Hey everybody.

Sorry I've been gone so long again. We had a thoroughly enjoyable, as well as thoroughly entertaining time up north last weekend. Here's a basic rundown of events (all times approximate).

Friday...

11:05am We depart home in two separate vehicles.

11:15am We reach highway 52 and head north.

11:25am Colin and I are nearly killed by a reckless driver in a silver Ford Taurus.

11:26am Mom and Dad are nearly killed by a different reckless driver in a different silver Ford Taurus.

11:40am Colin nearly gets lost on highway 694. We are saved only by my wild arm gestures and excellent Chewbacca imitation.

12:45pm Mom and Dad's windshield is threatened by a rogue tennis ball traveling at 75 mph.

1:40pm We arrive at the cabin.

1:45pm We go down to the lake and examine the boat, only to find that its battery is dead and the entire contents of the gas tank has leaked into the lake. The smell is overpowering and a huge oil slick surrounds the dock.

3:30pm After having jumped the battery and purchased more gas, Colin goes out fishing. The anchor rope breaks. We're down one anchor.

4:20pm Dad and I take the rowboat for a spin. It rains. We get wet.

5:00pm The rain stops. The temperature and dewpoint rise to stifling level.

6:30pm The rain begins again. It rains until bedtime. It was a very hot night.

Saturday...

12:30pm We go on a family fishing trip. Colin fishes. The rest of us just sit. I get sunburned.

3:30pm We take the rowboat out to the middle of the lake and flip it over (this on purpose). It's excellent fun. And only a little dangerous (cuts and bruises have since healed).

6:00pm Colin fishes again. He actually catches a fish that is bigger than his lure. I sit in the cabin in front of a fan and read about possible Supreme Court nominees.

7:30pm I steal the neighbor's canoe and paddle around the lake for a while. I get eaten by deerflies.

8:00pm We play cards, and dad has a difficult time staying out of the Mike's Hard Lemonade.

Sunday...

9:00am I get up and take the canoe for another ride after breakfast.

10:30am It gets even hotter outside.

11:15am We load the cars and vacuum a lot.

12:00pm We depart for home.

2:30pm We arrive home after a drive thankfully void of reckless drivers and tennis balls.

3:00pm Colin and I go to Barnes and Noble to buy two copies of Harry Potter 6.

1:00am I force myself to stop reading on page 375 and go to bed.

And that was my weekend. It sounds like a bit of a hassle, but it was actually really fun.

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So... Harry Potter. It was really just amazing. And I have my theories. But I refuse to speak of it here.

After finishing Harry Potter, Dad and I finished watching the third season of 24. Now I'm really done. There is no more. I can kick this addiction. You can tell you've been watching too much 24 when you start having dreams about being hunted down by people trying to kill you. Last night, one of them was Julia Roberts. I'm not quite sure how that fits in...

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I finished work this week. All went well. The high schools did find the money to pay me, as I mostly expected they would. So I'm wealthy. Or I will be when the check comes in the mail. The kids were a blast. We ordered them pizza for our last day and they went crazy. It was a fun time. I'm really glad I got to work in a program like this. It's helped me realize how very difficult even the simplest tasks can be for kids who don't speak English. Teachers need to do way more to help than they think. For next summer, they are talking about opening up the School for Environmental Studies for a 9 week summer session that will be entirely ESL kids completing content area coursework, mostly in science. They could make such good progress in a program like that. It would be amazing. I hope they can do it.


Anyway, I should probably get some sleep. It's been rather a long day.