Last night I gave a presentation to the promotion board at work to try and get promoted to the next title. I haven't been that nervous in a long time! Hopefully I managed to sound okay over the phone. At least they didn't see me wringing my hands and fiddling with my pen :) ... I should find out in a couple weeks if I got the promotion or not.

Lori's coming home for the weekend, arriving tonight. She's bringing one of her girl pals from school... hopefully she won't get too terrorized by Mocha! hehe

My week at home ended up being almost 1.5 weeks. :) Mom & Dad's return from their cruise was delayed two days due to Hurricane Jeanne... they're arriving in Chicago this evening. I changed my Albany flight to tomorrow morning (6am, ugh) so that I could see them before I leave, and so that Lola and Mocha would have company for another couple days.

Speaking of those two, they made the week fairly interesting. Lola complained of feeling dizzy/lightheaded starting last Sunday... Tita Marie found that her bp was somewhat elevated, and told her just to rest. She felt better by Tuesday, but then felt a little weak again on Thursday, so on Friday I took her to her doctor, who told her that she needs to relax when she doesn't feel so well because being nervous will only make her bp worse! He also adjusted her meds a bit. Overall though she checked out fine.

As for the rat terror, he was his usual hyperactive self, although I found that he does like to nap a lot. :) He got sick and threw up once in the middle of the night, but was fine the next day. For some reason he has a fondness for mattress and comforter stuffing. Wonder if there's a doggie support group for this addiction of his. hehe

I had dinner with Liezl at Ben Pao on Wednesday. I drove her back to her house, which is *gorgeous* and huge. It's a three-level townhome with a deck, and really nice features. Vince painted some of the walls too so it looks a lot more "decorated" than my place.

Woohoo, today starts a whole week at home in Chicagoland! Mom & Dad are leaving for their cruise (oooo) tomorrow, so I will be house-sitting, puppy-sitting, and keeping Lola company. Not sure yet if I'll actually be sleeping over there every day, but I'm sure I will at least some days this week. I won't be back in Albany till the 26th (rejoice). Of course I will be working from home or from the Oak Brook office some, but that's not so bad. :)

We actually had summer-like weather in Chicago over the weekend! Unfortunately I spent most of the day Saturday in a classroom... my Operations Management course at DePaul has started. I think it might be a pretty fun class... the prof is interesting, and my classmates seem cool. Of course I'm still dreading the homework and such...

I'll be taking a break from travel next week so I can house-sit for Mom & Dad while they are on their Gulf cruise. A whole week with Mocha... hopefully I will survive with all my fingers intact :)

A fun Labor Day weekend is drawing to a close. Today, I spent most of the afternoon and evening at the parental units' place... they had a bbq. They used the new Coleman gas "party grill" I got for them - it worked well!

Yesterday was Reese's baptism. He was cute as a button, and the ceremony and receptions were very nice. Got to play a lot with Sebastian too.