Well, it certainly rained last night. After eleven, the wind picked up even more and the rain started. At a few minutes to midnight, the power flickered off and on. A couple of minutes later, the power went out and stayed out until 4 AM. I turned on a flashlight in the camp office to act as a beacon in case any campers woke up, and sat there in the semi-darkness wondering why the back-up generator hadn't kicked in. Later, one of the teachers came in to let me know that the alarm system (which is located in the teachers' room) was beeping. I want in and soon figured out that the beeping stopped if the "alarm silence" button is pushed. Then I got some intermittent sleep, waking up when the power went back on.

In the morning, while talking to our facilities manager, I found out that a malfunction in the alarm system had registered as a "pull" down at the fire station. The fire engines were already on their way up the hill to our site when a call to our facilities manager let them know that it was a malfunction. In other words, my night was almost more interesting than it was.

I finished more homework today. Sophie is currently plowing through a weeks worth of homework in one go. She's starting to lose focus though... Rick has six pennies. He gets 3 more. How many pennies are there in all? I think I'd lose focus too.

Alex turned 11 today. He got a camcorder. We ate cake. Jen took him out for dinner while the rest of us stayed home. It's not often that anybody in this house gets the one-on-one experience. I think everybody would be less grouchy if it happened more often. It is quite hard to schedule such things though.

I'm at work right now. I just did some online work for my class, to the soundtrack of the wind gusting through camp, taking leaves and anything else not nailed down with it. I love this weather. There's even a promise of rain in the forecast. I'll believe it when I see it though.

I think I'll go read awhile. I connected with a homesick kid earlier tonight - he's reading Pullman's The Amber Spyglass at the moment. It's good to be able to discuss literature with fifth graders. We're both looking forward to seeing The Golden Compass (the first part of the trilogy) when it comes out in December.

I hear large things being blown across camp now. I'd better go nail them down.

Three mornings a week, when all four kids are in school, I get a couple of hours by myself. These days, I usually use this time to catch up on much-needed sleep. Today, I'm fashioning yet another "to do" list and listening to music (without anybody yelling at me to turn it down). We spent yesterday over the hill at G's place in the woods. The kids outnumbered the adults 2 to 1, but were generally well-behaved. I say "generally" because Sophie proved to be the exception to that particular rule, but perfection, as always, is an unattainable goal. Of particular interest to the kids was the zip-line. Even Willow managed to hang on as she went zipping down the hill. The Amazing Flying Four-Year-Old. It was good to get away for awhile.

I took another Thursday night off this week; this time to go see Finntroll at Slim's, in San Francisco. This marks the second Thursday in a row for live, Finnish entertainment. Finntroll manage to mix Finnish polka rhythms with death metal, which to most people reading this probably sounds quite unappealing. I had a blast though. Also, I think it's the first time I've heard a band advocate the eating of Christians. Those Scandinavian heathens - what will they think of next? This was the first heavy metal show I've attended in a long time - the last one being Celtic Frost a year or so ago. I definitely still appreciate the energy. Anything that makes an almost-forty-year-old feel like a kid again is a good thing. I even contemplated going into the pit (despite the "no moshing" sign, there were lots of people flying around). I nixed the idea after realizing that I was too encumbered by 21st century gadgetry - cell phone, I-pod, digital camera, etc. Sometimes I long for the primitive days of the 80s and 90s when all I had in my pockets were my wallet and keys. Sometimes. As it was, I placed myself right next to the pit because that's where the best air circulation is. Of course, you've got to keep your arms up to deflect people back into the melee. Greg showed up about half way through, and due to my thermos of coffee, I was able to give him a ride home (actually, I dropped him off at a coffee shop). Without coffee, I find myself just a bit too tired to do much these days.

But now it's Monday. I've got photos to post, but at the moment no way to post them. Our main computer has taken a turn for the worse. Now it won't shut down, and the monitor only displays the little mouse arrow. Not sure what to do about that. Curse my luddite tendencies! Life goes on though. Dishes need cleaning. Laundry needs doing. Class assignments need attention. I've now got less than a month before I take the CSET. Better get moving here.

Currently listening to: Sunburned Circle "The Blaze Game" (on the main stereo too, since the kids are all sitting in little desks in classrooms.

