Happy Friday the Thirteenth! Mua-ha-ha! Of October, which is already a spoooooooky month! SpoooOOOOooky!

Ahem.

So the trip is over, and I'm slowly getting caught up with everything that happened at work while I was gone and all the work I need to catch up on now that I'm back.

There's also a stack of personal and household things to catch up on. Laundry, the photo album, grocery shopping, various appointments to make and keep (doctor, car, hair), assorted books I want to read... the usual, I suppose, but more of it.

And Karen got to town last night, surprisingly early. Apparently she found a new driving route that cut several hours off her trip, which is nice. I need to touch base with her soon; I know she bought Penny some clothes for her birthday, and I need to find out what because Penny is in desperate need of new cool-weather clothes, and I was hoping to fill any gaps Karen's left while I'm shopping anyway for Jess's birthday present on Saturday.

...I'm not sure that last sentence was altogether in English. But you know what I mean, right?

Going to be a busy weekend, though. Saturday is our neighborhood's fall picnic, if we decide to go, and my parents called last night to hint strongly that they'd like to see Penny soon (especially as they've recently acquired a new kitten and want to see her reaction. Apparently, they want to see if cuteness can acquire enough of a density to spontaneously form a black hole. Or maybe it'd be a pink hole.)

We have piles of laundry to do -- enough that we might even need to start before Sunday. And we'll have a massive grocery-shopping trip, as our refrigerator is this close to being completely empty. It's saved only by the fact that I stopped at the grocery store yesterday to buy milk and tomatoes.

And, as I mentioned, I need to go shopping for a birthday present for Jess, and possibly some fall/winter clothes for Penny, and hopefully also a Hallowe'en costume for Penny. But definitely a birthday present for Jess, because Jess's birthday party is Sunday afternoon/evening.

I wish I could take a day off to relax and recover from the trip and visit with Karen, but it's just not in the cards. Ah, well. We're moving into the busybusybusy time of year. I'd grouse, but too much of it is going to be fun. At least it makes it less likely that I'll run out of things to talk about here!

--Liz