Wow! I love love love having old friends come to visit. Hi Jed! Hi Todd! It was so great to have them here. We all went to Swarthmore together, were in the science fiction club together, and in various incarnations lived together in Boston post-Swarthmore. Neither of them have kids and both of them are great with kids, total bonus. Oh yeah, and Jed is a professor in developmental molecular neurobiology, so when he says it's totally normal for your kid to act that way, he knows what he's talking about. Both of them have this incredible combination of gentle kindness with intense intellectual interest. (Are you blushing yet, guys?)

I had a really nice day yesterday where I fulfilled all my promises to the kids. We are going to clean the bathrooms no matter how much you whine and sputter. I will go to the library with you and pick out books especially for you. And yes, we can go to the beach with the company and build sandcastles based on your new art book.

Then, with great glee, the grown-ups went out to dinner with Ellie and Dana. John and I do go dancing a lot, but we rarely have great Thai food in a restaurant and then fabulous ice cream after.

I think several other college friends have scheduled trips to Seattle for the summer. Yippee!