So, in addition to my car not working, our computer has decided not to let us go online. It's a good thing that Jen has two laptops. She's been using her work laptop and leaving her other one at home for me to use. I've been using it mostly to do assignments for school - answering random questions for my CSET preparation class and doing online assignments for my teaching credential class.
The computer problem is also why I haven't uploaded any new photos lately. Of course, working nights doesn't give me as much opportunity to take photos either, so it's really two factors involved in my Flickr page stagnating. Sorry.

In addition to work and school, I did manage to get out and see Circle at the Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco on Thursday night. The opening bands were pretty good, especially Triclops!, who were refreshingly manic. Circle, of course, topped them both with the most varied set I've yet seen them do. They did everything from prog rock and tongue-in-cheek heavy metal to punk, with a silly wresting moment thrown in for good measure. It's good to see such an excellent band with a bizarre sense of humor. I feel like I got the best of both worlds.

Then, on Saturday, I went to my first actual class down in Monterey. I had to get up at 5:30 in the morning, which wasn't fun, but once I got there I was feeling a bit better. We spent the day learning about how to teach students to read.

And finally, yesterday, Willow and I went to the open house at my work. Kids who will be coming up to science camp (and a few who've already been) showed up with their parents for some welcoming fun and festivities. I led a hike, since I don't really get much chance to do that for the time being.

Speaking of Willow, I've got to go pick her up from school now. Bye.

Being the night supervisor at camp is starting to become routine. I don't see Jen very much during the week, and I miss her. I'm also kind of like a stay-at-home dad now, picking the kids up from school every day and hanging out with them in the afternoon. I don't really have time to hang out though, because I'm usually either doing dishes or homework. My class is going pretty well - I'm managing to keep up with the assignments, at least. I have my first teaching observation tomorrow morning while all of our kids are in school - I teach and get observed by my professor. Hopefully she'll have some helpful comments. This weekend I have to go down to CSU Monterey Bay for an all-day Saturday seminar. Busy busy busy.

Willow is currently asleep on the bed. This would be an excellent time for me to take a nap too, but I have to go get the other kids from school right now. That means I have to wake Willow up.

More later, if there's time.

The character of each week of camp is different. So far this week, the kids have been models of good behavior, but when the sun sets, they want their mommies. The hub (camp office) was busy with a steady stream of visitors, some sniffling with eyes downcast, and some talking about all of the reasons they couldn't sleep.

At sunrise, I watched a clumsy bat try multiple times to enter the safety of its home underneath the shingles lining the side of the covered walkway in front of the hub. During this time, sleepy kids walked to and from the bathrooms, not realizing that the shapes darting around their heads were bats.

Later, driving home, I noticed that my car was running rough and threatening to stall while I was waiting for lights to turn green. It's a good thing we have three vehicles now. I'll miss the cd player though.

I'm about to start up my second week as night host at science camp. The first week flew by pretty quickly, and reminded me how much I love being up at night. It's nice watching the stars, which are more visible up in the hills than they are down in the light-polluted city. I find it aesthetically pleasing when the mist rolls in, and when the coyotes yelp out their songs. The raccoons are a bit troublesome though. On Thursday night, while I was in the new lodge facilitating the cabin leader break, the raccoons got into the camp office and dumped over the compost bucket that some unknown individual had left there. When I got back, it was all over the mat in front of the door. Even so, when I'm not cleaning up after them, I enjoy watching their antics. I also like watching the bats as they come home right around sunrise.
During the week, I've been getting around 4 hours of sleep a night, which so far has been enough to function on. I'll crawl into the office bunk bed for a few hours between 1:30 and 5:30 AM, and on days the Willow has school, get another hour or two at home. I'm also hard at work studying for the CSET test and doing coursework towards getting my teaching credentials (which I probably should be doing right now instead of blogging). Add to that watching the kids during the day while Jen is at work, and I'm pretty busy.

With that said, it's time to go do some dishes and laundry before I have to pick up Willow from preschool.

Two in a Tree

Two in a Tree, originally uploaded by Corbie.

The Resumption of Nocturnal Activity

There are going to be a lot more photos like this one popping up in my photostream over the coming months. Last night marked the beginning of my time as night host at science camp. My job begins right before the majority of the kids go to sleep, and ends soon after they wake up in the morning. Anybody who can't sleep (due to homesickness, real sickness, or other issues) or gets in trouble for preventing others from going to sleep comes to me. At that point I will put down whatever book I'm reading and help them with encouraging words, thermometer, stern advice, or whatever else seems right at the time. Sometimes I might get an hour or two of sleep myself, depending on the night. Oh, and sometimes, armed only with my camera flash, I scare raccoons away from the garbage.

