I was awoken by the theme from Wizards & Warriors this morning at 8 am. It was the plumber calling. I missed the call by a second, and when i called him back I got his voicemail. So i made myself some coffee assuming he was calling because we were coming up soon. I wasn't planning on getting up until 10 [second shift, etc]. 8:30, he finally returns my message, and tells me that he'll be coming around 11 or 12, which is the time we were expecting him. So now that I've already downed a few coffees, and my ladies are both sleeping, I've got some time to kill.

We've got a little bit of a back up in the sewer drain. It's not horrible, but it is beyond the scope of what I could figure out on my own. I'm getting very tired of home-ownership. I'm going broke paying my mortgage on home prices circa 2001, roughly 50 grand cheaper than what you find in 2006, and everytime anything goes wrong, I get the bill. I don't really see how this is the way to do it. I could be renting a nicer place for 300 fewer dollars monthly, and just leave if there's a problem. I could live at the Calhoun Beach Club for an extra hundred. Who needs a yard in the City of Parks & Lakes, anyway?

Bethany started working again this week. She's going to do two four-hour shifs per week. This week it was just me and the kid for the first time. It took her a while, but I think she's finally come to terms with my not being her mother. On wednesday, she woke up after about an hour and acted hungry, but she wouldn't take the bottle (Playtex Vent-Aire). It was still 45 minutes before playgroup at the Porch, so I put her in the Baby Björn and we went down to the record store. It was a nice 45 degrees outside, but it was pretty much hot in the store; we weren't in there for more than 3 minutes before she starting lettingme know how much she hated the heat. We'll have to go back another time when she's in a better mood. She was also starting to poop. So i decided to just go down to the playgroup on 46th instead of home to change and feed her [the record store is on 43rd], and it was such a nice walk [45° and overcast YUM] that I decided to walk instead of take the bus. It's only 3.5 blocks after all [or just shy of a half mile]. Turns out the wind was north, so we froze. As soon as i was in no-man's land between bus stops, a nearly empty 18A drives by. Oh, well, if the short line comes by, the next long line is usually late, so I just keep walking. Two minutes later a very full 18E [that probably was supposed to be five minutes ahead of the A] sneaks up behind me. We made it, though. She likes the Björn. She was finally hungry enough to eat, but I left the Playtex, thinking she didn't like it anymore, and only had the Medela bottle. The hole is too big on it, so the milk comes out way faster than Eliot can drink. I only had one spare onesie. Thursday, she liked the Playtex.

That morning at 9:30, I woke up to "I'm leaving for work, here's Eliot" and having a wiggly, vocal kid set on top of me. Yiiiiiiikes. She was up all morning.

We'll get the hang of it.