Good morning, and thank goodness it’s finally Friday!

I’m somewhat refreshed and re-energized, so I have a moment to chat, and I have a few things to say.

Before I say all the other things and forget to say this one - don’t forget the Ice Cream Social at the Sculpture Park tomorrow (Saturday) from 10-12! Hope to see you there!

Go Enter That Giveaway!

Today is the last day to enter the giveaway for our semi-anniversary! The Buzz has been buzzing for six months, and we are here to celebrate. We have a Buzz giveaway package for you, valued at $50, but you can only get it if you leave a comment on our Giveaway Thread telling us what you love about the Buzz and what you hope we tackle in the next six months. (If you run into trouble posting a comment, just email it to me and I’ll post on your behalf! So far we only have 11 entries, so any individual’s chances are pretty good!

On Saturday, our semi-anniversary, I’ll have my special guest select the winner! (I definitely want to say I’ll do this on Facebook Live, and I definitely don’t trust that the stars will align in order for me to do that. So look out for an announcement at some point on Saturday.)

I also will be making an exciting announcement this weekend that brings good tidings for the future of the Buzz, so be on the lookout for that, too.

Slow Catching Up

I’m just going to go ahead and apologize right now if I’m slow in responding to your emails - especially ones that require any thought or processing on my part. I’ve gotten so many notes this week, and each one of them has made me smile! I’ve responded to most of them immediately, but some require a level of thoughtfulness that I’m not capable of right now. Story requests are going to be especially slow, but know I’ve received them all and will publish them when I have the capacity!

I keep telling myself that I’ll tend to all the things I’m neglecting (the gym, the cleanliness of my house, my overflowing inbox) after I finish the book and get back from the conference. That is what I plan to do. Which means that for the next couple of weeks, it’s likely I’ll continue barely treading water as I’ve been doing for most of the summer.

So. Again, I apologize if I’m slow in responding to your story idea, question, or note. I’m at 45,000 words in the draft-in-progress, and I’m really hopeful I will meet my goal of finishing the entire draft by the end of the month.

Today in Burlington

Fridays this summer have been relatively quiet, but there is one meeting today.

• 11:00 AM - Housing Partnership meets to approve the video narration for the Housing Needs Assessment, talk about that charter they’ve been discussing to convert to a standing (rather than ad-hoc) committee, and to discuss revamping the process for obtaining a residential unit at Grandview. (Join online)

Friday Funny

File under #relatable.

That’s it for today. Don’t forget to enter the giveaway, and find me this weekend to hear some good news and found out if you won the Buzz gift pack.

See you tomorrow,

Nicci