If all goes according to plan -- and I can only hope that all goes according to plan -- Brad will finally be back home on a permanent basis within the next two weeks.

I'm not sure he's looking forward to it as much as I am, since my honey-do list has now grown to about six pages full-size 81/2 inch 2-column pages filled on the front and back.

Our first project will be finishing the painting we started on the house last year. We only have one of the four exterior walls left to paint -- the three story wall at the back of the house. I didn't realize how important it was to insurance companies that the paint on your house matched until we were turned down for homeowners insurance because the siding at the back of the house didn't match the siding on the front of the house. Obviously, the adjuster can't tell the difference between new siding and a new coat of paint.

We also have to finish out the windows on the interior of the house, replacing the trim around the eight windows that we put in last year.

The deck needs to be waterproofed for the winter, and instead of trying to somehow make my hodgepodge of wood flooring look like something more than a bunch of scrap lumber laying on the floor, we (I) have decided we need to just bite the bullet and buy new.

Of course, Brad hopes to get in a little hunting this year. Pheasant season doesn't start until Oct. 28, which means he has just over a month to finish my list. Since he plans to deer hunt for the remainder of the year, and hopes to make a trip back up to Wyoming for some antelope hunting -- why he'd want to go back to Wyoming in the dead of winter is more than I can fathom -- I think he'd better hit the ground running.

Speaking of the weather, it seems as though we are actually having a fall this year. I can't remember the last time it didn't go from 90 to snow in a matter of 2.8 minutes. It's been kind of nice, if you don't count the number of jackets I've lost over the last couple of weeks trying to keep up with where I'll be when the temperature drops to 40 degrees.

And speaking of dropping temperatures, there's one more thing I need to add to my honey-do list. Brad still needs to caulk in the patio door before the cold northwestern winds begin to blow.

And he thinks he's going to have time to go hunting. He'll be lucky if he has time to eat the game we still have in the freezer from last year.