This is Emil inside the front entry of his new school, where he meets his aide each morning. A couple days ago she said to me, "What a sweetheart he is; what a great kid!" Of course I was not surprised; it gives me great pleasure to hear that my son is well liked. I have heard these sentiments from almost every aide he's ever had, and some of his teachers too.

The one aide that never sang his praises was one he had for a short time when he was in Grade One. She would pick him up at our home; he would meet her inside our front porch. One day she said to me "He is never ready, I always have to wait at least five minutes for him and it makes us late for school."

I said "Huh?" Figured she was just nuts, because while she may have waited five minutes once when he had to go to the bathroom just as she was arriving; that was the only time there was what seemed to be a long wait.

It wasn't long afterward that his teacher called me to say that she didn't think Emil was very happy with this aide and that I could go to the administration and tell them I wanted another one. Emil had just told me something somewhat threatening that the aide had said to him on their way to school, so I didn't wait, I went to see the principal right away. That was it for her, at least with my kid.

That aide died of cancer a year or two later, leaving two young children and a husband behind. Emil still mentions her from time to time though, as "the crabby aide."

Everett is vacuuming. Rug cleaners are coming in 20 minutes and we will let them in and then head over to Mom and Dad's for the afternoon. Mom was actually feeling well enough to consider coming over here today — they haven't seen my place yet — but the carpets will be wet for a while so there's no point in that.

I hit a moving sale yesterday and for $40 bought all kinds of things for the suite, things that I can leave here when I go: tupperware, glasses, wine glasses, end tables, a small vase, cake pans, breadloaf pans, etc. Boxes of stuff. The one thing I won't leave is the fruit/vegetable drying machine that was included in the deal. Can hardly wait to try the thing out.