I think I'll go lay down for a minute, or at least until the pokemon video that Willow is watching reaches its conclusion.

Team Leader

Team Leader, originally uploaded by Corbie.

Recycling 101

Our inservice week ended on Friday with a trip to the local recycling plant. Since Willow wasn't in school that afternoon, she came along for the ride. The tour of the plant started in a small "education" room featuring walls adorned by helpful paintings of the recycling process. Also on hand were plastic containers filled with the end result of the recycling process - plastic pellets and cotton candy-like fluff that used to be plastic bottles, crushed glass, etc. Our gum-chewing guide talked a bit about the process (we're single stream in our area now, which simplifies things on the input end, but makes for more sorting work at the plant), only to be interrupted about halfway through his talk by Willow.

"THIS IS BORING!"

I love the honesty of the very young. They're never afraid to tell you how they feel. The "boring" part was soon replaced by an actual walk through the actual plant, where we were treated to scenic views of mountains of old paper, plastic, and metal. Willow thought this was much more interesting. She was especially intrigued by a forlorn teddy bear resting on a heap of old plastic and paper on the plant floor. We watched as the teddy bear got bulldozed onto a conveyer belt, and waved to it as it disappeared from sight. There was also a sad little stuffed monkey attached to one of the chutes on the second floor, and a dinged up animal mobile hanging at eye level in the work area. In a way, it's sad to see those cast-off bits of childhood in amongst all of the detritus of our throw-away society. Sure, all of the stuff at the plant is destined to be recycled, but it all started its journey there when somebody threw it in a bin somewhere.

Willow's final verdict was that the whole thing was a worthwhile excursion. She spent the rest of the day regaling anybody who would listen with tales of the "becycling place.".

As I was dropping Willow off at preschool (which shares a campus with a local high school), I spotted a car with the words, "SENOIRS RULE!", written on the back window.

You too, with a little bit of window paint, can turn your poor spelling into instant public embarrassment. Too bad that kind of window doesn't come with spell check.

This made me think that some seniors don't rule... or maybe their teachers don't. Hmmm.

Mountain Home, with Marissa Nadler, originally uploaded by Corbie.

Marissa Nadler, Mariee Sioux, and Mountain Home at the Hemlock, plus transitions into new routines.

Since I had the week off, I spent the week shuttling the kids to and from school while Jen worked. Leaves have already begun to fall, and it would seem like autumn if not for the unseasonable heat we're experiencing at the moment. Willow has already made a new friend - another little blonde girl. They like pretending to be rabbits together. The girl's dad seems nice too. It turns out he knows one of my coworkers. Small world. The bigger kids have all settled in to their school routine, and Jen even had a chance to do some belated back-to-school shopping for everybody today.

Did I mention that we have a new van? Our schedules are now such (or will be in a couple of weeks) that two vans are needed in order to drop off and pick up the volume of kids (sometimes 5) that need to be transported. Life sure is expensive sometimes. It's a nice van though.

Midweek, I managed to slip away and see a show at the Hemlock Tavern up in San Francisco. I went up alone, but after I'd been there a bit, Greg turned up too, as he often does when good music is to be heard. Mountain Home opened, and turned out to be one guy on acoustic guitar playing folk/country-tinged instrumentals. Nice, but a lot different than what I was expecting based on the songs on their myspace page. Mariee Sioux played next, playing Native American flavored acoustic folk, and managing to be haunting and catchy all at the same time. I'd only just heard her a day or two before while researching the openers for Marissa Nadler, who was the main draw for me. Marissa Nadler plays haunting, reverb drenched folk music, and wouldn't sound out of place alongside 70's bands like Pentangle or Trees. During her set, she even included a Townes Van Zandt cover, Tecumseh Valley. Towards the end, she was joined on stage by two members of Mountain Home for a stunning Mountain Home song (see photo - she hadn't quite memorized the lyrics and was holding them in her hand). Can't wait to hear their cd when it comes out.
On the way to drop off Greg in Berkeley, we got caught in a detour that added a half hour to our trip. At least it wasn't this weekend, because at the moment the Bay Bridge is completely closed down.

Other than this, I've been studying for the CSET (California Subject Examination for Teachers) and doing related assignments. I'm still awaiting to get my box of course materials in the mail, but I definitely have enough work to keep me busy in the meantime.

Oh, and check out this. It's from the readings we did at the Berkeley City Club some time back. More to come, possibly.

