The last nine days have been pretty rough. Jules was admitted to the hospital last Friday after having an extremely high blood sugar level at his pediatrician appointment. We were kind fo worried something might be up, but were really hoping he was just in a funky growth spurt or something. Turns out that losing weight, eating all the time, frequent peeing, and lethargy are all signs of onset of juvenile diabetes. So the little guy ended up spending the weekend being poked and prodded, starting on his likely lifelong doses of insulin, and watching a LOT of TV. He actually enjoyed most of his hospital stay, but it was pretty tense for his mom and me. We've been learning a lot this past week, talking with his endocrinologist, other doctors, dieticians, and nurses. We know a couple adults with Type 1 Diabetes, and it's certainly a condition he'll be able to manage throughout his life, but it's still tough to hear your kid has a serious medical condition. He had a few visitors during the hospital stay (including a tall pimp who just happened to be in town), and B and I took turns staying overnight with him on Friday and Saturday. He came home Sunday night and we've all adjusted pretty well to the alterations in diet and keeping up with the blood testing and administration of his insulin.

As if we didn't have enough stress, the van threw its accessory drive belt for the umpteenth time on Tuesday. It's fuckin' insane how many times we've had to deal with that over the past six years, but at least it's a problem we can recognize right away and get fixed relatively cheaply. This time, our friendly mechanic was able to replace the belt and put on a new tensioner at no charge. I'm hoping we can make it a while before the problem rears its ugly head again. We really need to start saving up for a new van.

The weather has really sucked this week. Shirley Manson must have been in fucking heaven. Nine straight days of rain really starts to wear on you. The basement stayed pretty dry until yesterday, so at least it's nearly watertight. A gray, stay inside day is kind of nice now and again, but I was really missing the sunshine this week.

So the sun finally made an appearance today. We got a new bed (yeah!) but the cat escaped while the bed guys were doing their thing (Ehp!); hopefully she'll return soon (if she hasn't been hit by a car or eaten by a dog or adopted by some crazy cat-collecting lady). Jules is having a pretty good day, and he and his sister were both named "Student of the Month" for September for their respective classes yesterday. Hopefully we'll have another sunny day tomorrow, the cat will return with her virginity intact, Julian's blood sugar will be as level as it has been today, and the van will make it through another day. We will survive...