Today is technically the last day of summer break.  I have two days of meetings at school on Wednesday and Thursday (no students).  Then I have a four-day weekend.  Friday we're off because in Michigan it's illegal for schools to be open the Friday before Labor Day.  This is to promote tourism in a state where it's a multi-billion dollar industry.  And Monday is Labor Day.  Tuesday we have students.  So technically I start school tomorrow, but . . .

Sasha had a dentist appointment early.  One cavity.  Sigh.  He also has a tooth which is showing up late.  Sasha is missing a couple of teeth congenitally, but one is just now coming in.  It's weird.  The dentist is hoping there'll be room for it.

Then I had a doctor's appointment to talk about medications I'm on.  And then I found myself in the kitchen for several hours.

We were out of cookies, the bananas were getting too ripe to eat, and I was cooking supper.  I made a batch of chocolate chip cookies and followed it with banana bread.  Then it was time to make dinner.

I was making quiche for the first time.  We were casting about for meals this week, and it occurred to me that quiche would be something for everyone.  Mackie doesn't like meat.  Aran and Sasha don't like vegetables.  Everyone likes cheese and eggs.  I could make two quiches--one with ham and one with veggies.  I'd never made it before, and discovered that the prep--chopping everything up--took a lot longer than I thought it would.  The boys were all three curious about this weird new dish I was making.  I avoided telling Aran that it was basically egg pie because I didn't think he'd react well.

They came out perfectly fine--it's hard to mess up quiche, really--and all three boys ate it enthusiastically.  Sasha wanted the vegetable one.  (!)  Half an hour after supper, Mackie asked for another piece.  So we'll do this one again.

Oddly tired now.

In which Steven posts a brief account of vacation activities:
( Read more... )

What a week!  The classes with seniors in them had final exams this week because seniors finish by Memorial Day weekend.  And my freshmen finished THE ODYSSEY smack in the middle of it, meaning they were ready for the unit test.  Six sets of tests all within one week!  So much red ink--and the reason I haven't posted much lately.  But everything is at last finished, grades are entered, and my Doomsday List (of seniors who failed) has arrived at the office.

I now have a four day weekend.  Leaving soon for my own Undisclosed Location.

In the morning, we ate breakfast in the hotel (part of the room rental).  It was a hot-and-cold buffet and decent enough.  Then we packed everything into the van, took a change of clothes into the waterpark, and let the boys swim again.  Kala and I didn't really want to, so we stay dressed and dry.

One observation: the stone/tile floor in there is slippery.  Mackie fell.  I fell.  Aran fell and hurt his wrist.  I saw three other people fall while I was there.  It seems like the whole thing is a lawsuit waiting to happen, and I don't quite understand why they haven't put in better flooring.

At about 10:30, Sasha said he wanted to change, so we decided to head home.  Aran and Maksim didn't protest when we told them it was time to leave, so we knew they were tired, too.  I managed to get everyone into dry clothes in the extremely limited boys' changing area, and we headed home.

The boys had a fine time.  So did Kala and I, really, though we aren't eager to do it again.  So much noise!

Freshly dried and smelling of chlorine, we went in search of supper.  We thought about heading out, but decided to eat at the hotel restaurant.  Weirdly, the restaurant only had tables for four, and they had to push two tables together to seat us.  This struck me as weird.  Didn't this place ever get parties larger than four?  I found that hard to believe.

We also considered looking for a movie theater or something for after supper, but there isn't one in Dundee.  The closest one was a twenty-five-minute drive away in Adrian, and we weren't up for that.  However, Cabela's was across the street.  Cabela's is one of the country's biggest shopping places for outdoor stuff--camping, hunting, boating, you name it.  We walked over for a look, though Sasha's stomach was feeling odd and he elected to stay behind in the hotel room.

Mackie and Aran were alternately fascinated and bored by Cabela's.  They loved the kayaks, canoes, power boats. fishing boats, compound bows, crossbows, and toy guns.  The rest of the stuff . . . not so much.  We need to replace our big tent, so I browsed some, though not intending to buy.  We maneuvered Mackie around the rifle and shotgun room.

