You’re all very sweet to worry that something must be very wrong for us to miss a Bruce concert

, but the gluttonous truth is that we’re seeing him tonight. And next Friday night. And in November. See? It’s all good.

I hate that I haven’t been here much lately. Things are going well behind the scenes – well – sort of well. The previous owner of our house neglected to tell us that the shower (the only shower in the house) leaked when it needed to be regrouted and we were surprised by a leaky hole in our newly painted kitchen ceiling yesterday morning. SURPRISE! And he also neglected to mention that there might be a problem with the heater, which shut off soon after we turned it on the day before yesterday and then proceeded to leak onto the basement floor. SURPRISE AGAIN! The plumber and I are now good friends.

(Yes we had the house inspected. And yes we are looking into our legal rights on these issues.)

Home ownership is fun! I did buy some beautiful mums and some pumpkins (a big one for Daddy, a medium one for Mommy and a baby one for Meli!) for our front step which made me exceedingly happy. Of course that was before the house started to leak everywhere.

Oh and our apartment is off the market. I shouldn’t even be saying this but we’re out of the LONGEST ATTORNEY REVIEW ON RECORD and await the joys of inspection. If this deal closes it will be a miracle. The only good thing about it is we won’t own it anymore. Enough said.

Meli is fantastic. I wish I had pictures to show you – I took some on Labor Day (really truly that’s the last time I took pictures of her. How pathetic is that?) But I haven’t had the opportunity to process them yet. My office is on the third floor and I’ve started working again (not that I’ve been getting any work done) but I can’t really be up here with Meli so I never really get up here. Eventually the plan is to have a computer station in the basement where the playroom is and then hopefully I can be on the computer while she plays. I actually go DAYS without being online. It’s good I guess, if I felt like I was being productive in other ways, but really I feel completely out of touch.

Back to Meli. She runs, she jumps (well – she tries really hard), she sings, she talks NONSTOP. For the most part she’s just a love to be with all day long and I wouldn’t trade her for the world but she doesn’t like to fall asleep. Once she IS asleep she sleeps great – in her own bed (twin mattress on the floor with this GREAT PRODUCT to protect her from falling the 2″ to the ground) in her own room – but getting her to sleep is a total bitch. I’ve tried a lot of stuff, but I think she just takes a long time to get to sleep. I’m usually out cold before her and then I wake up and stick her in her own bed. We’ve tried naps, no naps, routines, blah blah blah. She just has trouble going to sleep. But this means I have no time at night to myself, which really sucks. And no real time in the morning to myself which really sucks. Just kind of like no time to myself. My dad’s been coming up once a week to play with Meli and that gives me a great break, but I need to find a mother’s helper or something. Eventually I’ll get to it. Like everything else.

Anyway, so that’s what’s been going on with me. I’ve been knitting, like I said, on socks. A new pattern is, believe it or not, in the rotation. I promise promise promise I will take pictures soon! Oh and my boobs stopped leaking – YAY! That was completely annoying and distressing for a bit. I’m loving the fall weather even if I am a bit freezing this morning with no heat. And I’m looking forward to Rhinebeck in a couple of weeks. We’ll be the family with the little girl who’s head keeps spinning around because of all the sheep. (Although if there were monkeys her head would absolutely explode!) BAAAAAAAAAAA!

Today is a very bittersweet day. Bruce dropped a new one. I love this song and really like this song and I’m still feeling out the rest of the album. It’s hard when you alternate between kid’s stuff. Lately the kid’s stuff has been taking over the car. Meli has a hard time transitioning (from my arms to the stroller, from the stroller to the car seat, from the car seat to the stroller, etc.) When I put her CD on from our music class she instantly calms down.

And Bruce is on tour. Excellent. The last concert we saw was so fucking fantastic I still dream about it.

Anyway, I finally had a few minutes to get on the computer and I see that John Updike has died. I can’t tell you how sad this makes me. Harry Angstrom may be my greatest literary crush and I will always remember the summer I read all four Rabbit books with great fondness. (Rabbit, Run and Rabbit at Rest are my faves.) It will always make me a little bit sad that I can’t read them again for the first time. You know what I mean? I always looked forward to Updike’s inevitable next book – no matter how crappy it might be. Anyone who could write Rabbit could write another masterpiece, no? So I’m sad.

I’m also knitting. A lot. I’ve done very well with my sweater and I started a sock. My goals now include at least two rows on the sweater and at least one repeat on the sock. I hope to have pictures soon. Meli has begun crawling at warp speed and everything has become that much more difficult. I’m so tired, but I’m feeling okay.