R.I.P. Alfred Peet.

Sunbeams

Sunbeams, originally uploaded by Corbie.

I can imagine that people who weren't aware that an eclipse was happening might have been a little alarmed when the moon gradually turned to blood in the middle of the night last night. I, aware that an eclipse was scheduled, set my alarm and went out to watch it for awhile. Kind of eerie, actually - but eerie in a good way. Of course, I'm of the opinion that eerie is usually good. I shared the night with a garden spider who was busily making its web nearby, then went back to bed so I could get up a few hours later to help with the removal of kids from the house so they could go to their first day of school. Hard to believe that Sophie is in the first grade, Nate in third, and Alex in fifth. Willow had her first day yesterday. By most accounts the first day experiences were good, with only Nathan expressing the opinion that the kids in his class were, "annoying."

Yesterday was technically my first day of school too, and Jen's first day at the office. It seems though, that my financial aid forms are still floating around in the deep end of some bureaucratic swimming pool, preventing the final step of legitimacy from happening, and Jen is actually working at a cottage owned by her boss instead of the actual office. So.... almost!

My faculty adviser/contact person had arranged to meet with me this morning around the corner at the coffee shop. Of course, today of all days there was a handwritten note on the door stating that it wouldn't be opening until almost noon. We met at our house instead. She seems nice enough, but I'm definitely going to be working hard and sleeping little over the coming months. In addition to the assigned course work, I'm studying for the upcoming CSET test in early November. Right now I'm reading the social studies/history section in the big CSET study guide. It's sort of like relearning everything I was supposed to learn/learned but forgot in all of my classes from kindergarten through the eighth grade. It's actually more interesting than it sounds though. Just time consuming.

Over last weekend I didn't get much studying done because Jen's brother J finally married his girlfriend S in a lovely little ceremony up in the hills. Of course this meant that lots of out of town relatives were on hand too, including Jen and J's dad and stepmom, various uncles and cousins, friends, and lots of people whom I've never met. In other words, lots of restaurant dining and sitting around tables and talking. It was nice to see the far away relatives-in-law again, but I tend to get overwhelmed in crowds, I'm afraid - especially the rehearsal dinner with forty or so people all eating together. The wedding was a definite highpoint though. Jen and I even got to dance a bit. So did the kids, who all comported themselves with style (if not always grace) on the dance floor. They're already better dancers than I am.

The picture above is of the sun slicing through smoke from cooking food, over the unsuspecting heads of wedding guests.

That's it for now - posts may become more infrequent than usual as we all slip into our new routines around here. Next week is science camp set-up week (for which I might occasionally have to have at least Willow with me), followed by the beginning of the science camp school year, during which I'll be working as night host. We'll see how that goes...

Forked Tail

Forked Tail, originally uploaded by Corbie.

This is the forked tail of a Fence lizard, first spotted by a summer camp boy on a critter hunt at camp last Monday. Unlike, say, a two-headed snake, the lizard isn't born this way. If a lizard's tail breaks halfway off, a new tail starts to grow from the wound. In the picture here, the new tail is on the left. New tails are always less attractive than old ones. The lesson here is be careful with your tail. If you're not, you'll either end up with an ugly tail or, if you have the forked variety, attract unwanted attention from passing people.

Tomorrow starts the last week of summer camp. A lot of kids will already be in school by the end of the week. Jen is going to her new office for the first time on Monday, so I'm going to bring the boys to camp with me again while the girls go to a friend's house.

Summer camp has been going quite well. I've been leading a lot of critter hunts and pond saving expeditions. The snakes have started to make themselves scarce, with only a lone Gopher snake allowing itself to be found over the last two weeks. I did a couple of new activities over the last week though. One of them was a simple geography challenge. Every kid got a piece of paper and a pencil, and was instructed to write down as many countries as they could in a certain amount of time. At the end of it, most of them had written down somewhere between 15 and 35 countries. I got 89. One of the camp counselors got 121. That makes me smarter than 5th graders, but not, apparently, than high schoolers. Good to know, I guess... The other activity was labeled "elephant appreciation" and involved listening to the Thai Elephant Orchestra cd (music played by elephants on special elephant intruments), learning how to make convincing elephant trumpeting sounds, and finally, a question and answer session with yet another camp counselor, who just got back from Thailand where he had been working with elephants - perhaps some of the same elephants on the cd, since he recognized some of the backgrounds in the pictures gracing the cd booklet.

