fall break in nj

Today is the last day of school in our town until November 9. That ought to give the swine flu a bit of a break, but of course Brian's school and all the other Catholic and private schools remain open, and the flu is spreading through all of them now. The other night, Megan came home and told me that one of the boys drank out of her water bottle at practice. Of course, being thirsty and invincible, she drank out of it as well. So today his Facebook status says that he is on tamiflu and biaxin. Just great.

And she had three tests, and a hard assignment for calculus that she couldn't figure out how to do (I stopped being able to help her with homework back in 7th grade) last night. She was up late trying to cram it all in. I wish she would skip swimming once in a while. Even though she will be out of school next week, the flu is making the rounds on the team, and she'll still have to keep going there. I am still holding onto the slim ray of hope that we had this flu already, when we were so sick in early February. Who knows at this point? Maybe it did circulate for a while before it was discovered. We were all pretty sick for the better part of a week.

And this is the week we have our planned trip to Boston. I expect to leave early on Wednesday, instead of Tuesday night as originally planned, and then stay just one night, because the hotels are around $200 a night. We'll be back in time for Thursday's practice, then there is another, germ-spreading meet next weekend. Fun times. And Wilbur is being neutered on Monday, poor little guy. Right now he is locked up in his pen, waiting for me to steel my stomach to the task of washing the remains of his morning relief efforts (time to get him in for the 'sanitary' cut from the groomer, I'm afraid)

Also next week, the big election. I saw a little table in the paper yesterday that said that our county currently pays the 15th highest property taxes in the nation! That's terrible! But whose fault is it, and will it really matter who is in office? I regret that I am not smart enough to understand politics. If everyone lies, or even if they are not lying, they aren't able to follow through on promises because of red tape, how will NJ ever get out of this mess? I have to study the issues before Tuesday. There are also local happenings, such as the building of several townhouse units practically right in our backyard (remember we moved here to get away from that on the other side of town! so much for that).

And in other news, the Phillies and Yankees are now 1-1 as they head back to Philadelphia for the next round of games. I am afraid to watch on TV, as I'm convinced I bring them bad luck, but I probably will watch tomorrow night anyway. I keep it in a window on my computer and check periodically, but it isn't the same. All the players look alike in the little graphic of home plate! I have a job for this afternoon. I wasn't going to take it, as it's only half day, and I thought for sure something full day would come up. But it is for one of my teacher "friends," and she said that they would be having the Halloween parade so mostly we'll be outside. I won't have an opportunity to work again until after the break anyway, so I decided I'd go with the bird in hand.