The good news and the bad news.

The good news is that Ray has conquered the McDonaldland play area. She disappeared around a corner, and the next time I saw her was through one of the little window areas at the very top. She said, "Ooooh." Then...she slid down the slide.

I just kept thinking that if it came down to a battle of nerves, I think she'd win. It's not like she doesn't have fear. She fears the obvious things, like falling off tall objects that my younger brother Andy never did. It's just that she observes the situation, determines just how far she thinks she can safely go, and does it.

The bad news is that she's learning how not to bite mom and dad, the hard way.

The other good news is that the '98 to 2000 pro has been successfully completes, with a 0% data loss.

The other bad news is that it was, in Lee's words, "interesting." I managed to set up an unintentional but perfectly-functioning dual boot system before discovering that it would take a new CD-ROM drive and video card to perfect the transition. And some more RAM. But--this is one of Lee's systems. It's a learning experience; that's the way it works.

The other other good news is that I'm done with day two, Wednesday. I don't have a page count yet, as the info is entered on two different systems (see above) and 6 pages in a notebook. I'm so hyped about it that I want to show people my first draft. Maybe I'll show Lee. Dunno.

The other other bad news is that my Grandfather's in the hospital. They had to put in a permanent pacemaker. He's feeling a lot better...but...whew. Anyway, if you pray, prayers would be good; if you don't, send him some karma. This is the guy that tried to get me to quit sucking my thumb by showing me his hand (the one with the thumb the combine had snipped off decades ago) and telling me that he'd sucked it off, because his mother let him suck it after he turned five. He's one of those quiet South Dakota types that likes to play horseshoes and tell bad Bohemian jokes, because he's Bohemian. I have a scrollwork angel on my wall he sent us to commemorate our wedding...I guess I'm just trying to explain how precious he is.

Pretty precious.

And...the other other other bad news is that two of my younger sibs are off to New York for a band trip soon. My mother says they lowered they lowered the alert level too soon. If there is a god, please spare New York from my brother Andy's sense of humor. He doesn't deserve to die for those jokes...well, okay, he almost does, but spare him anyway. Amen, I hope.