Y.S. turned twenty on Wednesday. Yesterday he flew to geology field school. E.S. and also Y.S.’s girlfriend accompanied me to the airport to see him off. I had a good cry in the bathroom beforehand. As soon as field school is finished, Y.S. starts his second year of university—but his first year away from home. He has a good head on his shoulders, so I’m not worried about him. Much. And I’ll see him in a few weeks when my husband and I drive his stuff up and move him into residence. But my baby is still gone. Empty nest redux around here for the next couple of weeks, I’m sure.

As E.S. points out, at least I have him again! For another year. I call him The Stomach now. Our grocery bill dropped substantially when he was gone.

Those who have been following my Peru posts, I’ll get back to them next week. Finally! I know I left you hanging at the entrance to Machu Picchu, which was definitely the highlight of our trip. But life and deadlines intervened.

Summer madness has caught up to me. The month of August promises to zip by! If I’m not around here much, that’s why.

I’m behind on the Peru posts. I’d like to say I’ll start posting about Peru again next week, but no promises as it takes me a long time to format the pictures and write the posts. I do have a guest blogger appearing next Tuesday, historical romance author Kris Kennedy. Please drop by for a chance to win her latest release.

I will start up the Peru posts again as soon as I can. After going out of town to celebrate our anniversary last weekend, I’m in writing catch-up mode. Next week I need to devote to putting together ancillary materials for my December 2011 Five Star Expressions release, WHERE SHE BELONGS. Yes, that’s 16 months away, but my editor has the edits ready for me, and I’ll be going through those next week, too.

I guess you could say I’m in my writing cave.

Except I’m also in my summer cave.

Did I mention #1 son had his laptop stolen? Much kerfuffle revolved around that the last couple of weeks.

And #2 is leaving for university soon. When Eldest Son came home, I thought we’d all get to unpacking his boxes and deciding what Y.S. would need for his first year of residence, then repacking them again. Yeah, right. Maybe we’ll start this weekend.

I did a lot of outside painting in July, and I’m not finished. But we need to prep Y.S. for university first.

How’s your summer going? Are you super busy, too?

Yes, I’m still on a tech break. It would be pretty pathetic if I stopped blogging for only two days, no? One might think I’m addicted. While I’m breaking, I thought I might as well commandeer the blog for some free advertising for my husband’s new business (he’s the one without the beard-goatee thingie). For more information, pop by www.ironhorsecaddybag.com or visit on Facebook. Happy viewing!

You do the math.

I need a blogging break. Nix that. I need an Internet break. I’m beginning with the blog, then weaning myself off Facebook and Twitter. I might even give up obsessively checking email twelve times a day. So if you pop on over here in another few days to see what’s up and discover you can’t even leave a comment, have no despair, I will begin blogging again in June. Closing comments will help me stop logging in to check on spam.

You’ll notice you can still leave a comment today. I’ll close comments tomorrow or Friday.

Tech break! Wish me luck!

Yes, I’m being a lazy blogger this week. Deal with it. I am.

From my mom’s garden. Happy springtime!

And, really, why shouldn’t she be?

“Dear Human:

You are getting sleepy. Very, very sleepy. You want to walk to the dog treat cupboard. You want to pull out all the treats! You want to feed me now. Nownownownownow!!!”

1. Putting on fake eyelashes. I wound up with glue inside my eye, on my lids, on my hands. And a fake eyelash smeared across my eyelid. Could not reposition it properly, no matter what I tried. Had to scrub eye with about 1/2 cup of eye makeup remover and then just go for three coats of mascara instead.
2. Applying fake fingernails. Every time I’ve tried buying fake fingernails for a costume, I can’t even get them to stick. But this time I went to an expert! The lady at the cosmetics counter. She assured me the fake nails I bought would stick, and did they ever. I had to get someone else to put them on. Then help me paint them. Then trim them. Then trim them again. Because I couldn’t pick up a darn thing. But at least they lasted the night, unlike the eyelashes, which didn’t make it to the party.
3. Removing fake fingernails. I had to swirl my fingers for ten minutes each in this little jar with a scrubby thing inside. Then, over the next day, I had to continue peeling off the remnants. The real nails underneath were not pleased.
4. I’ve realized I’m really not good at posing as a world-famous author. Instead, I seem to feel obligated to channel Count Dracula’s wife. In my defense, my character was named Gothika, famous for a series titled Legion of the Doomed or something, My Liege was dressed as a vampire bartender, and we were attending a Mardi Gras-themed murder mystery party. He rubbed off on me.

Things I’m Good At:

1. Getting into (my version of the) character.
2. Making a fool of myself.
3. Yes, even with a crew of 17-22 year-olds. My dh and I were the oldest at the murder mystery party.
4. Giving away the villain. The lawyer did it. Just happened to be Eldest Son.
5. Having fun!

You know that old saying, truth is stranger than fiction? Well, I don’t know about stranger, I think it’s more like wonderful and amazing. Romance author JoAnn Ross recently “met” her long-lost half-sister through, of all places, Facebook. JoAnn did an amazing amount of research to find her lost family. You can read all about JoAnn’s story on her blog.

I’m so happy for you, JoAnn!