I did it. I actually finished an article. Or rather, I finished the book chapter that was due on July 15th. I turned it in a bit later than that, but for the first time in four year (sheesh, that's an embarrassingly long time), I saw a project from start to finish. It's crap. It will probably need many revisions, unfortunately, but I hope it's good enough at least for the editor to accept it with revisions. We shall see. But the key issue here is that I finished it.

Now on to the next project.

Things have been tense, off and on here on the sun, which is seriously how hot it is where we are. Brutally, oppressively hot. Like the only place you can be outdoors in is in the pool. Not even the dog wants to go out to walk or pee. He'll hold it until the evening when it's cooler. And there's a general advisory that one should not be outside during the day for more than three hours, with only two hours being the general advice. The real feel today is supposed to be 114. And it stormed last night, so that means it will be muggy. Why I am telling you all of this? Well, Magpie is still at home. We are still basically boycotting daycare, and the heat means we are limited by what we can do, aside from the pool. She's going a little stir crazy here, and she misses her friends, and I've spent all week trying to get the daycare director on the phone, but it's going to mean my tracking her down in person tomorrow when Mag's tuition is due. We have decided that if they insist on keeping her in that room, then we will go to the other school to see if there are openings and take her out of that daycare. She is supposed to start gymnastics on Tuesday, so that will help with a lot of things, I think, and dance registration begins on Thursday, so I've got to get on that for her too. Really, we'd like her to play soccer, and I'm not trying to be one of those moms who has something scheduled for her daughter every day and is trying to overload her with activities, but we want to try a couple of different things to see what she likes, AND this kid has so much freaking energy, that she needs something to burn it off, and something that gives me and my mom a break from trying to be the ones who help her burn her energy. And we feel like dance and/or gymnastics is going to help her with her confidence and coordination, so we'll see.