10-14-2000

I was at PetSmart, perusing the litter scoops, and saw something that made me a do a double take.

It's a battery-operated litter scoop. I swear I'm not making this up. No, really! The darn thing has a button and when you press it, it vibrates. I guess this is to sift the litter faster. Goddess knows you wouldn't want to hurt your wrist by shaking the scoop by hand.

A vibrating litter scoop. Just think of the possibilities. Hmm... I'm not quite sure I *want* to know what they'll come up with next....

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One of the most fun things about little kids is the way they watch things that are new and exciting. We (my parents, my older sis and her husband, and I) took my nephew to see the new fire truck in Dixon. Okay, so maybe that's not all that exciting to most of you, but he's really into trucks and trains, so this was a big deal for him. He toddled around the truck, jabbering away in that language only the child's parents can decipher....although I'm starting to grab more words out of the muddle now. He was fascinated by the two helicopters that were there from the emergency response team, and watched in awe as one of them took off and lifted gracefully into the air.

As he was examining a plastic firefighter's hat, my mom and I were distracted by a little girl. She couldn't have been more than two, dressed in a little bubble suit, curly hair, leaning forward in that way that little kids do when they're watching intently, head craned back as far as she could, watching her daddy as he put on his firefighter's suit. A bit later he draped his jacket carefully around her shoulders, completely dwarfing her, while she watched him, eyes round, very serious.

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This work schedule thing is getting crazy. Between Richard and I and our travel plans for work, we're going to only end up seeing each other for about 3 days in the next few weeks, and most of that time will be merely a wave as we pass each other. He left for Boston this morning and even though I had nothing planned, I got up early with him so I could at least spend a bit of time with him before he left. We drove to the airport in separate cars because I figured as long as I was up I might as well hit the PetSmart to get stuff the cats needed. While we were driving, I violated one of my hard and fast rules. The cell phone rang and I answered it. In my defense, this is the first time it's actually rung that I've heard it (probably because I've only given the number to 3 people - heh), and also I knew that it would be Richard. We drove down the freeway chatting for a few extra moments until the signal got too fuzzy (probably from my phone since the evil little thing can't seem to hold a charge more than about five minutes).

But back to the travel schedules. Richard gets back from Boston on Tuesday night, but we won't see each other because Monday night I fly to Seattle for the latest batch of design sessions (because even though they've been unable to finalize the design for this project in an entire year, someone seems to think that they can do it in three weeks. Uh. Sure). The bright spot about this trip is that I'll be just about an hour or two away from my little sister, and of course the world's cutest little niece, so Friday night I've planned to swing by their place to visit. This means, however, that I won't get back til late Saturday morning, and so our time together will be spent in the car, as we both have plans for the rest of that day (and part of the next). Then he's back to Portland for the next week, while I stay home (and try desperately to avoid being dragged back to Seattle with the rest of the crew), and the following week he'll be in Atlanta and I will either be home, or in Andover, MA Needless to say, I'm crossing all available digits that they *don't* decide to hold the final meetings in Andover. Call me crazy, but they're scheduled to break ground on our house that week and I have been planning for some time to head over with the digital camera to snap some shots of the first day of dirt moving.

On the plus side though, it looks like he's nearly done with the weekly commute to Portland, so despite the long hours and exhaustion of both our jobs, at least we'll be in the same state after we drag home from work and collapse each night. It doesn't mean things are going to get any better - at the project I'm on, our deadline's been extended til December 1st, which means that crunch time has stretched into the holiday season, sigh - but at least we'll be able to grumble about being overworked to each other's faces instead of over the phone.