I got up early to make sure my daughter got to her blood test. She's 13, so we tried something new. I let her walk there by herself from school (which is next-door to the clinic). The premise was that my daughter might take the experience better if she was trying to be mature and doing it on her own. So about 9:45 the nurse practitioner phoned me to say it wasn't working perfectly... but I talked to my daughter on the phone and encouraged her to just look the other way and relax and she'd be through it in no time. It worked! Later she said it didn't hurt so much after all.

After that I got back into my nice purple bed and went back to sleep. I didn't want to get out of those new sheets today!

My son's playstation two is already toasted. We got it less than 2 months ago so its still under warranty and we can get it replaced. As you can imagine this vital equipment failure caused a big stir in the house. He was playing a new game and suddenly it just quit working. Very annoying. I can identify - when my computers fail I go berserk and have to force myself to be calm and patient as I take the steps to repair them. Hmmm.. playstation 2 - 2 hundred bucks - 2 months. Hmmm.

Speaking of vital equipment failure, I sure feel sorry for the people in Baghdad whose electricity is out. We had a three day electricity failure last winter. It was awful. I'll bet those people are in major distress right now. I hope and pray the torment of the Iraqui people will be over soon.

My daughter says she had a great day despite the blood testing. She got third prize on her science fair project, and tonight at the open house got her report card with three A's - and she made honor roll for the first time. Her three A's were in reading, social studies and science. Plus she was happy that she'd done so well at getting along with people. I'm glad she considered that one of the best parts of her day. Tonight she attended the spaghetti dinner at her school and a basketball game, on her own. I'm glad to see her moving into the teenage years and getting more independent.