Sunday AM update

Today (on Sunday) we're slated to say good-bye to Grandpa, check in with our replacement, visit with Stephanie's friend Melissa and one of her kids at the Columbus zoo (pictured above), pick Vincent up from his father's (wherever that happens to be), and return home to Louisville. Monday I'll go back to work and Stephanie will pick up the dog from the veterinarian's. We'll also need to wash all of the no doubt smoke-filled clothes (now from his own smoke too) Vincent has brought back from his father's, check in to see how our turtle-sitter (Vincent's former prom date) did, mow the lawn (after 10 days away), and pick up our accumulated mail. It's always possible that Vincent won't come with us - In a sense, we're still his guardians as the court charged us de facto with supervising until he - hopefully - gets the charges wiped off his juvenile record in a year - and he's got more medication at home, as well as counseling, psychiatrist, dental, and orthodontist appointments. But - when we've been in a bad mood about his lack of work - we've said perhaps he might as well just stay with his father (wherever that might be - Ohio? Florida? no permanent home right now) since Stephanie has threatened to exit him from our house if he doesn't finish the two on-line classes he's currently enrolled in by August 1 (and that's this coming Saturday). I doubt he's gotten much done on those in the past 12 days.) He could just decide to cut his losses and stay. (And - except perhaps for the legal problems - at 18 this would be entirely up to him.) Last night both Stephanie and I had odd dreams - her about work and mine about student loan repayment. Armed with Jack McCoy (Sam Watterson's character in "Law and Order") in a meeting in my dreams, I learned on the Web - after waking up - about a brand-new (as of July 1) program (that I assume the Democratic Congress helped create) that may allow me to cap my monthly student loan repayments at $450-600 and ultimately to forgive some loan principal (along with Stephanie trying to get Indiana and perhaps the federal government to forgive some of her loan principal (which we've already strated to pay back) for teaching in a Title I (working-class) school). I'll have to make some phone calls about this this week, as otherwise much larger payments loom in September. We've done a decent job of starting to catch up on sleep in Ohio after an exhausting Las Vegas trip and days, weeks, and months before that. However, Monday Stephanie may also go to the doctor's office because she fears she has blood clots again - in her MN ruptured-calf leg, not her blood clot leg from her November Guatemala trip - with the 4-hour red-eye flight, feeling sick and tired and so sleeping for 4 hours in the Atlanta airport - instead of walking around. It may be that Stephanie can't take these long flights or we have to figure how to send her on these only if we can make sure she is well (and definitely not red-eye flights). In Ohio family news: the condition of Stephanie's stepbrother Bobby continues to deteriorate, contractors start to tear up and then rebuilding Stephanie's mother and stepfather's house's first floor this week, and one of Stephanie's aunt and uncle threaten to split up after being married for 32 years.

-- Perry