There is a giant backhoe thing parked in front of our house

Seriously, it's a lot bigger than it looks in the picture. I'm pretty sure the green pipes are 36 inch drain-line mains.

Whenever Will is in the hospital and I'm here I get a little stressed out and tend to screw things up. This week, this is made more likely because our street is being torn up for a new drain line so I have to park my car at the end of the ally and up the block a little. Liam and I go thru the back gate and carry ourselves and our stuff down the ally to the car in the morning and reverse on the way home. This adds about 10 minutes to the journey provided we don't see any kitties who need petting on the way too or from the car.

Today was extra thrilling because just as I had almost got Liam to sleep Mollie started going nuts barking downstairs. After she didn't stop and didn't stop I went down to see what was going on. It was Bunny (the neighbor kitty's) family at the door! (With Bunny, he follows them all over the neighborhood.) I've been parking my car on the edge of their yard in the right of way. (They said it was okay.) They came buy to tell me the dome light was on. So nice. Then, seeing how completely un-able I was to formulate a solution to this relatively simple problem (Let's see: it's 9:00 at night, the baby is in his room but not asleep, it's not clear when he's going to go to sleep, the car is a block and a half away, and there's not another adult in the house to stay with the baby, asleep or awake, while I go turn off the light, umm. . .umm. . ..) they said: we'll take your keys and fix it and then leave them back on the front porch, we're out walking the dog (and the cat) anyway. What great neighbors. I must be across town by 8:30 tomorrow morning for a meeting with clients, and I'd have been sunk to go out in the morning and load Liam all up in the car only to find that the battery had died. Thank you Bunny's family. You're the best.

In other news: where is my little baby boy and who is this big toddler and how did he get in our yard?