Kansas City

John is off and flying. I took him to Roanoke this morning to head out to a planning conference in Kansas City until sunday. Late last night our house started to systematically break down, starting with the phone. It was sort of spooky. We didn't have heat or hot water, and the lights were doing a sort of brown out. The dryer ran, but not the timer or the heating element. Now, imagine my last minute packer doing load after load of laundry. At eleven he snuck into an apartment laundry room near his office to finish drying the clothes he had to take to the conference. Did I mention that the stove wasn't working. We changed all the fuses to no avail and pressed the restart button on the furnace. Nothing. John took a bath this morning in a bowl of water he heated in the microwave. I slept with both kids, one on each side, to keep them warm. We had microwave oatmeal for breakfast, and hopefully Ella didn't tell her class that we didn't have basic utilities. Things were up and running by the time I got back from Roanoke. I must mention that John threw up in the car while driving. Hopefully all the bad juju has realligned itself elsewhere and we can have a good weekend. The only thing keeping me in Blacksburg is Sophie's forth birthday party at four this afternoon. It is a "drop off party"---I can leave her for two hours. Her folks seem like good people, and I'm sure they just don't want a bunch of parents around to feed and entertain, but I've never left her at a friend's house. We are packing up and heading to Richmond tomorrow, but for now the heat is pumping like it didn't cost 2 dollars and eighty cents a gallon and all is well.