I continue to love the fact that we can do whatever we want at camp.

As for me, I got up at 5 AM yesterday and drove up to Santa Rosa (about 120 miles away) to attend an orientation for the teacher credentialing program I've enrolled in. It mostly involved the technological aspect of the program. This is important to know, since it's an online course, with only 4 or 5 mandatory "seminars" over the entire duration of the program. A lot of our work will involve online forums and submitting answers via e-mail. I came away being quite enthusiastic about the program, although I'll admit I'm a little worried about managing to fit all of this extra work in to an already tight schedule. Entries on this blog may become even more infrequent. We'll have to see how it goes...

On the way back, I crossed over the Golden Gate Bridge. San Francisco was uncharacteristically sunny, with sailboats dotting the bay. I stopped for dinner and cds before continuing home.

FIVE YEAR ANNIVERSARY

The five year anniversary of this site came and went while I was looking the other way. My first post here was on July 31, 2002, and was inspired by Jen starting a blog a couple of weeks earlier than that. Since then, it has become a habit, although I've slowed down a bit. I no longer try to post every day during the week - more like once or twice a week, if that. This is due largely to life getting in the way of writing about life. I used to sit down at the computer after coming home from my night job, when the house was quiet and I did my best thinking (or reflecting, at any rate). Due to the diurnal schedule I've kept for the last three years, I no longer have a guaranteed quiet time every day. Jen and I are both working full time now, so there's not a lot of time for slumping in front of the computer and trying to compose posts. That said, most of my posts are pretty stream-of-consciousness anyway. I've never agonized over the quality of what I type here. I just sort of blurt it out and hit "publish". Not that it matters. I'm not trying to win any writing awards here.

As always, this site has no real direction other than the one that I follow in life. It goes where I go. My schedule is likely to change again soon. I'm gearing up to earn my teaching credentials, and I'm going to try my hand at being the night supervisor at work - if they actually get around to hiring for it (the process is trapped in some sort of bureaucratic spider web at the moment, it seems). Right now though, I've just started the third-to-last week of summer camp, so for the time being life is still relatively the same.

I still have fun going back and reading early posts. Lots of things have changed over the past five years. I wonder what life will be like five years from now?

Oh, I've decided to start entitling posts. Just because.

Due to the near-daily reminders from Willow, we ended up at the "summer fair" this weekend (actually, the Santa Clara County fair). We arrived around mid-afternoon, with Willow and Sophie in tow and a hundred bucks in my pocket, and left several hours later with three dollars and some change. There have been a series of articles in the local paper about the imminent demise of the fair, which hasn't broken even in years, and in my opinion the coffin is being nailed shut by prices that border on extortion. It gives one the illusion of single-handedly helping the fair break even every time a soda or water is purchased, not to mention parking and entrance fees.
Still, the girls had fun until the money ran out, at which point Sophie had a fit. Willow, for her part, was saddened by the fact that she isn't quite 42 inches tall and therefore too short to experience the ferris wheel.
Both girls liked the pony rides, even though one of the "ponies" was very obviously a donkey. They also liked the trampoline/bungee cord thing that propelled jumpers high in the air. I liked the... I don't know... the indefinable feel of history one associates with octogenarian quilters and pens of farm animals. Not to mention the midway, with its small-town carnival feel.

I can see why people are fighting to keep the fair alive for another year, but I can also see why any such effort is doomed to failure.

On a somewhat unrelated note, while I was talking to a family after our summer camp's barbeque and skit program (talk about another old-timey americana holdover), a Great Horned Owl flew over us, probably about thirty feet up in the darkening sky. Although we were in shadow, the owl was high enough so that its underside glowed orange with the light of the setting sun. We went quiet as we watched it disappear into the distance.

R.I.P. Michelangelo Antonioni. These things tend to happen in clusters of three. Who's next?

R.I.P. Ingmar Bergman. Proof that the good (or great) don't always die young.

Somebody Recycled A Perfectly Reusable Pair of Raccoons!

Somebody Recycled A Perfectly Reusable Pair of Raccoons!, originally uploaded by Corbie.

