because what's a day with no maternal guilt?

So, just to refresh... Elder Child has had a streak of sorts going, where he hasn't missed a day of school because of sickness since, oh, I don't know, kindergarten. So, of course, on the first day of my new traveling schedule, on the same day that Hub is in a totally different timezone, we have a sick child. Gah. He was listless and scratchy-throated yesterday, and today woke up with a headache, sore throat, and general blickyness. So he stayed home and Grandma took him to the doctor. I was worried about strep or the flu, but we're assured it's just a respiratory virus and that he's OK to go back tomorrow. Sure, he's OK. But I'M A MESS!!! Nothing like stress-testing the safety net/support system on the first go-round!

In other news, I now have a new laptop (ooh, pretty, shiny, CLEAN laptop), and a whole slew of new user ids/passwords to remember. I'm all official-like with a new ID badge (have to sign in and out of everywhere in the building, including to get to the cafeteria and the elevators) and I've ordered business cards. Somehow, hitting submit on the order form for the business cards is what made me think, "I'm really doing this."

The flight out last night was fine, even though there were a bunch of folks on my shuttle to the airport that had been trying to get from one end of the country to another unsuccessfully and were having to spend the night in the hotel instead of in their own beds. I tried not to see it as an omen of things to come. *MY* flight was on time and smooth sailing. Except that the security screeners stole my toothpaste. OK, not really, but apparently, I got an extra .6 oz in the tube that made it too big to qualify for carry-on. Bah. And it was a nifty new flavor I'd been wanting to try, too. Instead, I had to buy a tiny little tube of generic Colgate from the hotel shop for a mere $2. But all the rest of my "extra" set of toiletries were nice and new, so I don't have to always unpack things like deodorant, toothbrush, hair gel, etc. Put me back a good $30 at the CVS yesterday stocking up on all that at once, but well worth it since I will be using it quite a bit moving forward.

That is all for now. I have to try to log into the company system via VPN and see if I can get some of my other paperwork done online. Everything is done online at this place -- even the bathrooms had a sign on the door that said if anything needed to be brought to their attention facilities-wise, we should log into a specific site. That kind of cracked me up.

Oh, and I'm 27 for 27 with the run thing. Don't tell Miz T, but the treadmills here are NICE, with the little TV screen embedded in the display. I did part of a Grace Lazenby iTrain audio track, but bailed when she had us pump the incline to 10% rise. Maybe next time. In a bit when I'm done playing online I'll go downstairs and check out the pool.