We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. — Preamble to the United States Constitution

• Apparently purple is not a color that Moonshine likes.
  • At least that was the only color of sidewalk chalk and crayon that he didn’t eat last night.
  • He also ate the boxes.
  • This is going to be interesting.
• Crash seems to be fitting in quite well.  Today he climbed the living room drapes, hid in ambush on the curtain rod, and jumped straight down onto Koshka as she walked through the room.
  • Koshka refuses to cooperate with the investigation, so I suspect she is looking for her own justice.
• There are very few things as satisfying as showing someone the email exchange where they discussed work that needs to be done after they deny all knowledge of it.
• Going to a high school open house makes me hope that my daughter marries someone she meets in college.  In Sweden.
• I really hope that tempura paint washes out of Boo’s school shirt.  He only has two  (more are on order) and today was art day.

• Crash the Combat Kitten might not be as much of a kitten as we thought.
  • When the vet took a look at his mouth on Saturday, she announced that he had all of his adult teeth.
  • That doesn’t normally happen until 6 to 7 months of age.
  • He only weights 5 pounds, so he’s either early for getting his teeth or he’s going to be teeny compared to Koshka.
• Boo and I picked 8 more quarts worth of tomatoes out of the garden on Saturday.  I’m hoping that the ton of still-green tomatoes ripen over the next few days.
  • We can bring them in and ripen them on the window sills, but vine ripened just tastes so much better.
• Irish Woman and I built her a new work desk in the bedroom.
  • Basically, it was two oak kitchen cabinets from BIGGRAYBOXHOMEIMPROVEMENT, placed on the floor and screwed into the wall, with a piece of cabinet-quality 1×20 screwed into the top of them.
  • This replaces a plastic folding table and a small computer desk that was holding her iMac, her work laptop, two monitors, two printers, and several scanners.
• Irish Woman has been apologizing to me for having to work in the middle of the night for the past few nights, complete with conference call.
  • I had to tell her the story of my barracks room in Misawa that was across from the jet engine test stands and my barracks in PLDC down the street from the artillery unit that liked to pull 20 feet out of the motor pool to do night live fire training.
  • Among the few sounds that wake me up are breaking glass, doors slamming open or shut, and children crying.  Other than that, I sleep like a baby.
• I love it when a plan comes together.
  • Wasn’t thrilled about working on Sunday evening, but it was quick and easy and uncomplicated.

The leaves are starting to turn and fall.  My garden is starting to die back.  It’s 20 degrees cooler and a lot less humid than it was 48 hours ago.  It’s time to call this one.

• The saga of Boo’s school has ended, at least for now.
  • Now we just have to pay for it.
  • One good side of all this is that he will be in class with one of his buddies from pre-school.  We’ve warned his new teacher about the ramifications of that.
  • His new teacher has the nickname “Drill Sergeant”.  This does my heart good.
• It took me a week to burn up half a tank of gas in the new truck, but only one day to burn up a quarter of a tank after I gassed up last night.  I guess I’ve done quite a bit of driving today.
• Of course Boo’s new school doesn’t use the same color polo shirts as his old one.  What was I thinking?
• Girlie Bear got excellent grades on her first German tests this week.  Now if I can convince her that “ich” is not pronounced “ick”.
• Crash the Combat Kitten has developed a habit of ravaging the fresh fruit that we keep in a bowl on the kitchen table with his claws and fangs.  Going to have to break that habit.
• The weather yesterday was hot, muggy, and oppressive.  Tonight it’s decidedly crisp and refreshing.  I think I can live with this for a month or two.
• To the asshat in the semi truck who drove up the shoulder during a traffic backup, thereby cutting me off from taking the exit I needed and condemning me to 20 more minutes of stop and go traffic until I got to the next exit, I hope your truck rearends a tanker from a septic system cleaning company at high speed on “Take Your Daughter To Work” day.