I've been trying not to write one of those listy entries that just rehashes what I've been doing, what I've done so far today, and what I plan on working on, because I know they're probably not that interesting to people other than, well, me. But then I thought, it's cool looking back on my old journals here to see what I was obsessed with and working on back then. And I figure people can always skim (keeping an eye out for their own name -- I know you do it!).

Today was another one of those weekend days where Lizzie has to work, so it was just Drew and me. Not a bad thing, necessarily, because she gets to be with him all week, for the most part (she's picking up some more days during the week now that it's summer and Drew's "Mimi" can watch him those days while she's not teaching 1st grade). But it sucks not getting to see Lizzie all day 'til 4 or so.

What I do to pass the time is keep Drew and me busy all day. I always try to keep the house spotless and neat while I'm babysitting, so today I took Drew and our kick-ass Dyson vacuum upstairs and commenced sucking up a couple pounds of animal fur, new-carpet fluff, and miscellaneous debris. I can't believe how much our new carpet sheds. Sorta nasty.

Drew followed me around and played with his cars and books in various rooms. And every time I'd fire up the vacuum after emptying it out, he'd do this mad running-in-place jig, as if the sound of the vacuum had made him want to make a run for it. Very cute. He was awesome as I cleaned and threw laundry together -- yes, call me Mr. Mom, but I don't mind doing it at all -- and then we took a walk with the dog and chatted with the neighbors.

He went down for a nap at 10 and is still out at 1 p.m. (he went to his G'ma and G'pa's place yesterday and ran his little feet off, with only a brief nap, and he usually gets 3-5 hours of napping in a day).

So I had some lovely time to get caught up on bills, some writing-related stuff (including printing out a sub for this, just because I'm crazy), and just getting caught up in general from my almost-two-month-long hiatus.

Now I'm buzzing with the potential of all my various projects -- the new short story, revising Sixteen Miles (huge thanks to Kathy, Mahesh, Greg, Sarah, Shawn, Mom, Mike K., and everyone else who helped me with these chapters, especially Kathy and Mahesh, who read it all!), revising All Nations (got lots of cool ideas for reworking this), reading reading reading (including a re-read of the wonderful Perfect Circle by Sean Stewart and Teacher Man by Frank McCourt, if I can find it in the library when I go today with Drew), and reading better and faster thanks to the "Rapid Reading" book I picked up (even if it is weird, using your hand to read as they suggest).

So many cool things to do. And no, I'm not going to say "so little time." Because there's just enough time. You've got to make time, but at the same time, you can't force it. Later!