Other than Being in Belgium, which I'm not, there doesn't seem to be much to Tuesday.  Right now I've got laundry going, which may be the highlight of the day.  Four loads are in the dryers and four are in washers.  Our laundry room has four washers--can you tell?

Yesterday KidThree and I took a road trip down to Monterey.  That drive should take about three hours, but we did a lot of sightseeing, including back and forth across the bay several times (crossing the Carquinez, the Bay Bridge, and the San Mateo), as she likes to see the water.  We got down there after five hours of meandering and had lunch at Carrows.  The service was good but the lunch itself was crummy--if you're in Monterey, go somewhere else.  

The main reason for going down was to take a look at Monterey Peninsula College (which I attended for a bit twenty years ago) and Cal State Monterey Bay, aka Fort Ord.  I lived on Fort Ord twenty-plus years ago with my ex- and KidOne and KidTwo.  (KidTwo was born there.)  KidThree and I toodled around as I pointed out the hospital where KidTwo was born and the church where she was baptized, the little playground KidTwo was enroute to when she left home unescorted at sixteen months, and the house we used to live in.  It's hard to believe that Army housing could be made uglier, but someone managed it--a big wooden fence now encloses the front yard.

Otherwise, the base just looked sad.  Boarded-up barracks and adminstrative buildings, bulldozed lots where there had been some truly crummy enlisted family housing, and bizarrely out-of-place signs advertising wonders to come.  Our house was on the last residential street before the mortar field; I'd be at home with KidOne and KidTwo and feel the ground shake throughout the day as the artillery practiced.  Now the mortar field is bulldozed flat, with idle construction machinery randomly placed.  I hope all the construction workers there have seriously good life insurance, in case someone bulldozes a dud  that turns out not to be.

Monterey Peninsula College looked almost as sad as the base.  Twenty years ago it was a pretty little campus, but now it shows clearly the years of budgetary neglect.  Elevators were not clearly marked; we had to go inside one building and ask if there were elevators to get directions to one.  The one we checked out looked as though it hadn't seen a maintenance technician since I was enrolled.  I had forgotten that the terrain there was a bit hilly, as when walking that amount of incline didn't matter, but it was enough to make wheelchair travel a little tricky.  MPC had been in the back of my mind as a possible school for KidThree, but now it's essentially off the list.    

We didn't get to the Aquarium, as we didn't have the time or the money, but I had hoped to take KidThree on the 17-Mile Drive.  Unfortunately, it was closed to tourist traffic.  Drat.  I know there are several spots where I could have parked so that KidThree could get out of the car and get a good look at the ocean.

The drive home was nicely uneventful and a little more direct, although we did take a twenty-minute detour to the east to visit my dad for an hour.  Mom was out with my godmother, watching tennis down in San Jose.  Dad and KidThree and I had a pleasant visit, then Kiddo and I headed home.

Upon arrival home, I logged onto the computer to check my email and to what was up in Redroom, where I found a real treat: Christopher Moore has a book coming out TODAY and is signing copies of that book in Corte Madera tomorrow.  Christopher Moore is KidTwo's all-time favorite author--she told me that she has distributed more copies of "Lamb" and "Bloodsucking Fiends" than she can count--so I'm going to head down there to get her a signed copy.  This evening I'm babysitting MissA and her little brother for a couple of hours while their father works late (Tuesday is one of his surgery days and Mom is on a business trip), so maybe I'll have enough for a copy for KidThree as well.  She hasn't experienced the fun of Christopher Moore's writing yet; I'd better introduce her to it before she calls CPS on me for neglect.

The reporter who is writing an article on KidThree called this morning.  It will run Sunday in the Sacramento Bee.  If you are looking for it, just log onto sacbee.com and search for my name--that should pull it up.  KidThree has mixed feelings--on the one hand, she thinks it is funny that she will be 'famous,' but on the other hand, she would prefer to be invisible.

Next Tuesday will be a little more eventful than this one.  KidThree was nominated for a Golden Heart Award by a friend of ours, and she won.  There will be a reception of some sort for the nominees and winners before the regular city council meeting (the award is given by the City of Davis).  There are two categories for the award: one for a young person who has performed exceptional public service, the other for a young person who has overcome significant obstacles.  You can guess which one KidThree won.  It will be interesting to see how all that goes.

Now off to put the last load into a dryer.

A