My mind is mush and probably ready to drain right out my ears. I am so done with studying. All I want to do is sleep. However, that is not possible yet. I leave in less than 4 hours to go to Connecticut. Tomorrow at 9am I check in for the CLA exam. Two days of testing (Friday and Saturday). I will then find the hotel bar for a couple hours and stay an additional night. I return home on Sunday.

I'm sure I'll do okay on the exam, but I am not pressuring myself. There is not much I can do at this point but take it and see what happens. I need to remember not to stress about the results. It takes about six weeks to get them and there is no sense in worrying about it. If I don't pass a section or two it is not the end of the world. NALA provides three years and up to five retakes for any missed section at $60 per section. So, if I don't pass one or two, no biggie.

I am looking forward to this being over. I intend on taking Monday through Wednesday for myself to sleep and relax. Yes, that probably means some game playing too. Then on Thursday, I need to get organized to find work. Oh yeah, and try to finalize details of our house. The land we were looking at is not going to happen, so we need to locate land again. Time for me to stop thinking about the house, do an hour of Pogo, shower, finish packing, and head out.

Have a good weekend everybody.

Here is a look at the floor plan that I made for the house we are building. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, the main changes are in the Master Bathroom and the Kitchen. However, you will notice the fireplace is replaced with a sliding glass door, the sliding glass door in the breakfast room (now the dining room) has been removed and a standard door has been put in the kitchen.



I did not create a new floor plan for the upstairs, because those are simple changes. The "open to below" in bedroom 3 is being closed to provide more room for my office. There will be no closet doors in bedroom 3 and the closet will just have shelving in it for books, software, and the like. We are hoping to put a window in the bathroom upstairs as well. Also, any desk areas on the second floor will probably be removed from the plan.

We have also decided to cut costs in the areas that we can upgrade on our own as "do it yourself" projects (flooring, shelving, perhaps light fixtures and plumbing fixtures). There is no reason to pay the builders to do it and have it added onto the mortgage costs with interest over thirty years.

During lunch today, I watched a little bit of Tron. So to close, I'll quote the movie.

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Things have been getting done around here. That is one of the reasons there have been no updates in almost 2 months. However, I felt it time to bring you all up to date on what's happening here.

Last week The Wife cut 13 inches off her hair! I was shocked she wanted to do it, as she has been forever saying how much she loves having long hair. Out of the blue she announced to me that she wanted to have her hair cut short. I have no problem with her doing things like this. I told her she could do whatever makes her happy, just no piercings or tattoos. Here are a couple of pictures.



Let's see, then the whole house building/buying thing has been really moving forward. We have been pre-approved for the construction loan. We have found a builder we like. We are hoping to get a piece of land (2 acres) that we like. And, we have chosen the house design and are waiting for the total cost (including the modifications we want to have made). This next picture is of the house design without our modifications. I'll try to get a scan of the modified house posted sometime. The changes are to the master bath, the kitchen, and a slight change to the upstairs. Oh and the dining room will become a library with the breakfast area becoming the dining room.



My CASA volunteering has been going well. I have a case and am doing what I can to make sure the child is in a safe environment.

School has been keeping me quite busy. For every hour The Wife is at work, I try to spend studying. The two-day certification exam is March 24 and 25. I am taking the exam in Connecticut. I leave on the 23rd to stay at a hotel so I don't have to drive an hour and a half right before the test. Obviously staying the night of the 24th. And, then staying the night of the 25th because everybody that takes the exam talks about being brain dead and completely exhausted when it is over. It is recommended that if you have to drive for more than 30 minutes to get home, that you make arrangements to stay the additional night. Once the exam is taken, I wait until May for the results.

When I have an few additional hours (usually late in the evening), I play some EQ. My shaman is level 51 and halfway to his first AA point.

This update should hold you all for a bit. Now back to the second draft of a legal memorandum for school.