I went on a hike on friday with M., who makes much less noise than the kids. Because of this absence of racket, we saw a bunch of wild turkeys, several groups of deer, and a very still rabbit. Had the kids been with us, the only animal we would have seen would have been the gopher. The gopher, being headless, would have been oblivious to any noise made by the kids.

M. and I talked about the difficulties of finding satisfactory employment.

On saturday, we took the brood, bundled them into the van, and went to a wedding. We had a fine old time. The kids rampaged around the hotel, accompanied by other like-minded children. The cake was lovely, with some sort of mocha filling. One of the hotel employees congratulated as he passed, and I thanked him, which is an automatic response to being congratulated. Only after he had gone did I wonder what on earth I had just been congratulated for. Then it struck me: he must have thought I was the groom, who also has long hair and a beard. As everybody knows, all long-haired, bearded men look exactly alike to the untrained eye.

On sunday, we partied all day. First, we stopped in to drop off some photos to the newly wedded couple. Then we went to a birthday party for K's daughter, who is 1, but only because she was born on leap day. While we were there, some clown presented me with a way to make money. When we got home, there was a message on the answering machine from M., who had heard from a mutual friend about a job opening that might interest me. As I was going to work, it struck me that the clown and the mutual friend have the same name. I don't know what this means. It's good news though.

cds I listened to while pondering change: Therion "Secret of the Runes", Eleni Karaindrou "(dammit, it's a greek title and I forgot to look up the translation)", and "Unreleased Recordings", and My Dying Bride "The Voice of the Wretched"