Heh, well the cubs are back - tired and happy to be here, I think. They said they had fun, but they also mentioned in passing that they were teased. <sigh> But, they were happy to talk about the good stuff, and laugh about some of the bad stuff ("I only ate a little bit of my desert on the first night because... <dramatic pause>... it was fruit salad!" ) and they weren't traumatised by being away. On balance it was probably a good experience for them, even if they did get a little sunburnt. I'm glad they're home though, I missed them more than I thought I would. Wasn't so bad during the day, or at night, times when they're either at school or in bed, but the late afternoon and evenings were very odd.
Heh, but their clothes are washed and I have two small sea-snail shells beside my monitor - presents from my children. : )

It's been a disjointed few days for me. Without the daily structure needed to keep the cubs on track I became aimless very quickly. A foretaste, perhaps, of what it's going to be like when they stay regularly with their dad on the weekends? I'll probably be less distracted though, cos I know they'll be with someone who cares for them.
Didn't spend all my time sleeping or reading (HP smut) however - Penny and I had a fun day out on Thursday. We headed East, to the Dandenongs, stopping at a couple of op-shops on the way and having afternoon tea at the Patchwork Teahouse in Warburton.
Picked up some neat stuff from the op-shops, a bundle of material and several books including a Jo Verso cross-stitch book. Very pleased with that - her patterns are lovely and quick. Also picked up a book about the history of Australian Nurses, and another titled "Grammar for People Who Wouldn't Have to Worry About It If they Didn't Have Children." <g> Could be interesting. There was another book I almost didn't get but decided to pick it up anyway because, well... "Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity." Here's the blurb on the back:

The dwarf, the disfigured, the blind man, the homosexual, the ex-mental patient and the member of a racial or religious minority all share one decisive characteristic: they are all socially 'abnormal', and therefore in danger of being considered less than human. Whether ordinary people react by rejection, over-hearty acceptance or by plain embarrassment, their main concern is with such an individual's deviance, not with the whole of his personality.
Stigma is a study of situations where normal and abnormal meet, and of the ways in which a stigmatised person can shore up his precarious social and personal identity. Using extensive quotations from autobiographies and case studies... argues that stigma is intimately associated with stereotype, and that both are related to the unconscious expectations and norms which act as unseen arbiters in all social encounters.

Could be useful for research. The book was written in 1963 - I'm fascinated with 'old' medical etc: texts, they can be such an insight into a society's attitudes and mores.
Spent more money at the Patchwork Teahouse than I'd planned but <happy sigh> such lovely stuff! Penny had cooked chicken curry and rice for dinner then we settled in to watch Princess Mononoke on DVD. I'd not seen it before and I was very impressed. The backgrounds in Studio Ghibli works always look so deep, even if the human characters always look the same.

But anyway, it should be back to normal now, at least until the Summer holidays which are too close for comfort. Heh, I'd like to have the first draft of SFSG finished by then. Not far to go now - the penultimate story arc is winding up...