I'm back from the 9th Grade Orientation thing now! Here's my report on school, Taconnet, and this very blog.

---

School

Unfortunately, we didn't have much time to meet the new kids joining our class. However, we did meet several of our teachers and learn a bit about our schedule. Kids playing a sport in the fall went on to start pre-season, but since I'm doing tech crew for the play instead I got to go home -- which I feel very lucky about, since the kids who DID attend pre-season say it was a pretty grueling experience.

However, before leaving I attended another web committee meeting about BCDS' new web site. I saw the new logo, as well as a few potential designs.

Taconnet

You learned about most of what I did at Taconnet a couple posts ago (I actually wrote that post while at Taconnet!). Here are a few other things.

• We saw a kid blow a giant bubble in the annual Freaky Talent Show.
• I learned the name of the next Star Wars film. :-D
• We made a movie with some friends. The plot was that Rozie, the managers' dog, actually had a secret plot to slaughter all the humans. Sound interesting? It was!

This Very Blog

You may have noticed a couple new features in the past week or so. The first is that nifty toolbar at the top of the blog, which replaces the ad that used to be there. You can use it to make your own weblog (aka blog), see other blogs, and -- best of all -- search my blog! I'm not sure how well it works, though.

The other new feature is that little envelope icon at the bottom of every post. You can use it to email that post to a friend! Cool, huh?

And don't forget the other features this blog has had for... well... a while, such as comments (just click that link at the bottom of each post) and the archive, which lets you see every post I've ever written.

---

Well, that's all for now folks!

Howdy!

I'm back from Taconnet, and have been for a little over a week now. It was really fun! I'll try to give you a more complete recap later, but currently I'm only half an hour away from going back to school again! THE HORROR!!! Hehe... ;-)

Although, fortunately, this is only a couple-hour-long orientation session. People taking sports in the fall then have preseason for the rest of the week, from 9:00 - 3:30 or something like that. I, however, am not playing soccer this year. I'm probably going to do tech crew for the play instead.

As for summer reading, I'm almost done (it's due on the first day of actual school). I've calculated that by a week from today I will have read 14 books over the summer, which equates to about 5,000 pages. Yippee!

Adios, amigos.

Hi everyone! I'm writing this from Taconnet, so I have to be quick. We're now a little more than half way through our stay, and so far it's been great. Here are some highlights:

TUBING

• Tues. Aug. 3: We were caught in the middle of a torrential downpour, and I managed to flip a collossal tube while driving.
• Wed. Aug. 4: That same collassal tube was deflating, causing (at one point) one of two occupants to get squished and the tube collapsed onto itself!
• Wed. Aug. 4: One 6-year-old went on a slow roller-coaster type ride, as multiple wakes collided and the tube balanced on top of three-foot-waves.

ROCKETS ETC.

• We've set off one 1-or-2 foot rocket and two 2-or-3 feet mini-rockets. We got a great picture of one -- I'll have to post it when we get back!
• We also (with a friend who's a rocket scientist) got two cheap RC planes. One kind of worked, and the other didn't really work at all. So, we strapped a rocket engine to it and launched it a few times. :)
• We also got an RC boat, which works great and is perfect for chasing ducks with!

OTHER STUFF

• We've also made s'mores...
• Celebrated a few birthdays...
• Done some skiing...
• and a 550-piece puzzle!

That's all -- I really have to get off the computer now. Adios!