almost there...

 

  This is what my new classroom looks like right now, before any unpacking or organizing.

What's New?
I've been doing a whole lot of nothing lately, and blaming it on a lingering cough and runny nose. I've got to step up my game, though, or when school starts I will be toast. This weekend my in-laws are coming up to Seattle to go kayaking with us on Elliot Bay, and next week I'll start operations move-into-classroom and get-classroom-ready. I tried to start this week, but the previous teacher's boxes had not been moved yet. I didn't want that to stop me from being productive, though, so I arranged the desks, sketched out a floor plan and started planning where I'll put things.

The weather changed on Wednesday and I can feel autumn pulling at the air. I told Joe that I'm ready for autumn (it's my favorite season, after all), but then realized that I have one more thing on my summer list: blueberries. With being gone to Mt Rainier, and then being sick once I got back, I have not picked blueberries. I have some blueberry baking to do, so next week I need to get up north to my favorite blueberry farm so I can solve that problem.

Currently Reading

• Mink River by Brian Doyle - I'm not even 100 pages into this book, but I love it. I was initially put-off by the style of prose, but now I'm hooked. Here's one reason I love this book: 

"Rained gently last night, just enough to wash the town clean, and then today a clean crisp fat spring day, the air redolent, the kind of green minty succulent air you'd bottle if you could and snort greedily on bleak wet January evenings when the streetlights hzzzzt on at four in the afternoon and all existence seems hopeless and sad." page 38

On the Needles
I'm still plugging along on a dishcloth. Since I'm trying to use up some leftover yarn, it's currently half purple and half magenta. I'm running low on the magenta (and I've already used up all of the purple), so it may end up with a light blue stripe at the end. Never matter, I'll put it to good use cleaning up the kitchen counters.

Looking Forward To:

1. kayaking with family