Okay--a quick update for you. The new job is challenging. Things are going well, but I am working a ton of hours, just trying to keep up with the demands of a growing business. If I just had another me who could work 20-30 hours a week, I might actually get home at a decent hour a couple of times a week! I know someone else in Temple who is looking for workers--maybe that means the economy is improving here in my little corner of the world.

I have been fighting a cold since Friday, and I think the cold is winning. I have been taking Nyquil since Saturday night, and I love the fact that I sleep through the night. I cannot say it's making a big impact on the cold, but at least I'm getting some good sleep!

Reading became a revived obsession for me for the last few weeks. I hadn't ever finished the Harry Potter series, so I re-read books 4 and 5, then checked out books 6 and 7 from the library. I think I read all four books in about 3 weeks. It's hard to believe sometimes that I live in this world and not the world of Harry Potter. I did enjoy the books. I guess when you wait two or three years to read a good book, it's much easier to find in the library!

Tomorrow night, I will finish the first draft of my first book, being written with my friends Daniel and Lee Ann. It is exciting and scary, to see months and months of hard work being sent out to have our editors read it. What if they don't like it? What if they want us to change too much? What if the book is really bad? Have I set too much hope in MY opinion of the book? I think I must not be alone in those fears--we worked on the last page of the book for hours at our last meeting, and still couldn't come up with a good ending. Hopefully tomorrow night will be more productive!

That's about it from here. Work-check. Reading-check. Writing-check. The only thing I haven't mentioned is cooking. I pulled out a cookbook I've had for about 11 years and have been trying to cook 2 new recipes a week. So far, they're okay. If I find one that's awesome, I'll be sure to share it here. Thanks to my friend Mandi, I have a new obsession with cupcakes. She taught me how to make chocolate souffle cupcakes with a white chocolate-whip cream frosting, (from smitten kitchen) and since then I have been obsessed. They're delicious, but you've been warned!

Have a great day!