Mrs. Austin just called and ordered us a copy of Austin Monthly magazine. The May issue has 103 things to do in 2003. We had and used the 102 things to do in 2002 as a guide to our summer last year and it was really quite the thing. Some of you may remember photos from Hamilton Pool, the Austin Wildlife Preserve, Austin Zoo and other fun family outings.

This year promises to be more of the same, we hope. Lil Miss Austin is a year older and more developed and will probably react differently to camels and large turtles and splashing marine animals, but that's our hope. Life is not without unexpected results from planned events, and if it weren't for those little gems of existence, I probably wouldn't be writing anything at all. This page has become more of a place to unload personal problems than a chronicle of amusing vacations or changes we're seeing in our daughter, but that should change soon. Granted, some of what we want to do requires a babysitter, and that's ok. Miss Squiggles doesn't have to go with the parents to everything, in fact, in order to remain sane I'd rather she didn't.

We've already got a lot planned, my 30th birthday is 19 days away and both parents are coming in on opposing weekends. One weekend will be Sea World, the next will be Willie Nelson's 4th of July festival. Then after that will be the convention in Chicago, then in September will be Eddie Izzard up in Colorado. With 3 months of activities like that, I'm wondering when we'll have time to fit in the local things like swimming at Barton Creek or taking a tour of the Governor's Mansion. We'll just have to see.

Lil Miss Austin isn't sleeping still. It's been almost 2 weeks since her doctor's visit and discovery that she had a bad ear infection and the antibiotics have taken care of that. But you could almost set your clock to her waking up around midnight, then again at about 2, then again right at 6am. It's starting to really wear on the grownups as I don't think either of us have got 8 hours of sleep in close to a month. We're snippy, grouchy, short tempered and unmotivated. Mrs. Austin's job requires her to be on and kickin' and I've got to stir up some drive to get a major project finished. When we get home, however, the life is just drained from us. All we want to do is eat dinner, have a smoke, watch some Law and Order and hit the sack. I can't even find the strength to read anymore much less draw.

Last night was just horrible. For the last two days I've had this headache that was probably part allergies, part sinus pressure for recent atmospheric activity. I took a proven cocktail of 2 parts sinus meds, 2 parts Excedrin to combat the discomfort. That may have been a bad move as the rest of the night my body was buzzing like a locust after a double cappuccino. My head wouldn't shut up and the thought of sleep was so far away I was actually getting panicky, which didn't help either. LMA woke up her predictable 3 times during the evening, and we took turns "I pat you" until she fell asleep again, but it's getting to be a pattern and I'm not sure it's a good one. Not sure, hell, I'm damned sure it's not a good one. She set to be sent to a friends house tomorrow so Mrs. Austin and I can have an evening out, but my fear of her staying up all night and bothering her hosts is really clouding the euphoria at having time to ourselves.

The trick is, something is waking her up, but we can't find out what it is. We've tried lights on, lights off, noise machine, dead silence, no water before bed, water whenever she wants it, staying with her all night, leaving her alone, sleeping with her, sleeping with us. Short of sticking her in a box in the garage, I don't know that we can do anything else aside from waiting until she's 18.

Well, it's the middle of the day, I'm at the office. I think I might go try and sleep in my car for my lunch break.