Gee, I love it when I get to work and there are four fires I have to stamp out right away before I can think about writing my journal entry.

At least they were a carryover from yesterday, which I hope means they'll stop bothering me today and I can do some work.

The book club meeting went well -- or at least, the sangria was a big hit, and the quesadillas were all gone by the time the ladies left. There were leftover sopapillas and chips, but I don't mind eating a few leftovers.

Making baked corn chips worked out better than I'd expected it to. They were tasty and crispy -- much better than store-bought baked chips. Penny ate four or five of them all by herself. I expect I'll be making some more -- at least to finish off the bag of tortillas I'd bought.

Everyone was duly charmed when Penny came downstairs to kiss me good night; she was a bit overwhelmed by the number of strangers, but very cute anyway. And she went right to sleep, apparently, which surprised me a bit given the amount of noise we were making.

I'd wondered if a restless start to the evening would make her sleep poorly or have her up early, but no, she slept straight through the night and woke up as usually around 6:15 this morning.

So all in all -- success!

When Kris arrived, she came bearing a big bag of toys that Emma didn't want anymore and that she thought Penny would enjoy. Mostly dress-up clothes. Penny was over the moon, of course.

We thought she would latch on to the princess dresses immediately, and she certainly will enjoy them (she was wearing one when she came down to kiss me good night, actually, and I was a little surprised she didn't ask to wear one to school) but the big winner so far is actually a pair of pom-poms, which Penny tells us are for tickling.

--Liz