I'm so exhausted; had a dramatic couple of days with a family member seeming to have a mental break of some kind. After we lost contact, I had my sister check on this family member (whom she doesn't really know, but she was great about doing it) and it seems she's doing better.

Monday night we were supposed to have a free date; I had bartered babysitting from my friend I'm helping learn to budget, and there was a movie and music in the nearby park. We cooked and packed picnic food and headed over, but found out it had been moved indoors because of the threat of rain and that it was full to capacity. So we decided to just have a nice leisurely picnic. Unfortunately soon after we finished eating it did start to rain. We didn't want to cut our date short, so I treated us to wine and snacks at a nearby bar. $56 coming out of what I'd saved for the UK visitors, but felt like the right thing to do given how much stress we've been under.

Unfortunately I drank a bit too much wine and had a mild hangover-y feeling all day today. I also didn't sleep very well probably for the same reason. So with the drama plus the hangover plus the poor sleep, I'm pretty wiped today.

I got a free lunch at a nice Indian buffet near work today; my college sent out a planned-giving representative, and I have my college in my will, so they courted my favor a bit. It was a nice treat! I also got a nice big tote bag out of the deal.

Well, the tenants found somewhere to go Sept. 1, so that means they're moving out the end of the month! The budget will be that much tighter but it'll be so worth it to be in our new place and not living in staged-world anymore. We've reserved a moving van for Sept. 5, but we might move a few things in before then. We'll see how busy we are with family -- this is a rare visit so we definitely don't want them to feel neglected in any way. NT pointed out they're all mellow and somewhat introverted, so they might appreciate some quiet down time.

The latest viewer of the condo didn't express any interest to our realtor (she was the one showing it), so we've asked to talk about lowering the price -- and about her giving us a break on her commission. Based on advice from a couple of realtor-savvy friends of mine, we're asking her to reduce her commission on the sale from 3% to 1%. (If she came back with 1.5% or 2%, that would be fine too.) So just waiting to hear what she'll say.

NT is in promising talks for a raise at his job, so hopefully he'll know something this week. He's taking on official managerial duties, so he's going to try and push for a larger bump.

My supervisor is working on getting my raise straightened out, but I don't know what it'll be yet, not even a ballpark. I'm working on a writing project already, and it's really out of my comfort zone, so I'm just trying to stay calm and focus on that and try to learn quickly what I need to do for this type of writing assignment. Our temp proofer is working out well and learning quickly, so hopefully I can be fully transitioned after my vacation.

I'm on vacation this Friday through Labor Day, and then from Sept. 2 to 11 I'll be working half days while our second set of UK visitors is here. Then, hopefully, full speed ahead into my writing job!

AS got some really good job news: another proofing job coming her way next week, plus potentially an even higher-paying editing assignment. If both come through and she gets the rates she hopes, she could have all of September, all of October and maybe even part of November's paycheck amounts replaced! And this is just the work she's drummed up while working full time. I'm starting to really feel good about her trying to be full-time self-employed.

Overall, things seem to be going well, though I'd like some of these potential good things to turn into ACTUAL dollar amounts!