My Summer Plans (edited)

Now that the semester is over and I don't go back to school until September, I figured it would be necessary to do something with myself over the summer. Also, my kids will be heading to their grandparents' in Ohio at the end of next month, so I really won't have anything to occupy my time other than the dogs. Here's how I plan on keeping busy.

The local community college here in N.C. is offering some courses that are right up my alley. Neither of them would be for credits but they will be fun and interesting. One is an editing class. Yeah, I just finished up an editing class but that was for technical documents and such. This class is for fiction and non-fiction novels, articles, and things of that nature. The other class is about publishing. Both classes sound really cool to me and they have five different start times so I can stagger them to make them last longer.

Another endeavor of mine is to help the Mister finally get his cheesecake deal off the ground and moving forward. He needs some help with the particulars like finding a box supplier, figuring out something for a website, things like that. I'm also going to see about approaching some of the local restaurants around the area as well. We figured out how to ship them and it is not cheap. Of course, the customer would pay shipping, but still. This could, potentially, be quite a bit of work in the end.

We're also going to try and find the time to go to Texas this summer for about a week or so. We're considering the Houston, San Antonio, Austin area as a future place of residence. Do you know how amazingly inexpensive real estate is down that way?? It's nauseating.

Then I have the usual odds and ends. Things like my blog, catching up on some reading, Readers Anonymous, a new blogging project, and the beach. I've been keeping my nose in the classifieds but the job market here is dismal to say the least. I'm not qualified, nor am I willing, to work in construction or sales and that's about all there is. Sometimes living in small, rinky-dink, rural America can be a drag.

That's about it. Now that I'm over the disappointment of my unplanned break from school, I'm actually looking forward to it. Really looking forward to it. I can see now that I was starting to feel burned out.

**Edited to add that I forgot to mention that I'm also participating in a volunteer proofreading project. I'm sure you've all heard of Project Gutenberg. Well, they have an affiliate website called Distributed Proofreaders where volunteers edit pages of the books that are uploaded to the Internet for people to read. My editing prof mentioned this at the end of class and I think it's a worthwhile activity. Plus, it gives me some editing experience even if it's not a paying job. Plus, you can do as much or as little as you want so there's no pressure. Me likes. ;)

Venturing into the Great Unknown

So I only have one taker for the cheesecake? I have to say that's a bit disappointing. Maybe you all would be more interested in plain vanilla cheesecakes with fruit topping. Or how about a pumpkin cheesecake for the holidays? Better yet, how about a Snickers, Heath Bar, or peanut butter cup cheesecake?

Why am I teasing you all with lovely thoughts of creamy cheesecakes? Because C has been toying around with the idea of selling his cheesecakes. Yes. C makes cheesecakes. Damn good cheesecakes too. He already has his first paying customers and the guys at work beg for him to bring them cakes all the time. You know. After they harass him for baking like a woman. Anywho. We're just trying to get an idea of what people would be willing to pay for plain and for specialty cheesecakes. We're also trying to figure out a good way to ship them (you'll have to come here for your apple cheesecake for now, Jennifer. Sowwy.) and how well they'll freeze.

It's a pretty exciting venture. It would be great for C if he could make money off of something that he enjoys doing. And, if he does make a go of this as a business, anything new we get for the kitchen can be a tax right off, hehehe.

Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions? The floor is open.