what's wrong with this picture

What's wrong is I am in Pittsburgh. I think I hate you all. No, not all of you. Just those of you going to Chicago today. See, I want to go to Chicago today. Instead, I get to welcome CD home from Chicago. And I foolishly taught Oliver the correct answer to "Where Daddy go?" so I have had to listen to him say "Chicago" over and over and over all week. SOMEDAY I really will get to go. Be nice to CD if you run into him at O'Hare. I don't want him arriving home grumpy because he got trampled by tons of incredibly cool women bloggers. I'll be grumpy enough for both of us, thank you.

Yesterday Eleanor was having some trouble falling asleep for a nap. She was unusually fussy and I reached the end of my bag of soothing, nap inducing tricks. Save one. I realized CD's conference sessions were being streamed (audio only) to the 'net. Figuring I had nothing to lose, I fired it up. She settled down as soon as he started yacking (on and on about minutiae -- it's what they do at those thrice-annual geekfests). She was asleep in a few minutes. It was like magic.

More things to complain about:
1. My copy of the new Harry Potter book from amazon.co.uk has not arrived yet. You do know they change the words for American kids, right? British editions are as the author intended. We haven't made it to the movie either.
2. My efforts to remove all the wallpaper from our tiny half bath look meager, despite hours spent on it. Two layers of paper, both with backing, all coming off in tiny. little. pieces. Do not, I repeat, do not EVER put wallpaper on your walls.
3. My house still hasn't sold.
4. I still don't have a job (though things are looking up a bit in that area - more soon, I hope)
5. We still aren't sure if we can go away in a couple of weeks. And JetBlue is raising their fares daily.
6. House is not ready for the British invasion, aka the arrival of CD's brother, his wife, and two teenage daughters. We have mostly figured out where we are going to put everyone but I had hoped to have the basement room cleared and fit for habitation. We'll see if I get all that done by next Friday.
7. Oliver's favorite teacher has decided to leave his school. She's on vacation this week. She comes back for next Tuesday, and that's her last day. She is staying in the area and is willing to babysit, which is nice, but he's going to be very sad when he finds out she isn't going to be one of his teachers anymore. Of course, if I don't get a job and he doesn't get to go to school at all as of August 20, we're all going to be much, much sadder.