The fun : Emily cooked dinner tonight all by herself. Stir-fried chicken with carrots, green beans, and snowpeas, seasoned with garlic, ginger, lemon juice and soy sauce, served over egg noodles. And she made tiramisu for dessert. And she cleaned the kitchen afterwards. And it was all totally yummy, and she actually ate everything and enjoyed it. She really enjoyed the cooking process, and she was very proud of the meal that she served to the family. Her siblings were inspired by her success : Sophie's cooking tomorrow night, and Stephen's taking Friday night.

The efficient : I used Priceline to book our hotel accommodation for next weekend's trip to Richmond, and got a really great deal. I also organised car hire, and printed out the necessary mapquest directions. All my print-outs are sitting in a little folder - one tiny, calm, pocket of organisation in the maelstrom of chaos that is the rest of my life.

The stressful : We just finished filling in Bobby's visa form (he needs a settlement visa in order to work in the UK). The form-filling process was rather gruelling, and we are not entirely sure that we have enough supporting documents. But, we've paid the 500-odd dollar fee, and tomorrow I'll Fed-Ex the form and the enormous boat-load of supporting documents that we do have to the British consulate in NYC. Don't know quite what we'll do if they reject his application - go to South Africa I suppose?

The touching : We had our last UU covenant group meeting tonight, and people are planning a big goodbye party for us. I am feeling a mixture of happiness and anxiety about this. On the one hand I'm really touched to think that people have liked us, and will miss us, and want to throw a farewell party for us. On the other hand I am suffering from pre-party anxiety - what if no-one comes? What if they come but don't have a good time?