Our last hurrah today consisted of a day spent wandering around the Oregon Zoo with our new friends, the next door neighbors. It was lovely--we saw all the kewl stuff like the bat cave and the amur leopards and scorpions, bald eagles, and my favorites: the naked mole rats. The sun was out with a few clouds to keep it from getting too warm. I loved it.

I'm *so* not ready for school to start. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not. Yes, that's me you hear kicking and screaming. No, I won't act my age. I just want one more week. Just one more. Pleeeeeeze?

I found out that the school buses in this district put kids from kindergarten through 12th grade on the same bus. That's just not right. I'm going to do some mighty big complaining. In the meantime, my neighbor and I have arranged to take turns driving the kids to school in the morning but we'll let them ride the bus in the afternoon since they will only be on the bus for about 5 minutes max, possibly less than that. I can handle that. You can bet I'll bet at that first Parent Teacher Advisory Committee meeting raising all sorts of cain. They'll probably wish I'd send Joey back to private school.

Not much else on the plate today. Except that I wanted to tell you that there is a field of sunflowers near our house. I drive by it frequently and it always makes me smile to see thousands of these giant yellow blossoms populating the field. How can you not smile when you see a whole field of blooming sunflowers?

--L