It is Friday night, and I should not be doing this, but I have left the computer on in case Carl emails me or posts to Our Family Blog. I miss him. And now, guess what? His folks are coming on Sunday for a suprise visit for a week. Good Lard!! Well, it is just me and the girls, and Lil has promised to help me get this place together.

In other news, we are bombing the bejeezus out of Iraq in some kind of macho cowboy shoot-em-up, only no one else has any guns to speak of. Oh well. I hope regular people have the sense to get out of the way, if they can. Also, I saw a house today. I don't know whether to be excited or scared. It was a good house, I think, and the street looks nice, lots of flowers and it is obvious everyone cares for their property, even if most of the neighbors are black. So what? It matters to a lot of people down here, but it does not matter at all to me, as long as people care about the neighborhood, who cares about the color of their skin? Sigh. I just want to have Carl back safe, and without the horrible SARS from Asia. Can't wait for Carl's folks to get here, the girls are already going crazy with anticipation. We don't get to see enough of either set of grandparents, and they simply adore the girls.

I waited around all day, and still no phone call. Perhaps tomorrow. It is the best I can hope for on this job thing. Though I am going to see a house at 11 tomorrow, so I should be happy. Either way things will be fine. I am waiting up to see if Carl will call me. I miss him so much, and so do the girls. Everyone is off their game when he is gone. We had a nice dinner though, the girls had soup and I had some chicken, and we all had cauliflower. It wasn't a bad dinner. Then I had some brownies just a few minutes ago. I made them with Lil today. Lil stayed home again for the second day in a row and did not get to karate. She missed this whole week. Sigh. Tomorrow I am taking the girls and the other kids in our carpool out to ice cream. I promised the girls we'd go for a cone a couple weeks ago, but everyone has been so sick, we just haven't had the time or energy to go anyplace. Gah. It feels like time has been flying past, already another month is almost gone, and I have one lone prospect here for a job. I guess that is better than nothing. It is so lonesome here. I miss you Carl!!!

Carl is leaving tomorrow, and I already really miss him. War. Gah. The job interview went well today, I am sure I impressed them, and I hope they choose me. Then again, perhaps I hope they don't. Whichever way it goes, I am feeling good about it. I am going to be missing my husband bad. I'd better go cuddle with him now before I lose my chance!

I'm getting ready for bed, but need to post first. I tried to set up a family blog, but so far, frustration. Grr. Technology. You can't live with it, you can't flush it down the toilet (and believe me, if I could....). I am preparing to miss my Carl. He is gearing up to go on a big ol' trip to NYC this week, and I know we will all miss him like crazy. I always hate it when he goes away, it is lonely here without him. Once the girls are asleep, there is no one interesting to talk to. Ok, I take that back. There is the cat. (Sorry, kitty!) Tomorrow is my big interview. I don't know if I am worried or not. I think not so, but I guess I will know tomorrow for sure.

Guess what?? My folks are coming from California for Passover! Horray! The girls will be out of their minds with delight. This is so exciting. I am really looking forward to their visit.

Now, on to more mundane matters of everyday, at least what passes for mundane around here. I went today to see some alternate homes for us, and I feel a bit let down. The first place I liked ok, but the second was out of the question, and the other one I wanted to see was not available today so we could not get inside. It was the Holly house I really wanted to see, anyway, and I was quite disappointed when we could not get in for a viewing. In a way I think I'd really like to stay in the same town, so that is also bringing me down about this area. In one way, it would be great, because some of the homes are just our speed, both price-wise and age-wise. We're old house people. On the other hand, the area is quite industrial all around, and is not so pretty as some places around the University where we live now. We could get similarly run-down property closer to the U, which means we could sell the cruddy Cavalier I had to buy this fall to get me to a job that ended nine weeks after it began. Man, I cannot even stand to look at that crappy car. Sigh.

Today we had a breakthrough, and it feels as though moving is inevitable. I am wondering if I care about this job interview or not. It is so appealing to me to think about being there for the girls, going to events at their schools and taking care of them in the afternoons. It makes work look so boring and stupid. But perhaps I am jaded and it is affecting my judgement. Just because everyplace I have ever worked (except the companies I've started myself) sucked, and I hated all the annoying, slow-witted people who worked there -- why should that be the way it is everyplace? The lab won't be like that because it is more like a university than a business, so only actual certified thinking folks work there, for the most part. And the job seems challenging and fun, and the people like me and get my sense of humor -- and they don't watch a lot of TV.

About the breakthrough: Carl thinks it would be great if I could be around all the time, but he worried about my career. I personally feel that staying home with the kids would mean I'd have more time to work on my career -- it would mean I could work on contingency and maybe get some good writing done about some things that interest me. Perhaps I could chase down that interview with the lcd guy in North Carolina and do that story we've been talking about for more than a year now. When I laid that to rest, Carl thought moving would be a great idea, and we should move quickly forward if I don't get the job at the lab, and even if I do, we should seriously consider whether I say yes. Wow. It feels like a big weight is off my shoulders. What a wonderful feeling.