Holy crap. Six hours of class every Monday night. Oodles of projects and papers to do before the Christmas holidays. Doubling up on classes now so that I can hopefully be done, or at least done but dissertation, by the time the kidlet is off to college. I'm not sure how I'm going to maintain my sanity, but I've never been one to take the easy way out.

Full-time work that's way beyond 40 hours a week on average. Kidlet entering high school (who decided to have her friend cut her hair punky a week before school starts). The usual grocery shopping, school shopping, grass cutting, house cleaning, etc. tasks. Will it ever slow down?

I didn't win the $333 million lottery last week. Boo.

I did, however, pay my last payment yesterday on the kidlet's braces. I'm still not sure how I managed that one with the financial strain of the last couple of years, but we pulled it out and hopefully soon she'll get them off. Sure feels good to tick one more piece of debt off the monthly budget.

I didn't strangle the sibling in spite of her backseat driving for 11 hours this weekend or her fretting about where we were going to stay over our 36 hours in PA. For the record, the mountains are still beautiful, log cabins are fabulous and the wake was a very nice ceremony for a very loved woman.

A well-earned holiday weekend at the beach is afoot as of Thursday night. The kidlet is taking a friend, as am I and we'll all have the house to ourselves now that the folks have returned to the frozen north. Quiet, easy weekend... I can't wait.

Next weekend however, not so quiet. Really not quiet. Let's go racing! I'm not really "into" Nascar but have some friends who are really down with it and I've been going to the races this year and last and playing redneck for the day. It's loud (awesome) and fast (very awesome) and you just can't beat a day of tailgating before a giant sporting event (the awesomest). Races Friday and Saturday nights... gonna be tired on Sunday! Hope the weather holds up and we aren't dumped on like we were for the Spring race. Go Jimmy Johnson (who I root for specifically because my friends like other drivers and I'm a little competative- at least I backed a good horse!).

Off to do some work...