It's been about a month since the last hole entry, and life has gotten more interesting since then I guess.

LO is with me for these next few weeks as her Dad is in la la land. He's landed a freelance gig to cover on one of those extreme some obscene amount of miles per day races and is being sponsored by the tourism office of a once colonial government.  It seems that since his marathon dreams are over, he now fancies himself a producer of words catering to this extreme sport demographic. Due to his age and his body type, he only found any success in short races with smaller fields.

When he first announced that he was traveling, he then bitched about how low writers were paid and that he'd barely cover expenses. I replied back, well, yeah, I work with a bunch of writers and former (some well known) journalists and they aren't paid all that much. It ain't all glory my friend.

I am just pleased to have LO with me for an extended period of time, the week on/off deal has gotten tiring. Also, even with the turmoil of being at her Dad's perfect family every other week, LO is blossoming into a caring kid - while she has her moments, I am constantly surprised with her empathy and perception of the world at large.

And just for more proof that she's indeed my kid, the other day she sat in front of the iMac with Garageband, attempting to record herself playing her sax. I nearly burst with geek pride after witnessing that.

The big news is that she's having problems with math this year in school. Multiplication and fractions and beginning algebra. After her telling me that her Dad had been thinking of getting her a tutor, I wrote to her teacher asking for access to the math resource teacher, since obviously we are both thinking she needs some extra help. Teacher responded same day and arranged for some evaluation sessions. And no, I don't know why her Dad didn't think of that first. I wonder what his reaction will be once he returns.

In other family news, my parents anniversary was yesterday and I forgot to call. My sister in law is due in late January, and apparently the world is stopping because she's pregnant. My sister has borrowed money yet again from my folks.

In apartment news, three recent happenings. First, there is an encroaching brown spot on my bedroom ceiling since yesterday's rains... it seems there is a roof leak. I am not looking forward to getting this fixed since I have no time to take off from work. Next, there are little flying insects in my apartment (a little bigger than gnats or fruit flies, seem to be attracted to damp areas, like cat food.) and I can't get rid of them at all. Despite vacuuming them and getting rid of the damp areas where they are congregating.

And last, it seems that my next door neighbor, a big tall dude with a slavic accent, revolving roommates and a yellow Jeep has disappeared and there is an eviction notice for early November  on his door. His jeep isn't here and I guess it's been quiet -no loud video game noises or voices through the bathroom wall- for a few weeks at least, so I don't think there is a dead body in there, but I wonder if the current flying insect infestation is related to him.

Work is work. I have actually a number of stories to tell from work that belong in teh hole, like say the fucking idiot co-workers who thought they were screwing the company and who were found out, due to oh, not deleting incriminating emails before they left and lawyers are getting involved. To me increasing revenue 6 figures for the company due to my esss-seeee-ooooh skills (and now people are thinking, finally that the shit I know works in real life). To me being held to revenue numbers even though I have some shit non-revenue projects on my plate and I am being asked to waste time on them by people who don't like being blown off. To not wanting to get drunk with coworkers because, hey, shit happens and people get hit on by men who are big fish in a very small pond. Seriously, I see myself there for another year/year and half or so.

Football, fantasy. I'm #1 in the fantasy football league at work. Over 700pts in a league that doesn't use the  W/R W/T scoring. Eat that, Abooey. After this weekend, I expect to be in the top 4 in the Husi league.

Football, in real life. I went to the Bears - Eagles game last weekend. The one work benefit I actually enjoy. Yes, Philly fans did boo during the game. They even booed the frisbee dogs during halftime.  And, even though the crowd was loud (we were being egged during Chicago drives by LJ Smith on the sidelines with his pink towel), you should have heard the deafening silence when Muhsin Muhammad  caught the ball at the 9 second mark. There went the Eagles season.

And the worst part for me? Chicago D was held to 9 pts in the fantasy leagues during that game.

Boys. Well, the whole l'affaire le lawyer seems to have petered out after some more text messages and emails saying how much he missed me. At least one of the emails stated something to the effect of "I can't believe you're such an unkind person as to not want to give me another chance." Uh, yeah, I am.

Texas lawyer resumed contact with me again, but we're just IM pals this time, no more pursuing dead ends for me.

I've been spending more time with the boy lately (the successful date I went on when lawyer thing was ending), and I'm happy with that. My friends are amused by his moniker, but I think it fits. He's a good guy and I enjoy spending time with him. When I'm with him, I'm continually surprised that I don't have to be in the lead all of the time. He's been telling me that I'm not like any other girl he's dated (not a surprise there). He works hard and cares about his family, especially his son and friends. He didn't go to college (one of those too smart and bored in school) and he's smart, much aware of the world, likes to cook/bake, motivated, entrepreneurial, mechanically inclined and gots a little of that OCD going on, which is amusing to me.

His family is from this area, he knows a lot of people and his parents divorced when he was young (it was the early 80s and his dad came out). He was mostly raised by his Mom and Stepdad and during those years they were poor. During high school, he lived with his Dad and he had to deal with taunts that his Dad was gay. So, I guess with anything that your parents are, he's had to deal with that.

Last weekend, we went up to the Poconos to his best friend's family's cabin. The boy's little sister and her on/off boyfriend who is the boy's best friend went with us. (The best friend is a nice guy, I like him, but he's got a streak of a hick-ish white boy trying to be black.) It was nice to be in the woods among the trees in terrific fall colors (it's been a few years since I went away like that) and the views were awesome.

We got in late on Friday night (it was over a 4 hour drive from here) and on Saturday the best friend showed us the area and we got pictures of waterfalls and trees and such. Unbeknownst to me, the best friend wanted to go ATVing with us, but his parents took the keys to the machines the weekend before. Saturday night included grilling, a bonfire and rounds of UNO which devolved into an amusing drinking game. It was all fun, but unfortunately three of us wound up with some sort of food poisoning.

Sunday, the boy and I woke up relatively early since I had to be back in town by 2 to go to the game. We did ok with hastily written directions, but got lost in Reading - although I found an alternate route out. No one wants to stay in Reading for long, let me assure you.

So, that is that, I guess. I dunno why, but I am grateful that my mind and heart, for the most part, is much more settled than it has been in a long time.