I really should write more often. I've just been hella busy in recent days with one thing or another. So to recap recent events, ...

Mason went back flying May 9, so he's an air mattress again ;^). The nights alone are a little weird, and they come reasonably frequently, but it's good to see him when he's home and the contrast in mood from his previous misery is delightful.

Speaking of mattresses, there's a new one here, courtesy of his federal tax return. Since I'm someone who's always slept on small or cheap beds or hand-me-downs (except for the waterbeds during the Joseph Years), I didn't fully appreciate the difference a new mattress makes. Hooray for quality sleeping furniture!

And let's see. I'm going to be a real Banner employee come September, with a real job with a real job description. I've been kind of a floater from job to job, and classified as 'pool', which means technically that I come in only as needed (haven't had a day off yet, though) and I don't get any benefits. I'll take a small pay cut, but the benefits far outweigh that.

I'm also a graduate student now! After finally reaching the breaking point and writing a rather angry e-mail to the director of the School of Information Resources and Library Science, they miraculously found me a seat in a class, so I'll be doing one Web-based course for the summer. It's at least enough to keep my eligibility to register alive, and is really quite enough between the job, my own musical endeavors and running Devine Celtic Sounds.

DCS is doing well, and I'm on track to have a record-setting month for May. I just put in an order for $400 in inventory, my largest order yet since taking over the business. I'll be vending at Highland Games in Salt Lake City and San Diego in mid-June, so I'm spending a good portion of my own money to prepare the inventory for the double-whammy of those two consecutive festivals.

I'll be accompanied to San Diego by my mom and probably my sister, which will make the work load much lighter. But for Salt Lake City, it looks like I'm alone, unless Mason can miraculously get free of work for the weekend. It's a long drive and it's tough to work a festival alone. But the money's good and it's a hell of a lot of fun.

I'm gradually taking over Mason's laptop, which is much newer than my Model-T version (a zippy Pentium III or 4 with a DVD drive, versus my old Pentium-90 sans MMX, without so much as an internal CD ROM drive). I gave it a test run with my cheap and cranky but still pretty cool GPS unit today. It will prove invaluable in Utah's relatively unfamiliar environs.

I'm working on outfitting it with QuickBooks or something and a barcode scanner so I can work some semblance of technology into my festival sales. It would certainly be quicker and more accurate than the old pen-and-paper method. But with all the money for travel, vendor's fees and inventory, I'm positively skint. This is going to be a very lean two weeks till my next payday.

Had a brief period of time (almost a week) during which my cell phone was inactive, since someone who shall remain nameless but shares his name with a brand of jar didn't pay my bill in return for the rent I paid and was owed but didn't receive. I paid the bill (and the DirecTV bill, etc.) so at least I don't need to worry that we'll be cut off from the rest of the world.

But if we were, at least we've got a really good DVD collection to entertain us while in repose!

OK, so now that that's all cleared out, I can get back to slightly more focused and interesting journal entries ...