My office hours are about to begin, though the sunny windows here by my desk are calling me into the fresh air and birdsong. Ah well, they will still be there in four hours when I get up from this chair and go for my walk.

Last night I lit eight or ten votive candles and set them up in the bathroom while running black water into the tub. The other day I was awakened by a loud sort of banging above my head. It was Scott in the bathroom upstairs, using a stainless steel dutch oven and a plastic collander to strain his morning bathwater.

It doesn’t look so bad in cande light.

Zander was here playing with Everett at suppertime and Scott came in and started teasing the boys. Emil, sitting at the kitchen table, he called Mr. Smith. Emil invariably replies “I’m not answering you if you don’t say my name right.” He does not enter into a spirit of banter.

To Zander, Scott said something like “You look like me.”

Zander said, “No I don’t! I don’t have black hair and hairy skin!”

That kid, he surely entertains us all.