August either means you are back in the school routine, or headed there VERY VERY soon. I know I dread the alarm clock that will be ringing around our house at 6AM starting next Thursday. Why does it seem like summer days fly by so very very quickly while winter drags on and on and on?

My suitcase once again is a topic of big discussion around our house today. We are leaving for the Outer Banks, and the usual vacation conversation has begun. My suitcase needs to go in the trunk first for everything else to fit. I somehow never understand this since we have a Yukon XL. HOW can MY bag be so mission-critical? I have learned not to ask questions like this since my husband is an engineer and clearly feels there is some method to this madness.

We all have authors whose writing we just love. When they have a new book out, we have to have it and then we have to read it right that moment. Life takes a back seat while you read. Carolyn Mackler is one of those authors for me. I fell in love with her writing years ago, and thus when I saw her new book, GUYAHOLIC, I knew that little would be happening around my house until I read it. Once again Carolyn has written a story where her words made me think. Afterwards we did a whole email exchange about it, and it was such fun getting her insight into V and the story. Thus I am very excited to share an interview with Carolyn and our review of GUYAHOLIC with you this month. Carolyn also just launched a new website at CarolynMackler.com that you'll want to check out.

For the record, after last week when I wrote the newsletter standing up in the middle of the construction zone at the office, this week I AM sitting down. The project is about 95% completed. My office is getting a glass wall, which will go in last. I have been WALKING through the window area instead of the door for weeks now, thus the staff is taking bets on how many times I am going to gallop into the glass. I am not betting against them. I figure I will need to keep the Windex handy to destroy all telltale fingermarks!

We are in the final stages of an office renovation that is going to give us about two-thirds more space than we had before. I have spent the last three weeks watching walls come down and go up. I have made what seems like a zillion decisions about things I knew very little about a few weeks ago --- like faceplates for wiring, transferring data and phone lines, and what colors ducts should be painted. I also have heard my name called over and over again by the various folks on the construction crew until I seriously thought maybe I should say, "You know what? My name is really Susan, not Carol," just to see what they would say.

Week three of construction. Memo to anyone planning a renovation: it's insane to do this if you have any possessions in the space! We have carried every piece of office furniture around the new combined office area at least three times as we stayed a step ahead of the workers at each stage of this project. On Thursday afternoon we had moved everything out of my future office after stacking it ALL in there a mere 36 hours earlier so carpet laying could be facilitated in the rest of the space.