Up at the bloody crack of dawn to make sure Mia made it into work. I even drove her into Trowbridge so she didn't have to catch the 8.10 train. There's dedication for you.

Came back and told Hattie of the plan I had for her 14th birthday, a trip to Glastonbury shopping for Wiccan/Witchcraft stuff. She was thrilled and asked if her boyfriend Jack could come too. Sure thing. Somehow along the way we managed to arrange to pick up Matt's wife Ali and daughter Yolanda from Shepton and drop Ted off there for the afternoon. Looks like we got ourselves a shopping crew.

Hattie bought a ton of great stuff, including a really nice wand with a crystal in the end, an athame (is that how you spell it?) or ceremonial dagger, a HUGE spell book containing 5000 spells for just about everything, some herb teas and black candles etc. She had a really good time.

This is a penance, you know. I didn't take her seriously about the whole Wicca thing initially, believing it to be a teen fad. But she's still into it months later, actually quite knowledgable and seems to take it very seriously herself, so I'm taking an interest. I'm a dad, we're supposed to be supportive. But hey, I was into all this stuff in a big way when I was a kid anyway, and am a deeply spritual person myself, so I really don't know why I was so MIDDLE AGED about it to begin with... I'm just getting stubborn and pissy in my old age, I guess.

a dagger exactly like Hattie's Athame

Got back and collected Mia from work. She and I played a kind of two player half assed Texas Hold'em till about 1am, waiting for the washing machine to finish so Mia could have some clothes for tomorrow at work. Really tired by bedtime, but managed to listen to Mia watching the first season of "American Dad". Really funny show from the Family Guy team. Fell asleep laughing to myself.