Making a return trip to this blog is Brandi Carlile, with this excellent, relatively new song:

Very nice, that song.

What news of me? We’re heading into the real lasts of the Catbird’s high school ‘career’. This week, she’s got her final conference champion track meet (though not her last track meet; she qualified for sectionals in the 800 and 1500). She now has less than 20 days of school left. Wow.

The Magpie continues to thrive in Japan, though the end is also in sight. She booked her return flight, which caused quite a bit of sticker shock. Last fall, she flew out, non-stop, on a Dreamliner for under a thousand bucks. A non-stop return flight would have cost her almost 5 grand. Five thousand freakin’ dollars. Instead, she booked a flight for roughly what she paid to get there, but this one stops in Hong Kong and will keep her traveling for something like 22 hours. Ugh.

Making steady progress now through the WiP. I had printed it out and spent a couple of weeks going through it, making notes and scribbles and sticking post its all over it (what fun!). Usually I start with the last version of the document, do a ‘Save As’ and make changes following my notes on the printed copy. This time, I started with a brand new, blank document and have been typing the whole thing back in. As a result, I’m making even more changes than are noted on my pages, which I think is making for a better revision–at least I hope so!

Not sure if this marks my return from sabbatical or not; we’ll see. How’s everything with all of you?