Friday morning, right in the middle of our end-of-the-week meeting, we got the word from one of the camp counselors that one of our recycling bins was full of raccoons. This must have been a hard feat to pull off because the bins are inside a supposedly raccoon-proof wooden box, with bungee-corded lids. For the raccoons, it ended up being a lot of work for nothing because the bin they were in was devoid of any recycled materials. We pulled the bin out and, without alerting any of the campers who were all gathered mere feet away for breakfast (with the exception of Sophie and Willow, who were with me and got to see the action), walked it over to where the forest begins. It took some coaxing and tilting to get the frightened little baby raccoons to leave the shelter of their bin, but once they were out, they wasted no time in scrambling up a tree.
Later the same day, I also relocated a large Wolf spider from the Wild Things (that's what we call the program for campers under 7 years old) room. Counting the Rattlesnake from a couple of days ago, we spent a lot of time moving wild animals this week.
As if that wasn't enough, While I was driving up to camp with Sophie and Willow (the boys spent the night, going on the night hike and sleeping in the field with the other campers) we saw a coyote walking right down the middle of the road. As we got closer, we could see that it had a deer leg in its mouth. It bounded up the hill to our right, and I stopped the van to try and get a picture - an utter failure, I'm afraid, due to the poor light and moving target. It did pause long enough for the girls to get a good look, and they were quite excited - in fact, they spent the rest of the day telling people about it, but due to the fact that they're at an age where fact and fantasy are often seamlessly blended, I had to confirm the story many times.

By Friday afternoon, the kids were all tired and kind of cranky, especially Nate. They all had a great time though, meeting other kids, hiking, climbing (Alex and C on the high ropes course, Nate on the climbing wall), archery, and just plain hanging out around camp or at the pool. Alex got in some more reading time on the newest Harry Potter book too. Once home, we ordered pizza and unwound a bit. Nate and Sophie fell asleep relatively early. Willow hung in there for awhile before falling asleep in the big bed. Alex stayed up late to read more Harry Potter.

I think it was good for the kids to see what I do at work. I hung out with Nate the most, since he was in my group. It was good for me too - I don't really do stuff with the boys as often as I should. This was a good chance to just relax and have some fun (while getting paid too!).

Jen is still in Chicago. She's working hard and not sleeping enough. Hope she makes it over to the art museum (and manages to stay out of the neighborhoods I found myself in the last time I was there - the kind of neighborhoods where taxis won't stop for you).

Today, Sophie is at the zoo with friends. The rest of us are going to go see the Simpsons movie later.

The Snake and the Spider

The Snake and the Spider, originally uploaded by Corbie.

I've been doing this activity at camp during which I take kids into the forest to gather ingredients for "Ohlone tea". We gather fallen Madrone bark, Douglas Fir needles, Bay Laurel leaves, and Yerba Buena. The secret to good tea is go heavy on the Yerba Buena and Douglas Fir, and really light on the Bay Laurel leaves (I put in too many the first time I tried this, and nearly melted my sinuses). Madrone bark is mostly for color, although I'm told that the Ohlone people used it to make compresses, as well as tea, so it must have some medicinal use. The other secret to getting kids to enjoy the tea is to let them sugar it to taste. Oh, and making it iced tea. It is summer, after all...
Yesterday, we had just started on our gathering hike (with Alex, whose camp name this week is Unpleasant Chicken, coming along) when I got a radio call from our facilities manager, Walrus, that there was a visitor at the new lodge who needed moving. "Does the visitor have a rattle?" I asked. I already knew the answer, and sure enough, I was told that there was a two-foot Rattlesnake near the front of the lodge. I asked the Ohlone tea gathering group if they wouldn't mind becoming a Rattlesnake relocation group. Of course, I got an enthusiastic and unanimous "YES!". On the way back up to the lodge, I grabbed a stick and an old recycling barrel. Then it was just a matter of encouraging the Rattlesnake, who had been hiding behind a stack of cardboard leaning against the wall of the nearly completed new camp entry walkway, into the container. This accomplished, we showed our captive to other nearby kids, and hiked it up the hill away from camp.

It was a beautiful snake too, lookng like it had recently shed.

I also, for the first time, found a cicada nymph. Usually we just find the molted exoskeletons or adults.

The kids are all having a great time at camp this week too. I'll admit, it's hard getting everybody out of bed before 8 and out the door before 8:30, but I managed somehow. The boys are going to sleep over at camp tonight, but I'm taking the girls home. We'll see how the boys fare.

The Best Way to Spend the Summer

The Best Way to Spend the Summer, originally uploaded by Corbie.

Jen is on her way to Chicago for the Blogher conference. I'm at work right now with all of the kids, plus Nate and Alex's friend C. I'm glad I work at a summer camp - it makes child care issues easy.