Anjelica has settled easily into second grade, considering that she skipped first grade completely and is new to the school. She and our neighbor’s daughter, Maria, like to play after school and on the weekends. I chat with her parents while we wait for the morning school bus.

Weight training and pestering the builder and all the workers at the site are neck and neck equal obsessions that make up Lou’s days. He’s micro-managing the house build, and truly believes that it will all be f**ked up if he doesn’t do it himself. He has not worked at all since the end of January and isn’t doing anything to try to generate new leads. He does not need to be home full time, and I actually think the building project would go better without him being there to second-guess every nail hammered. Lou is getting ready for a couple of bodybuilding shows this month, and so he has a very precise schedule of workouts and eating. He stills flies back to Delaware to meet with his old trainer, and also has a female trainer locally that he likes.

Things are very busy at work, but I manage to usually stay home long enough in the morning to get Anjelica on the bus, and also make it home in time to cook dinner. Lou usually meets Anjelica’s bus after school. Of course, she just wants to play with Maria as soon as she gets home. I don’t really see the logic, but Lou insists that she have “quiet time” with him after school before she can go outside to play. She has to sit, have a snack, and hang out with him for an hour every day. As far as I know, he isn’t doing anything with her after the snack, so I don’t see the logic. He cancelled plans I made for her to play with a friend one weekend afternoon because he had been golfing and had not spent time with her earlier that day. She isn’t watching cartoons or educational kid’s shows while stuck inside, as the tv is always on CNN. God forbid we change the channel to Scooby Doo; we might miss the latest nuance in the Presidential battle between Al Gore and George W. Lou is a staunch Gore supporter, especially for his environmental stance. After all the hiking we did, Lou became a real tree hugger. I think we belong to every environmental interest group. I totally agree with him, I’m just not nearly as enthusiastic about politics, and can’t deal with Larry King every night.