Then let me ask you about a few things that I'm assuming happened, and you can confirm or not discuss them, as you prefer. It's far enough past Christmas that Joan is now married, right?

Yeah. We'll find out where Joan is very soon.

And Roger has spent some time in Greece, on a honeymoon to Jane?

Yes. So he is married also.

And Joan is planning on leaving.

from this interview

http://www.nj.com/entertainment/tv/index.ssf/2009/08/mad_men_creator_matthew_weiner.html

Since this is spring 1963 and Joan was supposed to have a Christmas wedding, I think she is, sadly, married to Dr. Rapist. And Jane married Roger, as evidenced by the line of Cooper saying Roger was late because he was unpacking more Grecian urns, I am assuming from Roger's honeymoon.

I too was hoping Joan would not marry but I do think she already is. I think she talks a lot about wanting out of work, because that is the culturally appropriate thing to want, but she really doesn't want to go. She loves the work. Even after she was passed over for the TV job last season, I think she still wants the work. She is pretending to want marriage and family but really she wanted a career, and couldn't get past office manager. I often wonder if she would have married had she gotten the job from last season....

I also want to say a hoo-yah to Trudy for giving Pete the pep talk he needed after he found out he was sharing head of accounts job. I love the depth of even her character. She is great.

This is a nice blog about the show and has some great insight from Matthew Weiner.

http://sepinwall.blogspot.com/2009/08/mad-men-out-of-town-birthday-wishes.html

but the calendar is amazing!! Ordered it!

I am a magnet school parent. I have been for four years. My son just started fourth grade yesterday. Our school is a magnet and one of the best in our big, urban district (which currently lacks accreditation and was taken over by the state). I am getting burned out on fighting the good fight. I had so much more enthusiasm and patience for this a few years ago. (Three years ago, I ambitiously raised $70,000 to build a new playground at our school.)

Some days I wish I could swipe the Visa and be done with it. At my school, we had 98 fifth graders enrolled. One teacher in place. District wouldn't let the school hire two teachers until the kids showed up. So now we have two rooms full of fifth graders with no teachers. The district launched a huge campaign to get kids to school the first day. I think this goes both ways. You want the kids there the first day, then you need to have classrooms and teachers ready for them! This is what drives me nuts. We seem to get in our own way more than necessary. I have no idea why we need to wait for kids to have teachers in place. This logic is why parents run screaming from the schools. I am trying to find the strength to fight. Friends don't understand why I stay in such a flawed system (and my kids are adopted out of foster care, so I am working with two flawed systems). I am so glad someone else is fighting too. And reminding me of why all this can be a great thing in the end.

Thanks Sandra.

I love ABBA. Much to the chagrin of spouse and friends. The ABBA Gold CD is in my car right now. In 8th grade, 1979/80, I won a dance contest and the prize was an album...I got REO Speedwagon, and promptly traded it for ABBA Gold. It became a favorite. I remember staring at photos of Anna and just wishing I could be her. So blonde and blue eyed and Swedish and amazing.

A few years later I went through the punk phase too...but always had a place in my heart for ABBA.

My favorite song from ABBA is Chiquitita....the live version. I think it was done as a benefit song for UNICEF. It's such a beautiful and moving song. 28 years after that dance contest, I am still listening and loving it.

I refuse to see Mama Mia, the show or movie. People say oh you love ABBA, have you seen Mama Mia? I can't. I just have this intensely personal relationship with ABBA songs and I don't want them to be in any other context but mine.

So first of all, I can't even imagine having two small kids on a houseboat! That seems very stressful, considering I have a two and four year old, and just swimming in the pool requires floatation devices. I can't imagine being around water and being concerned for their safety all the time.

Second, my older son, who was adopted as well, has concerns about looking different than his parents and being different. My sister's kids, who were adopted at 8 and 11, do as well. They don't look like their parents, don't live with the parents they were born to, had remarkably different upbringings than their peers. They look to minimize these differences or wish them away. Being different when you are young is very stressful. Kids want to be the same. So this whole houseboat deal is giving him one more difference. My sister lives in a small, older home on the "older" side of town. It's my nephew's dream to live in a subdivision like his friends. He sees this as the ultimate conformity, which to him means acceptance.

Yes we grow out of this and find our own way, but for now, don't make his life any more unusual than it already is. And give the little ones a few years to grow up. I guess there are plenty of people who raise small kids on houseboats, but from my landlocked world, that seems like one giant pain.