I am in the midst of my third week in a row at home. That, <mccain>my friends</mccain>, is something that hasn’t happened in almost a year. I am rather happy about this. It’ll completely throw Catherine’s world into disarray when I leave next week, but right now, it’s very cool.

I’ve been pretty quiet in these parts lately; not by design, but I’ve mostly been keeping busy with, y’know, life in meatspace, and not engaging in much of this internet business, which is my perogative, after all.

One of the things I’ve been keeping busy with is taking on the duty of acting as leader for Andrew’s Tiger Cub den. I’ve been trying to keep up with the rest of the pack activities, learn everyone’s names, set up parent email distribution lists and den web sites, and get leader training scheduled and attended to. I’ve got cub scout something or other going on four out of five nights this week. Thankfully, things won’t be so full in the future – most of these events are either one-offs or monthlies. But, I’ve still got camping trips and den meetings to organize and advancement plans to work out, and a bunch of six year old boys to keep engaged, which, as many of you know, is not my strong suit. Thankfully, my lovely and patient wife is planning on helping out a lot (as, at least for the near term, I’m going to be out of town quite a bit).

It should all be great fun, but please, wish me luck.

Otherwise, it’s been playing with the baby, cleaning the house, watching my thumb heal, tracking down feline fugitives and helping out with homework, including a rather ambitious map of the regions of Virginia showing different elevations, major cities and rivers.

And sadly, I had to euthanize one of my fish this morning; the poor thing seemed like she was floundering for a couple of days, couldn’t stay upright, and could barely get off the bottom of the tank. She’d been a reliable breeder for months now, and birthed a great many children. And ate them. She was very pretty though, I’m sad to lose her.