Today I am having the guys clean up their toy room. This means that I have to sit in the toy room for however long it takes them to pick up every single lego from the floor, yelling all the time, and never leaving the room. If I leave the room, they immediately stop working and start screwing around. I know that if they actually worked, they could get it done in a half hour, tops. But they cannot do that. I want to shake them until their teeth rattle. The only way I see to fix this problem is to do it myself -- clean the room, I mean. But I am not going to do that. I would rather spend the time forcing them to do it, than do it myself. The result is that I have an acid stomach for the rest of the day, and they resent me totally. Oh well.

Ron is coming home today from Chicago where he was playing Halo3 all weekend long with his online gaming buddies. While he was away, he got an email from his new boss asking if he could go on travel the first week of November. Now, this isn't a bad thing, but I really wish it were after my last triathlon of the season. At least the trip is going to be on my taper week, so I won't be working out really hard then. However, with my going back to work, I am finding it difficult to get in long bike rides and so I am getting worried about the race on 11 November. It is a long ride -- 34 miles, and I would like to do well, but I am not getting in the road miles that I want to get in.

This coming week we have parent/teacher conferences for Elias and Andy. What this means for the week is that all the guys get out of school at 11:25 on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday (which totally messes up my days, let me tell you). I am pretty sure that the conferences will go well, but you never know! I am worried about Andy's writing skills. His handwriting is horrendous, and it seems difficult for him to get ideas down on paper. He can talk about what he has read and tell you what happened in the story, as long as it is verbal. If he has to write it down, it is not a good scene. I am planning on talking to his teacher about it. I think Elias is doing great things in Kindergarten -- I know he is having a great time (just like he always does!). His teacher thinks he is great too, so it will be a good conference.