Six year old was sick with a cold, she even stayed home Friday and Monday. I even ran to the grocery store Monday morning to get some sort of decongestants for her. Good thing Mrs. Ha is off Monday.

Of course she couldn't go to the bonfire Saturday night, so eleven year old and I just went. It was nice to chat with some old friends, but it was a little strained as I hadn't seen most of those people for a few years. Eleven year old was the only girl there, too, so she felt shy and stuck close to me all night. One might be amazed at how quickly an old, dry pine futon frame can flare up, and it sure put out a lot of heat. We ate late, so I passed on the spam and onion sammies cooked in a pie iron on the fire.

We ate late because Saturday we had newspaper_girl and Porsche_girl over for a few hours. It was cookie pickup day and newspaper_dad took eleven year old to get them, and then dropped off his daughter and Porsche_girl for a few hours, including dinner (a quick pizza), which everyone liked. Six year old is now asking for pizza for dinner, one more thing the whole family will eat.

In addition to the usual mess, we found out missed some open houses for the schools, including the ultraselect school of the arts. The school sent home flyers in eleven year old's folders, but she never mentioned it and we didn't look until it was too late. It's dang aggravating, what does it take to get eleven year old to care about her school?  Even worse, it was my mother who found out that we had missed the open houses, buy do we look out of it.

In the meantime, we have open houses to attend most nights for the next two weeks. Busy busy busy. Last night was an open house at a local magnet school named for our first big CEO. It was big, about 700 7th graders. On the positive side, it's only 7th-9th graders in the school, and they have a uniform policy. The nightly pick out clothing for tomorrow will only take a minute. It's academically rigorous, too, and focused on math and science which eleven year old does really well with. On the negative side, it's on the other side of the city, in a not very great neighborhood, and the busing would be city buses, not school buses. We saw quite a few parents of classmates, at least 7 classmate's worth, including newspaper_mom and girl, who said they missed the school of the arts open house, too. Six year old ended up asking most of the questions, too, she's a real charmer. We did get a little feel for it, and eleven year old is starting to understand that she needs to get interested in the process fast. I think we'll be lining up some interviews with recent charter school graduates who attend the local high schools.

We did get through a movie Saturday night, The Heart of Me, a BBC period drama dealing with a love triangle between a woman, her husband and her sister. Recommended if you like 1930's period dramas, or Helene Bonham Carter's bare breasts.

We also finished the first book in the Magic Treehouse series, Dinosaurs Before Dark, in which Jack and Annie find the treehouse, and travel back in time to see dinosaurs, including a Triceratops, Tyrannosaurus, some duck billed dino, and a Pteranadon, which six year old informs me is not really a dinosaur. I should take the up with her teacher.

Hooray for JB Weld! Mrs. Ha informed me Saturday that the washing machine was leaking, and with my dad's help Sunday we determined that the tub had a small split in it, at the seam joining the side and bottom. My first attempt at a patch was to mix up some JB Weld and cover the seam, working blind from underneath, while Mrs. Ha tilted the washer up. So far, it's done one load without leaking. I'm hoping this holds up for another year, or ten.

Amazingly, paypal works. I ordered a cycle part back in August, hoping to salvage my riding season. It never arrived, so I escalated my dispute, having paid for it through paypal, and never gotten an email or telephone answer from the place. Sunday they decided in my favor, but did't have the money, though they said they would give a strict talking to and possibly even stop their account. Yesterday they got me my money! I may top $100 in my account if my ebay auctions do as well as I think they will, which will help buy Christmas gifts. Easy come easy go.

Mrs. Ha wants to give the buy cheap at thrift shops and resell on ebay a try, AF_mom did well doing that in LA, between the thrift shops and the curb pickings. It combines shopping with internet browsing, sounds like a good match for Mrs. Ha.