Wendy's Week. Wow.

I had a mid-week shake-up. I had lunch with my writer friend, Diana Brandmeyer, and we got on the subject of conferences. She isn't going to ACFW this year either, and I told her I'd considered going to the Oregon Christian Writers Conference next month to pitch my story to Chip MacGregor, but it's not ready so I'm skipping that one, too. She strongly encouraged me to go anyway, so when I got home I e-mailed one of the mentors at My Book Therapy who is familiar with the story. (She's also Chip's client.) When I told Eric about it, he said, "Bye." So I registered. I waited two more days to buy the airline tickets because it was so surreal to have decided so quickly to go. To make it even more surreal, I got a check in the mail from my former boss. Apparently she was going through the books and found that I hadn't cashed two paychecks. That check paid most of my air fare. (It would have covered almost all of it if I'd bought them two days before, but oh well.) Needless to say, everything is now taking a back seat to getting the book finished and all the other assorted stuff to get ready. At least it will be cooler in Oregon than it is here. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one seeing God's fingerprints all over this!

That's the biggest thing. Other things are as follows:

- Weight is holding steady, but I put my jeans on this afternoon and they're a little snug. Could be because they were in the dryer a little too long. Yup, that's the story I'll stick with.
- Eric is talking about doing South Beach again, possibly as a transition to Paleo or Primitive.
- Went school supply shopping! I love doing that. Of course, I buy more for myself these days than I do for my kids. Actually, I shopped twice because Eric and I went to buy printer ink yesterday, and I picked up folders for my pitch presentation, too.
- My tomatoes are finally ripening. Of course, I have had ripe cherry tomatoes for a week or two now. These are The Cherry Tomatoes That Will Not Die. Every year they self-seed in abundance. I planted the originals five or six years ago. I can send seeds if y'all want my pseudo-perennial variety. ;-)
- We have had no rain. I think it's been about three weeks. It's looked promising a couple times. Once I even got a dozen drops when I was grilling outside. Luckily I still have plenty of water in my rain barrels. A hundred gallons of water lasts a while when you only have to use a couple gallons a day to water pots.
- This is Eric's last week of The Semester From Hell. Between the Middle East Relations class that challenged what he thought he knew to the HR class with the brand new teacher (it's his very first semester), he's ready for it to be done. So am I.
- Got no sewing done this week. I'm starting to sound like Tammy!

This week:
- Write (hopefully finish)
- Take van to have a trailer hitch installed
- Swim
- Holy cow, Alex's birthday is Friday. Find out if he wants to go out to dinner, or if he's going to celebrate with his girlfriend.
- Visit the eye doctor to see if contacts are a good option for me.
- Finish my petticoat.
- Cut the fabric for my arisaid and see if the remainder is long enough for a great kilt (pleaseohpleaseohplease!!!!!)
- Decide if my kirtch is done or if it needs more flowers embroidered on.

Have a good week, friends!