I finally got most (17) of my best of Topeka stories submitted. The other three I haven't submitted yet I had a hard time getting a hold of. One was pizza hut, which I finally called the corporate office media line in Dallas and got a hold of the press relations guy. He is supposed to be emailing me the answers later today. Then for AAA I finally got in contact with the woman who is the head of the region for Kansas, and we did an interview this morning. I'll get that done later today. The other one was for Jeremiah Bullfrog's which won best sports bar and best live music, but they seriously never called me back. Finally one of the servers there called and said that they decided not to participate this year because they are too busy expanding the bar. It's their loss I suppose. Who wouldn't want free advertising?

In other news, my printer is out of ink. grr it's always something.

The professor I went to Germany with back in March nominated me to write the story of our trip in the Washburn's international study abroad newsletter. That is due Friday, so I really have to get started. I also want to start painting this week but I'm not sure I can manage it. I'll probably do it next week.

It's been rainy here today and yesterday. I'm enjoying the cooler weather, but it's so annoying because our backyard gets muddy because of all the trees. The grass has not been able to grow very well back there because of the shade. I love how it's so shady, but Greta goes out there and gets muddy and then tracks it in. So of course I have to wipe her paws everytime she goes outside, but sometimes she still gets mud everywhere. We are planting grass seed this fall, so hopefully next spring it won't be so much of a problem.

Reagan highlighted my hair last night and I love it! It's very subtle, it just adds a bit of dimension. I think the shade was just one lighter than my natural so when it grows out it won't be noticable.

canceled classes

I got an email last night from the secretary of the Mass Media department telling me one of my classes for the fall--International Media Systems-- had been canceled because of low enrollment. I was looking forward to the class because it is taught by the head of the department, who is also the same professor I went to Germany with last spring, and although she is tough (I had her for a summer class too and we had three 2500 word papers, in a month long class, amongst other things) it would have been a good class. I think this is perhaps the Lord's way of saying I shouldn't be taking 18 hours anyways. I was going to sign up for an advanced feature writing class, but alas I threw the paper with my pin on it away, so I can't register. I guess it's only 15 hours for me this fall.

This isn't the only time a class has been canceled on me. A few years back I was going to take a combat journalism class through the history department which I was REALLY looking forward to, and they canceled that as well. Oh well, it's for the best. If I remember correctly I didn't have a babysitter at that time for Colter, and Brent was in Iraq.

So I've been really busy with the house. I finished my classes at the end of June and have been trying to get a lot of painting and organizing done. The organizing is pretty much finished, but I've only gotten one room painted out of the five I want to finish before school starts. One thing that's put a crimp in my schedule is that my editor with the Capital Journal assigned me 20, yes twenty best of Topeka stories. They are not hard, it's just a matter of getting them done. The money is good, so that's a bonus. They are due on Monday, so after that I will be completely concentrating on painting. I'll get some picture posted after it's all done!