Monday miscellany

• My mother is on her way to Ethiopia for a business trip.  I always feel a bit adrift when she's out of the country.  Every day, after I drop the kids off at school, I call her on my way to work.  We chat, she asks about the children and tells me about how everyone in her office has admired the latest video of Josie walking or the latest picture of Zeke.  It was very strange to drive to work this morning and not be able to call her.
• I had a lovely weekend, including having dinner with two friends from my school in New Delhi on Saturday night.  Yummy food, great weather.  We took a walk through the neighborhood to the new house and Kim gave me some cool design ideas.
• Speaking of, we close this week.  We're moving in about 4 weeks.  I just starting thinking about everything that needs to be done to get organized, and I'm a bit freaked out.  September is going to be a crazy month - possibly going out of town this weekend, going with Kathleen to Atlanta in 3 weeks to visit friends, then moving, then going to Washington for another reunion (the school I went to in Israel from '80 to '84).  Yoiks.
• Zeke's doing pretty well with the potty training.  Yesterday J took him to a big air show and Zeke was grossed out by the port-a-potties (that's my boy), so J just put a diaper on him so he wouldn't have to deal with it.  But he wore big boy pants the rest of the weekend and used the toilet more often than not.  Now if I can only figure out a way to get bed-time under control...