Well. Rather than being filled with dread and uncertainty about our financial situation (two mortgages and one paycheck), at the moment I'm having a blast. I feel as if great weights have been lifted off me; just as life got harder last fall when Emil started commuting, so now it's gotten easier because he's home.

For example: I was just in the midst of getting all the cars dealt with (all three need work, and I've been going through them sequentially), a task that has fallen to me because I'm home and have the time to take them in to the various repair places. This has meant that [a] I haven't had a car, and [b] my schedule has been constrained by the repair schedule. Not terrible, but not great. And all of a sudden, poof! There's too many cars, and two of us to deal with them . . . pressure's off, completely. More than that: something that was a chore has become fun.

Same thing with the Ann Arbor house. Our new realtor gave us a list of tasks; I'd assumed that I'd have to do most of them because Emil would be at work. But again - now we can do things together, and work becomes play. How cool is that? It truly does feel like we're back in 1978, only now we have a really spiffy house, I have the kind of job I wanted, and it's the beginning of summer (which is when my job gets really good). (Actually, come to think of it, if this had happened in late August I'd probably be a basket case.)

More to say, but we have to go deal with the cars now . . .