Eric comes back on Friday; we've made it through over a week without him. It's getting harder by the day, though; I'm getting impatient with Sam on a far more regular basis than usual. Sometimes I really recall what friends who had similar childhoods to mine have told me: "Sooner or later, you're going to have to find yourself a good therapist to resolve those issues, or they're going to bite you both in the behind."

Today, though, I managed to stop a horrid tantrum in its tracks with Rescue Remedy. Seriously, one minute he was screeching about not wanting his leftover pizza for lunch - he wanted chicken, and his nose was running, and he was mad, but no, he wasn't mad, he wanted to go in the car...and then he was quietly eating his lunch, listening to the stereo and smiling. God bless Dr. Bach. Eric, ever the skeptic of natural medicine, was shocked into quietude when I informed him that it wasn't just in my head. This stuff really works.

We were to have a house-showing today, but the people cancelled. They apparently didn't like the look of our street as they drove down it. I don't know why; it's a nice enough street. Anyway, I was already out of the house by that point, naturally. I spent the whole morning cleaning, and for nothing. I hate this!

To make matters worse, Eric worked with our Wisconsin realtor this weekend, and he happened to find Our House. It's perfect: an upstairs kind of like our current one, a lower-floor bedroom that's been converted into a dining room with an Asian theme, a working fireplace, and a huge finished basement with an office, half-bath, and large living area. It's gorgeous, and it's the right price. We'll never get it, though, because houses in our price range move very quickly up there, and we can't seem to get this house off our hands. Tomorrow morning, Eric's going to try to turn the screws on his employers to see if he can get them to buy this house from us if it means we'll move up there more quickly.

We went to a neighboring city while we were out of the house today. It's a college town, and I think I saw some fraternity hazing: a group of guys were standing on a street corner, and one suddenly dropped his pants and shuffled across the street with them around his ankles. Twenty degree weather. His parents must be so proud.