Jack

I love, love, love This American Life (the radio program). I love the drama, suspense, and comedy of the various stories and there is just something about Ira Glass's voice that is oddly comforting. The radio program broadcasts on our NPR station at 5pm on Sunday afternoons, which is inconvenient, but since I found their website with almost all their recent shows available for download - I am getting my fill of Ira and the gang several times a week.

I decided to format this week's post similar to the show with "each week we choose a theme, and bring you three or four stories on that theme". This past week's theme was JACK - which strangely enough - was the name Grandpa Casey thought Will should have.

Act I: JACK be Nimble, JACK be Quick. The Market to Market run was a success. Our team finished in a little over 13 hours. I thought 13 hours in a van would drag, but the day flew because we were in and out of the van every 10 minutes to get to an exchange point. I wasn't too sore after a grand total of 10 miles of running (including many more hills, something we are not used to in town) - surprising because I hadn't run that far since May 2007! It was a beautiful day and it was fun to be a part of the inaugural race - Will seemed to do okay without me for so long, although, I heard he missed me.

Act II: JACKpot. Last Thursday was the annual library book sale - an event I look forward to months in advance. All paperbacks 50 cents and hardbacks a buck...its a great way to expand my home library - and now Will's library - on the cheap. The greatest surprise was finding that my favorite children's book, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (come on...you know that any books whose premise is that food falls from the sky would be my favorite), had a sequel, Pickles to Pittsburgh.

Act III: Don't know JACK. Apparently, I don't know Jack about Site Design, because I failed my last exam! I really don't know how this happened because this was the only test I actually felt good about. So now I have to wait until next March to retake - so much for the goal of being registered this year. I was so depressed I binged on double chocolate brownies. MMMMMM - they almost made me feel better. Then I took a walk with my favorite baby and dog and put everything in perspective.

Act IV: AppleJACK. This past weekend was my work's annual retreat to Nebraska City - we were looking forward to taking Will for the first time. He had his first night a hotel (and had a lovely experience sucking in sewage gas coming up through the sink - thankfully, we switched rooms), first time in a swing by himself, and first experience at a bonfire. It was a gorgeous fall weekend.

Act V: JACK-o-lanterns. Will also had his first trip to a pumpkin patch yesterday...along with the usual entourage of mom, dad, Grandma, G-Squared and the Aged P. Since he's not quite sitting up yet, we had a little trouble getting the usual shot of "baby with pumpkins".