I still am not into the reality that I will soon be teaching summer school. I need to do some planning for that soon. Instead, I am planning a trip to England after summer school.

That's right, a trip to England.

I am still waiting to hear from my friend in Birmingham (England) - to see if they will have us at least for a weekend. I plan on us doing London, Birmingham, and possibly the Cotswolds, Oxford, and maybe Stratford or Bath.

It all started with my FareWatcher on Travelocity.com. They quoted a price of around $383 round trip, so I went through the whole availability process and think that we can go from July 15 (this is cutting it close, as the post-planning for summer school is also July 15. I am hoping it's half a day...) and return on July 24 (the return dates the following week were all taken).

I am trying to get my husband to go along, and he hasn't said no. The thing is that we have our house closing next week, and all sorts of hidden costs keep coming up. And then there's his car, which we hope makes it through the last week of post-planning for him next week...

But, it's been a while since we've been out of the country, and I am in a carpe diem mood. If we keep waiting to go on trips, we may not ever go. I got so excited thinking about the possibility this afternoon that I was almost dancing!

So, I've been to the public library, and have checked out various guide books - Let's Go London, Fodor's and Rick Steves - to find reasonable hotel deals. Then I went to Hotels.com and found some very reasonable rates in the South Kensington area. They ranged from $69.95 for a 2 or 3 star hotel, to higher - there was even a 4 star hotel on special for $99.95.

So, it looks do-able. I hope we go!

Today, I went out for my usual sushi, then went to the public library, and then to Rich's over on South Cobb Dr. That's the place where they ship all of the discount furniture. I'm on the lookout for a sofa. I saw a couple of possibilities, but we will probably wait to see what sort of rug we come out with before we decide on a sofa.

While I was there, I bought the cutest skirt with a nice top. Wow! That's twice this month I've been clothes shopping.