Happy dog

Another family member who is happy that daddy is at home now is Tonks, our 3-year-old beagle. Instead of a rushed walk in the morning, she now gets a nice, long, leisurely walk. We've been crossing our street of late and walking up and down the cove. I've picked up half a dozen bags worth of litter in the last couple of weeks. Grumpy, my live-in father-in-law, says the town should give me a tax credit for providing sanitation services for them :-). It's strange... if I see garbage on the floor, I just have to pick it up. I hope I'm not developing some kind of disorder.

Donated platelets again yesterday, Tuesday. Another triple. There are two pokes donors get: a tiny prick of the tip of a finger, to measure hemoglobin count; and then the big needle that stays in the vein in the crook of your arm for one to two hours. Without fail the little poke hurts A LOT more than the big stick. It's for two reasons. First, there are way more nerve endings on a finger tip. Second, the big stick goes into a vein, where there are no nerve endings at all. If the needle misses the vein, I'm told that's quite painful. Luckily, that hasn't happened to me. Yet. That's why I keep going ;-). Their latest incentive is giving away a large hot thermos, complete with American Red Cross logo, to platelet donors who donate at least seven times from May through August. I'm getting that thermos!

Today Marlena, our nanny, will be taking Jonah and Jayden to the library for Earth Day arts & crafts and story time. Jesse and I will be driving Debbie to Logan Airport. She's flying down to Miami for American Bar Association conference on legal malpractice. She'll be back Friday night. I hope the house is still in one piece by the time she returns. Of course it will :-).

Jesse and I are then going to Johnson String Instruments in Newton, MA to upgrade to a full-size violin rental. It's time. He wants one that has a big sound. Debbie and I are so happy that he really enjoys playing violin. It's his love of playing that's heartening to us. He doesn't have to go professional for us to be proud of him. Like cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Or another homeboy musician Arnel Pineda. I just learned from my brother, Mike, that Journey's new lead singer is Phillipino. Arnel and his band covered, among other groups, Journey. They were shown on YouTube. A member of Journey saw him on YouTube and invited him to audition. Here's a clip of their first concert together, in Chile. What a cool achievement for Asian-Americans and Asians around the world to be proud of!