I know that summer doesn’t really end until September something-or-other, but Labor Day (coming on Monday) is the symbolic end of summer in our neck of the woods. So here we are at the end of summer.

We’ve now been in school a week (well, a 4 day week for the students) and I think it was a good week. Thanks to some diligent work by our new guidance counselor, most of the kids eligible to take the chemistry course for college credit are doing so. (She was still chasing kids and their parents down today – applications had to be faxed by noon.)

This is the start of my 20th year of teaching and the start of my 14th year at Newton. Woo! And I feel like this might be the most stress-free starting week in memory. (Well, I do have a crappy memory, and I know last year had mucho stress with the new chemistry curriculum.) So perhaps I’m getting the hang of this teaching lark!

I was working late today, but I really wanted to get a number of things done before the weekend so I can just enjoy the 3 days without thinking of school. And then the folks and I headed off to Troy Streets Alive to check out the Downtown. We sampled bourbon chicken from LeDoux, looked at the wares of the various artists stationed around the square, bought some olive oil from Olive Oasis, and then headed off to Kuzzinz, a bar & grill I’d not been to before. In honor of my successful first week, I had a woo woo with supper and a brownie sundae for dessert. Very yummy!

This weekend is one of my favorite festivals – the Heritage Festival in Piqua. Dunno when we’ll go other than “not tomorrow.” We’ve got a wedding reception to go to tomorrow. (The wedding was held in another state, so they’re holding a second reception here for family that couldn’t get to it.) That works for me. Wedding receptions are usually much more interesting than weddings. 🙂