1. Posey, Della, and Jeremiah (Because they’re lovey and cuddly and wonderful.)
2. Sleeping in (Our trip has us headed all over the place, so I can’t imagine we’ll be getting a whole lot of rest.)
3. The National Book Festival (Last year was a ton of fun — I got to meet Mr. McFeeley from Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood and Maria from Sesame Street!)
4. The first game of the final Mets-Nationals series (to which we had tickets)
5. The beginning of the season and series tv premieres (I like to see what’s worth watching and what’s not.)

We should be heading out in the next half hour or so, so it’s time to put the computer to bed for the duration of our vacation. We’ll log in from internet cafés in the U.K., so stay tuned for some updates. Also, I’ve already set up posts to appear on a daily basis for the next week. So make sure you check back to see what’s up.

Talk to you all later!

1. Work
2. The kitchen faucet
3. The weird delivery of the newspaper
4. Washing dishes
5. The mess in the Burrow

I haven’t been sleeping well this last week. The neighborhood stray keeps showing up at 3:30 or so in the morning, stressing the cats and awakening me. Usually I’m able to fall right back to sleep, but I haven’t been as successful this week. The brain just has a hard time turning off right now.

There’s too much going on right now at work for a vacation to be convenient.

But work is so stressful that I really need a vacation.

And, of course, our vacation is designed to keep us moving for 10 straight days. I hope I won’t return home more tired than I left.

The Supreme Court is going to go ultra-conservative. People will forget (or forgive) Bush’s inadequacies. The Democrats will kow-tow. The Republicans will grovel. Few will notice. Fewer will care.

People from Louisiana and Mississippi have lost everything. People are lying dead in the streets. Others are waiting to be allowed to start cleaning up and removing dead bodies. No one will let them. Animals are dying. Animals are in shelters. People are in shelters. Life just seems so sad for so many.

And while we pay attention to those who’ve been hit by major upheaval, minor upheavals uproot smaller pockets of people all over every day. No one throws a benefit for them.

I just feel so … weary.

Seven days from now, we’ll be in England.

Our potential itinerary:

• Sept. 13
  Leave from Newark
• Sept. 14
  Bath
• Sept. 15
  Hay-on-Wye
• Sept. 16
  Oxford
• Sept. 17
  Bristol
• Sept. 18-19
  Andover (including the surrounding areas of Avebury, Stonehenge, and The Long Man)
• Sept. 20-21
  The southern coast (possiblly including Cornwall, Mendips, the New Forest, Southsea, and Brighton)
• Sept. 22-23
  London
• Sept. 24
  Home

Today I bought my cousin Caroline some ornaments for her wedding. They’re nice enough, but I’m not overly thrilled. It just wasn’t what I imagined when I came up with the idea. Some of them are definitely fun — hiking boots and a string of hearts — but I just wish I were more pleased with them as a set. Maybe over the next week or so I’ll find that one perfect ornament that pulls the rest of them together.

This is the problem I face every time I buy presents — I get an image in my head and when reality fails to live up to imagery, I’m disappointed. I guess I have to work on that…