There's Another "Real" Post Coming Soon... Really!

Sorry, folks... I've been terribly remiss lately, thinking about my next post without actually typing my next post. The past couple of weekends have been so crazy -- the accident and ER, the rearranging of everyone's schedule to take care of the added running around & vehicle changes, the need to do a bunch of research, losing another weekend to the actual car shopping & purchase (I don't think there's a single employee of that dealership who didn't stop and coo over the Pipsqueak at least twice!)... and then the added craziness of odd stuff at work has been burning up most of the weekday time (which is why I'm typing this at 4:45am)...

Of course, in the middle of all this the local ISP that everyone in the family uses changed to a new mail server & new mail software... It took me 2 days just to get AJ's email working again, I eventually wound up having to install a whole new email client (Thunderbird) on my laptop, everyone else is able to keep using the original MacOS Mail. (I miss my outgoing "swoosh"!)

Meanwhile, I've been joking that AJ is now a soccer mom -- she bought a minivan! (A carefully researched, all-wheel drive, IIHS top safety pick minivan.) Although the Pipsqueak is still asking about "the blue car" she seems to have decided the new minivan is the bee's knees... when it's parked she can literally run around inside, and she's finally able to climb into her Special Pink Seat (as we call it) almost completely on her own so she's happy.  We're hoping that the beautiful sky that day was a good omen for the as-yet unnamed new vehicular family member (I tend to name my cars, AJ treats them more like machines; we'll see what happens with this one.) I've included a photo of the sunset as seen from the dealer's lot. Aside from resizing, there's been no image manipulation; those are the actual colors of the sky that evening!

The Florida branch of the family is doing well; the Pipsqueak's newest cousin has a full head of hair, eats and sleeps like a champ, and looks around with big, bright eyes.  We Skyped this past weekend and I can say she's a real cutie! We'd hoped to introduce the Pipsqueak to her but -- after firmly refusing to take her usual nap and growing increasingly cranky as the afternoon wore on -- she finally gave in and slept through the entire session. We plan to schedule another Skype session soon so the two can meet.

As you might imagine, Thanksgiving had some extra meaning for us this year, with both AJ and the Pipsqueak happy & healthy at the table instead of in the hospital (or worse) and our newest cousin & her mom home and healthy. Now we have to figure out how to make up for all the lost time and the unplanned-for new car payments, but considering the possible alternatives the family will deal with it and that's that. Even the Pipsqueak pitches in as much as she can; here's a shot of her "helping" Mommy take the trash downstairs. (The bag's as big as she is!) She's always tried to help out with anything she sees us doing, sometimes with "interesting" results, but she's slowly begun reaching the point where "I hep!" produces more thank-yous than oh-nos.

That's the update for the moment... I'm going to catch a few hours of shuteye, and (I promise, really I do) I'll get back to the planned postings soon. Wan an!