Syllabi --- out the door

My fall syllabi are on the way to the copy center --- which means they are finalized and I can't change them. I'm happy with the results. I managed to keep stuff that worked from last semester, (presentations and a cool logical fallacy project that got rave reviews) ditch some stuff that didn't work (summaries of reading they didn't do...) and create something new (contract grading for debate).

I also managed to avoid a major snafu by having good follow-up instincts... so Herbie and Swear Jar's tuition to debate camp will get paid. YEA!

I had a good chat with Dog Dad, as usual. I'm really glad we hired him-- he took the family 'up north' for the weekend last weekend and now understands what all the fuss is about. They spent the weekend swimming and playing in the water and their black lab was in doggie heaven...

Recently I've been daydreaming about having a tiny cabin on a secluded lake...I can see the path down to the lake in my head... a narrow dirt path worn in long grass, shaded by some big trees. The cabin itself is just to the right -- two rooms, water, electric and no phone. The inside has as much comfortable furniture as we can find at Goodwill -- and a king-sized bed with well-worn sheets fills the only bedroom. The kitchen, if you want to call it that, is a few cupboards with a small stove and fridge along the back wall. There is a grill outside for most of our cooking and a franklin stove in the corner in case it gets chilly. The only modern conveinece would be a satelite dish so we can get internet-- as that is a necessity for spending my fantasy summer there. In my summer fantasy, kids -- if we had them -- would spend most nights sleeping in a tent, dragging their sleeping bags in to sleep on the livingroom floor when it rained.. and the cats are easily converted to indoor-outdoor kitties, since my fantasy lake is far from any roads other than the slow gravel one past our driveway... sigh--- maybe after we get tenure...