Freckles gets a second chance

Since our little backyard froggie fled the kiddie pool, we've been feeling an absence in the family. So today included a trip to the pet shop for our very own house froggie. We encountered Freckles as I was strolling along the wall of aquariums and felt something squishy under my foot. At that instant, Gin said, "Mom, you just stepped on a frog." I looked down, and sure enough, she was right. We thought for a moment it was dead, then it began to wriggle around. A shop worker quickly scooped her up and popped her back into the tank. I told her that we were, in fact, there to get a frog. After fishing around in the tank, she managed to scoop up the feistiest and fattest frog in the tank for us - the very same one I'd just stepped on, by chance. So here's our big, fat Freckles (Munch chose the name):

I start back in the office tomorrow. It inspired me to write this week's column on telecommuting. It might raise an eyebrow or two at the office, but it's a perfectly legitimate topic for my column (which is about all things Internet-related), and I made sure that it was thoroughly researched with lots of sources. They can't possibly fault it. (Hehe. I read somewhere once, "If you steal from one source, it's plagiarism. If you steal from many sources, it's research.")

On the small plus side, gas prices are dropping - slowly. I'll also have to take one more step in leaving my recent hermit lifestyle. I really isolated myself after ... the recent significant change in my life. (Hmm....is it still recent? It's been two months. Sometimes it feels like two years, and sometimes it feels like two days. Sometimes it feels like forever, and sometimes it hurts like forever....)

I think it's good that things are shaking up in my life right now. I've had some outings. I'm going back to the office. I've got a lovely new person in my life. I've got (fingers crossed) a trip to Chicago coming up. I've got some new pressures too, but (fingers crossed again), I'll get through it.