I’m now in day two of not seeing my family at all. I’ve been able to get Skype to work, but it’s hard to keep the kids still long enough for me to see them. I had to do some shopping this afternoon after work to get some food and various misc. things, so I didn’t have much of a chance to look around. Tomorrow I hope to begin the quest to find a place for Melinda and the kids. I’m not optimistic though. I haven’t seen anything while I’ve been out and around, and I don’t know who I could call to ask. We shall see.

Jim and Paula have been crazy nice to me. They let me sleep downstairs (where it is cool, the ac is out), insist on making me dinner, and are just generally cool to hang out with. That makes it a lot better. I think I would have had a very dificult time being away from the rest of the Beastie House if I had to stay up here by myself.

I like Maryland so far, but the roads are crazy. It seems like every 3 miles there is some spaghetti junction action.

Boy has it been a long time since I have made a post. Sorry about that. I have been off work now for almost 2 months. It’s been great. Not many folks have the opportunity to spend that much time with their entire family. Granted, there have been some crazy days, but I figure they would have been crazy without me and they were probably less crazy with me. Anyhoo, we just got back from a trip to Nawlins that was nice. I was tired as Hell after that trip. I did a fair amount of Drake and Scout carrying. But it was worth every bit of sore back and knee. We got lots of great pictures of the kids playing in a little park along the bank of the Mississippi. Scout is positively enamored with her big brother. Drake would play a game where he would run around in a circle and fall down. Scout would follow in suit. It was priceless.

Now I am stuck in a motel room with an incredibly crappy internet connection trying to blog. I just got finished watching Rush Hour 2. Meh. I would much prefered to get Skype to work so that I could talk with the wife and kids. I’ll try again in the morning. I am heading of to Maryland to start my new job. We have a house lined up, but it will not be available until August 15…about 1.25 months after I start work. That means I’m up there without my family for that long. I am *not*looking forward to it. Mercifully, I have a fair amount of friends up there. So, I have a place to stay fot the duration, but as it stands it is sans familia. We hope to Skype every night. Dad has been generous enough to loan me a laptop until I can get with my family again. My folks rule. I hope I’m able to repay them for everything. I figure the Ph.D absolves me of guilt for getting arrested. I just wish I was better at stabalizing my finances. The hope is that the new job will leave us with the ability to put some dough into savings. That would be nice. It sucks to have to think “Oh God. We can’t afford our bills this month.” It almost makes it worse to be able to ask for help. I just want to be self sufficient. Good grief, I’m almost old enough to run for president (not that I would want to), I ought to be able to balance my own fucking budget!

Okay enough venting. I’m excitred about the job. I’m happy to see old friends again. I’m exciting about my family coming up to be with me in Maryland. There is a lot to look forward to. With any luck I’ll be able to find a place for Melinda and the kids to come to for the next month. It would be like old times at the Knight’s Inn…without the dog vomit. But we could be +3 cat vomit!

Time for bed. Further bulletins as events warrant.