I read a book once in which a character said that September always seems like the beginning of the year, the calendar notwithstanding. It seems that way to me, too. Must be a school thing.

Not only does it seem like the beginning of the year, it feels like the end of summer. The state fair ended yesterday and Kip's sons started back to school today. They're finally going to public school after going to a private Lutheran school in Bloomington, and not a moment too soon, in my opinion (and Kip's).

It's finally cooled off here. We went to the Renaissance Festival on Saturday (for the third straight week, since we have season tickets), and it was cool enough to dress up. Jen went with us and dressed up too. And Andrew finally got to wear his puffy Renaissance shirt and his black leggings. He was the hit of the festival -- he jumped around on the king and queen's stage and entertained everyone who happened by. As we were leaving, a woman came up to us and said she had taken a bunch of pictures of him while he was playing up there. (Of course, she referred to him as our "daughter" -- we REALLY need to get his hair cut, but I can't bear to cut off his curls because I'm afraid his hair will grow back straight.)

We took Eric and Tim to see Weird Al Yankovic at the state fair a week ago Sunday. It was their first sort-of rock concert, and they had a great time. It was a better show than the one we saw with Weird Al three years ago. The man is immensely talented.

On Thursday, we took all three boys to the fair. Andrew greatly enjoyed looking at the horses and riding some of the rides in the kids' part of the fairgrounds, but nothing that had an up-and-down motion. We plunked him on a little motorcycle, and before it had gone all the way around, we had to take him off. That's the reason why he doesn't like to ride the merry-go-round -- that up-and-down thing gets to him. But he did ride a little train, a truck and a car. Kip overcame his fear of heights and rode the double ferris wheel with me (he told me later that he wouldn't have done that for anyone else on earth). Eric and Tim rode some vomit-inducing rides; we all rode on the tram (Andrew was fascinated, looking down at the people and the tops of the trees), and listened to a little of the Spinners, who sounded great. We ended up spending more than six hours there. It amazed me that Andrew lasted that long, but he is a true Minnesotan, having gone to the fair every year of his life so far. :-) And rather than immediately falling asleep in the car on the way home, he entertained us all by nonchalantly counting to 10 -- repeatedly. The kid is already too smart for me.


And on Sunday, Kip and I took Andrew to see the Wiggles in person, obviously THE event of the peanut social season. Never have I been in a crowd with such a low median age before. Talk about consorting with the diaper set. Andrew enjoyed it, but the show lasted an hour and a half, and he was getting a little bored with it by the time it was over. It didn't help that we were TOTALLY in the nosebleed section of the Xcel Energy Center. I bought the tickets a couple of months ago, BEFORE they added three additional shows. He came home with a Wiggles pillow, which he has taken with him everywhere for the last two days.

On Monday we did next to nothing, deciding it was a good idea to recover a little. We're off to the Renaissance Festival again next Saturday, this time with Eric and Tim and also Kip's mother, who's coming up for the weekend. And then next Wednesday Kip and I are leaving for New York for three days! We'll be there over his birthday, which is Sept. 11. I'm so excited. Kip's never been there (although he was certainly with me in spirit when I was there three years ago). We find it amusing that he's been in practically every major world capital -- London, Paris, Munich, Cairo, Sydney, Los Angeles -- but not NYC.

My job search continues to sputter along. A couple of weeks ago I got a rejection letter from no less than Garrison Keillor. They were looking for writers for "A Prairie Home Companion," but weren't interested in me. If I can track down the letter, I'll post it. (I tried to read Keillor's new book recently and couldn't finish it. May I just say that he NEEDS new writers.)