Day at the Fair

Last Friday was my last day of work at the old job, and next Monday is the first day at the new job, which means I've had a week off! So what did I do? Mostly cleaned our house. Today, though, I took Luca to the county fair.

First, we went to see the animals. We saw horses, sheep, chickens, rabbits, ducks, turkey, cows, pigs, and llamas. Then we stopped to have a snack: mini doughnuts, fresh squeezed lemonade, and fried cheddar cheese. Yum! We went inside to the convention center where it was air conditioned and browsed some of the exhibits. I still had some chores to do at home (like grocery shopping), so I took Luca back to school. He fell asleep on the way there.

I hope you had a good morning at the fair with baba! Maybe next time we'll go on some rides and eat cotton candy!

Hoffa Gud Tay Askool

In the morning when Kyra and Luca head out for school I often say, "Heeryor lunboks. Hoffa gud tay!", which is a line from the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes:

(Full Comic)

In this strip, Calvin encounters an alien on his way to the school bus. He greets the alien, but does not understand it. The alien transforms its body to look like Calvin, and Calvin hands the alien his lunchbox, saying, "Well Calvin, here's your lunchbox. Have a good day at school." The alien repeats to Susie, the neighbor girl, "Heeryor lunboks. Hoffa gud tay askool."

For whatever reason, when I say that to Kyra and Luca, it seems to have more meaning than the translation alone. Perhaps it's a bit of nostalgia thrown in with wishing my family a good day, even if they don't have a lunchbox.

Note: The comic above is copyright Bill Watterson 1996. It can be found on p. 15 of the Calvin and Hobbes collection, "It's A Magical World" (on Amazon). Reference: Calvin and Hobbes Strip Search.

New Transitions

I have been working with an insurance company for almost two years, and I primarily worked with insurance claims to evaluate the effectiveness of care for our members and to discover patterns in care. Last week I accepted a new position with a physician clinical practice organization. The new position will provide experience on the other side of the health care industry, working with data from the doctor's office rather than the insurance company.

Kyra is also looking for a new job. She's been having a rough time at her current child care center with the way it's being run. Last weekend she started submitting applications, and she's already had two interviews. She hopes to have a new job very soon, we hope with a daycare center where Luca can enroll and Kyra can seek state teaching certification. One day she would like to teach in an elementary school.

Luca has been growing rapidly. He's very talkative and he really seems to know what he wants. He enjoys going to school and visiting his friends. On the weekends, he's been taking swimming lessons and he loves the water! A bit too much actually--he really wants to swim on his own, but I'm sure he'd sink like a rock! Soon he will be two, and we hope to have a big birthday party for him.

So we're all undergoing changes. It may be a turbulent summer, but I hope we all end up a little older, a little wiser, and a little happier with these new transitions.