Busy.

We went camping this weekend. That was great, though I once AGAIN sunburned myself, something I don't understand how I can possibly fail to prevent as an adult. What is wrong with me? (On an entirely unrelated note, I once put my finger on the burner of an electric stove to see if it was hot enough yet.)

Anyway, when we got home on Sunday evening, the newly-hired babysitter visited briefly to get the bike trailer hitch put on her bike and learn what she needed to do with the kids. Then we ate dinner and showered and scrambled to get ready for this week.

This morning I took Duchess to swimming (returning home once to retrieve her swimsuit), then to camp (robotics), before heading off to work. Cook took Skipper to camp (Japanese), left her there weeping and pleading for him to stay, and went to work. Cook and I talked by phone, and agreed that we weren't very happy with this week's jury-rigged arrangement, which depends heavily on one 19-year-old babysitter we barely know.

At 3, the babysitter picked up Skipper, biked her to her last hip-hop class, texted me a report, and then biked up to the home of one of Duchess's classmates, where she had been brought after camp, and biked everybody home again. She managed all of this on time and gracefully, and the kids both loved their camps and think the babysitter is the cat's pajamas. So it turns out that the arrangement is totally fine. And we will muddle through all this, with the help of some excellent childcare.