will be attending next year is having their annual �Fun Fair� (it makes my skin crawl to think of it � do they have beer and chocolate for the grownups? Babysitters? No? Not fun. And one might even argue (as AJ certainly would), not fair.). We�ll be meeting some friends there so AJ can check out the interior of his new school and maybe meet some teachers while playing carnival games. It�s a lot of the carnivalesque for one day, says I, but I suppose I will survive. I�ll close my eyes and think of England.

Thanks to all who responded to my music question yesterday. For most, it seems, that the reasons a song is a favorite are largely indefinable. It has to be a tune that sticks in your head, but what makes it stick there is anybody�s guess. I look forward to seeing what Smed will do with his surveys next week. Which reminds me, I�d better go and finish mine.

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