Grant, if thou wilt, thou art beloved of many

Since no one was awake when we got home, Jared spent the night. We kept each other entertained until the wee hours of the morning. Neither of us got quite enough sleep, but it will do.

I finally remembered that I'm not going to be asked to do random performances at school any more and put on a more casual dress. We always wore semi-formal looking clothes at school, you just never knew.

"So, you're the young man my daughter is swooning over?" It didn't take Dad long to decide that it was time to have a heart to heart with Jared.

Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend Upon thyself thy beauty's legacy?

It was bright and early in the morning. I was up and ready to rock the world.

Dad chose then to poke his head and seriously rumpled hair out of his room. "Hey, Dad."

"Yes, Kitten?"

As truth and beauty shall together thrive

Finally home. I'm so happy, I'm finally home.

I can't wait to see everyone. It feels like it's been forever and ever since I've been home. I could never get up the cash to come back even just for a weekend. And most weekends, we had assignments. Boarding school had a lot of assignments and outings to keep us busy.

Then the summers were for part time jobs so I could afford a few luxuries during the school year. Barnacle Bay doesn't have much employment for teens so I stayed near the school.

All up, coming home just wasn't possible.

Check it out, even the deer celebrate that I'm finally back.

By the time I got home, it was getting dark and I was tired from the travel. But there was a lot I wanted to do.

Just some random pics while waiting for Catherine

Pictures from the last two days while we were patiently waiting for Catherine to come home. No story, just pics.

Quick note - in case you've forgotten. John Edward (Johnny) Grant has a half sister Brooke. Brooke and husband Hans have three children; Picasso, Elizabeth and Leonardo. Johnny's oldest is Catherine from his first wife. Mason and Dixie are children from his second wife.

I'm still not fond of IF but little Dixie loves hers.

Sleepover night == cocoons of children everywhere. They just seem to flop where ever there is space at bedtime. Zonk.

Beauty's effect with beauty were bereft

Dad! I'm so excited. It's nearly the end of my schooling here. I should be headed home real soon now.

I'm sure you will be impressed with everything that I've learned. Music of all sorts, art and sculpture of all styles. It's been an intense time.

There's no one here that I'll particularly miss though. I've never really connected with any of other kids really fully. Penpals for a few years and slowly drift away from each other is my guess.

I can tell that Dixie is getting her unfair share of attention. Between you and Shannon, I bet Dixie rarely has more than a few minutes of being hungry or lonely before one of you turns up.

Sims with sims war not, joy delights in joy

Hi Dad,

Tell Shannon that withholding cookies until a letter arrives is blackmail! Positively blackmail. And it works too. So the box of cookies should be sent soon, please? We could all starve if the cookies don't arrive.

Things are going well enough. The school does insist that we do a few things beyond art, like maths and history. Everyone complains when we do them but I have a feeling that knowing things beyond art is a good idea. How else will I know if an agent rips me off if I don't know enough about money?

I've moved to a different art class. I don't think you'd like our teacher, he insists that all great artists are at least slightly mad. I'm pretty sure that you're not mad, and from what you've said about granddad, he wasn't either.

In music, I'm doing well on guitar and keyboard but not so well on drums or bass. So if you haven't gotten a band together by the time I get home, well, you'll just have to be my bass man.

Wow, so much stuff happening at home. There's a new pet store? And you bought a bird because you just fell in love with it?

I can't wait to meet Green Hornet. He sounds pretty cool and he is very handsome in that picture you sent. Does he talk yet?

I'm so jealous that there's a ice cream van in town now. I can't image how many summer evenings would have been even better with ice cream.

So I'm sending a few simoleons to give to Mason. Tell him to enjoy an ice cream from his big sister, won't you?

You adopted a cat too?  He's a bit hyper but doesn't destroy stuff. Hyper might not be good if he runs around too much, but I guess you know what you're doing. I can see why you called him Mittens, with those four white paws.

Shannon tells me that she's not impressed that you still panic when a baby is due. It's your third time around after all and she has to do all the hard work.

She didn't even trust you to drive, you were in such a state.

The result is that I have a little sister and you've named her Dixie? I'm glad that everything went smoothly and Shannon and Dixie are both fine.

I used the picture you sent as inspiration in painting class. About half the girls were very excited by the ideas of babies and half thought babies were icky things. The boys universally thought that babies are icky things.

That's a new bird, a new cat and a new baby all in the space of a week? Wow, Dad, were you thinking at all? Maybe I was wrong, you are mad. Just teasing. At any rate, it sounds like you are going to be very busy with the baby and pets.

Give my love to everyone, I hope I can make it home soon.

---

Technical note: Cat did ring home with the message about 'Great Artists are Mad'. It was the first time we've heard from her since she left.

The return of Sir Bricks-a-lot. I hate to think how many of these my Sims 2 made with the toy bench, trying to improve their skills. I laughed to see him.

There is going to be a longer than usual pause

Just to let the readers of this blog know, though most of you would have heard via one of my other blogs, that I'm doing NaNoWriMo this year and unlikely to have the time to update my blogs until December.

We will eventually see Catherine's baby sister being born and Catherine coming home from school. But it will be some time.