I'm back from Texas. I left stinking hot weather in Lubbock to come back to stinking hot weather here . . . yeesh. At least the pools are open - but I actually haven't made it swimming, bizarrely enough. Yesterday was Emil's birthday, so we celebrated, and before we celebrated, we shopped for Charlie's presents, since his birthday is tomorrow (and he's coming over for dinner, of course).

Today, we painted the living room. Whatever changes and upheavals the next month brings (and irons are still in the fire; plans are still up in the air), it seems pretty clear that we're going to sell this house. So we've got to get it ready to put on the market . . . and hope it doesn't sell before we're ready to buy . . . The timing with these things, as always, is tricky. But we hope to have it ready to go by the beginning of next week. There's a bit more painting to be done, and general cleaning and organizing and flower planting, but it seems we may make the mark by then.

That might be a bit of a trick, though, since we're going back to Youngstown on Thursday afternoon. (We're - some of us are - spending Thursday morning in Lansing, having brunch with Steph and Patrick, yay!) It'll be a quick trip to Y'town, again - just long enough to say hi and mow the grass, and perhaps retain the services of a lawn care company, since we can't get there often enough to really keep the lawn up, and we don't want Uncle Carl to have to do it; he's too frail, at this point, although he makes the best effort he can. I'd feel awful if he got hurt.

Anyhow, I should have some pool time next week, before my online class gets rolling and before my summer gig at the English Language Institute kicks in. Tonight I made a purchase that will make the pool time even more enjoyable - I got a 1 G iPod Shuffle. I am totally geeked about this: It was an open-box special and it was mismarked at $63, the usual price for the open-box 512 MB model. But, since it was mismarked, the kind folks at CompUSA decided to honor the price tag - so I got a really good deal on the thing! I'm trying not to feel too extravagant - and I'm dreading Emma's reaction; she will think that this particular $63 is what's standing in the way of us being able to live in this house in Ann Arbor with no distruption to her life . . . My pitiful justification for this purchase (aside from crass materialism) is that I don't want to take my big iPod to the pool - it's far too valuable to leave in my bag next to my deck chair while I'm gone for half an hour swimming laps. If this one got stolen, I'd feel bad but I wouldn't be crushed.

Well, that's today's news. Now I'm going to shuffle off to bed, because the painting really seems to have taken the wind out of my sails, and I'm hoping we can get up early enough to get the hallway done before tomorrow afternoon (when we're going house-hunting). Stay tuned . . . we're certainly living in interesting times (but I must confess, I could use a little boredom about now . . . )