It has been a hard few days what with the death and all, and going to Roland's funeral today was rough. But 1) I can be glad that I knew him and 2) I can be glad to have a wife who stands with me while we hold each other up. It's a shame I had to get to be fifty before I could start to really understand how this works, but it's a blessing that I at least finally started to grasp it.

I had a really good moment with a student today. I have no idea if it will be of lasting value, but at least today I was able to get both of us past his general obnoxiousness and find a place where we could agree about how to move him forward. Like I said, may not last. But it was nice to have that moment today.

Sunday was a good birthday day for Amanda. We walked around the Ross Park Mall, ate at a place called NOLA on the Square in Market Square in Pittsburgh. I got us lost walking around but we just handled it. I love this woman a lot. Anyway, the restaurant was delicious. Fried alligator bits came with the same creamy hot sauce that the Common used to have with calimari, there was a flatbread with crawfish and stuff that was delicious, and I had jambalaya which was hotter than hell but really, really tasty. Then we saw The Lion King at the Benedum, which is quite the spectacle. A great day, although yesterday we were fully exhausted.

Just extra great this morning to wake up in a world that is cool, and not hot and humid. The world feels nice today.

This song just never stops making me happy. I actually heard it in a store at the outlet mall while Amanda was trying on dresses. I wrote down enough lryic to look for it later and discovered this sassy Norse jazz singer. Very cool.

Sara Bareilles is totally white girl music at its Wonder Breadiest. Sometimes I can hear Karen Carpenter in her voice, just with a funkier back-up band. But when either of these songs comes up on the ipod when I'm biking, I get a little more mettle in my pedal

This morning I hit the bike and noticed, once again, that the produce stand at the corner was filled with stuff. The stock stays there every night, overnight, without a security guard or a camera or anything else, and even though it's beside a major road, it's also beside a bridge so you could grab and duck pretty quickly, but there never seems to be an issue because apparently we live in a place where that isn't an issue. Cool.

Daughter and son-in-law are in Hawaii with her mother this weekend, and to read the blog and see how happy it makes her is great. I confess to a twinge of jealousy now and then, but really, given the fact that they have sometimes they have had challenges, I am glad to see their bond so strong at this stage. Every woman should get to be close to her mother.