Happy Birthday to my cousin Casey, who is 39 today...again. A magician, that one. He will still be 39 when his new baby Connor heads off to college one day, no doubt. I am definitely missing my Casey and Lara fix (Lara is his wife), since we didn't go skiing with them last Christmas, and I missed the family reunion this summer. Lara and I are supposed to be taking mogul lessons next time we meet up for a ski trip, since our "style" is just disgraceful as we follow Case down double black diamonds. And Lara and I both still find Miss Congeniality outrageously funny, no matter how many times we've seen it.

Speaking of family...My parents, who explicitly told me (well, my mom did anyway) that Hawaii was the last trip that they would pay for, are now asking me and Tressa whether we'd like to go skiing, or try to arrange another African safari-like adventure instead (since Tress will be in Rwanda) for Christmas. Which probably has something to do with me telling them I most likely won't be home for Christmas after all unless the airfare goes down drastically in the next month or so, and Tressa saying she doesn't think she gets any time off for the holidays. I mentioned that money would still be a factor for skiing or Africa, and was told, oh we'll work something out. It's all very much up in the air (in large part due to Tressa), and I imagine my mom will be doing some frantic scrambling to try and cobble something together in October or November, but in the end, I may still end up having to stay here for the holidays. Who knows.