Hey, with any luck, I'll be doing renovations soon, too. My Irish-born nephew (married to my blood-relative niece) has finally found time to redo one of my two bathrooms. That's great because he was trained as a tile guy in Ireland, does great work–and likes me, so my brother says the boy's hesitant to charge me much! I'll, of course, pay him well, but it won't be what a contractor with no ties would charge me. Yay!

As for work, October is going to be a bear. The project that I quit about six months back–and that asked me to come back–is beginning. And it'll take even more of my time than before. But it's good for me. I refuse to complain!

The rain prevented some things I wanted to do around the yard so I'm hoping next weekend will be better.

What's on my desk is a ghostwritten article I'm finishing up, an interview post, and some research on a new client's marketing document.

Also, on the personal side, gearing up for the last month before the 3-Day Walk – fundraising, team newsletter, etc.

I'd love to redo my kitchen and restore the original bathroom, but I'm still saving up to have the chimneys tuck pointed – and I'm praying the boiler will fire up again this fall.

I'd like to see the sink/faucet you're lusting after, Lori.

I got obsessed with the family tree this weekend. My cousin asked if I wanted to help him. He created a monster. It's so fascinating. I easily traced my mom's side to about 1700 in Sweden, France and Germany. No real surprise there, but I discovered my grandfather had been married and had a daughter just two years before he and my grandma got married. What?! Nary a family rumor over that one.

My cousin & I traced three branches of our dads' family back until we hit roadblocks caused by multiple people with the same names. Those folks will take extra research. The biggest surprise was that both sides of our paternal grandfather's family go back to pre-Revolutionary New England. We had no idea our family had come over that early – we still have no idea where one side originally came from.

The other line we know is English. An undocumented family history says we're "likely" related to a guy who settled in Connecticut in 1639. If he's the same guy we think he is, we can trace his lineage back to 13th Century England. Aristocracy, no less. Amazing!

Needless to say, I didn't get much else done all weekend, other than laundry, the dishes and a doggie walk.