Jenny Sais Quoi debuts – I’ve missed Jen and was tickled to see her back in the saddle so to speak. All together now . . . “yippeee, yappeee, yahooeee.” Ahem, sorry. Flashback! Seriously, Jen, I’ve missed you.

Let’s see . . . what’s in the news today? Augustine is still throwing her little temper tantrum. Which is making flying very interesting . . . or non- existent. She just needs to get over her bad self in the next 30 some days! ‘cos that’s when the boy and I are headed to Washington DC on his school trip. “Look kids, a big white building!”

Yes, the Boy and I will be whisked away from the land of cold and snow into the land of hot air and puffery. Oh, wait, we have a lot of that up here, too. Well, it will be on a bit higher level there, I guess. Seriously, we are really looking forward to the trip and want Augustine to settle down so that we will not miss our flights. (do check out the very cool pics on that site – gorgeous in a scary sort of way.)

The piece I entered into a local writing contest did not make the grade. You know what? That’s okay. You see, it is the first piece I have really written since August.?I’ve done a lot of blogging and photo essay-ing, but no real writing. And, so that in and of itself is noteworty to me. I wrote something! So what if it didn’t make the cut. Not every piece makes the cut. We know that going in. I plan to go to listen to the other writers and maybe get excited about that kind of writing again.

in the meantime – the Neighbors columns continue. I have next week’s all ready and one for the week after that. Then today, after the paper came out, I received two emails with suggestions for other profiles. One appointment has been set and I am trying to reach the other to set that appointment as well. There are still some nay-sayers about the new format, but there are also a lot of folks who like it – they just don’t do the letter writing to the editor. That’s okay – I’ll keep doing it as long as they let me.

We’re headed to Anchorage Sunday morning – a big Super Bowl party is being held by business associates of ours. We will spend the night before coming home – I’ve made arrangements to switch days – will take Monday off and work that Friday. Sometimes it is a really nice thing to have a flexible work week.

?Lookit those big blue eyes! On both of us. Little Miss got her new specs yesterday – I was also 4 when I got my first pair. She was so excited to show me. She hid behind the wall and “BOOO’ed” me when I came in to see her. She is so happy to be able to see clearly.? Love you missy!

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