I have a cold, I’ve stopped eating and quit smoking (again) and am a big pain in the ass to be around.

On the other hand, I’m getting sleep and have lost 5 pounds so far.

I am in the house.

[Thanks to Miss B for the scan.]

He’s back.

While her little sister Gamma does outrageous things and gets blogged about, Beta quietly goes about her business of getting straight A’s in school, rowing on a gold medal-winning team, and other things. She has been in the local paper often. But I must mention her here, too, so you don’t think I neglect her in favor of Gamma.

Beta was born twelve-and-a-half years ago in Tokyo, ten weeks premature. She weighed 1272 grams, a little over two and a half pounds. She was 38 centimeters long. The doctor told me there was a good chance she would grow up normal, although there was of course an increased danger of learning disabilities, hyperactivity, and other problems. As he told me this, a little girl with no fingers and a blank look on her face rolled past in a walker. Her parents had abandoned her and she lived at the hospital.

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While she was in the hospital, Gamma for a while shared a room with a 7 year-old girl who had been beaten up by a male relative. She also had a gynocological exam, but we don’t know what the results were. She had two black eyes and a broken nose, among other injuries and when the doctors asked her if anything hurt she said no, nothing hurt.

Gamma is wearing stolen slippers.
She is home from the hospital now, and feeling better although still not 100%. But well enough to go to daycare. On my way to work, I usually drop her and Beta off at school and daycare.

It is a finely-honed routine, with no room for surplus motions.

We sweep into nursery school, whip off coat, hat and scarf, whip off shoes, put on the slippers the kids there wear indoors, hand kid to teacher, run back outside, wave, zoom off.

Today, her slippers were no where to be found, although I did locate a similar pair. They fit, so she’s wearing them. My guess is the parents of the kid they belong to put Gamma’s slippers on him, because they were in as big of a hurry as I was…

This weekend will be very busy and will take me out of town for part of it so I just wanted to warn you, don’t worry if the posting frequency here suffers for a while and I make like only two dozen posts this weekend instead of the average 99. Meanwhile, go visit I Ate the Gingerbread Man, a newly linked weblog written by Mae, who has larger biceps than most of the men she meets and who by the way participated in the 100% Miguel meme and was harrassed via AIM for her troubles (for using an illegal background color) by two anonymous men with too much free time at work.

See you Sunday.