lots to report

Well, I didn't get the science fair reports finished until Thursday night. But what a week!

Monday, I had ultimate. We lost a close one to Weapons of Mass Disctruction. Then I went out for food after, which was fun but put me behind in preparing. Tuesday afternoon I had the first of my in-class science fairs. I had to rearrange all of the desks so that all the students could display their projects and have electrical outlet access. Repeat Wednesday. Thursday was the science fair. About twenty of my thirty five grade 11 groups came and entered the contest. I was _really_ proud of them. They worked really hard on these projects and produced some high quality work. Thank goodness we had the grade 12 bridges being tested during the science fair. It was some desperately needed entertainment for during the contest. Three of the bridges held over 400 lb. Closer to 450, I think.

Thursday and Friday I congratulated my grade 11s for the outstanding work that they had done on their projects. I almost got a little choked up on Friday when I told them I was glad I wasn't a judge. There truly was no way I could choose. I spent more time with the projects, so I know how much thought most of the groups put in to it.

Dion and his friend/classmate/coworker Otto came to the science fair. Dion is sooo in the good books as a result.

Friday, I was absolutely exhausted. sleep-deprived, really. I stayed up to 2:30 on Thursday marking the science fair projects so that I could return them Friday, the last day of classes. I was an idiot. misspelled my name in several yearbooks even. I couldn't believe that even in the last class of the day, 21 out of 33 students came to class and most of them were on task most of the time - making up Jeopardy games about Physics for each other. I got out of the school as fast as I could, leaving a big mess of papers and equipment, to go out to celebrate with Heather and Kaitlin. I wasn't keeping up my end of the conversation, though they seemed just fine without me, until I got some food in me. I had skipped breakfast _and_ lunch. Very good fun. I'm really glad that we all get to stay at the same school next year.

Saturday was busy. I had washed, dried, folded, and rehung my draperies, done some grocery shopping, and rented a steam-cleaner for our area rugs by noon! I spent the afternoon on the rugs and then met up with Dion, our new landlord, and her agent to sign the new lease. We found out the the landlady, Cynthia, attended the highschool where I teach. Small world. We saw the terrace/party/excercise room for the first time. It's rather nice. The terrace is enormous and the exercise equipment is quite decent.

From the new apartment, we headed to Dion's chorus's send-off party for Salt Lake City. I really like the set and had a good time chatting with Su, Annie, and Nancy. Watching the beards being removed was also good fun. Dave Streeter looks like a complete stranger without the beard and mustache. I got a lot of really cool photos, but again I can't be bothered finding a place to post them. Maybe I'll look up our sympatico site again.

Today, I cleaned the last of the area rugs. This last one is wool, so it held onto the smell of the previous owner's dog more tenaciously. It's still not perfect but it does look and smell much better. That's about it.