I am all alone this weekend. Right now, I’m supposed to be in Chicago, checking into the glamorous Sheraton, shopping on Michigan Avenue, and planning for a night out on the town with Eric and Travis. Obviously, I’m not there right now. My trip was cancelled on Wednesday night.

So, I am happily at home. Cleaning house. Messing around on the Internet. Waiting for my Saturday paper to get delivered (I hate to miss even one newspaper these days). Roger returns from drill tomorrow evening.

The leaves are falling, falling as if from far up,

as if orchards were dying high in space.

Each leaf falls as if it were motioning “no.”

And tonight the heavy earth is falling

away from all the other stars in the loneliness.

We’re all falling. This hand here is falling.

And look at the other one … It’s in them all.

And yet there is Someone, whose hands

infinitely calm, hold up all this falling.

— Rainer Maria Rilke

trans. by Robert Bly

What I’m feeling most today — aside from sadness — is guilt. Guilty for gluing myself to the television. Guilty for gawking over horrific photos on the web. Guilty for what seems like rubbernecking at a horrible auto accident. But I can’t seem to tear myself away. Is what I’m doing wrong?

Tonight our week-long vacation comes to a close. Roger and I have spent the past week adventuring around the state: on Labor Day, we avoided the traffic and headed up North while everyone was driving home. Monday night, we checked ourselves into Gooseberry Falls State Park — the honor system, sticking our two nights of camping money into an envelope and finding our own campsite, since there was no Park Ranger to check us in. On Tuesday, we enjoyed our morning coffee overlooking a cool Lake Superior, romped around the falls, and enjoyed the scenic Split Rock Lighthouse. Tuesday: Two Harbors and Duluth (Canal Park). And of course, on our adventure we took in two restaurants from “Minnesota Highway and Byway Eateries,” including Betty’s Pies and The Vanilla Bean. We took almost 50 photos in our two day adventure … pics online soon, we promise!

Wednesday night we returned to the Cities, and Thursday checked lots of items off our wedding to-do list (but we won’t bore you with the details here …. you can head over here instead). We enjoyed most of Friday afternoon and evening hanging out with Ry and Paula (the new Pickled Parrot in Eden Prairie, and the new Sixth Sense DVD at their home), Saturday at the Farmer’s Market, and today, napping. A nice end to a wonderful week.

Roger, however, has fallen ill. Sore throat, sniffles, chills. His vacation, unfortunately, may end up a few days longer than mine!

In addition to all that deep-fried goodness Roger mentioned, we took a few pictures, too. Beware: butterheads ahead.

We’ve had a very relaxing weekend so far. Since my last day at eChips was on Thursday I’m taking off a few days. In fact, we are both on vacation until September 10th. My co-workers gave me a very nice send off. My closest co-workers ordered in pizza so we could all have lunch together and then the big surprise was in the afternoon when they got me a going away cake. I will always have fond memories of my first “real” job. My next gig is at the Boy Scouts of America as a District Executive, the person who works with all the volunteers, and helps plan events like camp outs. I’m really excited to be doing something new and being involved in an organization that had so much significance on me as a youth.

Friday, I got the rest of my stuff moved to Burnsville and my brother moved to his new place in Minneapolis.

Then, of course, yesterday we were off the the Great Minnesota Get Together! We ate lots of fried food, but not quite as much as last year.This year’s fair was a lot less expensive too — our total expense for the whole day was only $37.00, which included admission for two, a strawberry malt, homemade potato chips, cheese curds, mini doughnouts, Australian battered potato, and who could forget the All You Can Drink Milk. Overall, quite the fun day with my favorite part being the Creative Arts building, or as Lynsey calls it, the “Jellies and Jams” building.

Tomorrow we are off the Duluth and the North Shore for a little bit of R&R. Should prove to be a nice camping trip … provided it doesn’t rain like every other trip we’ve taken this year.