OK, I'm off to Maine. But before you get any ideas about coming by the house and ripping me off, I have house guests the entire time.

Now that I have a few minutes of spare time, I can tell you that I am totally amazed at how much Katherine has developed in the 6 days she was gone. She was crawling when she left, but barely. She'd often use her upper body and arms to pull her knees along. Now she's zipping right along, moving one knee in front of the other. She goes effortlessly from her back to her stomach to sitting to crawling and back through the sequence. She's also pulling up really strongly. She will pull up to a stand without help if she is near something of the right height. She couldn't do that very well before she left. Kara also told me that she climbed up six stairs the day after she got home. YIKES. She is really developing fast fast fast.

It seems that all the jetlag is over. Tonight were were on a pretty normal schedule. Katherine's naps didn't quite work out, but I bet that will resolve tomorrow. So she'll be pretty settled in and comfortable just as we get ready to leave again for Maine.

I met them at the airport with two foil balloons. One for Kara, one for Katherine. Katherine's said, "Welcome home!". Kara's said, "Happy Birthday". Then I tied them to a SmartCart - one on each side. They didn't recognize me, probably because Kara looked right past me figuring the balloons were from some twisted crazy relative. Um, actually, they were.

So then we had our little birthday celebration after Katherine went to bed. I got Kara a box of Mike and Ikes, a Palm Pilot, and a very generous gift certificate to a nice day spa in Winchester where she can get herbal wraps, massages, 90 minute whirlpool pedicures, and other girly type stuff. I also picked up a bottle of wine and a Tiramisu, which I used for her birthday cake. It went well.

She's really taken to the Palm Pilot. She's typed in a whole bunch of addresses. She's used the memo pad for measurements and lists and things when she goes out during the day. She's typed all her upcoming stuff into the calendar. I was kindof surprised. I bought it because she's been kindof lusting after mine for a number of years now, but mostly because she just thinks it's neat. I figured it was a good birthday present because, well, she doesn't really *need* a Palm, but it might be fun. But she's really taken to it, which makes me feel great, and will get her more organized. Now, maybe, we won't have to save envelope scraps with phone numbers. At this point, the pile of envelopes is larger than the address book.

Off to the airport in a few minutes. The evening has been a blur with me running around to get everything shipshape and remove the evidence of my brief period of bachelorness. Which basically means laundry and dishes. Kara's landing a bit early, which is nice, but she'll still be three hours off, and this is the bad direction for jetlag. Then we have to focus our attention on an upcoming trip to Maine. We're going up to a friends cabin for a few days to chill out. Kara's a little concerned that Katherine will be very disoriented, but hopefully having both mom and dad (and grandpa) around will alleviate this somewhat. Even though we bought a station wagon, we're still a little worried about getting all the luggage in. I looked at Thule car-top carriers today. They are expensive, man. I think, since we're not going to be that long, I'll experiment with packing the car first, and leave the Thule's for later. I mean, I don't see any other long car trips in the near (or far) future, so I don't really want to spend the money at this point if I can avoid it.

Oh yeah, depressing news of the day. I haven't driven Kara's car (aka, the mommie car - a VW Passat wagon that really kicks butt) since it got hot again, and the AC doesn't work. Can you imagine? Kara is going to be super pissed. It's a brand freakin new car. We bought it in February. I'm sure it'll get fixed under warranty, but it's such a pain in the butt, especially with the little one around.

I've been continuing to work on the songs for my upcoming gig with Kim Davidson. I've spent most of my time on the blues tune, since I love the blues and it didn't have any music. For the others, I'll probably just play chords and arpeggios to showcase her voice. But for the blues tune, I'd like to rock it a little bit, so I've been putting together some cool riffs and fills.

Kara comes home tomorrow. I'm very excited. It's also her birthday, so we have double to celebrate. Katherine is sick with a stomach virus. It's been pretty bad, especially Sunday, when she couldn't stop pooping and her little butt got so sore she would scream like hell when she was being changed. It's better today, so hopefully she'll be in good shape when they get home. Yesterday was a killer. I spent the whole afternoon in the backyard mucking out the weeds behind the driveway, laying down weedblock, and remulching. I really pushed myself too hard on that project, and I am still feeling it today. I got very dehydrated, even though I was drinking water, and I think I'm still dehydrated today. I've basically been feeling like I have a hangover for about 24 hours now, but I should be in good shape by tomorrow. I guess it's really time to have a party, now that we have patio furniture *and* landscaping!