Mary will be delighted to know that this diary entry was first written in MS Word and then pasted into my diary. This is because it�s only 9:44am and I�m sure I�ll have a lot more mundane things to write about today but I need to write about Kid�s Day Morning right now.

Joey was absolutely delighted with her K�nex and Diva Starz doll. She was also very surprised that it was Ed who gave her the doll and me who gave her the K�nex. She said "but mom, that�s backward!" Ah, so little she knows. Ed and I are quite "backward" in our parenting. I can be very nurturing and cuddly with her but I think Ed is much more nurturing than the Average Dad (whatever that is). He is so patient with her and will do a lot of the typical "mom" things with her and I�m a lot more physical. I like to do things rather than play things. I like to rough and tumble and chase and tickle and ride bikes and scooters and stuff like that. I hate to play with toys. (Except for Legos and building toys.) Ed is much more inclined to play with toys with her than I am. I guess we�re not so much backward as that each of us do both kinds of things. There�s very little that resembles a gender divide here in this family except that Ed takes out the garbage and mows the lawn (though I�ve been informed that with the new lawnmower, I will be expected to help out with the lawnmowing if my acupuncture is successful in relieving my allergy symptoms).

Joey woke me at 9am and said I just had to get up so she could have breakfast and open her presents. You�d think it was Christmas or something. So I drag my very tired body out of bed�I was up sorta late last night ;-)�and weighed myself. Good news�I�m finally back to where I was 10 days ago. It took a week to undo the damage that the beach trip weekend did! When I get to the kitchen, I see that Ed has been busy making breakfast. It�s like Kid�s and Mom�s Day here! He has made bacon, eggs, grits and toast. It was delicious! I didn�t used to like grits but now I love them! Once I discovered polenta, I liked grits. (Sorry Mary) Ed�s a southern boy�South Carolina�so he likes that kind of stuff. Not all southern food, but grits and barbecue rank very high in his estimation. I reckon he�d leave the greens by the side of the road.

It�s not often I have much to report on by 9:45 so this is, indeed, an unusual day. And there�s so much more ahead. Playing K�nex with Joey, working on the retaining wall, shopping (Ok, I just threw that one in there�there probably won�t be much shopping if Ed can help it.) and dinner/games with friends tonight. It�s a BYOM BBQ (bring your own meat). I suspect we�ll be playing more Davis Rules Uno. At least I hope so!

Expect more later�.

Well now it�s past midnight. I�ve had a very full and busy day, but the beauty part is that I was able to stay in my jammies until 4pm. What did I do to fill my day? I put stuff away and cleaned our bedroom, washed and folded laundry, sorted a laundry basket *full* of socks (I think Ed and I have too many socks!), stripped the bed and washed the sheets, took my deep purple velvet duvet cover off the pink, yellow, green, blue and purple plaid duvet and put it in the blanket chest, did the breakfast dishes and generally tidied up the house. No, I�m not sick. Why do you keep asking me that?

I made a very yummy pasta salad today for the barbecue at the Griffin�s house tonight. I just made it up as I went along. In case you�re interested, it had cucumber chunks, chopped dill pickles, quartered water chestnuts, baby corn pieces, diced red and orange bell pepper, diced sweet onion, chiffonaded basil leaves, sliced green olives and tiny cauliflower florets. The dressing consisted of mayonnaise, whole-seed rustic mustard, rice vinegar, a dash of Italian dressing, and parmesan cheese. I seasoned it with a bit of Mrs. Dash, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper. It was delicious. I love a good �off-the-cuff� pasta salad, which is usually how I make it.

After dinner, we played Combat Uno (formerly known as Davis Rules Uno) and had great fun. We taught it to a new family tonight and they were a quick study. But they are very competitive people so they catch on to new games pretty quickly anyway. I love nights like tonight�very good friends hanging out eating good food, laughing and telling funny stories, playing games and having a blast. There are about 5 or 6 couples that Ed and I both adore and do things with often. The 4 couples in our International Dinner Group are really the best, though. Each one of us gets along and genuinely likes and feels comfortable with each of the other 7. It�s a lovely thing.

Now I�m off to fold warm towels just out of the dryer. (I still have some laundry left to do�I didn�t get all of it done earlier, which is why I�m still up at a quarter to 1am�I can�t sleep until I finish this job or it will never get done. I know myself well enough to stay up and get it done.)

Later,

--L