There is a cricket somewhere in the office, out in the hallway or in the ceiling. Possibly several crickets. The noise is making me slightly crazy, and I've only been here for five minutes.

Of course, I was already pretty close by the time I got here, because Penny woke up before six with a dirty diaper and spent the rest of the morning alternating between being snuggly and whiny. Or both at the same time, which might even be worse.

At least I got to bed early last night. Well, earlier than usual, which is to say around 11.

I really want today to be Friday. Alas, it is only Thursday, but my brain refuses to accept the evidence of my calendar. It believes it has endured enough of the workweek, and is ready to move on.

And I just realized that today is supposed to be after-work scrapbooking day, and I left all my stuff at home.

Maybe I'll run home and get it at lunch.

Or maybe I'll just wait and see. We've got an oodle of documents going out today, most of which I haven't seen, and there's another stack going out tomorrow, most of which I haven't seen. So I might be working late and unable to scrapbook anyway.

I keep thinking that I want to look for another job, but I honestly don't know what I'm qualified to do, any more.

Matt had told Penny that all the trees and houses were getting "dressed up for Christmas" and she latched onto that idea like a lamprey latching onto prey. Every little bit of light that we passed on the way to pick up Matt's car from the shop, she told us that it was dressed up for Christmas.

On the way back home, I told her about Santa Claus, and presents.

"What kind of present do you want for Christmas, sweetie?"

"Um. A pink one!"

When Emma was three, she told her parents she wanted a pink present for Christmas. Specifically, Emma wanted a pink present with a baby brother or sister in it. I was intrigued by the parallel.

"What's going to be in the present, Penny?"

"No, I don't want one!"

"You don't want a present?"

"I want three."

So much for parallels. "You want three pink presents for Christmas?"

"Yeah. I gotta count 'em!"

Last night was book club. We'd read Life of Pi.

I'd read the book before, about a year ago, and I think it was actually better and more thought-provoking the second time around. We had a fantastic discussion.

We talked about the writing style, and about the lilting rhythm of an Indian accent. We drew parallels between various parts of the book, and made comparisons between this book and others. We talked about the morality of zoos, and the essense of faith, and the nature of reality.

Plus, there was pie, and wine punch.

So it was a really fantastic book club meeting.

--Liz