Ah--sweet rain. I know, I know. In a few months, I'll be lamenting the near-constant downpour that characterizes the Pacific Northwest Winter but for now, I'm relishing it. It has been a warmer and drier than usual summer and I've missed the rain. So has my lawn! And I've missed my sweaters and long pants. It was such a treat to pull out my lime-green, cotton, cable-knit V-necked sweater and put it on this morning.

Yesterday, though, just as church was getting over, the heavens opened up and POURED and POURED. There was all manner of lightning and thunder and giant raindrops. The parking lot was a 4"-deep river. Thankfully, Ed went to my car and got an umbrella out of the back, got inside my car, rolled up the windows and then drove my car over to the backdoor where I was waiting for the rain to let up. He got out and escorted me to the car with the umbrella and then ran to his car. It was very sweet of him. He doesn't often do things like that without prompting so I felt very pampered.

Ooh--our new computer came today. Inte1 re-instituted their home PC purchase thing that they had suspended a year or so ago (just before Ed got the chance to order ours). It was such a bummer! We've been hoping they'd start it back up again and finally they did. We got a killer laptop with wireless internet to network with our desktop and printers. And it plays DVDs so we can take it with us on road trips. (Joey's very excited about that.) It's got a very nice 14" screen--big, sharp, clear. Mmmm...this is going to be fun to have around.

We ordered carpet on Saturday. Yay! I'm not sure when it will be installed--the estimator can't come until next Monday--but we got a great price and got them to knock off the measuring fee ($50) so I felt like a big negotiator. I'm usually really bad at asking for discounts and things like that. It was pretty fun, actually, to see how low they'd go.

I had Chunkenstein on Sunday for 28 hrs. He was very cute and charming at church. Lots of people came up to me wondering if he were mine. Nope, just my beloved nephew. He didn't sleep well this morning, though, and was kind of cranky for awhile so I was tired today. I finally got to take a nap after Amy picked him up and then I felt much better. He caused me lots of pain this time around--he jammed his head into my jaw hurting my already-tender TMJ, bopped his head into my upper lip in church giving me a fat lip for awhile, then scratched and pinched me several times in his flailing. I felt beat up by the time he left!

I worked on my Kinder music lesson for Wednesday. I'm looking forward to it--I think it will be fun. I'm kind of bummed that I'll only have one class this semester instead of the four I was expecting, but hopefully enrollment at the satellite studio where I teach will increase.

Friday night, Joey went on a sleepover so Ed and I had a date night. We went out to our local favorite Mexican restaurant and then to a movie. We tried to call the Griffins to see if they were interested in catching the flick with us but they weren't home. Then when we got to the theatre, they were in the movie we were seeing so we sat with them. It was a very pleasant surprise. We saw Se@biscuit. I *loved* it. Then again, I have a long history with horse racing--that was the weekly daddy-daughter date I had when I was a kid all summer long. We loved the races and the horses. It was such a great time--I always felt so special when I got to go. He'd take one of the three of us girls every time he went. It was such a great time having Dad for the whole day. He taught us about handicapping and about the horses and we'd watch the horses in the paddock and then I'd go down to the rail and watch the horses thunder by. It was very exhiliarating. So anything to do with horse racing has a good feeling for me from the get go. The other cool thing is that the jockey who played Georgie (G@ry Stevens) was a regular at the track where we went so I recognized him in the movie because I used to hang out at the paddock and at the Winner's Circle to see the jockeys. It was very cool.

Boy--time is just flying by. I can't believe it's September 8 already. I must be living in some kind of time vortex where time moves faster than in the regular world.

Later,

--L