My daughter called this afternoon to say she had made it to Cologne safely. She had a horrible flight to Frankfurt surrounded by crying children followed by a seven hour layover there. She used that time to visit a museum in the city and that helped to restore some sanity.

My son has been offered a job as assistant stage manager for an upcoming production. Not only will this be a more challenging job behind the scenes than he's had before, it will pay a big enough stipend to actually cover more than the cost of the gas getting to the theatre.

For myself, I have now completed my second training class for my volunteer work at the Georgia Aquarium. Maybe I'll be able to finish all of the training by the time it opens in November.

The really good news is that I've got the best shot I've had in quite awhile to get some paying contract work. It will be great if that comes through. We can really use the money.