The Aerie

The Summer Has Ended

Okay, maybe it hasn't, quite, yet, but it's getting there. At least here in Minnesota. The State Fair has begun, and that's always the harbinger of the end. The weather last night was downright chilly, and this morning when I stepped outside to take the Boy's photograph on the first day of his Junior year it was pretty cool in more than one sense of the word.

Our friends from Staten Island arrived weekend before last for a short visit. We had a good time, I wish they could have stayed longer, but they had a complete flightmare on the way out. They spent 13 hours in LaGuardia Airport eight of which were spent in planes whose takeoffs were cancelled or postponed. They ended up flying into O'Hare and driving up from Chicago. AirTran and Delta - you SUCKED.

The youngest started his junior year today, my daughter goes back to school this weekend, and the young man on the following Tuesday. It's going to be sad around the house again with the twins away.

My Major Project paper has taken all summer.... to write the PROPOSAL. Yes, the proposal has gone through EIGHT iterations just with my academic advisor - now (assuming it is accepted) it has to go to my area specialist. Sigh. Well, it's the last paper, I guess I just write it and get it done. I don't want it to drift into next semester, but it can if it has to. I don't want that, but my last paper didn't wrap until three months after I turned it in, and this paper's proposal has taken ten weeks, if my area specialist takes ten weeks then my paper may not be well underway until November. We'll see. I think it should work out okay.

I haven't been sailing as much as I'd like this summer, but I didn't sail as little as I feared, so it's been okay. There are still some more opportunities this year.

The big news - did I mention it already? - is that I joined the cast of Vilification Tennis over the summer, a comedy group that presents competitive "Yo Mama" jokes. I got to perform at the Renaissance Festival for my friends from Staten Island and it was a blast. Honestly it feels really good to be back on stage - for whatever reason - after something like thirty years? I mean, yeah, I'm "on stage" half the time in my life (performing as Bob, the Reliable Employee) but it's fun to just get up there and make people laugh.

Yes, I know this is rambly. So sue me.

The young man was good enough to organize my music directories over the summer, which makes it really pleasant to sit at home and listen to music. I paid him for his work, but it was well worth it. It was a job I really wanted done.

I did a lot of chores last weekend (instead of doing homework), including picking grapes with Gennie, and cleaning the whole refrigerator (including emptying it and tipping it on its face and vacuuming underneath). This latter was driven by the water leaking from beneath the fridge which as ruined the flooring underneath it. Fortunately we have some leftover flooring from the kitchen project, so we just have to get someone in to do the work.

And don't get me started on household repairs and money issues. Let's just say paying off the credit cards is taking longer than I'd like, and we need about four major projects (garage, two bathrooms, new basement room, patio) to be done. We got an estimate, and the total was around $35K for all this, not that any of them are happening anytime soon.

So that's the latest update: school, work, sailing, performing, household stuff, etc. I haven't been bored in years and I'm not going to be anytime soon.