Saturday 7:30 am

Out of one of the front windows I can see a tree across the street starting to turn red around the edges. So beautiful.

It was rainy and windy last night 'round midnight. I crept about the apartment closing windows wending my way around a new arrangement of furniture. Cap moved the computer out into the front room which is our living/dining room.

The kids use the computer every day, they have a 15 minute time limit which works out well for now. They have favorite websites bookmarked (they are not allowed to surf) and a kitchen timer they know how to use so are pretty independent. They mostly spend their time at Ben 10 sites, Noggin, Nick Jr. and PBS Kids. Occasionally they'll check out the money sites (the presidential dollars and state quarters) or Magic Treehouse site.

The front room has clearly become our daytime domain and it made a lot of sense to move the computer out here. I think eventually it will become more of a learning resource and proximity to our work space (the dining table) will be beneficial.

Taking the computer (and its little table and printer and printer stand, our old night table) out of the big bedroom will also facilitate the further transformation of that room into more of a haven for Cap and me.

It's his primary work/reading space and now there will be enough room for us to stretch in there.

We also decided to try out using the apartment door that opens into the front room as our main entry and exit. We have two apartment doors, one at each end of the apartment (I like to call our place doughnut shaped---our four rooms are arranged in a circle and you can, actually you have to, literally travel from one room to another in a circle, no hallways. The front room and the back room---the kitchen---are connected by doors which open into the common second floor hallway which is the landing between the first and third floors of the house. When we have people over, especially if there's food involved, we open both doors and use the common hallway as our own personal hallway between the kitchen and dining table in the front room, it's a straight shot, rather than going around through our bedroom (the big bedroom called that because our bed is the big bed). As in front room, our room, kitchen. If you went the other way it would be front room, kids' room, bathroom, kitchen.

So, we moved our shoe shelves into the vestibule space in the front room which has much better access to the coat closet (our bedroom closet) and the chest containing our winter hats, scarves, gloves, etc.

Where the shoe shelves were before, a cd shelf and book shelf now reside. That door will now be used only when we have groceries to pop right into the kitchen. The back door is the one you come to first as you come up the stairs from the first floor, so now our trip into the apartment will be a bit longer. It may feel counterintuitive for awhile.

I woke up this morning with some mild stomach burning for the first time in about a week. I was a bit chagrined, I like waking up free of that. But, last night I could feel some tightness. Yesterday had some stressful moments and the half an eggplant sub for dinner probably didn't help things (Friday night is pizza/sushi/family movie night.)

I have noticed that my portions continue to remain much smaller. I often feel full after the smaller amount of food and I am more often feeling hungry, which still fills me with wonder because it's such a new experience for me. Yesterday, with the summer-like humidity, I impulsively pulled on my orange pants and was surprised that I could actually close them. This means I've lost about an inch off my waistline the past few weeks.

I got Cap to come to bed to talk to me while I fell asleep last night and the happy by-product was that he ended up falling asleep before me. Our sleep schedules have always been different. For a long time, my work schedule meant that I was asleep by ten and up by six. Nowadays, things aren't much different, but I still do better with eight hours of sleep and try to be in bed by eleven.

Cap is a night owl. Once he started having a more traditional work schedule, in Sacramento, he started working on going to be earlier, but for him this meant by midnight rather than one or two or three.

So, we've never had the kind of night time routines I see people have on tv (and I imagine they do in "real" life). Brushing your teeth together already in your pajamas, climbing into bed together, reading side by side in bed, talking about your days in the dark, whispering, giggling, snuggling playfully...

The air wafting in from outside feels cool, almost cold right now. The sun is lighting up patches of trees and I feel good!

Today Kinder has soccer in a couple of hours, we have Anna's birthday party in the afternoon and then we're off to Manhattan to see my family. Jiji (my dad) is in town for less than 24 hours and we love to see him when we can. Sandy (my sister) is working in Flushing today (the Chinatown of Queens) and will be bringing over shumai and pork buns, mmmmmmm. Cap's baking an apple pie if he has time (if not I'll bake an apple cake) with some of the apples we picked last week.

And tomorrow, Norb (Danielle's husband) has graciously agreed to babysit the kids so that we can go out. I'm taking my hubby out to a movie and a meal. Probably The Darjeeling Limited (there's a special place in my heart for Owen Wilson circa Bottle Rocket and I'm a fan of Wes Anderson's work) and the vegetarian Indian place downtown. That was unintentional, Indian food paired with a movie set and shot in India.