Fall - Prepping to run the gauntlet

Well, the summer is on the downward slope (don't worry, I still plan to enjoy the last ~3 weeks) and I'm looking at my fall. The next few months are going to be hectic, but good

School
Starting the last week of August, I'm back to school. Only one class due to work constraints, but still, it looks to be a busy class. The class is on American lit basically between the two world wars. I picked up my books last week...about a dozen novels including Hemingway, Cather, Fitzgerald and others. It should be an interesting class.

Work
At work, we've got two and a half project updates slated to be released the end of August. Another major project update is slated to release in September. After that it's anybody's guess, but there are at least two more major project updates with a goal of this fall as well as some projects trying to move into a monthly 'minor update' cycle. Whatever happens, it doesn't look like things will really be slowing down to a "normal" pace anytime soon. One of these days/months, I'd love to try and get my Contracting Business up and running again, but things are too busy right now.

Family
My brother's birthday is next week. After that, we're heading out on vacation. In September, we'll spend a day or two with family coming in from Nevada. And then we've got Andrew's birthday, my anniversary, two brother's birthdays, Lynette's birthday and then the Christmas season (also with a bunch of birthdays tossed in for good measure). The kids will be back to school, with Julia in Kindergarten this year, so that's both less and much more work for Lynette. In addition to the 'normal' family activities, there are also a number of logistical and legal issues that we'll work through over the fall which have been moderately stressful but we'll work through them.

Church
Being in the Elder's Quorum presidency hasn't been super trying or anything, but we do have a couple of mandates that we need to get done in the next couple of months which are definitely going to take some specific efforts to make sure they're done right. In addition, we have our fall/winter activities to plan (Chilli Cook-Off and Thanksgiving Turkey Bowl).

Scouts
For the foreseeable future, I'm still the Cubmaster of the two Packs in our neighborhood. I really enjoy it and don't necessarily want to give it up. But each month I feel like I'm pulled a little too thin to give it all I can/should. Still, I give it all I can. In the next month we'll be having a yearly planning session (the first in recent history as far as any of us current leaders can tell) and trying to figure out the coming months as well as the next year. I'm a little worried I may not be able to get everything together for August Pack Meeting since we're going to be on vacation, and I suspect September may be crazy with school starting, but I'm still hopeful it will go well.

Books
In addition to books for school, I have a HUGE backlog of books I've been hoping to read. I've been making some decent progress, but there are still a TON of books I want to read. And the list just keeps growing. Just this week, Lynette made a bookstore run and picked up a couple of new books for me. The next couple of weeks also mark a new release from my favorite Fantasy author, Terry Brooks. And in the coming months, there are a few other fun books coming out that are on my radar, most notably the third (final?) book in the Looking Glass Wars series. While I'm sure they'll make my backlog, I'd rather they could hit the nightstand and actually get read this fall.

Video Games
My video game hours have been sporadic. In the past month, I actually caught up (and finished the main storyline) of the Tomb Raider game I bought last summer. I still have the Prince of Persia epilogue to finish and I recently borrowed the new Burnout but haven't played it yet. My brother is also holding on to Fable 2 and Halo Wars for me when I get time. In addition, I've got Batman pre-ordered (comes out in 2 weeks) and Assassin's Creed 2 pre-ordered (November), but I honestly don't know if I'll have time to play either much until Christmas.

Board Games
I reported on the Board Game Convention a few weeks ago. There are a TON of board games I really want to buy and get playing with family and friends. Small World, Ghost Stories, Fearsome Floors, Fury of Dracula, Marrakech, The Name of the Rose and others. I also have a number of unplayed games I really need to get to the table (Hollywood Blockbuster, Hoity Toity, etc.). I suspect/hope we'll get together at least once with the Moore's to play. I'd also love to eventually set up a monthly neighborhood game night where we get two or three families together, set up a few tables for both adults and kids, and just play for ~4+ hours. Sadly, that's a lot of work to organize and it's hard to get the right group together for a large game session like that. It might start out more slowly with one family at a time to get a feel for tastes and styles.

Writing
I have TOTALLY been slacking on my writing. With fall semester approaching, I suspect a lot of my writing will be essays based on our readings. However, I need to get back into at least a weekly (if not daily) cadence of actually writing. I feel blocked creatively as well as by time & stress. Getting back into the flow will hopefully help

Movies
There are a few movies coming out that seem interesting, but nothing that should throw any schedules into disarray. If anything, I'm hopeful that there are some good movies I can use to just escape from the hectic world for a few hours.

Everything Else
So that's the fall...at least the 'predictable things' that I have to or hope to accomplish. Life has been anything but predictable lately though, so I suspect there will be a bunch of surprises to come our way. Hopefully nothing too major, but I'm not counting on totally smooth sailing. Still, that's for the best, because as they say "smooth seas don't make good sailors", so at the very least, the past year+ has been a great growing time.

So, that's that. The point of this post? I guess one point is to make excuses for sporadic blogging. Another point is to help me clarify what's coming up...when I identify and quantify upcoming tasks, they become less stressful. And I'm truly hoping for a relaxing, albeit hectic, fall.