Why is it that 4-H fair week always happens to be the hottest week of the year? OK, maybe not always. But hyperbole is easier to use than precision. Who wants to say “often one of the weeks in which the sun shines more often than the rain falls and the temperature rises to the mid-90s like it does at least five times a summer”? In the county where I was working last year, it certainly seemed like the hottest week of the summer, if not the decade. The sun beat down on the animal barns, baking the poor chickens and grilling the hogs. I was never so glad I was not a hog. Those things can’t sweat! And for all that, they don’t even lose the awful smell of body odor. But the 4-H’ers who have to stick it out under the hot sun to care for their animals? Kudos to them. (And to their longsuffering parents.) Although I was in 4-H, my home in the suburbs wasn’t allowed to play host to farm animals. No goats for me. So I had the enviable position of displaying sewing and cooking projects at the fa...

The city’s outdoor pool closed for the season after this weekend. It was only open from the beginning of June until now, mid-August, which seems like such a short time when I consider how much I paid for the season pass. Sigh. You see, my family used to get a season pass every summer and I and my siblings would drive out as often as possible to find respite from the summer heat. We didn’t have air-conditioning, and my sister’s favorite active recreation is swimming, so we’d go out almost every day as long as the temperature didn’t dip too low and my dad could give us a lift. When I got my license I’d take us out to the pool just about four or five times a week, and even if I didn’t get in (I have a low tolerance for chilliness) my brother and sister would. They’d spend an hour or two chasing each other around in the deep end, or fishing for misplaced pennies at the bottom of the pool, and still would whine just a little when I told them it was time to head home. In short, the pool’s...

…and all my projects are finally wrapping up. 1. The church photo directory. I’m getting all the photos from the photographer today, and it should be a snap placing them all into the document. Then, PDFing the document, and sending it on to the assistant pastor to get it to the printer… and voilá, I should be all done with this. 2. I actually got the neighboring town’s coroner’s office to fax an autopsy report to the newspaper! And all it took was a little specific information, a couple phone calls, some courtesy, and some patience. Well, the patience thing was easy, since I got so busy I forgot to call back until a week later… which worked out. (The lady I talked to had also gotten busy, so we both picked up where we left off at the same time!) 3. One more week left of work at the warehouse!!! I’m so glad it’s almost over. 4. Gearing up for the semester of editing the campus newspaper. Well, I got everybody to pick some assignments, and did my own; and the ads manager and I go...

The nice thing about finding interesting links is that it’s a ready-made blog post. If I’m too tired or too rushed to actually come up with something interesting myself, I can say “hey! look at this!” and it counts as a blog post. But when I’m not having a relaxing summer—on the contrary, when I’m working overtime and helping a lot at church—it’s hard to sit down and write something original for ze blog. That, and sometimes blogging is relegated to 2:30 A.M., when I’m hardly awake, much less cognizant and creative. So I shall sleep. Goodnight.

One more thing for me to do this summer. Why do I do this to myself? Hopefully because I like it and it’s good for me! Check out that link. It’s a month-long challenge put on by the folks over at the Boundless blog, and its intent is to deepen each participant’s walk with God. Sounded like a good idea to me. So, for the next month I’ll be posting a note a day on Facebook. Which, as you may guess, is not exactly my idea of a good time—no antipathy towards writing, just towards Facebook. But it’s part of the challenge, and the rest of it sounds like it’ll be decent so I’ll put up with that small part. If you’re already connected with me over Facebook, feel free to read and comment on my notes! I may or may not be posting best-of compilations each week here on the blog for the benefit of those who would wish to maintain their Facebookless existence (*cough* John *cough*), but that remains to be seen, and will probably happen on Sundays.

I made it home. After spending 24 of the last 40 hours on a bus or in a van. (By which I mean, 20 hours by bus from Manhattan to my cousins’ place, then more than 4 hours from my cousins’ to home. Time spent on bus layovers was made up for by driving from the bus station to my cousins’ and from there to the graduation ceremony.) How am I not crazy? Two good-sized novels pass the time quite pleasantly. (I read some of my favorites, Eight Cousins and Rose in Bloom by Louisa May Alcott.) I much prefer being chauffeured over driving myself. Go figure. (That’s why I loved the public transportation options in NYC.) Simon and Garfunkel provide a perfect soundtrack to a trip to New York City. Seriously, half their songs are specific to Manhattan. I loved it. It is actually possible to sleep on a bus. (Not too comfortably, and not too long, but it is possible.) Mothers are fun to talk to on long van trips. And sisters supply a great variety of songs to sing along to. Staring out t...

And it was a BLAST!!

I'm leaving for camp this afternoon, and shall be off the Internet until Tuesday at least. :) This year's theme is outer-space-like, so I'll be dressing up as Nurse Chapel from the old Star Trek episodes for the Sunday night family fun carnival-type thing. Everyone will be dressed as an alien or an astronaut or something of the sort. I'd rather not be an alien, y'know? Of course, I'll also do my reading, as I mentioned. And photographing things, and playing guitar, and having lots of fun... :) So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen. Pictures up next week.

