I've got all of my hobby stuff packed away outside of my Dwarf army.  I'll have to wait until I've got all my necessities packed up before I try to shoehorn the Dwarves into my foot locker.  I still need to clear off my desk, but once my army bags are all packed the room should be open for my family to use while I'm gone.  There's a lot of stress that goes along with leaving for a year or more.  I've got about a million things to do, but with the deadline approaching it doesn't look like I'll get all of it done.

We had a birthday party for my Grandma a few days ago, so it was a good chance to see her and a lot of that side of the family in one spot.  There were about five million kids there.  My Grandma can tell you how many grandkids she has, how many are pending, the ratio of girls to boys, and then give you all the statistics for the great-grandchildren.  I think the grandkids measure somewhere near fifty now, but I couldn't tell you for sure.  Anyway, it was nice to see some of the family.

The way things are going I'll probably spend most of the next couple weeks holed up in my house trying to make sure everything's as ready as it can be.  The wife and I are both pretty nervous about her having the twins while I'm gone, and I can't help feeling a little disappointed that I won't be here to lend a hand.  We've received many offers of help from friends and family, but I still worry that it won't be enough.  Our boy is practicing for the terrible twos, and if this is just the rehearsal I am loathe to imagine what horrors the next year holds for my spouse.  I imagine that when I return she will meet me at the door, thrust all three kids into my arms, and disappear for six months.  I do tend to look on the shady side of things, so hopefully the reality will split the difference and we'll get through it all right.

I'm still looking at rally cars and pestering my wife to no end with links to various listings for this model or that.  She takes it in stride, as she knows I just use window shopping to decompress from real life.  It used to bug her that I'd always be shopping for another truck or bike (even on the very same day that I'd purchased one), but now she sees behind the curtain a little more and knows that I am (generally) not actually thinking about going out and buying whatever vehicle I've got displayed on my screen at any given time.

And speaking of window shopping, the (un)official shoe of University of Idaho Fan Club is out now.  I haven't made time to go find a basketball hoop yet, as I've been trying to make sure my position at work is ready for the temporary person who will fill in for me, get my family ready, get myself ready to go, and any number of other excuses.  I've been trying to get out and run a few times a week, as I've got my record PT test some time this weekend.  I'm not feeling nearly as prepared for it as I was last month.  I still haven't got a run in this week, and I really need to go tomorrow evening and probably the day after that.  I'd run in the mornings, but I am really sleepy in the mornings.  Also, when I run or do physical labor my forehead sweats profusely.  I've always perspired a lot, but as I've aged it seems that all of the plumbing migrated directly to my forehead, especially after the last deployment I went on.  I can actually feel the droplets move up out of my forehead and bead up.  It's insane.  And once it gets going it seems like nothing can stop it.  So I don't run before work, because I don't want to be the guy sitting in the air-conditioned office looking like I've got my own personal face-mister.