It has been a while since I've written here. Colette starts Tuesday in the Learning Express -- the last room before she moves to kindergarten. One of the things she'll do in the new room is keep a daily journal. Thoughts of her keeping a journal for the first time have made me return to mine.

Let's begin with a bit of a catch-up. Only family and a few friends tend to stop by these pages anymore, but I should bring the record up to date for its own sake.

I'm now working in a different part of Information Services here at the University. Academic Technology Services breaks into two parts: a group responsible for the academic computing labs on campus, and a liaison group that collaborates with faculty to enhance teaching and learning. It's this latter group that I now manage (as Coordinator of ATS). I made the move in May, and even with the school year beginning, I am already comfortable with things. I'm happiest that I will once again interact with the academic life of the University. When I took the Banner trainer position back in 1998, I did so knowing that I was leaving behind one of my favorite things: working with students. These days I see students every day, and we're not even in the second week of the term.

Adjusting to the new job has taken some time. It's a different work flow from the old job, and there is much to learn. Most mornings I'm up early, reading and working before the girls wake up. There have been two large projects this summer that have kept me even busier than the new job alone woudl have (a new series of videos I produced on SCT Banner 6.0 and documentation to support our fledgeling data mart). Even now I still have one more Banner video to produce and the new edition of the campus Banner User Guide to write before the end of October. So there are several more busy weeks ahead.

Jean has been great, managing our home and family while I focus on work. She's been busy herself, with new challenges at work. She still manages to get Colette and Lela to and from school, and to be their primary play friend. She reads to Lela for at least half an hour every night.

Lela is almost through the pains of early childhood. She's got just a few more teeth to go, and she's happier and happier every day. This morning she started shortly after five, talking to herself in her crib. I listened from the library, where I'd been reading, as she went in and out of sleep, chatting with herself in the dark. Colette used to do this when she was little, and it's interesting to see how Lela is like her big sister.

Colette is a marvel. I know it's typical of a parent to gush, but she's become a clever young girl in the last year. Her reading skills are probably around the first-grade level: she can read most childrens books easily and with a clear sense of the meaning of the words she reads. Her imaginitive life is at the core of everything (as it is with most young children). She states regularly that she is going to marry Frodo, and she's often heard in her room playing with Princess Leia, Lilo, Dorothy, Darth Vader, Merry and Pippin, Nemo, and others. Her favorite bedtime "special thing" is when I tell her an adventure that includes her. She can be heard talking to her friends for an hour or more after these stories (which is why I tell them only occasionally).

We're getting ready for Colette's second year of dance classes. She wants to take tap but her dance school only allows pre-ballet at this age. Oh well. We plan to take her to Riverdance when it comes to Richmond in November. She watches the video with her own tap shoes on.

Of all the things that have been neglected, it's the house that's had it worst. The back yard is mostly a jungle. A large oak branch fell two (three?) weeks ago, and it looks like I'll finally have to figure out that chain saw I bought more than a year ago. I'm going to try to start on the yard again this fall in the hope that by next spring we'll have something we can work with again.

And somehow, I'm going to try to find the time for journal updates again. I doubt they'll be as long as this one, but I do hope to update frequently.

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