And they were singing…

Um, no, I haven’t died, I promise. I’ve just been busy.

One good thing is WG’s schedule at the farm is finally easing up, so he’s not as swamped. We’ve actually been able to get together in person twice in the last few weeks, and that’s with me out of town for about half that time. On the flip side, my work schedule has changed so I get off three to six hours earlier than him, depending on the day, which means we haven’t been talking on the phone as often. But that also means that on his days off, I get off work early enough for us to spend time together if we want. So far, I think it’s a net gain.

There’s also some work craziness going on, and who knows how it’s going to end. I might get a promotion out of it, but there are a lot of dominos left to fall. There’s another person I know is also being considered, and she’s better qualified in some areas. But her husband is publisher, which means she pretty much has to be enough more qualified than the other options to convince the regional VP that this isn’t nepotism. EE wants her. She and P want me. She and I decided to let EE and P fight it out, since it’s going to get downright weird on several levels. And the regional VP has heard so much about me from P that he wants to meet me next time he’s in town.

Meanwhile, WG is trying to figure out if he can afford to retire soon because he’s getting burnt out, but he doesn’t know what questions to ask the HR lady. So I’m trying to coach him into asking the right questions (at his request) because I can’t get involved publicly. That might change the calculations EE would make for some upcoming decisions, but since I don’t know about it in my work role, I can’t say anything – and WG won’t. (He also wouldn’t understand that EE might need to know for long-range planning.) I can see his point, especially since he’s not at all sure he *can* retire anytime soon – he just wants to.

I’m also knee-deep in choir and Christmas crafts – we won’t even mention making Christmas cards. I need to get going on that. And I need to finish and polish River so I can post it and meet the 20K mark, which means finishing the rebuilding of my Web site in iWeb since publishing from my PC is no longer an option. That all has to be done by the end of September, and I need to write my Jixaversary story to post Oct. 1. And dare we even mention NaNo? Or my novel that’s been languishing from lack of attention? Or my six-week hiatus from running. And we’re definitely not mentioning the chaos that is my apartment.