You may have noticed that I didn't talk much about my weekend yesterday. That's because I was really kind of tired yesterday morning, and also because getting the pictures off the camera is kind of time-consuming.

It was, in fact, a pretty good weekend. My parents came over for a visit, and we met up with my brother and his wife for a combined anniversary/birthday party that was really fun.

Penny was a little under the weather, off and on, but she was cute as could be whenever anyone else was around, and she was introduced to the marvel that is cake with chocolate icing. That was funny as hell; I wish I'd had my camera.

I was sitting on the floor at one end of this room, and Matt was standing on the other end of the room talking to John. I would feed her a bit of cake, and she would crawl just as fast as her fat little legs would take her over to Matt, and sit beside him for a minute. Then she would spot me again, and crawl just as fast as she could manage back over to me for another bite of cake.

That happened four or five times, at least.

So in general, it was a good weekend.

You may have noticed that I didn't talk about whether I got to go home early on Friday. That's because I didn't.

Well, I did, but five minutes early isn't anything to jump up and down about.

As far as I'm concerned, the problem boils down to the fact that our documentation staff, and their boss, don't know how to schedule. Or more precisely, one of the staff doesn't know how to schedule, and it hasn't occurred to her boss that scheduling is actually his responsibility.

So this morning, I'm calling them into a meeting. I'm going to go over their schedule for the next month. They're always whining about their paperwork, but I don't have a good handle on how long it actually takes. I'm going to find out. I'm going to build the schedule, starting backwards from when the documents are due, and show them when they should be working on them.

And then, just because I'm a real bitch, I'm going to tell them that I want them to build that schedule every single week, for the upcoming month. And then bring it to me to review and sign. Every week, until I say otherwise. Which will be for at least the next two months.

So I'm at work half an hour earlier than usual, gearing myself up into Uberbitch mode.

And I had damned well better be able to leave half an hour early today. I have personal-life stuff to attend to.

You may have noticed that I haven't mentioned Penny's surgery that she's having this morning. That's because I'm trying not to think about it too much.

I know it's very minor surgery. The first ENT told Matt that when they have to put tubes in adult ears, they don't even use anaesthetic. The only reason kids get gassed is so they'll hold still.

And she was astonishingly good this morning. I was expecting her to cry pretty much from the moment she woke up until the moment the gas mask hit her face, but she woke up at 5:30, and didn't really start to get fussy until nearly 6.

I expect Matt's wait at the hospital is less than cheery, though.

At least she's the first surgery of the day. Surgery at 7:30, twenty minutes to do it, half an hour to recover, and then ten minutes for Matt to drive them home... I'm hoping for news as early as 8:30.

Tonight, we're meeting my parents and John and Sam for dinner to celebrate Sam's birthday (again), so that should be fun.

But now, I'm going to go pace around and worry about my baby and work on my Uberbitch mode.

Oh, and have some coffee. 7:00 is no time to be at work.

--Liz