I am such a damned slacker. Does this ever go away? Here we are, two days before classes begin, and I still have two courses to completely plan. In fact, I must get the syllabuses done by 1 pm today because I have a midwife appointment (my blood pressure was high last week. Did I already write that?) this afternoon. And then tomorrow we have a stupid department meeting which I have no doubt will last for approximately 1 hundred million hours. And it starts at 9 am.

And then then it's Thursday which is the day I have the two classes I have not planned and have never taught before. Isn't that smart? How I left the first two for the eleventh hour?

So we went to MD this weekend and it was very hot and there were ever so many people, but, all told, the whole thing went over with minimal crying from moi. These days I count that as a grand success. I also do love Jeff's parents and the dogs adore them so very very much. That makes me happy--Basho doesn't adore going anywhere that's not home (that's my dog) but he loves it there and he especially loves Jeff's dad. And Peaches--hell Peaches would probably like to move in with them RIGHT NOW because she thinks Jeff's mom is the most deliciously wonderful person on the planet and they are so extraverted together. During the big (unbearably) huge party Peaches greeted every single person and charmed all the people's pants off immediately. Basho stayed upstairs in the guest room. I visited him lots and lots.

On Sunday morning we went through Jeff's hope chest (his mom is a total Leave it to Beaver mom, in the nicest way possible). I'm so over-the-top emotional, it's true, but I was deeply touched by the things in there. We have baby blankets now made by Jeff's mom, both of Jeff's grandmothers, and Jeff's great-grandmother. How cool is this? To be able to bring our kid home surrounded by that line of women? And then, of course, there were all the homemade clothes--from Jeff's grannies and his mom. There's even a pair of wrangler's with knee patches that say Jeff and have a red heart. They are the best things ever.

Oh, but I was glad to be home! I love coming home. I love running around with Basho and Peaches and the kittens (who were so glad to see us except Buson was mad that we were gone so long he wouldn't do anything but scratch at us and fight with us for a couple of hours but then he crawled into my lap and was his usual baby self). Only one more out-of-town trip planned BB (before baby). I think that's about all I can handle, and even that I'm not so sure about.

Right then. Back to the grind over here. Later, y'all.