you don't necessarily have to read the article the title's enough

Took the kids swimming today. There were a whole fleet of happy middle-aged women jumping up and down to trance music in the name of aquacizes. Ack. Go have a nice quiet swim, can't you? Tomorrow, to round out their week, I'm taking the kids to the dentist. Some excitement with my employees, seems one of them's run off to New York to be with her internet boyfriend, and her mother's gone to fetch her back. Her brother's been working with me in her absence, and he's quite the gossip...

My mother's currently in England, so my dad's been buzzing about in his new house, putting up cabinets. He's been by for coffee twice this week, which has been really nice. He was impressed with the basement room, but in true dad style asked me when I'm planning to do something about the upstairs.

Still, the house looks really nice. And the kids are happy to have had me home for the week. And I've gotten a ton of school work done. I'm almost finished all the coursework for both courses, and all that's left is to study for the finals which aren't until the week of the 7th of April.

it's organ Thursday, and I'm enjoying my holiday.

A Rachel joke:

What happens when there's a pancake in the doghouse and your mother's a dishwasher and your father's a dryer? Answer -- nothing, doghouses can't fly.

I've lived in this house for almost five years, and yesterday I finally got around to doing something about the room in the basement where the tv lives. It was done in fake half-timber, stucco and dark brown panelling, and also, for some reason, plaid wallpaper. Peeling off the plaid wallpaper revealed incredible paisley pattern underneath, stuck to the unpainted, unplastered drywall. Bitch. So the kids and I peeled bits of wallpaper off the walls for most of the afternoon, and then we put up some nice green striped paper. The lady at the paint store matched me a can of paint to the darker green, sort of sage, and we painted all the panelling and timbers. Now I just have to touch up and replace all the furniture. And vacuum. Wallpaper stripping is a messy job. Kirsten helped with the primer, and wrote her name and lots of hearts all over the wall like they always do on Trading Spaces (her favorite show). Now the room no longer looks like it should be filled with men drinking Guinness and trying to pinch the barmaid...