Okay, here’s the deal, friends:

If you don’t currently have a Mac that can support Jaguar (OS X 10.2), go out and get one. They’re cheap. Buy two.

While you’re at the Apple Store (why would you buy your Mac anywhere else), pick up an iSight camera. If the last iSight is in the delicate grasp of a defenseless, weeping child, rip it out of their hands. Just do it. You can thank me later for the encouragement.

Go home, put computer on table, attach iSight camera to computer.

Probably iChat AV is not on the computer. Download it from the Apple website. Install.

Fire up iChat AV, log in, and say, “Hi Diane!” And you can see me wave back.

iChat AV is way better than sliced bread. (For one thing, no carbs.) Darin has been chatting with friends down in LA, face-to-face. Is the conversation quality as good as a telephone? No, or as I like to say: not yet. But you get to see the people you’re talking to—remember the cool videophone in 2001? Here it is, folks.

The grandparents can see the grandkids any time they want. And they did, last night. Currently Sophia is more interested in seeing herself on the screen than seeing Grandma, but she and Simon also live in a world where stuff like “chatting with Grandma and Grandpa and seeing their faces despite a distance of a couple thousand miles” is perfectly normal.

I want everyone I know to rush out and get this setup so that we can talk, face-to-face. I’ll wait right here.

Okay, I have been extremely baffled by the continuous popularity of this entry’s comment thread.

What the hell is Blue Moon ice cream? I had never heard of it before this thread.

Who makes said ice cream, and where—for the love of pete—do you get it?

My new schedule is this: on days when there is no preschool, try to get up at around 6 and go for a short run. On days with preschool, drop Sophia off at 8, come back home, strap Simon into the jogging stroller, go for a longer run.

This seems to be working out pretty well.

Of course, I’ve only done it one day.

Yesterday morning Sophia said, “It’s time for school! It’s time for school!” and since it was only 7am, Darin and I were more underwhelmed by her enthusiasm than we might otherwise have been. I got her to school and had to ask her for a hug and a kiss before she raced off to try out all the cool toys in the classroom.

C’mon, would a little separation anxiety kill you?

I realized that I would have lots of morning time, and since Simon is still too little to say, “No, not the jogging stroller!” I decided I could use some of the morning to run. Which we did today and I think this plan is going to work out fine. It will work better if I get into shape (puff, puff), but one thing at a time.

Something funny I’ve noticed about Simon when we’re in the kitchen is that he likes to run laps around the kitchen island. Thud thud thud thud thud thud THUD THUD thud thud… I suspect he runs there because I’m standing at the island using my computer. (Soon my office will be cleaned out and usable. Soon. If I believe hard enough, it will be so.) But he just goes ’round and ’round. It’s hilarious.

Maybe one day we’ll go running together.