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Ok, I've actually impressed myself with this. I didn't realize I'd seen so much of the United States. 26 states. Granted, I lived in South Carolina when I was like 2 and I don't remember much of it and North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia were driven through about the same time going back and forth to Pennsylvania but still... Looks like I need to visit more of the Northern US and those 3 states in the South to fill in the blanks there. And I'll be able to add Alaska in after September. The trip is nearly all booked and paid for now. I just have to buy my airfare today and then book hotel in Vancouver. My Mom is really excited about it and I'm glad we could do something like this for her. She deserves it. I can't remember if I've posted about this trip yet. For my mom's 60th birthday, my sister and I offered her the choice of a trip to Alaska or Yellowstone National Park. After initially choosing Yellowstone, we ended up with a cruise/land tour of Alaska.

I'll be leaving San Francisco on the 26th of August and flying to Seattle where I will meet up with astrocat for a day of fun in the Emerald City. I hop on bus in downtown Seattle that will take me to Vancouver, British Columbia where I will join my mom and sister to spend a couple of days there. I've been to Vancouver with astrocat and Hubs when I went to visit them once and LOVED IT! I can't wait to go back and spend more time there. The cruise leaves the afternoon of the 28th and we spend 3 days cruising up the Inside Passage with stops in Juneau and Skagway. We leave the cruise in Skagway and go inland into the wilderness of Alaska by train and motor-coach (fancy word for big tour bus) for the rest of the trip, visiting Whitehorse, Beaver Creek, Fairbanks, Denali National Park and ending in Anchorage on the evening of the 6th of September. My flight leaves Anchorage at 12:30 AM on the 7th and I get back to San Francisco at 8:30 AM later that morning. Then it's back to work on the 8th. Ugh.

Speaking of work, I've had a hellish week. In early March, we brought Robin in to replace Mark on a temp to perm basis. It's a difficult place to work and I wanted to make certain she was a good fit with us and it was a good fit for her before making a more permanent commitment. I still don't know exactly what happened. I know she was having a rough time with some problems we had with one of the auctions this week. The problems were par for the course; not even the worst of the snafu's that can and have come up with other sales. But she reacted poorly and before I had a chance to sit down and talk to her she called in saying she was taking a "mental health" day and then no showed the rest of the week making an already busy and stressful week even more so for Jenn and I. Since she was still on temp status (her first perm day was scheduled for the first of June) we just ended her contract. But that puts us back at square one and Jenn and I will have to handle it all ourselves until we find someone else. It's not going to be fun.