Well that was fun. I just finished creating a new theme for this site as well as setting up the appropriate plugin and making sure that the two available themes have the same links on them. It wouldn’t do to have some pages unreachable by a theme. I left the default as the rose layout you’re probably used to by now, since I’ve submitted to several review sites recently that are picky about major site changes. Hell, one I submitted to even requested that people in the queue not update their site at all, which is ridiculous. No reviewer’s opinion is that important, the ninnies.

I spent my day curled up in a lawn chair in the garage reading The Call of Earth and The Ships of Earth, the two books following The Memory of Earth in the Homecoming series by Orson Card. The Call of Earth I started either yesterday or the day before and finished sometime this afternoon, which surprised me because I didn’t realize I had read that much. The three books are all grouped together in one hardback novel, so I tend to treat them as separate chapters and not separate books. I’ll have to get my hands on the next two books in the series, Earthborn and Earthfall, pretty soon. Probably when (if?) I head back to Lexington.

I put that “if?” in there because it’s still up in the air whether I’ll have a job or not this summer. I knew that when I left, since they were going to be hiring new people to fill my spot and might not have a large enough budget to cover both them and me. I’d like to keep my job, of course, since it’s been a steady supply of good money, but it won’t be the end of the world if they don’t need me again until fall, if then. I’m looking forward to going to Lexington to live in my own apartment and see all of my friends again, but I could spend the rest of my summer around here, reading and relaxing. These past three weeks of freedom certainly have passed quickly. It might also be nice to not have a job to worry about this coming semester when I’m taking eighteen hours of mostly engineering and math classes. Or it could be that Joan needs me this fall but not this summer, or during both times, or not at all. The not knowing is what bugs me, because I’m the type to have everything plotted out down to the exact minute that I’m leaving.

While sitting here at my computer a little earlier, Dad came up behind me and requested that I close my eyes and hold out my hand. Now usually when this happens, he gives me some scrabbling creature, and this time was no different. As soon as he put it in my palm, I knew it was a cicada (a.k.a. a jarfly, a.k.a. a seven-year locust). I love those little guys as they have such big, googly eyes and are always a pretty green. I think this one was young as his green shell was a very light green, and his wings were in perfect condition. He didn’t seem to want to let go of me, though, even after I removed my other hand that was covering him. He stayed on the edge of my palm for about fifteen minutes while I took him outside and Dad took photos of him and I showed him to Mom. When I finally did go to set him down, I had to pull him off forcibly; he dug his little toes into my skin.