We are back. On August 4th at 4:30 in the morning, AJS and I packed up the car and headed west and north. We reached Minnesota at about 9:30 CST and proceeded to enjoy 8 days of relaxing on the lake, board games, cooking and watching the dog splash in the water. Sadly, we did not think to charge the camera before we left so I was unable to document our beast discovering Lake Minnetonka. Somehow, she figured out how to leap into the water, come down splashing, then try to bite the splash. She would bounce along the shoreline looking like someone doing a butterfly stroke with terrible form.

Since arriving back on Saturday afternoon, I have been unpleasantly faced with a ton of work to catch up with. Its the kind of work with no real deadline, but since everything has been put off while I was trudging through Levine camp and then our trip, things have piled up to ridiculous heights. The 10 or so days I'm home with little to do other than teach the occasional guitar lesson out of the house are very stressful; as I am entirely responsible for scheduling my own activities and actually keeping track of everything. Today was re-organizing the office and filing the 20 pounds of mail I let pile up. Tomorrow is painting the front door and baseboard in the living room. And then there's the fact that I really need to practice the guitar. After my lessons today, I plan to settle into some scales and quartet music on the takemine with a diet coke. It actually sounds kind of fun at the moment.

P.S. Although the dog in the photo is out-dated, the photo is an accurate visual aid.