I Should Be Back...

...but I'm not.

I'd planned to sit down yesterday and blast you all with my cheery presence.  For last Thursday was the last day of the quarter, and the rest of this year I"ll be working a single job.  All that free time laid out in front of me, with all my grading done, no lesson planning to dread do, and my bank job requiring only 40 hours a week.

As you have no doubt realized, I did not sit down yesterday and announce my re-entry into the bloggy world.  Well may you ask why, but I'm still sitting here scratching my head, wondering why I made so little of this (beautiful, sunny) weekend.  My best guess is a bit of an over-scheduling hangover.  I think I'm still stuck in that "don't wanna lesson plan, oh look Angry Birds, la la la" mode.  Soon I hope my subconscious will realize there's no work to do, other than the usual housework, so no point in procrastinating!

So this post is a bit of a placeholder.  Yes, you get the opportunity to "hear" my friendly voice, but it's not going to tell you any good stories, or even introduce any interesting photos.  Sorry.  I'm waiting for my creative well to re-fill.

In the meantime, I'm going to list out some of what I hope to accomplish as this glorious fall rolls on in.

1) Get back to the gym!  It's been so long since I've been, that I've misplaced my membership card.  But I did go Friday after work, and even tricked Miss Chef into meeting me there, mostly to ensure *I* made it.  Whoo-whee, I got a lotta catching up to do in there...

2) Paddle more!  With summer gone, both high temperatures and large crowds should be diminishing, and the foliage should be starting to turn.  Bonus: Miss Chef should be able to join me more often, and she's recently developed a real liking for the stand-up paddleboards.  Have I shown you this picture from last month?

Ok, so maybe I was wrong about the no-photos thing.

3) Go to the fair!  I've decided to make it an overnight trip for the NC State Fair this year.  My hope is to be able to see some of the livestock before they're shipped off for the weekend (they have too many to keep the whole time, so they do the judging in shifts).  But also, I'm looking forward to staying with a cousin on my mom's side--she's the artist who did the painting from my Paris rooftop photograph.

4) Go to the mountains!  We'd do this anyway; we have decided our October anniversary is the perfect time to getaway to the gorgeous mountains around Asheville, pick apples and do some hiking.  We still haven't figured out where exactly we're going, though--maybe Banner Elk, as one of Miss Chef's former restaurant colleagues is working at a nice place up there.  In the meantime, we've planned a quickie day-trip back to Skytop Orchard for apples (and donuts!)

5) Go to the Renaissance Festival!  The change of weather from summer's sultry heat to drier, brighter fall air always gives me a hankering to wander the shady acres of our local RenFest, enjoying the sights, sounds  and smells.  I'm not entirely sure when we'll be able to work this in, but we will.

6) Pay more attention to Rosie!  Yes, she's been neglected, but she's always the one to get my butt off the couch and get outside.  She deserves more of my time (and no, she didn't just take over the keyboard).

7) Read more of your blogs!  I have actually been reading (almost) all of you-all's posts, but I've been spotty about commenting.  Part of that is because I do a lot of reading on my tablet, but it's a pain to type comments on, especially because it gets cranky with some of Blogger's displays.  So a lot of my comments remain in my head, but I'd like you to know I'm still reading.

That certainly sounds like quite ambitious enough of a list, along with a couple of major holidays and the usual projects around the house.  But hopefully, with just one job going, I'll have time to share my adventures here on Flartopia.

Right after I finish this book...

The first of the series is Magyk (click for more info).