My son just came downstairs to tell me Amanda won't let him sleep.

This is my daughter's robot/doll, the one that carries on limited conversations, smiles and cries, and so forth. She's supposed to go right to sleep if you squeeze her left hand, but it doesn't work. You have to talk to her until you get to the point in the conversation tree where she asks what you want to do; then you can tell her to go to sleep.

She was a Christmas present, and something triggered her early in the morning on the 26th -- I heard "Mommy! Can we play?" and then my daughter's groggy voice: "No! Go to sleep! Go to sleep!"

Which means, I guess, that she's getting some of her payback early.

Herah! Haven't seen you around these parts for a while!

I got a new battery for my iBook and then succumbed to temptation and bought Sims2... so that will take care of my spare time for a while, I think. It's so damn cute!

I lurk. I don't have time to post. Actually, at this moment I am avoiding working on a PerplexCity puzzle, which I was doing to avoid doing anything useful. And I have to get up in 6.5 hours, so I really shouldn't be doing any of it. But I'm determined not to go to sleep before the kids do.

It's still light out, but I want to go to sleep now.

Weird.

I liked turning 30, but it was during an extremely difficult time in my life. 31 was kind of a bummer too. I'm hoping 32 is extraspecialfun.

My Sopranos finale guests have left. After much effort, still have not installed the a/c support, but I have stripped the threads on the phillips head screw that is supposed to support the a/c. This should be interesting.

And my dad got the nail polish last time, too. He's like the ideal Christine Lavin audience member.

I think I love your dad, Jesse. In the best possible way. Kind of like I love mine. Although, I gotta say that I don't think mine would be an ideal Christine Lavin audience member.

Herah, that story cracks me up.

At 30, I had just fallen in love, and was still in the giddy phase. Sot it was a good birthday. But what I think about most is that I was unmarried, childless, and both my parents were still alive. It feels like I did all my growing up in my 30s.

My 30th birthday was... interesting. My mom was visiting, there was a wonderful party thrown for me, and Angela Basset wished me a happy birthday. On the other hand, the cracks in my marriage were really starting to show, and I wasn't talking to one of my closest friends because she wasn't talking to my husband.

The actual year of 30? There are days when I feel like I've been living at Warp 11 for 9 out of the 10.5 months I've been 30. I have no idea what the rest of it holds, but I think 31 might just be a relief.

I left town when I turned 30. But had a lovely birthday in Ashland at the Shakespeare fest with my then girlfriend eventually-to-be Emmett's Mom.

My relationship with her dominated my 30s, and that didn't turn out so well. But I got an Emmett out of it. I had way more fun in my 20s, and my 40s have been far more productive but also much more stressful.

I cruised through the first half of my thirties. The second half was Parenting and then Divorce.