Been a while since I posted. Summer has come & gone - school starts Monday. The 10 year old is cautiously optomistic to go back to school, but the 7 year old is set against it. In June, my wife left her job of the last 6 years to stay at home. The life of a Director of Alumnae Relations at a private women's college is frought with late nights, weekend meetings, low pay, you name it. Burn out started about 3 years ago, but with the birth of our third child in 2005, it embebbed slightly. We also had to wait for her love of the College to not be outweighed by the crappiness of the job. That reached a head in fall of 2006. She finally made the decision in winter & tendered her resignation to the college President in March 2007; giving 3 months for them to hire her successor. The successor started July 15, 6 weeks after my wife left. What a freaking joke that place is! Anyway....
The summer has been good. My Construction Specifications Institute chapter hosted the National Convention in June. Lots of work, but a very rewarding experience. I was slightly sorry to see it end. I played part time on 2 different softball teams - office & Church, but mostly office. We travelled to Dallas & Arkansas in July to visit my family. Spent a few days with my great uncle, also an architect, at his new home in Heber Springs, AR. Beautiful place - sits on a high bluff overlooking Greer's Ferry Lake. My wife was not too impressed - she's a city girl who grew up outside of DC. Greer's Ferry Lake is about 1-1/2 hours outside of Little Rock, AR, a town of about 250,000. She was a little out of her element.
Of course, the hotel accomodations didn't help. My parents didn't want to impose on Uncle Mike & his new wife, Miss Max, so we got rooms nearby. Now, this was the days immediately following the 4th of July, so rooms were scarce. Technically, rooms are scarce at Greer's Ferry Lake anyway. We stayed at a fishing lodge - metal spring beds with thin mattresses & few towels. But, for $30 we could have joined the Yacht Club (that was the name, no lie) & drank in a dry county. The 2nd night, a transformer blew so the entire area lost power. The party from the Yacht Club spilled out into the parking lot complete with Johnny Cash's Folsom Prison tape on a truck stereo. It was a disaster.
But, we survived. The trip was probably 2 days longer than it should have been, but we took the 7 year old to see the Transformers movie - awesome - & wife, 10 year old & I saw Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix at midnight when it opened - also awesome. Actually, the freak show was probably better than the movie.
Soccer practice started this week. As I said, school starts next week. Fantasy football draft Wednesday, Miss State plays LSU on Thursday, the same day I fly to Dallas for our annual family motorcycle ride over Labor Day. Busy, busy, busy.
