they're ba-ack

for all of you who might be wondering whether we still have a framily to speak of, have no fear....paulette and jennifer have returned. after a glorious month of freedom for all of us, the girls returned home kicking and screaming this afternoon. literally. when i (lindsay) met them at the gate, a us airways personnel was kind enough to warn me, as the rest of the passengers deplaned, that the girls were still on the plane and that one of them was "kicking and hitting" the other one. excellent.

the girls raved in the car--and will hopefully post on this blog--about their spectacular visit to atlanta. i don't want to give away the best parts (think go-carts, six flags, and an end-over-end bike crash) but i do want to say that atlanta has truly converted these two. "atlanta is way better than washington," says one of them. "are there even any malls here?" evidently, they've been introduced to the wonders of the perfume counter at dillards, smoothie king, and--my personal favorite--chick-fil-a and are skeptical that washington holds any such treasures.

for their first night back, we ate at our favorite vietnamese restaurant, played rummikub, and negotiated a new system of incentives for housework, personal hygiene, and general good behavior. the girls visited cute daniel and isaac. they called their mother (who, as expected, forbade them from taking any more vacations). jennifer cooked herself an egg and, in the first of what i hope will be many victories for the incentive-based system, cleaned the kitchen after herself.

i wish i had some pictures to post, so you could see how good a month of that fresh atlanta air was for them, and how much their hair has grown. hopefully, though, we'll have something to put up soon. stay tuned.