But, it's hard for Mrs. Ha, she was used to calling him once or twice a week. She's got one less person in her corner.

What was shocking to some her family was that an 82 year old man with drinking and gambling issues didn't squander all his money. He may have spent a million, but he left enough for help his kids. It's not enough to become financially independent, but it was enough to pay back some family loans, pay off some usurious credit accounts, put a little in the college accounts and buy some things. I'm trying to avoid having too much in our savings by the end of the year for FAFSA reasons.

The biggest thing was a new (to us) car, a 2012 Subaru Forester. Mrs. Ha needs a car that says safety and reliability to any prospective clients, not one that says just how much abuse can a Windstar take and still move under it's own power. (Answer, a t-boning by a pickup truck snowplow and years of rock salt).

She's still unemployed, but may have an interview coming up with a transplanting doctor and his opera singing wife. That job would involve ferrying the three year old to preschool and music lessons at Hochstein's. Good thing she's now driving something that doesn't say meth cooking vagabond.

Oddly, we've been meeting a lot of other high caliber musician sorts lately.

Mrs. Ha wanted to replace eighteen_year_old's loft with a white iron bed, as most prospective guests aren't limber enough to climb up into the loft. She found one on Craigslist for a great price. She also needed a mattress to go with it, and found a nearly new mattress set on CL that we picked up from a violinist at the Rochester Philharmonic. He bought it for his mom, and they were cleaning up her place. It's probably a dead woman's mattress, but we have no proof she died on it. Of course they knew eighteen_year_old's viola prodigy friend who is out at Harvard.

Of course you can't fit a full mattress and box spring in a Forester or a full iron bed with springs, and the Forester didn't come with load bars for the roof rack, so two days before we picked up it up we were taking full advantage of the Windstar. The bed and mattress ended up sitting in the living room as the loft had not yet been dissassembled.

Mrs. Ha had been wanting a new couch to replace our aging and torn leather couch from Sam's club. She found a very nice Natuzzi sectional on Craigslist for a steal. Most sectionals are intended for larger homes but this one would sort of fit the living room in our four square which is only a little wider than 11 feet.

Anyhow, we went out there, the seller was saying it was perfectly taken care of, because he's a violinist and violinists need to take great care of things. Yeap, another RPO member. They all know the prodigy's mom, who is a Cellist who's played with the RPO. The violinist with the couch (also a concertmaster) wasn't sure about the prodigy going to Harvard, since Julliard has an amazing viola teacher.

So we had a large sectional heading to our overfilled living room. I spent the weekend cleaning and rearranging our attic to make space for the loft, then labeling and disassembling the loft, hauling the loft to the attic and then hauling the bed and mattress to the eighteen_year_old's bedroom. Yesterday we got the sectional to our house, with the help of another guy from CL. I don't think he plays violin.

The guy does handyman work, so he's going to fix some things around the house that I've been too busy to get to.

Eighteen_year_old has been thoroughly enjoying dorm life. Who would have thought a dorm intended for people who can't pick a major would be full of kids with ADD? Apparently it's boring there until evening, when everyone starts waking up and getting crazy. She's been doing a bit of partying, but not to excess that we're aware of. No hospital bills yet, though acquaintances have had to go.

In a sign of maturity, she's even signed up for Academic counseling. I guess she's discovered grades are important.

She's also enjoying having guy friends. She never felt comfortable with the sweathog sorts in Theatre Tech, and they didn't feel comfortable with her. She now has peers that are male.

We see her about once a week, and she's expressed concern about Mrs. Ha's buying spree, thinking she's trying to replace an eighteen_year_old sized hole in her life. It's more like a dad, job and kid sized hole in her life.

Thirteen_year_old is in Honors this year, an A+ average was too high for a non-Honors kid.

On my return from a trip to Tallahassee, I started McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom, it took just over a week. It was great, I agree with the Pulitzer Prize. It may be the best one volume history of the American Civil War.

Two bonuses, too. My corp now accepts scanned receipts for the expense, and the starting quarterback for Florida state did not attempt to rape me, or steal from me.