I have returned from producing the children for grandparental inspection in Buffalo. I am tired (it's a nine hour drive - about 475 miles or so - even when taking the speed limit along I-81 as more a helpful suggestion than mandate) and my fellow travelers are wired. It might be all the cherry licorice I tossed over the seat in an effort to keep them occupied or maybe it's just the entire day spent confined in their car seats but if the day keeps up the way it started I may have to look into padding the living room walls. A goodly supply of bubble wrap would keep them somewhat safe while I see to the distressing amount of laundry that needs attention.

The Boy Wonder and Entropy Girl are both decent enough on long car rides. We have a few toys that are available only in the car, which keeps them special and usually grants us two to three hours of happiness. After that, we break out the home toys and books and start singing songs. The only real disruption was that our satellite radio docking station (our car predates factory-equipped) broke and I had no NPR during the long stretches through the mountains and the kids had no Kids' Stuff. (An aside: when I was a girl my parents used to pack us all up and take two- to three-week car trips all over the country. For every trip my mom would put together little amusement bags to help keep us calm and busy during the driving stretches. One year the bags included Silly Putty - a huge hit with us girls. It was less popular with my Dad who faced picking melted putty off the velour seats after our trip to southern Florida. He still complains about "ruining his resale" as if a while Bonneville with laundau roof and powder blue interior had much resale value in the first place.)

I see that my comments are gone. Obtaining a new comments feature now added to the to-do list. I suppose I could use bloggers, but I hate using it on other peoples' blogs and I'd rather not spread what I see as kind of a hassle. Then again, it's not like I have a lot of time to evaluate the blogosphere's comment offerings.

Before I left last week I found an amazing price on tomatillas which I ground up and froze. With luck I'll be getting canning a couple pints of tomatilla salsa sometime this week. I should have a better idea of what the end of the week will hold tonight, after my husband meets with his students and puts together his own schedule of projects, papers and lab time.