update 11/17/08

I'm still at the plastics shop. It's a small staff; Jim, the boss; Sam, the fabricator; Julie, the office manager; and me, the everything guy. The other day I walked into work and asked Sam what was happening. I meant in the most insincere, meaningless, small-talk way, but he told me, "I don't f#@king know, go the fuck upstairs and talk to Jim." I wasn't hurt. Sam is so angry he's developed a new kind of polite. It's very honest. It could make some people cry, but at least when he can't find his measuring tape everyone is equally wrongfully blamed.

Meanwhile back at home, "Uh oh" is the word of the week. Quin first heard it in July. We were at a restaurant in South Dakota when he heard a little girl say it. He repeated it and we were sure we had a genius. Then he didn't use it again until a couple of weeks ago. The first reprise was accurate. He dropped something and followed the gaffe with the necessary pronouncement, "Uh oh". Which is the shortest way to say, "somebody better come pick this thing up and give it to me so I can drop it again." It might be a convenient way for middle management to communicate their role in a project. Now, however, Q uses "Uh oh" to announce something is about to fall. The rule is when you hear "Uh oh" you're about to hear something near our son come crashing down.  Sarah has taken the positive view and says he might be clairvoyant.

I don't know what the deal is with Paco. I had to take him to the vet again. Just like last year he has some severe eye irritations. The vet put some dye in his eye and showed me the abberations with a black light. I say that like it was an easy process, but imagine hugging a sixty-pound bicep. Now add fur and fear and claws. You can barely seelast year's scar next to the bright new three-pronged doggie grooves running down my arm. He has some eye drops and is very good about letting me apply them.

I'd go on about Sarah.  She deserves more than a paragraph. I can't say enough about how cool she is. And she's such a great mom. We were walking somewhere, probably about to do something cool (we do cool things), and I asked her what was most surprising about motherhood. She paused for a second. I thought she was wading through thoughts of five-pound morning diapers and handfuls of previously chewed food. She came back pretty quickly though. "It's fun" she said. "No one tells you how much fun it is."