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I have a few friends living in Florida. I don't know them very well, online acquaintances, but send a few happy thoughts their way for their safety. I had a whole rant written up about doofuses who live in storm paths and fault lines and flood planes and on volcanic islands, but decided to scrap it and be nice. So wish all my idiot friends the best.
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| Moving on, the family unit is doing quite well. We're as close to Sparkling as I suppose you can get, assuming Sparkling is a state of mind as well as a state of kitchen ware. Mrs. Austin has decided, as most of you know via her email, to stay home with Pilgrim until the end of the year. She'll take a leave of absence from her Giant Tech job and stay home to be a mom.
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Now, I don't have a problem with her staying home. It's her decision and I'm behind it 100%. I am feeling a little weird about what happens when I get home. Usually it was both of us getting home with at least 1 at most 2 kids and spending the evening cleaning, dining, preparing for bed and then getting ready in the morning. I will admit to the operation being unfairly split, but even then I was doing something.
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| Now when I get home, the house is clean, dinner is either ready or being made, laundry is done, lunches are ready for the next day and most of the time bills are paid. All I have to do now is watch the kids and eat. It's a little unsettling, and I'll explain why.
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Mrs. Austin was a very "upwardly mobile dude" (points if you can guess the song that line is from) with her Giant Tech job. She wanted to make management, trainer or coach. She wanted to get on the large opportunity team. She won gads of awards and consistently had very high numbers. She fit perfectly in the world of sales. She was a Type A person, but not a jerk Type A person. Sort of an AB person. I, on the other hand, was a type Z person. I don't particularly care for the field I'm in and given the opportunity to ditch it in favor of drawing or writing full time would do so. I'm not outgoing and tend to be a little lazy. (I know, my parents are shocked.)
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| So her decision to move from the high paced world of tech sales to the slower paced, but exceedingly rewarding position of stay-at-home mom was a little bit of a surprise. And make no mistake, she wanted this. This wasn't a last resort, her hand wasn't forced. There were some reasons for the decision, but many of them included her staying at work. This seemed to fit and she has transitioned beautifully. I am having a hard time not having anything to do when I get home. Does this mean I get to draw more? Maybe. Does it mean she'll get to leave when I get home and go out or go to school? Yeah.
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The timing is perfect. I will be getting two paychecks till the end of the year and with Pilgrim out of day care, we won't be missing her paycheck, which was a little sad anyway.
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| If you read Rob's page, you know about his hampsters. Well Lil Miss Austin's school just got two of them today. If you've ever seen little kids with hamsters you'll have to tell me about it because I haven't seen it either, but I hear it's cute. LMA loved them when we had them temporarily last night. Those little assholes sure are cute as they run in their little plastic wheel all night long. I was tempted to hook a fuel cell up to it that they could recharge.
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That is all for now.
