Testing:1,2,3

So, here we are. A blog, all shiny, clean and new.

I have taken this plunge after musing it over for a year mainly as a hope that I can keep in touch with all my nearest and dearest who I have been hopelessly neglectful in e-mailing over the years. I think of you often, I just suck as a correspondent. Now, I can simply and lazily blog, leaving it up to anyone who cares to read about what is going on in the Land of Piffle to do so. How I do love being lazy. I work hard at it. I also realize that, just as I have stumbled upon the blogs I love to read, others may come across this. Some may even want to stay a while. Please, come in. All are welcome as long as mean, nasty and personal attacks are avoided. I love dialogue and welcome debate. I would also love to hear from you, so please use the comments section.

I am also a tech moron, so bear with me.

Today my daughter, Sara, turns two. For those of you who do not know Sara, she is headstrong, hilarious, happy, and blindingly intelligent. In short, a typical toddler. She has a fascination with the alphabet and knew all her letters by sight by the time she was 18 months and her numbers to 20, by sight and sequence, 1-2 months later. She has understood the concept of counting for 3-4 months and is now working on advanced differential equations from my old calculus book. Hah, just kidding. I certainly did NOT keep my old calc book but sold it right back to the college bookstore for enough money to put a down payment on a pack of gum. But the rest is, sadly, true. My husband, Charles, and I have already penciled in dates for future sessions in her principal's office. She is the sort to take the world by the ears and shake until it gives in and gets her what she wants. Fortunately, her parents are even more stubborn than she is and control the car keys. For now. She adores her blanket and her brother.

Colin, our son, is turning 6 next month and is her temperamental opposite. He watches then wades in rather than jumping in the deep end (a very sensible approach, in my timid view). He expects to do things perfectly the 1st time. He is very shy but gregarious, generous and goofy in typical kindergartener fashion once he is comfortable with you, say in 3-4 months. He is also stunningly bright with the whole academic thing and a whiz on computers. It frustrates him that he needs occasional help on planning cities playing SimCity and in managing finances playing Roller Coaster Tycoon. Sheesh. He belches really well and adores things JRR Tolkien and his sister. Really.

Charles and I moved out to the Midwest from Portland, OR, 4+1/2 years ago looking for less stress and more play. I found it, he didn't. But it is his choice. We then moved up the highway from Northern IL to Southern WI last winter, and are now living in a house built for comfort on 8 acres of rolling hills surrounded by farms, cows, deer, tractors, wild turkeys, corn and hawks. We do not blink at the 40 min commute (guilt over gas consumption not withstanding) as it is the 2nd shortest commute of both of our lives. We also drive to and from work together, creating some much needed "together" time. We are never moving again. We have used that phrase 3 times in the last 9 years, meaning it with all of our soul each time. But this time we really, REALLY mean it. We are both morning people and he makes my world shine. He also makes great double lattes that we sip on over the commute.

So, there it is. A start. Let's see where it leads.