oh, hey

Last published on MAY 18!  Did it really say that when I logged in to Blogger?  Pretty sure it did.  So hi, it's me again.

What have I been doing in the last one month and four days that has kept me from all 19 of my readers for so long?

1.  I turned 31.  Thirty-one.  As in, the number of ice cream flavors Baskin Robbins claims to have (I say claims, because I have not, in fact, investigated this for myself and suspect they actually have more or less).  I almost missed it, because I was distracted at the time, and then suddenly the kids were asking what kind of cake I wanted.  On the same day I turned 31, Kathy turned another age which I am not allowed to say on the internet, but which is greater than 31.

2.  I worked on my first public company M&A deal, for extended hours.  I was surprised to find that I enjoyed it. I got very little sleep, and, apparently, I did even less writing.

3.  I had some kind of mind-explosion that comes when you are planning a wedding, renovating a house, working on your first pubilc company acquisition, have three children, the cat has decided to start pooping in your fiancee's gym bag, you have not exercised in approximately four months, you have to mow the lawn while it's still light out and you never get out of work before 11 at which point it is dark, you have to go to Michigan for a bat mitzvah, your sister lives in London so cannot feed you wine and cheese and listen to you cry, etc.  There actually are things that fall into the etc. category but the sentence was getting too long and was underlined in green squiggles, which I find irritating.

4.  Time has, undeniably, continued to march on at a more-or-less regular pace.  The kids finished school for the year, B turned 9 and did not receive a dog for her birthday, A had her first final exams and has fallen helplessly in love with a boy from a band called One Direction which produces songs that are indistinguishable from the Backstreet Boys, and C has essentially no teeth left to lose at this point, although he is disappointed that the tooth fairy does not bring iPads to our house, like it does for one of his friends.

Hopefully, in under a month's time, you will hear more from me -- with pictures.  Hopefully it warms your heart to learn that I have diligently been taking pictures of the progress on our Fire Island house for you, even if I never seem to post them.