Well, we have a showing tomorrow and an open house on Sunday . . . we're running around madly trying to get the place in tip-top shape by then. Emil's spent most of the day sanding the front door; after trying 5435432532 products designed to strip stain with no success, he finally concluded he was going to have to go the labor-intensive route. I'm waiting for the sanding to be done so that I can wash and then polyurethane the living room floor. (This is a quick-and-dirty fix, in some respects; we really should sand the floor first but we aren't going to do that since time is so short.)

My thinking is that we should leave tomorrow before the showing and head N-O-R-T-H. Next week is the last week of the ESL program, then we close on the new house on the 14th (a week from Monday). That week will be consumed with moving, and then, bright and early on the 21st . . . I start the fall semester. Which brings my summer (if you could call it that) to a brilliant, crashing close. I think a few days - okay, a day and a half - of R&R is a Most Appropriate Course of Action. Besides, Wally's never been up north. I'm sure he'd like it!

Much depends on whether we actually can get the walls painted and the floors done and the door finished - oh, yeah, and if I can get the rag-tag ends of grading for the ESL class done . . . so I better get back to it.

Wish us luck with the showings. I'm feeling lucky, really I am . . .