The Turtle

A snapping turtle tried to pull down a gosling yesterday, over at Mitzi's pond. Luckily a guy named Todd was there. Todd grabbed a big pole and wailed on the turtle with forceful vehemence, rescuing the gosling, who came ashore to rejoin sibs and honking parents. Falling in line, the gosling walked with a decided limp.

The Summer

The ending to the school year isn't a pleasant time. I came home kind of down and out several times last week. My fantastic parents were here and my mom tried to cheer me.
"Your work must be rewarding in a lot of ways," she told me as I stared into oblivion.
"It's not really that rewarding."
"Well, the kids learned so much this year. You've got to be happy about that."
"Actually, there really wasn't that much learning," I answered flatly.

I'm feeling much better and brighter now that summer has arrived at last and I can be more upbeat. As MoodyGirl said in her farewell speech on the final day, "We had our times. We all said things we didn't mean."

Now I'm looking forward. Today I have 2 meetings connected with my trip to Kabul. And I need to get a haircut at some point.

The Hyperbole

This is our last Friday. We're going to the History Center this morning. We will see an exhibit of OUR WRITING there. Why? Because we're the awesomest class in the world. And the History Center knows it. And soon the entire Universe will know it as well.

The Trip

Field trip to Wonderlab today. Yesterday a peep said, "Why do we go there?" I told him that we learn about science at Wonderlab. "What? Wonderlab is a science museum?" The peep seemed totally shocked. One mom volunteered to come along. I told her that her job would be to stay by Little Wonder Peep and watch him like a hawk. She seemed less certain about joining us, but I hope she will. That would be a big relief. It's going to be fun. I'm pretty sure it will be, at any rate.

The Dreams

Thanks to wonderful Sarah M., we have one last podcast up right here. It's about a book called Afghan Dreams, a book of beautiful photos and stories of Afghan kids. Check it out, mah fronds.

The Marathon

Today's the day of the grading marathon. I will grade all day for 26 hours straight.

The Fun

I had fun with my family of origin last weekend. Here's my dad dancing at the restaurant. He's 80 and couldn't be better. When I told my older sister that I was going to Kabul this summer, she got really excited, "You're going to love it! The beaches are great and the snorkelling is incredible. I'd go back to Cabo in a second."
"Not Cabo. Kabul. Afghanistan."
"Well. That's probably really different."

The Days

The days are dwindling down to a precious few, as my dad used to sing.
Not sure I can get everything done.
Am freaking out.
This always happens.
Now I get to have a stomach ache and clenched jaws or the next 2 weeks?
And the old eye twitch has started retwitching lately. Every so often.
Great.

The Crocheting

Don't know why I got so obsessed with buzkashi today. It was mentioned in a book we're reading, but once I learned the basic gist of buzkashi, I took the ball (or the goat) and ran with it and did not stop checking out buzkashi sites all afternoon. Way to obsess and lose valuable time doing other things, self.
At recess, I started the crocheting with 4 kids. Now I have to add a few more at a time. I headed out to the craft shop and stocked up on hooks. I also got a new book for myself. I'm making a dishcloth.

The Learning

Have you ever heard of buzkashi? I just learned about it today. Two teams on horseback fight over a beheaded goat, trying to score by throwing it into a circle. People in Northern Afghanistan play buzkashi.

The Days

I'm not usually much of a counter downer, but we're looking at 18 to go. I hope I can get the stories published. That's going to require one more big push. And I'd like to teach them to crochet as well.
And we have 20 high quality comments on the podcast. Today we're heading to computer lab, so we should make it to 30. All's well and we can continue with regulary programming. Thanks, peeps.