So, me company has gone and done instructed me on how to use the telephone. We get the new phones sometime this weekend and then Monday we try 'em out. These phones have all kinds of fancy ring-types, such as "movie score," "jazz," "space," etc., so I'm pretty sure Monday will bring a cacophony of rings as people giggle and try to personalize their phones.

The kids' first week of day camp has come to an end and I can't believe how fast the summer is passing. In one week they'll be back with their mom, with our consolation being that they'll return for three more weeks here at the end of the summer.

In the meantime, they're having a great time. The first morning of camp anxiety has been replaced by happiness, to the point where Littlest doesn't even want to leave when we come to pick her up. Eldest has made a friend who we're having over on Saturday.

Littlest has been giving me lots of spontaneous hugs and "I love you"'s lately. I think the stay has really done her some good. There have also been virtually no tantrums, and fights between her and Eldest have been rare.

Last night I had Marv and cf over to jam; we seem to be enduring some general suckage for some reason. In spite of this, I still enjoyed the change in rehearsal space and the knowledge that the kids were just down the hall from me at all times. They walked in from time to time to check out what were up to. They did not run screaming with their hands on their ears.

Earlier in the week, the CD project guys and I touched on the final songs to be arranged. We're getting closer to recording now, and I think I managed to break some mental blocks and write new lyrics this week. Our next step is to run through all the songs as a group a few more times, then arrange a couple of recording sessions to lay down the drums, before our drummer... gets his hip replaced.

You read that right.

No, he's not a 75-year-old friend of the family or something, he's a young guy who, at the age of 20, had an unfortunate accident involving an outdoor party, alcohol, Canada Day, more alcohol, and a football-player friend. The subsequent fake hip he had installed has worn out and he's scheduled for surgery at the end of August. After that, he won't be doing any drumming for a good six months, so we'd better get our act in gear to record him while we can.

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Hey does anyone else find the thing about the baseball player hitting the sausage mascot very funny in a surrealistic way? I dunno, maybe I'm just weird... but it's not like he was trying hurt anyone or anything... (you can read about it here; the page also includes a somewhat slow link to a video of the incident.)

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