Saturday morning I got up bright and early and headed over to the girls' school. They ask each family to contribute 20 hours of work a year, and this year we're going to have trouble meeting that goal. The family association does have dual career parents in mind, and they schedule Saturday work days to clean up the classrooms. So, I signed up, and went there and was assigned a classroom to clean top to bottom.

It's a measure of how much better I am feeling that I was able to do this. Cleaning can be a lot of work, with the bending down and picking up and lifting and moving stuff (the classic rock station helped, though who ever thought the Talking Heads would be on a classic rock station, I guess I'm getting old).

Halfway through the room a mom came up to help, her daughter was actually in the class (our girls' rooms were already picked when I showed up), which made the thing go easier, we were down in three hours. Later we had pizza for lunch, and I got to meet the dad of the newest kindergarten girl, and talk with another dad who's son went to preK with five year old. It was nice to have manly chats about hardware stores (note to people running hardware stores in the city, blaring Rush and disparaging the UN won't go over with your typical city customer) and such, and he promised to email me some pictures of five year old at the latest exhibition (I'll spare the obvious Mussogorsky pun).

In some ways, the school is very communistic, which also works well with the liberal tendencies of most of the parents (then again, most city residents are liberals) We're expected to all pitch in, poorer students get help financing trips, we can make jokes about Dubya but not minorities.

Mrs. Ha was also going on a cleaning frenzy at home, she was hoping Irish_girl would stop by with her baby. Five year old's friend also came over for a playdate, which the two had been planning for a week (in cute but manipulative ways, $friend says I can come over for a playdate, call her mommy). I got home in time to run the vacuum cleaner and pick up dog hair.

Irish girl eventually showed up (she's the most functional one of her family, so she has to do a lot for her other family members) and brought her 7 month old, I even held her for a while, I haven't held a baby in a long time. While she was over, five year olds friend's mom came by, I think she's Canadian, so we had a virtual UN at our table.

Sunday we went to Buffalo to see Mrs. Ha's mom in the dementia ward, it was pretty sad. I would say Mrs. Ha's mom is the most lucid and sane one there, though I did raise an eyebrow when she talked about her dad and her Aunt stopping by to visit (both have been dead for decades). Sadly, being the most lucid in a dementia ward doesn't get you any prizes.

All of Buffalo was listening to the game, a shame about the loss, I'm too heartbroken and lazy for a poll.

I'm seeing some payoffs for Mrs. Ha's job, she bought a six of Pilsner Urquell on Friday night (she wanted to drink something better than the Old Milwaukee I've been buying), she filled the van, and paid for lunch on Sunday.

We watched The Secret Lives of Dentists this weekend, I found it a mixture of unappealing hyperreality and appealing surreality. It's the story of a married pair of dentists, and the husband suspects his wife of having an affair. It's also about the lack of communication in their marriage. The husband comes off as an overworked barely likeable sort (who makes a dentist a protagonist, I don't know any dentists socially, and I don't care to) who ends up being the mom at home, the wife is probably having an affair with someone in her opera group. Denis Leary walks away with the movie as the husband's alterego, and provides the funny surreal bits. As far as hyperreality, once you've experienced a bratty clingy toddler throwing up all over you, do you really need to see it on the screen? Nah.

Orthodontists on the other hand seem more sensitive, at least ours know how to seduce the bill paying parents. Ours has a coffee machine with 12 different single serving brewpaks, an internet connection, a biometrics check in that ten year old likes, and young attractive hygienists. They are pricey, but I think ten year old's teeth are pretty bad. But then again, I don't know any orthodontists socially.

Last weekend we watched most of Mississippi Masala, an interracial romance between a young Denzel and Sarita Choudhury, involving tensions between their prospective clans. It was okay, we didn't finish watching it.