Now, I’ve only allowed myself to read them twice since they are written in pencil on really poor quality paper and I don’t want to ruin or rip them. (in one letter he mentions how hard it is to find paper) I do know that I’m going to frame one professionally like I did with his war commendation. I figure I’ll transcribe all of them and add the transcripts to the files. I’m going to talk to an archivist about how to best preserve the actual letters, since I doubt they’ll say, oh yeah, keep these 80 year flimsy old letters in a plastic bag in your attic. ( So I’m pretty excited about this. I really wish I had more time to play with the tree. Sigh. I suppose once this stupid exam is over. . . but then I’ll have the second baby and probably be using my free time to sleep. (Hopefully JD will still take naps at that point)

First, all is well with the second baby. She still moves constantly, so I am always very aware that I am pregnant. When I get up at night to go to the bathroom she gets up too. Hey, it’s 3am, quit kicking and go to sleep. Hey, aren’t you listening! (She’s ignoring me – it’s starting already!) So all is absolutely fine there. The whole process is a lot more boring the second time around, as I’m sure you know.

This is along my ongoing theme of not finding other “mothers” to hang out with. Although, as John points out, when do I have time to actually see them? Basically on Thursdays and Fridays I’m busy till about 2:30. And weekends John and I spend together (or studying) Lots of time for other people, huh? I mention this because it’s been really nice out recently, so in the afternoons after JD’s nap we’ve been playing in the backyard. We have one of those big plastic castles as well this enormous slide contraption that is also a fort. (God Bless Garage sales) Anyway, we tend to be in the backyard when our next door neighbor comes home. (Shirley) She is such a great neighbor. Of course, I think she’s like 55 or 60! So she comes home and then hangs out in our backyard talking to me..

Mom came up to visit last weekend. That was GREAT! She came up on Thursday night. John was in Seattle, and I had class in DC on Thursday, so I took JD to Karen’s. So we pulled in the driveway about 5 minutes after my mother – and JD remembered her! He was so happy and flung himself out of his car seat into her arms. Of course, he then proceeded to stay up till like 10, and still got up bright and early the next day. (Ack) So Friday was swim class, then a monster nap, play outside in the backyard with Susan’s 6-year-old daughter Amanda. (Tangent alert) Amanda just loves JD. (???) I have no idea what a 2-year-old has that interests a 6-year-old, but she is always delighted when we are outside and wants to come over and play. As I was saying, we played in the backyard with Amanda being chased by JD, and mom getting lots of movies.

John gets home Friday night and JD is out of his mind with happiness since he hasn’t seen John since Mon. – another all nighter! So bright and early JD is up the next day (I’m dying!). So mom and I took him to the zoo. John was in another time zone and totally zonked after meetings and a late flight, so we took pity on him and left him home. We had such a BLAST at the zoo. I should note that John and I go to the zoo EVERY Sunday. We’ve even joined FONZ (Friends of National Zoo) to get free parking. There was one total Kodak moment – some monkeys are behind glass – so you can get nose to nose with them. JD was carrying his ever-present bright yellow tennis ball. Well, one of the monkeys saw this ball and wanted in and came RIGHT over to the glass to try to grab it! So this monkey is a big as JD, and looking him right in the eye. It was really really neat. The orangutans have 2 totally separate buildings that are connect by the “O line” which are these large ropes strung between towers. So during the day the orangutans climb up the towers and swing overhead! (Watch for falling you know what!!) It’s really cool – I think I like them swinging around as much as JD. I think it is just the neatest thing. They are right above your head, and, well, OK, they’re not free, but it’s closer than anything else. Well, I won’t bore you with our trip to the zoo other than to say I think JD enjoys it as much as I do. (Note: John and I went back to the zoo the next day. We are so queer)

Sat. night we spend hanging out on our front stoop while mom chased JD, or JD pounced on poor Sammie. It was a really mild night, so it was great to be hanging around watching the sun go down. The ground was a bit damp so JD got muddy, but that is his natural state anyway.

Procurement: I’ve decided this is not really my problem. Well, it is – but it’s gotten over my head. Sun sent me all the documentation about my 162 pound 9 thousand dollar Unix memory saying who signed for it and when. One of those individuals was the (ahem) head of the procurement department. I told my boss, look, there is NO way that little me is going to be calling the procurement chief and (more or less) accusing them of incompetence. (Which they are!) I wrote Procurement Chief a civil e-mail mentioning that there appeared to be some kind of a mistake somewhere and could he look into it. Of course he totally blew me off – what does he care, it’s not his money! Besides, what am I going to do to him? So I told my boss that he might want to look into it. At this point it doesn’t seem to be high on my boss’s agenda, so (Screw it!) I’m not going to lose more precious sleep over it. I hate to say this, but I’ve covered my own ass, I have documentation that it’s NOT my fault, so now I’ve got other things to do. (But I would really love to get my hands on this memory!! We’re going to have to order the damn thing again! Your tax dollars at work.)

Class: Nothing much new. The teacher is a fool. Every class he has some reason why he isn’t prepared. Last week he said his computer crashed, so he was about 20 minutes from being prepared I feel like saying, “You know, most teachers don’t wait until the day of class to prepare.” And know what – it costs like 2,000 dollars A CLASS (!!) – which is 8 to 10 thousand dollars a semester ( that’s 20 grand a year) to get this type of education!! Thank god my office pays for this stuff (again, you tax dollars at work!) Ooof! Hell, I can go to Yale for 30 grand. (which I also wouldn’t be able to graduate from, so why not ) So the class still makes me miserable. On the plus side, through inside information I managed to get the answers for all the Comps for the last several years from this brilliant individual. So that will be extremely helpful. And I’m feeling better about studying. Damn damn damn. I still care, don’t I?