Philly

M and I had a long weekend in Philly with the kids.  Such a delight to see them coming into their own.  Mandy loves University of the Arts, and Ian is within sight of his first promotion with Chipotle, which will get them to a reasonable place financially. They love their tiny apartment and are making friends...

We shared a belated Christmas with them, exchanging gifts in our room at the Latham Hotel.  Then a couple of crammed days of tourism -- the rare book room at the library was an exceptional event, and Michael, Elizabeth and Jessie came up for the day to join us at the Franklin Institute.  The best part of the visit was lingering over meals together, with long, easy talk and just being together.  A round of Carcassone on the last day was fun, though the Kid clobbered all the rest of us.

I did lose the battle with the chest cold I'd been staving off for some time, however.  When we got home Sunday night (after a delayed flight, of course), I took to bed.  I've probably averaged 12 hours of sleep each day since then.  We had tickets for the Chick-Fil-A Bowl for last night (New Years Eve) but gave them away rather than go out.  A good thing, too, as LSU was merciless.  Our opening kickoff was out of bounds, and they scored in about half a dozen plays. We managed a field goal, and then it was downhill from there.  A 28 point second quarter (none for us)...

Today enough energy to go out for the matinee of "Il y a longtemps que je t'aime" with Kristin Scott-Thomas.  A beautiful and heart-rending film.  Home for Marie's hoppin' John for the traditional New Year good luck dinner.