Weeknights at 8 -- 7 Central

On second thought, I'll put off commentary on our temporary housing to note the thing that's really been messing with us to this point (and by "us," I mean Kim and me).

In theory, the 1-hour time difference between the Boston and Twin Cities shouldn't pose too much of a problem. It's not like when we were in London and had to stay awake until 4:30 am to watch the Patriots win their first Super Bowl.

But in practice, something very weird is going on.

Let's use Kim as an example. She usually likes going to bed close to 10pm, so on Mondays she would watch "24" (at 9pm eastern, 8pm central) for an hour, then hit the sack. She's almost conditioned to feel sleepy at 10pm.

In Minnesota, by the time "24" is over and the clock reads only 9pm, that knowledge takes over and convinces the mind that she really CAN'T be sleepy, because it's too early.

So the solution, you might think, is to stop watching so damn much television. But you'd be wrong there too. Latitudinally, Minneapolis is as far north as Bangor ME and Salem OR, and is farther north than Toronto. So leading up to the summer solstice, it stays lighter longer. Our first few nights here, we were wondering why it was still light out after 9pm (a friend of mine and Minnesota native tells me to wait until mid summer, when it's still light out after 10pm).

Those two factors combined are wreaking havoc on our sleep patterns. Fortunately, we're keeping the girls at a strict 8pm bedtime, so they're not impacted at all (they're just getting up a bit "earlier" than they used to).

Nightie-night.