OK, we just blew about $180 at Sams Club 2 days ago there's no good reason for us to be out of groceries already. What posessed us to buy both a 50-count of 2-packs of Grandma Gebhart (stale) packaged chocolate chip cookies AND a one gallon tub of Pillsbury chocolate chip cookie dough. Which do I want, cookies, or cookies?

Today I left work at 11 for "lunch" drove to my 13 year old daughter's middle school, signed her up for the school bus, even though we got a form in the mail months ago that all we needed to do was sign and mail back. Somehow we left it until 5 days before school starts. Then I drove to my 8 year old son's elementary school and did the same thing, only I also had to pay them $225 for his. Then I stopped by the house and made sandwiches for them that, honestly, they could have made themselves. Then I got back to work and had a voice mail from my husband saying, he already mailed my son's form and check for $225 in , two days ago. It's only our daughter who wasn't signed up for the bus. So I called the school district transportation department and left them a voice mail saying sorry I signed him up a second time. When they get our check in the mail and the second one from his school's front office , please destroy one of them. I'm sure we look like the biggest bunch of dorks alive, and that no one really questions where my son's neurotic behavior comes from.

My closest co worker got a lecture from our manager yesterday explaining that although we've been told we have unlimited sick days, Human Resources told our manager to tell her she's using too many sick days. So, great, they're going to draw an arbitrary line and start making her come in and spread her germs, which is what we were told the unlimited sick days rule was supposed to prevent. And we got a lecture from her at our department meeting today that Human Resources won't add new people to a department unless all the members of that department work 48 hour weeks instead of just 40 and still can't keep up. I'd be deeply offended if they didn't pay me so damn much.

I made myself run to highway 65 and back. Mapquest says that's 2 miles. It went OK. I should have kept it up all summer, I just didn't . I'd be in better shape if I had.

School hasn't even started yet, and already I've screwed up. Last night my husband and I got out all the unopened mail and went through it and found that although my son's school open-house and meet the teacher night was still two days away...my daughter's middle school one had happened about 5 hours ago. So I will have to take a long lunch from work tomorrow, go home, get her, take her to school, get her schedule and her locker, and go back to work. And she'll have to get her picture taken on picture re-take day.

Tonight we spent almost $200 at Sam's Club. I only recognised one person from when I used to work there 5 years ago, and she didn't see me. I meant to go alone and buy milk and washcloths. Instead everyone came with me and we included such things as a tub of cookie dough, tee shirts, a dvd of Pink Floyd's The Wall, and a small crate of individual-sized childrens' breakfast cereal boxes. Almost $200! That's almost plane fare to see my sister in Tacoma or to LA to the online music fan forum convention I keep saying I'm not even thinking about going to.

And I created a Facebook account, to go along with the MySpace account and the Yahoo 360 account, both of which already have most of the same friends added to them. But I finally do have to see what the fuss is about. Plus I'm bored.

I'm feeling better about the trip I took to Ukiah, CA, two weeks ago, now that I'm hearing back from everyone. The client says all my information helped them a lot, and they wrote to some of our administrators in my office. One called from her home office in Pittsburg to say she was only on page 5 of my 11 page trip report and she' d never read anything as detailed and thorough. Another one nominated me for an award , another blue lapel pin shaped like a star, with our corporate logo inside it. We're supposed to pin them to our name badges, but I keep mine in a little box full of them in my desk.

Last summer I ran a little more every day, so I could run in a 5 k that fall. And this summer I ran in a 5K in May, all pleased with myself that with that as my starting point, I could work my way up even from there all summer. Then I hardly ran at all! I guess if I'm not actually signed up for a race, and planning towards it, I'm just staying in! And it's August 28 already !

I'm sitting in our reclining chair in our living room, on my work laptop, on our home wireless.