Back in the room, we got out snacks and put KUNG FU PANDA in the DVD player.  The boys piled on the big bed to watch, and everyone liked it.  This was actually my favorite part of the trip.

Kala had to work on Thursday and wouldn't get home until after 4:00, so we decided I would take the boys down to the water park hotel earlier and she would come down from work.  I spent a big chunk of the morning getting everything ready.  We were only going away overnight, but there was so much to get together!  Swimming stuff, toiletries, various medications for various family members, and food.  Our room would have a mini-fridge in it, so I decided to bring lots of snack foods, all of which had to be packed in bags or the cooler.  The boys helped, but they were as helpful as you might expect from kids who have never spent the night at a hotel before.  (The last time we did any hotel time was when we adopted Sasha and Maksim and spent a night in Amsterdam on the way home.  Only Sasha remembers it, and just barely.)

Loaded everything into the van and headed off.  Dundee isn't that far away, and we arrived easily.  Got us checked in, a process that fascinated the boys, and then drove around to a door close to ours to unload.  The boys seemed impressed that I knew we could get a cart for our stuff.  Found our room easily enough.  It was a family suite--king bed and two bunk beds.  Huh.  I thought it would have four bunks.  I called down for a rollaway, and one eventually arrived.  Whew!

Got everything unpacked.  By now the boys were dancing with the need to hit the water park.  We suited up and headed down.

The park was NOISY.  Seriously.  The loudness of it hit like a physical wall.  And it was extremely crowded.  The lazy river was packed so fully, you could barely wedge yourself in.  Floaty tubes were at such a premium that any time someone abandoned one, it was snatched up almost before it hit the ground.

The boys loved it.  They rushed around from attraction to attraction (though Aran had to be extracted from the lazy river, where he seemed bent on spending the entire time).  The two slides had long lines, but they went quickly.

I started getting a migraine headache, unfortunately.  The noise of the place didn't help.  I took Mackie up to the room for a snack and I downed some meds, which blunted it, at least.

The crowd thinned out around 4:00, though all the chairs and benches were still draped with towels and beach bags.  I absolutely love it when people put their towels on public chairs and walk away.  It means I always have a place to sit.

Kala arrived, and there was more swimming and sliding and splashing.  At last it was time for supper, and we dashed through the now-chilly corridors to our room.

I'm doing it.  I'm going, and that's it.

I'm planning a trip to Ireland for this summer.

I've been wanting to visit Ireland for years and years.  One of my goals was to go before I turned 40.  Didn't make it.  The money was never there.  This spring, however, it will be, and if I don't go now, the chance may evaporate.  I'm grabbing it.

My plan is to board a flight to Dublin on a Wednesday, thereby arriving Thursday morning.  I'll spend Thursday and Friday in Dublin, seeing what I can while I recover from jet lag.  Saturday I'll rent a car and drive to a country cottage I'm planning to rent in County Meath.  I'll stay there for a week.  The place is equidistant from several things I want to see, including Newgrange and Tara and several other smaller things.  It's also within easy reach of Dublin if I want to go back there some more.  Once that's done, I'll go back to Dublin, spend one more night, and fly home.

It's not my dream trip, which would involve two weeks and a long tour of archaeological Ireland, but I'll take it.

I'm taking Corey with me.  My harp maker friend (found at http://www.lewiscreek.net/lc_home.htm ) is going to make a hard-sided travel case so Corey won't get smashed in transit.  I'm going to play Irish folk music in the Irish countryside, on Irish cliffsides overlooking the ocean, and in the center of standing stone circles.  (If I don't come back, forward my mail care of Tam Lin and True Tom.)  And oh yes--maybe even in a pub or two.

I'll be alone.  This is partly because we can't afford a family trip to Ireland, partly because I don't think the boys would really be interested (and I =know= Kala isn't interested), and mostly because I want to do in Ireland the things I've always wanted to do without worrying about other people getting bored.

This is going to be so cool.

I'm off this week for mid-winter break!  The boys are not, and Kala has a sub job for the whole week, so I have the house to myself.  Whee!

This would have been the perfect time for me to go Somewhere Warm on a trip or something, but we have no money for that right now, and besides, I need to finish this Ghost Whisperer book.