We're redoing one of our bedrooms into a bright, cheerful girly room (which entails getting rid of the dove in magnolia tree wallpaper and repainting the windows). Two of the windows had cracked panes, so I thought it would be a good time to learn how to glaze windows.

Oh boy, right now I've used four sheets of glass to do two windows, one of which has to be redone. Glass isn't the most forgiving substance to work with. Have I mentioned the cuts on my hands?

On the positive side, I'm also replacing the sash cords on the windows, so they'll go up and down, and stay up and down with a stick. I think I'm going to pass on unsticking the top windows.

My parents took the girls camping down Bristol way, as they had Friday and Monday off. We agreed to join them Saturday through Sunday. I had been hoping to find a bigger tent on clearance sale, but no luck, so we went with our old 9x9 dome tent. The girls wanted to sleep with us, as did the dog, and this tent barely fit 4 people and a dog. It's also mostly waterproof, we got rained on during the night, and aside from a few soaked sleeves, we stayed dry.

Sunday was odd, we appeared to be in the fog, but as we headed down the mountain to the village of Naples, we saw we the tops of the mountains were in clouds. I took a few trips to Naples that day (better than being cramped together in a clammy camper), and I even bought the local specialty, a grape pie (made with Concord grapes). It was good and tasty, A+++, would eat again.

The dog really enjoyed camping. I'm not as sure myself, maybe with a bigger tent and better sleeping arrangements (we used an air mattress) so I could get some sleep, and less rain, thunder and fog. I guess I'm not as young as I used to be.

I ended up taking Friday afternoon off, since the kids were gone, as we had things to do. We did a thing that most married couples do, but we never had before, I added Mrs. Ha to my checking account, we now have a joint checking account. I'll let you all know how that works out.

We also browsed for a few hours at the VOA downtown. They don't sort their clothing, they just take donations (often from garage sales it seems) and dump them in a big bin. There were lots of bins there. If you wanted something, you had to go piece by piece through the bin, it's tedious work. Fortunately Mrs. Ha was there to keep my from buying unstylish jeans, as that was the only type I could find in my size. I did get two shirts, a pair of Khakis, and a large pair of Goretex Cabela hunting pants (khaki colored), that I plan on ebaying. The price is right, too, 50 cents a piece.

I really scored in the DVD department. I found a copy of Holy Grail, and Clerks, for 99 cents a piece. There  looked to be the contents of the Monty Python boxed set, but I didn't want to be greedy.

Later in the weekend we watched Clerks, I can hardly believe I watched that on my laptop on a plane (I must have used earphones). It's still funny. What's your favorite quote from Clerks?

I like Discworld novels that focus on Vimes and the Watch the most. More on that in a future diary.

In other book news, six year old and I finished Tonight on the Titanic, yet another Magic Treehouse book, where Jack and Annie end up on the Titanic hours before it sinks. It was pretty frightening, though it ended on the usual upbeat note (except for all the people who went down on the ship).

Ghost Town at Sundown is a Magic Treehouse book that sends Jack and Annie into a ghost town in the American southwest, and they end up reuniting a filly and her foal. For completist or horse fans.

Wednesday morning was hard. The kids had dental appointments (filling for eleven year old, cleaning for six year old), which required a Valium script called in (for eleven year old), and me taking off work, since Mrs. Ha doesn't feel comfortable enough to. It went okay, the Valium and nitrous helped, and I even picked up an Adderal Script while we were in the neighborhood. The trouble started when eleven year wasn't feeling well enough to go to school (I never mixed speed, valium and nitrous, so I have no idea how that feels). Six year got whiney and complained that eleven year old always get stuff. Then came the tears.

Then came the anger. Six year old finally agreed to go to school, and I was left with the ticklish problem of writing an excuse for my doped up daughter.

Last night sucked. I had a rough day at work, which is not common. Mrs. Ha had a rough day at work, which is very common. We had two people looking for support from their spouses, and having trouble providing it. That sucked. Our kids are turning into codependents, that really sucks.

Anyone know of any jobs that are hands on, repetive, have decent working environments, are social, and aren't too hung up on mistakes?