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I am back. Unfortunately so is the insane drilling noise, worse than ever.

Preliminary notes:

The Graco Pack N Play is an engineering marvel.

Strangest thing seen: on I-85 south in Virginia, a man driving northbound, on the shoulder, on a tiny motocycle (like, Shriner-size). Nowhere near an exit, and no cars stopped on the shoulder.

Baby Update - 9 mo. checkup

Weight: 22 pounds 12 ounces. (75%ile) Height: 28 3/4 inches. (95%ile). Got the first of 3 Hepatitis B shots; no fever. The rash is, as we suspected, heat rash, so we can keep feeding her yogurt, which she loves.

In other height and weight news, our scale at the hotel in Conshohocken reports that I am 10 pounds under my "normal" weight, and mr. flea is 15 pounds over his. He is distressed. Of course, even 15 extra pounds on a pretty darn lanky 6 foot six frame aren't readily apparent, but on the down side, his pants are mostly too tight. The problem of how to fatten me up on healthy food, because if we keep ice cream in the house mr. flea will eat it, has yet to be solved. He has vowed to stop eating pop-tarts out of the vending machine at work, which is a start.

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Somewhat fuller comments on the weekend's travels:

1. Dear friends live too far away and we don't see them often enough. Yes, Austin, New York and Washington are great places, but why not move here? I'm just sayin'.

2. Real estate prices in the VA suburbs of Washington are so insane they may be crazier than Boston. The small house - smaller than the house I live in - across the street from my friends in Alexandria just sold for more than the offering price of $529K.

3. Cicadas squick me like no other bug. I have this vision of them tangled in my hair. (Note - I bravely remove bats from the house). Happily they were few.

4. We had the cutest baby in my class. There were many many babies - at our cokctail hour in the garden there was a line of parked strollers. We all turned 30 and decided to procreate, clearly. Still, Casper=cutest. I thought, anyway.

5. Most unexpected pleasure: seeing the woman I waitressed with at the alumni house, and she remembered me well and was thrilled to see me, and we had a great talk.

6. Sappiest moment: seeing M. get completely weepy-eyed and also speechless at the sight of Casper. M. is so ready to be a mommy. (M. and B. are seriously considering it, to the point of having a talk with their potential donor - go team! B. reports that she will "extrude the baby" but M. will be the primary mommy. hee.)

7. Best visit in terms of time spent: with grandfather, just enough. He was vastly pleased by his second great-granddaughter, manifested in his continual attention to her and what she was saying, and his admonishment of those who did not reply promptly to her baby talk salvos. His health is not great, but he didn't want any pity. We ate dessert at every meal. (Okay, not breakfast).

8. Long-lost cousin report - I believe I have not seen G. since he was perhaps 6 (he is now 27). He has recently cut off his dreadlocks since he is now the manager of the coffee shop. Skinny little guy, he looks exactly like his father. Seems to be doing well, doing his own thing, free-spirited and nothing to tie him down. So different physically and socially from his brother!

9. Biggest regret: I went to college with a lot of really interesting people, the vast majority of whom I never got to know. And I was not very good at remedying that situation this weekend. Maybe next reunion...