Don't allow the boy to eat large amounts of popcorn the day before driving more than 10 minutes away from the house. And Jacob... sorry, man, but much of Concord, at least the people in the Borders parking lot, have seen your equipment.

So we're down one child for the next 2 days. How weird is that? The house just feels and sounds empty and echo-ey, even though there's lots of times when Emily is at school or at a friend's house or whatever. But somehow once she's out after dark, the house just fits wrong.

She's with her friend Em, who joined us at Storyland over the summer and chased ducks. It's always nice to farm your kids out to people you actually like, as opposed to sending her to redneck birthday parties. Even Willem likes Em's family, which is not necessarily a given with Mr. Studly von Manlipants. He has a gift for finding the flaws underneath everyone's perfection. Which may just be why I married him.