Nor'easter

It's Sunday morning and for now the weather has calmed a bit. Matt came in last night and it's great -- even though our initial instinct was "it's been a long day; we'll talk tomorrow" we ended up sitting around the dining room table (the 3 of us, with Nick) talking politics and policy. Nick and I agreed that Matt strongly reminds us of Ezra Klein (our favorite baby wonk.) We shared a bottle of very good Malbec, a gift from a new employee, and hung out for a long time just talking. We'd done a lot of shopping so the house was full of food for Matt, which he always appreciates. So good to have him home. He's locked in for Manchester, and within about a week he'll know for sure about Shanghai.

Needless to say Olivia wasn't here when he got home, but their paths are sure to cross in the next few days. Matt will be out tonight with his dad, and we're cooking. I found a new recipe for an updated country captain stew that we'll make tonight for the three of us.

Nick and I are going to carve out a couple of hours today to make some plans: theater, our next Carnegie Hall series, our spring/summer plans to head up North. Yesterday got away from us, between work, Liv's SAT's and Matt's arrival. So today will be planning day. We may also see if we can throw in a quick trip to Belize for late spring.

I started reading "The Family" yesterday (the book Rachel recommends by the author she has on the show whenever one of the topics is the family, the fellowship or C street.) Absolutely terrifying. If even half of it is true the organization needs to be investigated by the IRS, the CIA (lots of freelance diplomacy and statecraft going on), the FBI and anyone else with a stake in this. It's shocking.

Another thing on our list of to-do's is to dismantle and move the table that Nick set up in the bedroom for my convalescence. I used the table while I was out for everything from work to meals, but now it makes me think of a sickroom, and it's time for that to end.

The pain continues pretty much as it's been for the last week or two. My energy is about back to normal, so I'm more productive, and I can plan around the worst parts of the day. But I'd love to know when and if this will end, whether once this heals I'll be good as new, whether my back will continue to be a problem. Still significant uncertainty.

One last thing: we watched a new episode of Frontline last night, about a journalist allowed to live with the Taliban in northern Afghanistan. Fascinating and as always with Frontline, very well done and highly recommended.