drumroll?

tomorrow morning, 9 o'clock, is the scheduled departure time from peoria... should arrive back in the nola around 7:30 or 8:00 pm. tonight will be spent packing, listening to a band practice, finishing laundry, and catching up on some (much needed) sleep. today's quick trip with the car to the dealership for freon so that i could have air conditioning for tomorrow's journey turned into a frustrating go-round in which i discovered that the dealers won't add freon because the car has decided to dump it through a random leak, which - coincidentally - will cost something like $800 and a week's worth of time to repair. i laughed out loud when the mechanic shared this with me... and decided to invest in a styrofoam (sorry, amanda) cooler stocked with ice and water instead. at least i'll have the pleasure of driving through thunderstorms on the way back to mississippi... with a manic-depressive beagle and a tense, pissed-off calico... here's the good news: the car is insured, the payments are currentish, and i don't anticipate any huge problems on the return trip.

FYI: as our internet connection in the nola won't accept cookies yet (bastard), i won't be able to compulsively check my email for the next week or so. if you have a desire to chat, either IM me on yahoo messenger (barefootnhippie, of course... if you don't have an account, yes, you'd have to get one) or leave me a message at the house. carole and i will be wandering the streets of grenada early next week, searching for distractions from the hell that is tech-prep workshop. other than that, i'll be around.