Aaaaaahhh! whirlwind!!!

Okay, so not a weather phenomenon. It's just going back to being a busy busy time... end of summer and all that. I'm just grateful I don't have kids to get to school, these days. Instead, I've had time spent with meine kleine Schwester and her young'uns, actually enjoying each other's company (one of us must have miraculously matured over the years... and I'm pretty sure it ain't me, babe). While my sis was away for a day, their grandma and I took the kids to Brookfield Zoo near Chicago (three-plus hours on the highway each way, with a long day of looking at critters in between). We also had a little bit of a birthday party for one of the visitors, and a few other small events to fill the hours rather completely. It was spiffy.

But now they're gone, and I'm left with actual obligations... like, the Friends of the Library have agreed to march in the Prime Beef Festival parade. I'm not going to be able to sit on the sidelines and take pix. Hmmmph. I've made the banners all on my little old lonesome, and bought my outfit (if you get an outfit you can be a cowboy, too), and dug out my cane so I can survive the long time on my feet again. I've also volunteered to man the table at the fair, selling raffle tix for a bag o'boox I won't be able to enter to win... gosh darn it. I'll be working the table Thursday, Friday evenings and Saturday morning, followed by scoping out the cook-off in the afternoon, Saturday. All work and no play...

Plus, this coming Tuesday afternoon is the September meeting of the Warren County Doll Club. It'll be a big, busy day for the club, as we'll need to elect new officers, plan a trip, and plan our big November show and sale.

And those are just the official things. I also promised the Bat I would help her make the blackberry jam, the crabapple jelly, and stuff involving pickling, I think. I have a tree and two berry (goose) bushes to plant, and another set of canes (golden rasp) to divide and replant. I have a set of graphics to work up and a genuine deadline attached to them. I have two weeks' worth of laundry accumulated and no safe way to fake it when I run out of foundation garments. The car needs an oil change. The cats need to be taken in for their shots. And I think I may need to write a column again. Hmmmm.

To think I came to Monmouth to lead a quiet life!