Well, we've had a very nice day. Charlie stopped by for a few hours this afternoon - he wanted to pick up his computer, and he had to do laundry. The dryer is broken at his house, apparently, and I hope it stays that way until he's 40 . . . He runs out of clean clothes about every two weeks, and we're guaranteed a visit!

Anyhow, the four of us sat around playing with Emma's Atari Flashback (a cheapo video game console loaded up with old Atari games, including Pong. Emil and I bought a Pong machine in 1979, the first year we were together, long ago and in a galaxy far, far away . . . too weird to be playing it with our children.) (When we thought about children back then, we never thought seriously; having children was the farthest thing from our minds. But sometimes we imagined we'd have two, a little boy and a little girl, named Chance and Chaos. And sometimes now I think that's exactly what we did . . . )

But I digress. The point is, we had a very fun afternoon, with much laughing.

Both kids are looking forward to our trip to Phoenix. We started talking about what we want to do on Sunday, when the rest of the wedding guests will have left. Charlie and his dad (who has a job interview this week) went off to buy dress shirts. (I can't get any enthusiasm from anybody for the idea of his wearing - gasp! - a sport coat to the wedding, so, Lassotas, I'm warning you: The boy will be underdressed.) (Of course, I won't exactly be overdressed myself. And god only knows what Chaos will be wearing . . . )

Ah, well. The point is, it was a very good time, and I am looking forward to more very good times with the kids very soon. I'm hoping for more days like this one . . .