Labor Day Weekend

We had a great Labor Day weekend and hope everyone else did too. Saturday and Sunday's weather couldn't be beat, even though it did rain Sunday night. Monday was a bit humid in the morning and cloudy most of the day but overall not too bad. Saturday was mostly a lounging day and I spent some time preparing for classes to start this week, and on some yard work. I also met Clara early in the morning for coffee before she departed the country yet again! Later in the afternoon we had coffee with some friends and ran a few errands, including refilling the propane tank so we could get back to grilling! (And yes, that's 2 coffee trips in one day. There is nothing wrong with that.) Sunday was a blast - We were invited to the B'more Aquarium with some friends and their 5 month old son. Nam and I had a great time watching the sharks, the 3 flippered sea turtle, all the rays, and the infant. After a delicious lunch/dinner at Cheesecake Factory we wandered around the Inner Harbor a bit longer then headed toward home. After a brief stop at Costco we had movie night and enjoyed watching Speed Racer. Monday Nam helped me work on the dresser I've been trying to refinish. It needs a lot of sanding so Nam got right to work.

I start classes again this week, and will be off on Thursdays and Fridays again. Someone called today and tomorrow my "work weekend." Lucky me! I'm looking forward to one of my classes and not dreading the other so I suppose that's a good thing. If only my books would arrive I'd be all set.

Hope you all had a great weekend too!

Feels like fall today -

Wow, where did the summer go? Stepping out the door today it was only 65 degrees. It felt cool and crisp, just like an autumn day. Now I love the fall weather, but I'm not quite ready to say goodbye to summer yet. The high school down the street got started this week with 9th graders starting today and the rest back tomorrow. I start classes again next week too! There's still so much I didn't get done this summer, even some weeds in the front yard I really should have pulled. I still haven't cleared the space for my garden for next summer. I need to finish painting the trim in our living room. I have a nice long list it seems!

But for now I'll just enjoy the reprieve from traditional August weather :)

Towing-

Today I received a call from the Montgomery County Consumer Protection Agency. As many of you heard, my car was illegally towed the last time Mom came to visit from the parking lot behind the local coffee shop. The whole incident was quite the ordeal. The agency called today to let me know that they had settled the matter and the towing company would be crediting the charge back to my account.

While there are still many other people in the county experiencing towing abuses I'm happy that the Consumer Protection Agency pursued my case and got my money back. Yay!

The Shed

Nam took advantage of this beautiful spring (nearly summer!) weekend to finish shingling the shed. He did a great job! Just in the knick of time too, since it has been pouring cats and dogs all day.

I'm just procrastinating, I have a final due tonight - just a question and a half to go - and one more Saturday. Almost finished with the semester!

Spring!

Happy April, I can't believe it's that time of year already! Since I'm in school this year, it'd nearing finals time. I have so much to get done but with the nice weather there's so many other things I'd rather be doing.

My mom was out to visit a few weeks back, we had a great time. It's great that her job allows her to travel out here so often.

Everything else around here is pretty status quo. Wishing my best to Clara when she begins here journey back to the states. Thinking of Emily in Kazakhstan and hoping she takes care of herself!

Keeping busy

I can't believe it's nearing the end of March already. Time has just flown by the past 5 months. I started a program at work in January that allows me to be a full time Masters student at the University of Maryland and only have to work part time. They pay for the classes and my pay stays at a full time rate. It's such a good deal I couldn't pass it up. Of course that means I'm now busy with homework all the time. Overall it isn't going too badly.

I'm now trying to condense 40 hours of work into a 20 hour week, so naturally work is quite busy. I've got my hand in all sorts of projects so I"m mostly content for now.

After having fallen off the exercise bandwagon this winter, Nam and I are both picking it up and hitting the treadmill a bit more often. Even Naruto tried to walk on the treadmill today :)

We're also really busy around the house. Nam is almost finished with our shed, just needs to shingle and side it. It looks great, he and his friends did an amazing job. We also had to rake, yet again, since there were leaves in hiding from this fall!

Spring keeps trying emerge, and we're looking forward to it.