We headed to Buffalo Saturday afternoon to see our niece's dance dress rehearsal. She's a few months younger than seven year old, so we work hard to keep the two of them close. I put the wrong Pine road into the GPS (Pinewood instead of Pine Ridge) so we were becoming obviously lost on the way to the dress rehearsal, when the college is between Bailey and the Galleria, you don't want to head towards West Seneca. So I pulled off the exit ramp to get our bearings, while at the end the ramp the police were doing seat belt checks. I didn't think much of it, other than guessing they have no crime in West Seneca.

Of course, when we went through, they wanted to know why we stopped. I guess it did look suspicious, a ten minute idle 500 yards in front of a police checkpoint. But, I look like a middle aged family man, in a minivan with kids, and a good story, so they didn't search the car. I suppose if I looked like a Deadhead, or was DWB, it might have been different. The closest thing to contraband I was carrying was a growler of home brewed ale, but it would have still been an inconvenience.

Sunday we went to an old friend's place in the 'burbs for dinner, and a walk to Coldstone Creamery for ice cream. It made a late night, but it was nice. Their neighborhood would be a good place to live, within walking distance of a huge plaza, but appearing to be rural. Then again, it is the gilded suburb.

I paid off one of my credit cards last week, one down, too many to go. This month the minivan should be paid off, in October or November the braces are paid off. It takes a long time, but we're getting there. Of course, I'm nearly living on one credit card this week because it's been expensive.

At the Williamsville Salvo (Williamsville is a suburb of Buffalo, and I knew they had thrift shops just off the Thruway) I picked up a copy of Pisor's The End of the Line, about the seige of Khe Sanh. Haunted by the fall of Dien Bien Phu, General Westmoreland hoped to set a trap for Giap and draw in lots of Commies, and then kill them with lots of bombs and other American high tech goodies (google Igloo White). General Giap decided to avoid the bait. Interesting reading, if a little unsatisfying, in the end the Americans evacuated Khe Sanh, bulldozed it, and called it a victory.

The other book I read in the last we another Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice and Hi Educated Rodents, a juvenile skewing Discworld novel. It was good, if not as good as a watch novel. I tried to talk twelve year old into reading Hat Full of Sky, figuring a fantasy with a tweenage girl protagonist would be an easy sell, but she's still in Tamora Peirce land.

In layoff news, a few rumored teachers, but nothing definite. Twelve year old has a plan that if her school changes dramatically, she'll just go to the small Catholic school on the other side of the city. Yeah, right, we worked hard to get you into the city high school where you're least likely to be knifed, your friends go there, it's convenient and free, the odds of us ponying up $4000 a year to go to a school across town are slim.

In other twelve year old news, she has Girl Scout Camporee this weekend, it snuck up on us. She's good about packing though, she has lots of practice. I foresee a mostly lazy weekend, with some minivan body work.

In other snuck up on us news, our summer is pretty much booked. That's odd, but that's how it is.