Hooray for camp! It's coming up this weekend, so I will be away for a few days. Nothing like a little rest, relaxation, and unplugging-time (quite literally; I intend to leave my laptop at home). I intend to do lots of reading, to work with Mom on a Wacky Boat, and to enjoy the little cabin and the lovely lake air. :)

I wanted to title this one "Observations upon the economy, engagement, and work environments" but that's just a little too long for my taste.... but observations they are, notwithstanding any title change, and here they follow. 1. My itty bitty town's largest employer announced today it will close in a year. This little town practically subsists upon the tax revenues from this particular business. And now... the town's already facing deficit issues, and this will only exacerbate the problems. Not to mention the twelve hundred or so who will soon be unemployed. Throw in a union and you have quite a little mess. 2. My pastor's daughter got engaged to her boyfriend of... three or four years! I knew it was coming, and probably this summer was my guess, but his asking her on the top of the Eiffel Tower at night was a perfectly lovely way to do it, in my opinion (and in probably everyone else's too!). (She was on a school trip in Europe, and he flew there f...

No pictures or audio or video to post tonight. Just the observation that the heat is welcome after a winter, no matter if it is seventy-seven degrees! Anyway. I can't believe this semester is wrapping up already... less than a month left, and I won't even be on campus for all but one of the remaining weekends. Then summer, with its job and its relentless heat (which grows tiresome, I will admit; I'm just enjoying it now), will come to shrink my time until study abroad. But, the sunset tonight was lovely.... pics later!

I changed a few of the pictures on my blog layout, most notably the featured one. What do you think? I finished up my summer babysitting job today..... And we had a little water in our basement this week. Happens after almost every very heavy rain. AND I'm almost finished with my dorm room window curtain!!

We all went to a certified teacher's house again this morning to be assessed, just like last year and every summer before that for as long as I can remember. It was nice. The lady, who also writes for her local newspaper, offered to let me write an article or two for the paper over my college breaks. (The newspaper is trying more to get students who are interested in journalism in on the action.) Wouldn't that be cool??? Also today, we went swimming. I got dunked about a hundred and fifty times. Well, maybe not that much. But it seemed like every time I came up for air, either my brother or our tall mutual friend dunked me again. Of course, once we got in to the really deep area, where none of us could get footing, I dunked them right back. Serves them right! :-P By the way - has anyone ever played Dragon Tag under the mushroom in the pool? It's just like normal tag, only it's in the pool, and base is the mushroom - which must be reached by swimming under the ...

Yup, just got back from my family's yearly Camp Vacation. Now, we actually go to a camp-camp... not just campgrounds. So there are Sunday-school-type sessions every morning and evening, and something planned to do (or not) every minute of the day. It's our fun summer stay-up-late-and-get-up-early vacation; a great contrast to our winter laze-around-all-day vacation. Anyhow... the theme was superheroes: "Save the Family, Save the World!!" Obviously, I was Batgirl (or Batwoman, whichever you prefer). I resembled the new one from Batman & Robin more than the original (who was a brunette I think). And the black cape was a skirt of Mom's that didn't fit so well; all I did was rip out the back seam. The Mafia was Captain America, and my widdle brudder was a ninja: Don't we all look so good? :-) Mom and Dad dressed up too, but not with quite so much complexity. Dad was Superman (masking tape comes in handy trying to make that logo) and Mom was the Gree...

As you mey (or may not) know, I want a purple PT Cruiser eventually. When I actually get my own nice car. But, in the meantime, I am perfectly content with driving friends' black PT convertibles. With the top down. *big grin* This was at said friends' party for their little girl, who turned one! She's adorable, honestly. Has the cutest little dresses, too. AND, we are holding an Academy for Tree Climbing in our front yard, with the pupils being little girls ages 8, 6, and 5. You'd be surprised how well these short kids can climb. (Better than I could at their age!)

Sunday night: church. Pretty much self-explanatory, but it was really interesting. All about beginning anthropology. Monday night: 4-H public speaking contest. I didn't compete this year, but my sister did; instead I helped announce a couple of the sections. Tuesday night: 4-H demonstration meeting for my club. We always do one a year, at which everyone demonstrates something-or-other about their project for five to eight minutes each. Not bad, really. We had ice cream and cookies afterwards, too. Wednesday night: youth group. Good stuff. Played fire-and-ice (or knockout, whichever) afterwards; of course, I was out first time every time. :-P Thursday night: babysat three children, all under the age of seven, for several hours. I must have played ring-around-the-rosey ten times, not to mention the walk we took and all the other stuff. 'Twas a lot of fun though, even if tiring. Friday night: finished up my long essay for homeschool. (Well, it's supposed to be for h...

Item #1 in today's dispatch: my cousin sent out a news release to the family - about his first date at college. (In his particular family, there's a running joke that all the aunts have banded together to marry off the nieces and nephews; this release was named a "CALL Report" after the name of the band, CALL, which was derived from the first initials of the four aunts. Fortunately these are only his aunts, not mine, since they are really serious!) (Okay, long parenthetical...) Apparently he took a friend of his out to a banquet, where he won some awards. However, I don't know if it really counts as a date: "It was mutually understood that (my cousin and the girl) went together just for an enjoyable evening because of unfortunate religious incompatibility." So is it or is it not a date? Does it just count as a fun outing? Item #2: no, not the Reagan from the RI. This Reagan is an adopted son of the late President, who also hosts a radio show and ...