The last month or so was particularly eventful: the trip to Iowa and our marriage, the party Saturday night at Raylene and Doug's, the million dollar scholarship donation in my name, and the reassuring tests at the KU Cancer Center.  Now it's time for a quieter fall routine.  Mohamed is in the second week of school, and by now assignments have begun.  Yesterday I downloaded page after page of  forms and instructions for the green card application.  The applications themselves are fairly straightforward, but each must be accompanied by a lot of supporting documentation. 

Meanwhile, after a rather mild summer, we're in the middle of a two-week heat wave with daily temperatures in the high 90s and no relief at night.  The Merry Maids are here now for their monthly visit; usually we'd sit on the back deck, but it's already too hot and muggy for that to be a pleasant choice, so reruns of "Frasier," all of which we've seen many times, are on in the background while I type and Mohamed is focused on his iPad.

The television runs from morning till late night; it's mainly white noise, though I think I know the words to almost every commercial  (a recent report found that 41% of TV time is devoted to advertisements), a doubly sad commentary.  News coverage is especially dispiriting, both for what's happening  and for its focus on trivia.  When Miley Cyrus's tongue gets more coverage than the situation in Syria, it's no wonder that viewers are turned off--and are turning off.  I could die a happy man if I never heard the word 'twerking' again. 

As you can tell, the quiet routine doesn't lend itself to writing an interesting blog.  Maybe the weekend will lead to some more entertaining thoughts for Monday's entry.