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I haven't had a chance to blog in a while so I'll catch you up on a few things.

Last Friday marked the end of the first semester at school. That means I've made it over the peak and it is a downhill slide to summer vacation. 85 more days of school. My job is getting ridiculous. Without adequate funding for No Child Left Behind, public schools are having to shoulder the financial burden of meeting all the new requirements (at the expense of programs and services that actually help kids). And what's even more abhorrent, Washington State, a state whose own constitution declares education its top priority, has managed to make the problem even worse. The state's implementation of NCLB is incompetent, harmful and impractical at best. And without adequate funding (or ANY funding) all the meaningless reports, and plans, and data collection, and implementation of meaningless programs generally falls to...well, me (and my 3 counselor colleagues). I long for the days when I actually felt like I helped kids.

Enough editorializing.

Over the weekend, I went on the annual trip to Whistler for Karen's Birthday. There were six of us who rented a condo for 3 nights. I spent the first day cross country skiing and the second day downhill skiing. After five years of going to Whistler, I'm still a green run skier. I guess I shouldn't expect to make much progress when I only ski one time a year. Still, with all those acres of skiable terrain, it would be nice if I could get beyond "Upper Whiskey Jack" and "Ego Bowl". But, with a grand total of 10 days on the slopes in my lifetime, I should be pleased that I'm off the bunny hill. There's always next year.

Tomorrow I'll participate in my precinct Caucus for the very first time. It's exciting to think that my involvement might actually help determine the outcome (I guess you can tell which party caucus I'll be attending tomorrow).