I have finished week 3 of our 8 week SAT bootcamp and the strangest thing has happened. All of my SAT students are...what is the word...not enthusiastic...no..that's not right...how about present. Yes that's right they are all present, as in I have not had to remove the earbuds from a student listening an Ipod, I have not had to confiscate any cell phones and when I'm at the front lecturing about fascinating topics such as the semi-colon they are all writing down what I am saying. It is the weirdest thing. Perhaps it is a combination of the price of the course ( REALLY Expensive) and the poor economy so we are not babysitting any students, but whatever it is-I like it and I would be happy if it were to continue. Not all of them are happy to be there but at least they are showing up mentally as well as physically. They ask questions when they don't understand something and they are not challenging every little thing I say. I tell you 4 hours flies by when you don't have to stop every ten minutes to refocus the class. Now they are not all super genius' by any stretch of the imagination, I still had to explain my t_shirt that says "A Thesaurus is not a Giant Lizard" and I made the mistake of using the quote "Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read." Groucho Marx ; it took 2 days to get half of them to understand kind of why the quote is funny. But at least they are trying. So knock on wood this continues for another 5 weeks.





Last weekend I had my first Saturday off and we went to visit Mom and Dad at a cottage they rented near Goderich. The cottage was down on the beach and by down I mean 100 steps down from where you park the car. Actually the down isn't so bad , its the back up that's painful. It was nice to get away from the city and just relax. Mom and Dad didn't expect to see me before my birthday so we had an early birthday celebration.The highlight of which was a present that I asked for when I was 10 or 11. As a kid I found a sweater pattern that had a Siamese cat draped over the shoulders and we bought the yarn and the sweater was attempted many times and passed on to more experienced knitters but they failed as well. So I guess Mom found the bag of yarn and the half done sweater last Fall and she attempted to complete it for Christmas, and at one point she had the back completed only to discover it was completely reversed. Anyway after working on it all winter , the cat sweater was completed. We all agree that it is pretty hideous looking but the point is that she finished it.

Today I have already been down to St. Lawrence Market to get fresh vegetables but there are 2 days of dishes in the kitchen waiting to be cleaned and a pile of essays to be marked before any fun can happen today. So I guess I'll get to it and hope the sun remains so I can read on the balcony this afternoon.

M.