I believe Congratulations are in order.

1. On Sunday we drove from New Hampshire to Illinois. This meant 17 hours in the van.

2. On Monday I unpacked, cleaned out the refrigerator, and in general, made like Susie Homemaker. We also went to school to find the new classrooms and teachers and lockers and such. It rained.

3. Tuesday was the first day of school. It kept raining.

4. Wednesday? The kids got braces put on their teeth. I believe the rain stopped, yet I managed to flood the downstairs bathroom, thus no doubt pleasing the Gods of Bad Weather.

5. Thursday I oversaw--with much tearing of hair--the first real homework of the school year, and my father-in-law, who decided to come to town for a visit the first week of school and after he had just seen us in New Hampshire--not that I'm complaining about family togetherness, mind you--came to dinner.

6. Which brings us to Friday. We all survived the week, and even though I went totally JOHN CLEESE with the red face and the sarcasm AND THE VERY LOUD VOICE my children managed to get to school relatively unscathed. (Ha ha, "relatively," get it? I'm so funny when I'm not doing grievous damage to my children's psychological makeup.) This evening we ate pizza and enjoyed a few episodes of The Simpsons, Season 8.

I am very, very glad that I will get to sleep late tomorrow, and maybe not even yell once at my children. I even think that, should Blackbird's fan base require it, I am ready and willing to solve any little problems they might have. So, FOBs, in case you need someone to flood a bathroom or scream at your children, shoot me an email, and I'll see what I can do.