Where to Start??

So much going on! I'll just hit the highlights.

The Dayton Hamvention was about as usual. The weather somewhat cooperated. (A little rain on Saturday, but otherwise fine.) They moved our booth from our "traditional" space to a place in between a couple of commercial vendors, so we were somewhat harder to find than usual, but we had good attendance at the booth. Our forum was attended by about 50 folk. We had all of the Salvation Army territories represented to give reports. I thought it went well.

The biggest challenge of the weekend was getting to and from the University of Dayton dorms where some of us stay. The U of D is south of the Great Miami River, which only has so many bridges that cross it, and the one I am used to using was closed for construction. As many times as I have been to the university, finding the appropriate dorm and appropriate parking spots is always a crap shoot. First of all, most of the major streets have two to three names. (For example, one of them is Erma Bombeck Blvd, Brown Street, and Oakwood Drive. Same street!) Since I was approaching the place from different places each evening, I was never able to go the same way twice...and several of those times, I was led there by a TSA officer from Canada with a GPS!!! This year's dorm was one of the newest and nicest...but there wasn't a television anywhere on the premises. The TV that I took to leave at the booth stayed with me at the dorm...and boy, am I glad I had it! I finally did manage to get Meg's laptop working on their wireless system, so I at least had email...

For the last three or four years, I have taken the Monday after Dayton off. That has been a lifesaver for me. After three days of too much food, a lot of walking, and not enough sleep, it is a relief to know that I don't have to get up on Monday to go to school. I puttered around on Sunday...did a little cleaning and a little laundry...but, of course, it is never enough. (Oh, yes...and I did get a nap!) The children got home semi-late. We all crashed as soon as everything could get done.

When I got to school this morning, I was met with a note from the sub indicating that my 1st, 6th, and 7th period classes were "awful and foul". He had also left a note for the principal who was hot on the trail of passing out punishments when she and I talked during 3rd period. I reamed the kids out, too. Interestingly, they were pretty quiet after that. The sub was a young alumnus from MHS who was shocked at the behavior of the kids. (To his credit, he was back today, subbing for another teacher.) I talked to him, briefly. He said something like, "I have the utmost respect for all of you teachers for having to deal with this stuff every day!" Don't hear that very often!

Tonight was Robin's Bridging Ceremony for Girl Scouts. (She is now a Brownie GS instead of a Daisy.) I think Meg had designs to take Ryan for a haircut while I took Robin to the ceremony, but she wanted her mommy there, too...and I don't blame her. Grandparents are okay in a pinch, but a parent is worth so much more! Ryan was largely good. He got a little fidgety toward the end, but the ceremony only took an hour, so we were saved. We had refreshments and went home so Robin could finish her homework and hit the sack. (She MIGHT be asleep right now but was up just a few minutes ago. Hope we don't have another morning tomorrow like today was...)

Tomorrow is Ryan's preschool graduation ceremony. Thursday is his last spring soccer game. Friday, we all fall into a dead heap!

Which is what I am going to do now. As we say here in Indiana, ahm tard!