Montpellier

The week off is over. I feel like I've crawled out of a cave. Better able to focus now that I'm rested, that's for sure.

I've almost completed my first scrapbook for a longtime friend, which has immunized me for some time against the notion of doing another - too damn much work.

We're setting off tomorrow for a four-day weekend to Montpellier. We'll be checking out an international school, the real estate market, and assessing the like-mindedness of folks - in short we're out to find out in under 96 hours whether we click or not with that city.

Ironically in the last two weeks we have just started meeting friendly internationals here. Who knows what will happen; for once I'm not planning ahead.

The little one's cold and cough and runny nose have not ended. We've tried a variety of drugs and sleep positions, and at this point we're going to try no meds at all.

Dare I say she's at the top of her game in charmingness? She's venturing with many a drunken steps on her own and air kisses. Rumor has it, there's even a video of her first steps posted on the web somewhere, but email me to find out whether that's true or not.

Till next week then.

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In the news recently: mamas on the effect of blogging on their identity as mothers, their need(?) for alcohol, and another award of sorts for the US.

Until it's here, you really don't know how dehumanizing and ugly parenting can be sometimes. The blog's a place where all that stuff can go. If you only went by what the magazines and parenting books said or what your relatives told you, you'd think you were a neurotic freak who was doing everything wrong. Blogging makes parents more relaxed.

They love their children, they're happy to be mothers, but they would like their world to be larger than a Little Tikes mini-kitchen... They are looking for a small break from the conventions of mommy-hood — a way to hold on to a part of their lives that existed before they had children and to bond over a shared disdain for the almost sadistically stressful world of modern parenting.

Of 168 countries surveyed in the world, only four offer no national maternity-leave program: Lesotho, Swaziland, Papua New Guinea, and the United States of America.

Also, not surprisingly harsher measures don't cut crime, but have the opposite impact. The causes of crime ought to be taken into account - what a concept.