Finally digging out from under this pile of work to spend some quality minutes
with you my little blog.  Spent the past weekend back home.  Friday evening,
the parents and I went to the Farley race track to watch my brother place 4th
out of 22 entrants for his final race of the year.  It wasn't one of his
better run races, but I guess 4th is still better than nothing.  After
sleeping in till 8am, I went out to start hauling in some of the firewood I
had blocked up from the ten-year (CRP) of the neighbors.  I got 4 trailer
loads, with a couple more still to go.  Then, it was off to church and then to
pick up my nieces and nephews for an overnight at the farm.  Sunday, Mom and I
took the kids out to the timber to help with apple picking.  Unfortunately,
the kids were not very interested in helping, preferring to standing around
and making the youngest child cry.  

The apple tree we hit is a tree we've nicknamed the "Candy Apple" tree.  It is
a crab apple tree with fruit that is red with white stripes, like a candy. 
And the apples have softer flesh, but very sweet.  Perfect for eating and
sauces.  Since we were picking a little early this year, I grabbed a small
step ladder so I could get up into the branches to shake the apples down to
the ground.  This year we got about 5 bushel baskets worth from the one tree. 
Now the apple trees up in the yard we are going to let them finish ripening
before picking, so there will be another round of apple picking coming up. 
Anyways, by the time I got done picking, the predicted rain was moving in, so
I got a nice Sun. afternoon nap in instead of working.

In the good news front, the sister has now officially moved out.  She got an
apartment of her own, so she won't be back around to stay in the short term. 
However, that still hasn't stopped me from house shopping.  In fact, I've
found a place that I'm interested enough in that I may check in on it over my
vacation next week.  Yup, I have a week's worth of vacation I have to use or I
would lose it at the end of the month.  So, hooray for me, I'm off to the farm
for some time away from the grind.

Otherwise, work has been a bit busy.  Still trying to wrap up a pair of
software releases, and support 3 different customers.  I'll be happy to get to
the end of this crisis mode and back to something more manageable.

What's interesting, is that I'm not overly anxious about the house purchase. 
I guess I must be ready to get this out of the way.  I'll miss the company,
but I really don't want to be around the girlfriend of his all that much.  I
half-suspect that as I move out, she'll be moving in.  Tune in and see!

As for the weight loss, still mired around 174 at the moment.  With all of the
work stress and my dropping off the diet wagon for a couple weeks, I guess I
am not very surprised.  I'm hoping that my week off will get me down a couple
pounds with, if the weather cooperates, a lot of outside work time.  Welp,
that's about all I've got tonight.  Except for this: I saw you in the park
that night and thought how a girl likecould be so alone.  And then a few weeks
later, you held the door for me as you were going and I was coming.  Please
forgive my shyness for not asking your name and I hope that divine Providence
will bring our paths back together one more time.  Maybe the next time, I can
be brave enough to ask for just a name.

Tonight's blog entry brought to you by "Vienna Calling" Falco.