A good day for beginning.

Today, hubby worked his last day at what will now be called alternately, "his old job" and "Ceti-Alpha V." Meanwhile, I enjoyed one of my final Fridays-off (until I am able to work flex time again -- I forgot I have to pass probation before I can start that schedule! Doh!) with my Mom and the kiddo. We went to Fanny's Fabrics (the store is closing, so there were savings to be had), had lunch at Montana's (oooohhhh, the Yankeee Pot Roast was amazing!), wandered Tillicum Mall for a while, and then popped into Value Village (big score today: a matched set of placemats for the dinner table and another set for the patio) before heading back home.

I was all set for hubby to hit the bars tonight with three of his friends in celebration of being unemployed for the next 48 hours, but one bailed and one other couldn't be located. When the third friend arrived and pitched dinner, hubby asked if we could all go -- so we did. What followed was a yummy meal at Azuma Sushi -- I had mixed tempura; hubby had sashimi and gyoza; the kiddo had beef udon; and our friend had chicken teriyaki. After dinner, it was back to Tillicum Mall where hubby bought me a new toy -- I am finally the owner of an mp3 player**. Whee!

Upon returning home I shuffled the kiddo into bed, ignoring her stall tactics. She was asleep within minutes -- it seems we have successfuly curtailed her bedtime to 9:00. When I start my day shift she'll need to be going to bed around 8:00, but this is a good start.

So it is a good day to begin the transition from old jobs to new; old routines to new; old lives -- where we felt like two single parents five days a week -- to new, where we can feel like a family every day.


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**After much hemming and hawing and scoping out opinions, I went with Sony's 512 MB Psyc player. I figure I don't care that it isn't Mac compatible (I don't own a Mac) or that it doesn't have a built-in FM radio (I don't much like FM radio), or a record function (what the hell would I really need to record?) or that the interface is a bit clunky (hell, I've used a lot of programs that work despite clunky interfaces). What sold me -- aside from the Sony name, because I'm a sucker for Sony -- was a compact size that wasn't so compact as to get lost in the bottom of my purse, an integrated lariat loop instead of a ring that could easily become separated, its little display screen, and its overall "look." Yep, I bought it for its look. I liked that it was round and had orange accents. So sue me.