Misc.

This weekend, the girls read Dangerous Journey: The Story of Pilgrim's Progress to their dad. They LOVE this book and wanted to share it with him. Poor G was so tired though, he kept dozing off.

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S finished The Hobbit and is tearing through The Fellowship of the Ring. We're continuing our read-aloud of The Three Musketeers, with renewed interest after watching The Man in the Iron Mask. Still trying to catch G up on Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and I've discovered a hidden talent... I can read aloud, in character, in my sleep. When I finally come to a snoring halt, and get a nudge from the girls, I find that I have gone on for up to three pages without any recollection of the story.

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After all her schoolwork was finished yesterday, G continued her new game of school with little sister, L. The lessons included place value flash cards, counting money, first declension Latin chants, and a history-themed art project. They converted an empty case of beer into a castle and created a whole cast of royal characters, while listening to a CD of medieval music and discussing monks.

She is in there now, reviewing the money lesson and planning to read some of the miniature Peter Rabbit books aloud for L.

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Our neighbor came by yesterday for a book swap. We let her borrow The Golden Compass, and I got The Da Vinci Code. Not sure when I'll get to it, but I'm looking forward to it...

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My MIL officially gave me this laptop. I felt bad, because I haven't been successful in extracting the files from my real laptop, and it's taken much longer than I planned, although I think I may finally have a way to do it and will maybe work on it this evening. She told me to keep this one, and when I insisted that I will return it, because I'm close to fixing my other one, she half-jokingly wondered if hers wasn't good enough. OK, OK, I'll keep it! Thanks!! Told you she was cool.

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Meanwhile back at the ranch:

G is packing and moving furniture out of the east coast house. It seems very strange to be moving and not involved in the physical end of it. Can't say I miss it, but I do feel sorry for G, just more work and stress for him.

After closing the second deal there, he came across a few odds and ends from the first deal that were unresolved, mostly having to do with additional charges overlooked in the closing costs. The buyer wanted his portion of the deposit money returned but didn't want to pay for the additional expenses incurred. G, never one to nickel and dime it, gave it all back, with a stern lecture on good faith business practices. He's a softy. He also makes deals on a handshake, which is noble, but in my opinion, insane, given this overly litigious society we live in. He decided on principle that he was not going to be a jerk like this guy was to him, and back out of the agreement to buy the big house (which we could legally do.) We will go ahead and close on it, try living there and if we can't stand it, stick a For Sale sign on it and pursue island life again. We can't have our cake and eat it too. One or the other is going to have to go, but since we will have both for the short term, we might as well give it a try...