The Grader

Well, Bella started First Grade this week. The whole neighborhood assembled at the bus stop to send all the kids back to school, and there were a few misty eyes... among the parents. This year, there are 5 little kids at the bus stop, waving off to the big kids, and Isaac is only the second-youngest of them. They all run up to the end of the block to watch for the bus coming, and when it shows up, they try to RACE the bus up to our end of the block, screaming "THE BUS!!!! THE BUS!!!!!"

And of course Zinsser gets to play every morning with his cousin Otto too, and they're almost the same size now, so it's a more even match.

Papabam have been here this week to help out, walking the dog, making projects, doling out the cuddles, and generally giving Mom and Dad some backup. Zinsser thinks he's in heaven since he gets 5 long walks a day. No accidents in the house!

Tuesday night, Bella got to pick dinner for her first day, and it was TACO NITE. Since switching to soft tacos, she's gone down from her trademark 7-8 tacos to 2-3. Those tortillas are definitely filling. We've eaten well this week: Pizza night, Pasta night... last night was BLT night, which went better than expected (thank you Nueske's!)

Yep, I'm here this week, and I've been working quite a bit. I had two really good site visits at former clients, picking their brains on how their cardiology departments are configured. I actually got two completely different "philosophies" explained this week, either of which would be a good way to go in our Phuture in Philly. I've been sending breathless updates to my peers and sponsors in Philly, which may explain why I'm not writing as much here.

The other explanation might be the launch of my Tales From the Nineties blog (linked at the Right)... this is something I'm doing with Paul and Caesar (all on our own blogs) where we're trying to tell stories about the bubble years of the 1990s. It's all explained on that blog if you have any interest. It's all about work and technology and opinions, not family or current events... so no need to keep current over there for many of you... but go ahead and check if you like.

Bella and I have been loving the new They Might Be Giants CD/DVD called "Here Comes Science" - they're all little songs about science, and while some are pretty light ("Electric Car" doesn't really explain anything), others are brilliant ("Meet the Elements" and "Bloodmobile" are standouts for me). The package has a DVD with a cute video for each. The explanation of all the things Blood does in Bloodmobile was actually instructive for me. And I work in Cardiology!

Isaac likes the songs too, but not for the content: The boy loves to dance to them. Bella just studies the videos and listens intently. That's my scientist.

Back to school: Pamela was asking Bella last night what she learned or found interesting about her day in school: "Pretty much everything was interesting."

Also, as she was drifting off to sleep, she decided that "The Earth is a giant eye, and the Sun is the other eye, and they're always watching. But only the Earth can BLINK".