We got a new roof this week. The roofers even came back at 7:45 am Sunday morning to put some finishing touches on it. I felt sorry for our neighbors. We were not expecting them at all that day. I'm sure with two more hours of hammering and buzz sawing at that hour on a Sunday morning, anyone withing two block of us wanted to kill us. And if they do, I don't blame them.

A few weeks ago, we had someone look at a stain on our living room ceiling, he went on the roof and found the hole in a piece of metal up there that was allowing water through, but he also saw so much hail damage he said , with all this hail damage, you could get your insurance to pay for a whole new roof, not just fix this one tiny piece of metal. So we went for it, insurance agreed the hail damage was extensive, when thier claims person came and looked at it, so we're getting a new roof , and finally decent gutters.

Last week I went to Ukiah , California to visit a client. I didn't want to go. Weeks earlier, they had complained to several administrators that they did not feel that they were well trained on our software the first time, and that they needed a lot of help. So I was elected, and I did agree to go , but I felt that I agreed to do so, under duress. And I was especially offended when an account manager agreed she was going with me, and that she'd drive from San Francisco airport to Ukiah because she'd been there before and knew the way, and then once I had my travel plans to match hers, she rescheduled them 2 weeks in to the future, so I rescheduled mine to match hers again, and then she pulled out and told me she wasn't going with me , I'd have to fly out, rent a car, and drive myself.

Well I did, anyway. Spent two ful days at their medical clinic, met a lot of their staff, sat with them, had me explain what their needs were, showed them features they didn't know about or hadn't been using correctly. By the time I left, I was getting a lot of good feedback that they felt my visit was helpful, and I'm still hearing about it this week as well. So I guess some good came out of it. And upon my return trip through San Francisco, and old childhood friend Dani ,who ran away from home , to San Francisco, when we were 15, agreed to meet with me! I was so excited to see her. I mapquested her suggested restaurant and we met at Tommy's Joynt on Van Ness Street in San Francsico, and talked all night. I really enjoyed seeing her.

This week my 13 year old daughter is away at Japanese Language camp. They sent us an email link to their web site, and every day they post about 20 pictures from the day before, so every day we get to see pictures of her doing group activities at camp!

Sunday was the suburb of Mounds View's annual summer festival. My husband agreed to work at the Lions Club hot dog stand. I agreed to Sons of Norway that my kids and I would ride in the Viking Ship float one guy was making out of a pick up truck in his driveway. Well it poured rain outside all day. The rain stopped just long enough for the parade, but the Viking Ship never arrived. About 6 of us old ladies, the other all much older than me, stood at the point of the parade route where one guy was supposed to bring his Viking Ship float, but he never showed up. I sent the kids along to ride on this little Lions Club hay-wagon that my husband was on. I offered to the other Sons of Norway ladies we could just walk the parade route, but they almost fainted at the suggestion. It wasn't even that long. But it was more than they were up to. So we just watched the parade go by, from there.

As soon as my husband and kids pulled around again to the parade finish line, which was also its starting line, the clouds burst and it started pouring again . I took my kids home, and after only about less than 2 hours my husband called to ask me if I could come back right away and help the Lions Club take their stand down. The Weather Service had issued a severe thunderstorm warning for Ramsay County, so the City of Moundsview just shut down the festival and asked everyone to close at 4 pm. So the Lions didn't make much money, which is rough for them . And we all got soaked.

A few months ago I researched an email address for the author of a memoir I had recently enjoyed "I was a Teen Age Norwegian," wrote him, and told him how much I enjoyed reading the book. I even told him how I have even up until now refused to read the last 5 pages, so it won't be "over." And he emailed me back and asked my address. I had amost forgotten he'd done that, then, this week, he mailed me a very professionally made video tape of himself reading from the book and displaying photographs from his real experience as an exchange student to Tromsø in 1961! it's a good 1/2 hour long. It's so great. Clearly it's meant to advertise the book, so I'll be passing it around when I've seen it one or two more times. But I seriously wasn't expecting that!