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My parents are visiting this weekend. They came down for two reasons: Colin had his child dedication service at our church this morning, and on Friday my father had an appointment at the National Federation of the Blind to learn about screenreading software from Michael's old colleagues.

It's been a joy of a visit, without the emotional stress that's hung over my relationships with my family for a while. They're just hanging out, enjoying the kids, helping, being good company. The kids adore them. My father has taken Alex to the park two days running now - it's a great partnership; Alex has vision and he has good judgment, so they help each other across the streets.

Colin's child dedication was just beautiful. When Alex was dedicated, our ministers gave us a big booklet of potential liturgy elements and let us choose what to have. This was our new minister's first dedication, so we didn't know what to expect. The only input we had into the ceremony content was asking for Alex to be included, and asking that he not use his favorite child dedication hymn because I hate it. He and acceberskoorb put together a lovely service. I'll share the text of the ceremony, and the pictures our friend Adrian took, if/when I can get them.

He was a preturnaturally good baby for the service, too. Saturday he was cranky all day and cried a lot, and I worried that his dedication would be a nightmare. But he went perfectly happily into the minister's arms to be blessed and paraded up and down the church aisles, and afterward he crawled happily around on the floor of the sanctuary, and after that he entertained himself happily for an hour and a half while we entertained a few close friends for his dedication lunch. What a good boy.

Math puzzles.

My father brought three math puzzles down with him this weekend. I got the first one pretty easily, struggled with the second, and had no chance in hell in getting the third. So I pass them all along you to guys.

1. Write the number 4 five times, in combination with any of the basic operators, to produce the sum of 55.

2. Take the numbers 2, 3, 4, and 5. Take any of the four basic operators - but you may only use each one once. Produce the sum of 26. Edited to add: You may not put two numbers next to each other to make a larger number (e.g., 25 + 4 -3). Treat them as separate integers.

3. Write the number 4 three times, employing any of a very broad set of mathematical operators, to produce the sum of 55.

Assume that there will be spoilers in the comments section.