Friday.  Officially the final class day of my Masters degree.  It doesn’t mean much as finals and projects are still due and class discussion will continue informally but it is a sort of milestone for me.

For lunch today we took are Polish friend out to Redneck so that he could try actual American Buffalo hot wings.  Redneck actually uses a pretty much authentic Buffalo style recipe (I know it from their Buffalo sauce on their shrimp) so he wanted to try that and that’s where we knew that they were good.

Got home at a decent time this evening, not too bad at all.  Spent the evening working on my classwork.  I’m now into the final week.  One week from tonight absolutely everything must be done, no ifs, ands or buts.  Some stuff ended tonight and there will be something due every few days now.  No more class work proper though.  My first final begins tomorrow.

Today is Thursday.  Got to the office and Dan was running late to the office so I called him and told him just to head directly to Redneck instead.  So we go there and just did lunch.

Got home and worked on homework all evening.  Making good progress.  Not too worried.  Lots of work to do, though.  No rest for me.

In the office today.  Worked through lunch.  Came home and worked on homework.  My one class ends this weekend so I’ve really only got tonight and tomorrow night to get everything done before the class closes for the week.  So practically this is the end for me.  The over the weekend I have my final to do for that class and the final project for that class is due on Wednesday night, except I am traveling out of town Tuesday evening into Thursday so in practical terms Monday night is my last free night to be working on my stuff for this one class and then another couple days for my other class.  No matter what, it is a tight week.

Pretty exhausted today. Stayed up late last night working on projects for school.  Went into the office today.  Went to Redneck Heaven with the guys for lunch.  One of the team members from Poland was in town for two weeks and so we took him out for the real Texas experience.  He got to try out very American fare in a very American style restaurant.

After work this evening we went to Brookhaven for kid’s night.  The kids had a good time.

Then home and more homework.  All week all I am doing is working on my homework whenever I have the chance.  No time to really do anything else.

Today is more or less a normal Monday at home with my girls while Dominica is in the office.  We had a good day home together.  They are getting really good about behaving while home with me and they play together a lot too.

Got some more homework done.  I’m pretty focused on all of that work that is needed so not much time to do anything interesting or to keep SGL up to date this next few weeks.  Almost there, we can do this!!

Slept in just a little this morning and then we were on the road to head back to Dallas.  We didn’t get onto the road quite as early as we had hoped and we hit some downtown traffic so we tried going the loop route out to the east of the city.  That probably would have worked alright had we known what exit to take to get back to the highway.  We ended up taking slow, congested roads too far north and it was not speedy at all.

On the trip north we stopped at Texas Burger and picked up some veggie burgers to eat on the drive.

The drive wasn’t too bad although I was really tired getting into Dallas. We got home and I put in some time doing homework tonight.  Not a lot due this weekend, next weekend is the big one, so this weekend was pretty light but I can’t start slacking now or I won’t be able to keep up going into this week.  This begins my home stretch.  Only one week left of class and one more week left for finals.  This is it, nearly the end.

Today is the big, joint birthday party for Garrett, Clara and Luciana.  I had to run out to the grocery store this morning to get some cooking and party supplies.  So I left early and when I went out there were two dogs in the middle of the intersection that I had to drive around.  That worried me a bit.

When I returned from getting groceries the two dogs were still out and followed the Acadia back to the Grices’ house and hung out as if they were our dogs.  One was a golden retriever or retriever blend and looked exactly like a very old version of my dog Lady from my childhood.  The other was a little miniature dachshund, the same colouring as Nugget, the dog that we had when I was born.  The two of them together was like watching the ghosts of my childhood playing together like it was 1982 again.

The two dogs were insistent on getting into the house and because, as always, everyone just ignored me or argued when I yelled that I needed help immediately one managed to knock past me and get into the house.  The older retriever looked so much like Liza that they actually couldn’t tell them apart running around the house.  It took a bit to get the guest dog out of the house again.  Both dogs were very clean and friendly but had no collars or markings so we didn’t know what to do.

We hid in the house for a while then Emily and I tried to walk out to pick up donuts for the family for breakfast.  Well, that didn’t work.  The two dogs started following us and we could not go out to the main road or the dogs would be out in the road and would get hit for sure.  So we were stuck.  We ended up spending a full hour walking all over the neighbourhood knocking on doors and asking if anyone knew the dogs.  No one did.  They were very friendly but tried to get into any house that they could.  We got to meet all kinds of people though.  In the end we had to go back to the house sans donuts and hide in the house for a bit.

Eventually Dominica and Madeline dropped Emily and I off to get the donuts.  The dogs didn’t know that we had gotten into the car so didn’t follow us this time.  Dominica called animal control because they dogs were just too risky to leave out.  They didn’t understand the road at all and would lay down in the intersection.  They need protection.  By the time that Emily and I walked back from getting the donuts the dogs were gone.  Don’t know if animal control picked them up or if their owners got home and took care of them but either way they were not out ready to get hit by a car anymore.

We ate our late breakfast and were right off to the Tocco’s where the party was being held this afternoon.  Like any party at the Toccos’, the kids ended up going swimming.  There was a lot of swimming and the party went all evening.  The party went well and everyone had a good time.

Dominica and Francesca went back with the kids early and I stayed behind to hang out until fairly late.  I never get to be the one who stays and parties.  It was a nice change.

Tomorrow morning we are driving back to Dallas.  Have to be out of Houston before the traffic gets going and I need time to work on my classwork before it gets too late.

Today was non-farm payroll so I was up early and in the office.  At least the financial outlook was really good this month.

Dominica emailed me mid-morning to say that she got to experience the crazy pounding from next door as well and the house was shaking all morning.

For lunch today Doue and I went to Brookhaven.  He has never been there before, nor to any of the country clubs.  He was pretty impressed.  We had a really nice lunch and he is hoping that we come back there again soon.

I got stuck working really late again this week.  Dominica had the car packed and ready to go to Houston but I didn’t wrap up with work until eight.  We left home at a quarter after eight and had to stop at Target before leaving town.  I stayed in the car with the girls and Dominica just ran in to do quick shopping to be ready for the party tomorrow.

The drive south went fine. Being as late as it was there was pretty minimal traffic.  But it was very late so we were all really tired.  It was a quarter till two in the morning when we pulled into the Grices’ and got into bed.