Fall is definitely in the air. While I am still wearing shorts, there was a nice chill in house when I awoke this morning. It didn't help that I left the windows open and the fan on, even though it was supposed to get down to the mid-40s. I love sleeping in the cold weather.

Things are pretty much going along as they always have, with the exception that I'm not near as busy any more. It seems to be feast or famine here at work, and seeing as how it was busier than all get out all during the summer, I don't mind a few weeks worth of famine. I can catch up on school work, and my websites. It also gives me time to do a few more things around the house, and I don't feel as tired. Unfortunately, with the lack of work goes the OT. So it looks as if I'll be trying to find a second job. Here's where we find out if my mom actually reads this journal, because if I do get another job, I won't be able to make it to her place for Thanksgiving :(

Our 4th of July weekend was a blast. Gail's parents came out from Tucson, and we took them out to Ida Lee park in Leesburg, where we've gone every time since we came out to the East Coast. We keep meaning to get into D.C. to see the National fireworks, but something always precludes us from going. Aside from the extra tight security and terrorist threats, there was the heat to contend with. And truthfully, I think I was more concerned with the heat than the other stuff. Besides, Ida Lee usually puts on a fantastic show. They had several moon-bounce things for the kids, vendors selling your typical carnival food, and a live band, The Fabulous Hubcaps. We had a great time, and the fireworks were probably some of the best I've seen.

Other than that, it's just been work. Work, work, and more work. We have a huge project, and the launch date was moved up by almost a whole month, so everyone is scrambling like mad. Truthfully, I shouldn't even be writing this. I should be trying to figure out why my stuff doesn't work like it should. But I've been working 70 and 80 hour weeks, so I thought I'd take 15 minutes to update my journal. Poor thing probably feels neglected. :)

If you've never camped in a zoo, I suggest trying it. The Catoctin Wildlife Preserve and Zoo up in Maryland offers a package where you get to camp in the zoo overnight, they feed you both dinner and breakfast, and you get a twilight tour of the zoo, as well as some entertainment on their stage. It was a lot of fun, and Cody and I really enjoyed it. The zoo itself is fairly nice, and they have a good selection of animals. I tell ya, there is nothing like being awaken by lemurs hootin' and hollerin' at 4:30 in the morning. They get LOUD.

I've implemented a curse jar in our house. Gail has a toilet mouth, so now every time she curses, she has to pay a quarter to it. This includes crap, damn(it), and Gail's favorite, dumb-ass. Within half an hour of my setting it up, there was a buck in there.

She was in bed reading, after having made her first deposit to the curse jar. She was reading an article about how some guy in California is cryogenically freezing hair so that when a cure for baldness is absolute, men can get their hair out of storage, and have it grafted (or whatever) back on to their head. She then said "Only in California would they come up with this bullshit...oh Crap! Oh DAMMIT!" At this point, she shoved a Kleenex in her mouth to keep from cursing more. Needless to say, she almost double the amount of money in the curse jar within about 10 seconds.

I so wouldn't want to be in Cody's shoes right now. His teacher is supposed to send home "weekly reports" every Friday. She forgot it last Friday, so she gave it to him yesterday. She found it on the floor under a desk this morning, so she taped it to Cody's desk. After the kids had come in, then gone back out for recess, she found it in the trash. When she confronted him about it, and told him that she was calling his mom, he just said "uh oh, busted".

Gail is now on her way to the school to sit in his class. I sure wouldn't want to be him...