Today was just another day in many ways but it felt special. First, I went down to Google's headquarters for the first time in a few months. I flat-out love that place. Although I have plenty of criticisms of Google, on several levels, I've never met anyone who works there who didn't impress me -- on multiple levels.

Today it was a PhD, engineer, graduate of top schools, 20-something, background in electrical engineering and computer science, working hard to improve the search experience, noticing details that most of us would just, frankly, take for granted.

What is the picture of this person forming in your mind?

Probably not that of a "she," but yes, she is a woman.

***

This afternoon, I sat in on a session while a friend of ours tutored one of our sons in statistics. He's going to take A.P. Statistics this fall, probably the most ambitious class he's ever signed up for, in his senior year.

His tutor and I both have always wanted to learn statistics, so this is a case where all three of us are learning together.

***

Tonight, I took the boys downtown for our first movie together in a long, long time. It was the latest Spiderman movie. We wore those 3D glasses that are common now.

They loved it. I did too, more or less, particularly the actors and the plot, if not so much the action scenes.

You see, I am afraid of heights -- not such a good thing in a Spiderman movie, trust me.

But they had fun and I had fun being with them. Not having a partner means I don't really have anyone to go to movies with, and I think I've only gone to one movie alone my whole life. I just don't do that. So being with them made it special, even though I had to keep my eyes closed a lot of the time.

***

Back home, best of all. A letter from my youngest out on her wilderness experience. Plus the drawing at the top of this post of her rock-climbing!

-30-