Had my meeting with the school psychologist and Director of Special Education this morning. We've got our signed form that says they suspect a disability and we can proceed with a full evaluation/diagnosis. Owen's probably on the mild end of the ASD spectrum or possibly PDD.

this is too easy for Halloween [link]

now, I just need some swirly bats.

Fred Pete - I think monday afternoon or later could work for both phillaphistas... yay! F2F - and I'm about 20 minutes from Penn by local train, 30 by car, so I can meet you if something else doesn't work.

Owen's probably on the mild end of the ASD spectrum or possibly PDD.

I hope this doesn't seem nosy, but I'm curious if you had previously suspected this. I think I'm asking because I had never picked it up from you before, although you seem fairly comfortable with it.

And what's PDD?

eta: Also meant to add that I'm glad it sounds like the appointments went well.

Hivemind advice...

How do I tell my dad - Thank you for planning a trip to Boston with K-Bug, purchasing three round trip tickets for you, your wife and K-Bug, getting a car and hotel room and driving K-Bug to the various school campus's.

We told you she could go from Thursday afternoon through late Sunday night and that she wanted to go to the Northeastern open house on Friday. She works on Mondays and wants to miss a minimum of school.

You booked the flight leaving Friday morning and getting in Friday evening, missing the open house completely and returning on Monday such that she will miss school and work. My understanding is that campus offices are closed on Sundays so that gives you only Saturday to tour around and be able to ask questions.

Can you change K-Bug's flight so that she takes the red eye Thursday night, by herself. I can have a friend of mine, who I met over the internet, meet her flight Friday morning and take her around the Northeastern campus and then they can meet you when you arrive Friday evening? And since you are changing flights anyway, what about changing the return flight so she comes on Sunday night?

Yes?

As much as I appreciate him taking K-Bug, I'm so frustrated with the way he has scheduled this PLUS his undercutting remarks about me planning a celebration party before I had officially graduated (well now it is AFTER since I got my schedule confirmed) still have me emotionally raw when I think about it too hard. I doubt I could get sentence one out and this just doesn't seem e-mail appropriate.

Oh, shit, Suzi. I have no advice; I just hate seeing you all raw when you should be bubbling over with happiness.

I'd go with a "gee, guess there was a misunderstanding..." tone with K-Bug's tickets.

As far as the other... sighhhh. Ass.

I hope this doesn't seem nosy, but I'm curious if you had previously suspected this. I think I'm asking because I had never picked it up from you before, although you seem fairly comfortable with it.

No worries, Stephanie. Yeah, I had some niggling suspicions for a long while. His speech patterns (echolalia and some gibberish that he still uses on occasion) as well as his social deficits made me suspect. I've been mentally preparing myself for this--especially since I had to withdraw him from preschool. I've tried not to panic. I've been talking to a lot of people and getting O into the therapy program he's in has shown me that he can make fast progress with intervention.

The kids he's in group therapy with are mildly ASD so it's less worrisome for me to see them and to see Owen interact with them on so many levels. I'm a lot less frightened of the "A" word. It's not like there will be a scarlet letter on O. We'll just have some hurdles to get past to see him achieve his potential.

PDD is Pervasive Development Disorder. A sort of catch all catagory for kids with social development delays but who may not be autistic.

I read this far, assembling many witty and insightful comments in my head but I'm still sleep deprived and the only thing I can remember now I've got to the posting box is: wouldn't The Muslim Slutbombs be a great name for a band?

Ok - one of my tenants is acting shifty.

We scheduled the water department to come out and inspect for leaks because our bills have running really high. The meters are located in her apartment.

She is refusing us entry because she just "can't" and "it's personal".

Now, she totally has the right to refuse us entry - we didn't notify her because we forgot the meters were in there. I get that. But A) she hasn't paid her rent this month and B) she was totally acting shifty. She didn't say, "You didn't give me notice I don't have to let you in." I'd totally understand, end of story, reschedule water guy. But instead she was VERY evasive and some guy in the background is saying, "No. Just tell them you can't. Tell them no."

Bet this guy moved in and she doesn't want us to know cause that breaks her lease.

Sox, sounds good. We'll have car but don't know the city too well.

Our appointment is at 10. But we've been told that our part could take a couple hours, could take all day, could take a couple hours followed by a break and then another couple hours. We've already decided to stay overnight.