*deep breath*

Folks, I’m on diet vacation. It hasn’t been outlandish, but from Monday morning last until next Monday, I’m not weighing in and I’m not tracking. The 4th of July holiday and tomorrow’s anniversary, a hectic week of work, and another weekend of travelling has just settled it. There’s been too much stress already, so I’m on a one week hiatus for my sanity.

That said, wish I’d thought of this in advance, I’d have been so much worse. At least I can maybe look forward to a nice dinner (Bonefish?) in Chattavegas tomorrow and a guilt-free dessert.

The 4th: Boys and things that go boom. Traffic to Alabama and back was a breeze, the food was plentiful, mostly cooked on the grill, and frequently followed by ice cream, so it’s all good there. Got to spend some time learning about Neopets with the great-niece… Got to spend some time helping people with some wedding decoration planning… Got to finally see King Kong… and mostly got to enjoy the company of some family we see entirely too little of. That may change, however, as the boys have “big plans” … something about multi-stage rockets, hatches in the roof that open for launching, and cooking their own fuel. But that’s details for JamesT to recount. The liquored-up ladies of the house stuck mostly to our drinking and relaxing. It was all good.

The mini-work week: People love our new program, seeing us in person, and getting things done, and rightly they should, except, well… we have appointments for 3 people a day and we’ve been seeing about 5+ with all the pop-ins, drop-ins, hallway and after-class stalkers lurking about. Twice today as I tried to sneak in a quick trip to the bathroom I was accosted with business cards and lists of items that need to be done on their website, for me to work on later. I’m happy to help you, people… just make an appointment. Here’s my card. Thank you, drive through. Except, that’s not me. I’m the .. sure, let me take your name… blah blah blah. So, my “short days” are turning into full days, and when I get home, I still have hours of the usual work to finish plus all the followup for the appointments. So, it’s sort of like two jobs again.

This weekend: If you read JT too, you know that we got the news about his grandmother’s quadruple bypass surgery as soon as we left Alabama and hit an area with cell signal on the 4th. She’s out of the ICU now, so we’re definitely heading up there this weekend to see her in person. I’ve really got to let her know that she doesn’t have to have major surgery to get us to visit and to knock off all the drama. And, of course, as I said, hopefully we’ll manage to sneak in at least a quiet dinner someplace for us.

Next week: Well, the pending work schedule for the week is already causing me shivers. Wednesday is JT’s birthday, so at least I have that night off for a change, but I believe he has a CMR to work that night. Maybe next weekend we’ll have a chance to do something. Perhaps some people might be interested in hanging out at our place one weekend day with some snacks and adult beverages? Low key, unplanned, general gathering of people we like to see? That is, if we’re not out caving in to our desire to just buy that huge-ass TV James wants, using his birthday /our anniversary/ we’re slackers as an excuse. In that case, maybe we’ll have a come watch the big-TV party or something. Who knows. That’s entirely too far ahead to plan with this few braincells still working.

Now: Back to work. Yes, it’s Friday, but we’re not leaving until morning so I can finish my work and not be tied to a computer all weekend. We miss you all! Keep sending those cards and letters…. or something.