Shannon and the girls picked me up from work promptly at four, and thereupon began a whirlwind 120 minutes that started with a drive to see some Halloween decorations on the other side of town and then continued at home with a few minutes in the backyard under our astounding red maple. (It is brighter than this in real life.)
That got dull, so the three of us took a short windy walk up the block while Shannon finished dinner. The girls held hands most of the way, at VV's insistence. (They are cuter than this in real life.)
At the end of our walk, I noticed what looked like a long stick edging across the road. Getting closer, we saw that it was a big tiger salamander, one of the seven species of salamanders native to Minnesota. It was having some trouble crossing our street, so i scooped it up in a box and brought it down to our nice muddy pond. (It was slimier than this in real life.)
Dinner was a whirlwind of getting as much food to VV as possible, and then we were upstairs for bathtime. Julia, as is her wont right now, ran around with a beach ball, pretending to be a seal (!?!?) while I scrubbed the chickpeas out of VV's hair. When the baby went to nurse, Julia took her own very quick bath, spent a few minutes of "playtime" by looking at a photo album, and went off to "sleep without ere a peep." Soon after, I was out the door for a long rollerskii under a perfect half-moon.