I realize that my posted entries have been few and far between lately. Apologies to all... although it does seem somewhat strange to apologize for not writing a journal entry; I'm used to journals being those private things that other people don't read, so of course there would be no need to apologize to anyone for not writing in one. Anyway, this is not a private journal, so I apologize.

And now I'm done with that.

I have so much to say and so little brain to say it with. Today we hosted our 3rd annual Halloween Festival and Pumpkin Patch at my school. It was excellent, mostly, and lots of hard work. But the kids who came (120 preschoolers and toddlers) had a great time, and the elementary kids, who came later to check out the petting zoo, pony rides and jumpy castles, had fun too. A couple of my students went in to pet the pot-belly pigs when we were all done, but mostly they just wanted to collapse, eat lunch, and then go jump in the jumpy castles with their second wind. After that, of course, they had almost no energy left at all. Good thing I didn't try to make them do anything hard in the afternoon. :) It was a great success, though, and I know it was worth all the work. We used to bus the three preschool classes to Half Moon Bay (about an hour drive?) on three $500 buses to a Pumpkin Patch there, and then they would each pick a pumpkin (at $4 to $5 apiece), and maybe some Indian corn, and then they would get back on the bus for the return journey. This is way better. We spend a LOT less money, the parents of the younger kids get exposed to my junior high program, the staff and the kids have a great time, and everybody gets to do more stuff in a safer space without having to ride on a bus for an hour each way. Woo hoo!

The other big thing we did recently was go on a trip to New York to learn about and visit the United Nations. I'll have to save that for another entry, however, because I'm too tired to write any more tonight.

I think that's the main reason (well, that and my previous computer glitches) I haven't been writing as much lately. But thank you, Kam, for fixing my laptop! Yay Kam! After she installed the virus software I had purchased, oh, two years ago, and then updated it, she ran the scan and it found, um, er, 19 threats, including at least one active virus. So now it's not crashing all the time anymore. Huh. Funny, that.

Okay, must sleep. 'Night all.