I was excited Friday morning, thinking it was my last morning of having to get up before the sun. As I was leaving work that afternoon, I thought I’d better check with my new team leader to see what time I should come in on Monday. “Oh,” she said, “We’re not starting the new shift next week. But Barry says we’ll definitely start on the 28th.”

Maybe I just shouldn’t have asked and shown up at 10:30 on Monday. Since no one bothered to tell me.

My family is coming to visit next weekend, so I don’t know if the shift change time is good or bad. On the one hand, it would mean I would have more time to spend with them (if only three and a half hours). But what’s bothering me is that my boss is probably going to change his mind and say he absolutely needs me there on that Monday, the first day of the new shift, where those of us who signed up for this will finally find out what we’re actually going to be doing. And my family is planning to stay through that Monday, because that’s the day my boss said I could have off. ARGH!

Berck and I have been giving the apartment a thorough cleaning in preparation for the fam’s arrival. This means that I scrub and cleanse and Berck straightens. You would think that this division of labor would work perfectly, each of us operating in the areas of housekeeping we value most. But what happens is I get ticked off that the chocolate stain is still in the couch, and Berck goes on a rampage against my table, the only place in the world I’m allowed to just put stuff. I can never find anything for weeks after one of these episodes. Maybe one day we’ll learn to clean as a team.

Actual Fact: Archaeological records show that the Babylonians were making soap around 2800 B.C.