It began much as last week ended - long hours. Long, long hours.

On Saturday, I went shopping with "Esther Tester" - the Dutch LT Tester. It was good to have a girly excursion. :)

But as I mentioned in earlier entries, Sunday began a 24-hour GBA marathon.

It took me a day or two to get back in the swing of things - and to get away from the feeling that by not being here until 2AM I was somehow being unproductive.

I had so much "free time", as it were, that I managed to duck away on Tuesday for a dance class. Something that I've been talking about doing since July.

It was great to dance again. It was my first hip-hop class, and it felt great - but oh boy, did I feel it on Wednesday. And Thursday. And Friday.

I am only just beginning to walk normally today - before, I looked like I had a nasty case of saddlesore.

And then there was Thursday. I got a real, live job offer. I can now join the ranks of non-broke grown-up-type people everywhere. I made it. :)

Today, as is often the case, I'm back at work on a Saturday. Waiting for builds. You know, the usual.

And of course, now that the major bit of physical and emotional stress - family, job, etc. - has subsided, my little monthly friend has decided to join me after a 2-month hiatus. How exciting for me.

Luckily, VA doesn't leave the country until Thursday. Theoretically, the Japanese SKU will have gone final by then. Theoretically. I have a feeling the functional testing will take a few more days.

But perhaps this next month will be calmer than originally anticipated. I really want to break away and go down to San Diego for a weekend - there's a big Pokemon event in mid-November. :)

I've decided to put my family on Holiday Probation. They do not get me for Thanksgiving. [This does mean I will most likely be spending Thanksgiving alone, as Hunter wants to go home.] However, I will go home on December 24th and stay until the 26th. 48 hours. We'll see if they can be better behaved than last year.

This also means they do not get me for my birthday on Dec. 21st. However, this is somewhat unavoidable, since my official SimCompany start date is the 22nd. Not that I'm particularly inclined to spend my birthday with them after last year's performance.

On the subject of family, Doug's been way depressed for a while now. I'm still not entirely sure his "running off and enlisting" threat isn't a real one.

I want to be done with work today. I want to go shopping. Where's my damn build?