It turns out that I could have worked all week (with the possible exception of Friday) if I had wanted to. A lot of my coworkers are ill, so despite the fact that there are only 90 kids (give or take) at camp this week, opportunities to work keep knocking at my door. I turned down a chance to work tomorrow because there is a major holiday looming on the horizon that we're just not properly prepared for. Today I worked, taking a group of nineteen kids and a couple of cabin leaders on two hikes. We studied the creek and the chaparral. It's always a little hard to show up in the middle of the week and take over a group. There were no real problems with this one, other than not knowing their names as well as I would have had I been there the day before. They were a chatty group too, although a couple of the kids outshone the others with their constant participation and helpfulness. Elsewhere at camp there were problems with shouting cabin leaders and ailing staff. It has all the makings of a chaotic week. It's probably just as well that I'm staying home tomorrow.

It's funny that I was worried about getting enough work this month when in reality I ended up getting more work than I wanted. As of now, I'm scheduled to work on Thursday, and then not again until Tuesday. Sometime during that time, I'm going to go see King Kong. It's strange that the original had him climbing the Empire State building, the seventies remake had him climbing the World Trade center, and now he's back to climbing the Empire State building again. Of course, the new version is set during the early part of the twentieth century, back before the World Trade center was built, but one can't help but meditate on the whole 9/11 angle. Idle thought.

During the days that I spend away from work, I'm going to be searching for the multi-dimensional vortex that must exist somewhere around the house. It's the only explanation for all of the sippy-cups that have gone missing. My theory is that Willow has found this vortex and has been steadily stuffing random items into it, like the aforementioned sippy-cups and God knows what else.
When I got home today, Jen was in a frenzy about the state of the boys' room and the mess that always covers the floor. The boys are unable to ever pick anything up without making a big production of the process. My thought is that if we can find the vortex, we can stuff the contents of their room into it. Problem solved.