Well, our new routine started yesterday, when Patrick went back to work and--for the first time since 2002!--we both went off to full-time jobs. Eep! It wouldn't be bad at all if it weren't for the dratted thesis, which eats my evenings. As it is, though, time is pretty scarce. A few nice things are coming out of it, though. Since neither of us can afford a full hour for Nika's walk, I'm taking her for a half-hour walk early every morning, before I leave for work, and Patrick's taking her out later in the evening. I wasn't at all enthusiastic about the plan (getting up earlier...urk!), but it turns out--shock!--to be really, really good for me. Walking down with her into the woods at 7:40-ish, when the air is still early-morning cool and there's a light breeze blowing, and everything is green and misty around us, is just wonderful. Ideal weather, beautiful ambience, plus some good exercise (the two steep hills on the way back)...it just turns out to be a perfect way to start the day, and amazingly de-stressing. Especially when I'm tossing treats for Nika to chase, and she's tearing around in ecstatic circles on the green grass, and the stream is rippling softly past...so much better than spending my mornings in a frantic rush of tearing around the house just in time to get off to work!

And lunchtime has turned into my fiction writing time, at the Borders Starbucks just by my office. Or maybe the Starbucks across the street today, since the Borders air conditioning wasn't working yesterday... I'm in the plotting phase for the Fun Novel, and--continuing the whole Fun regimen--I'm trying to approach it not based on the question: "What should happen?" but "What would be the most fun possible thing to happen? What would lead to the most fun complications, confusions, etc?"

This is leading to a lot of muffled cackling at my coffeeshop table. The other patrons will soon learn to keep a wide berth...