Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jog!

I'M WITH DOROTHY. There's no place like home ... even if it takes a while to get used to it again.
It is good to travel and be exposed to other viewpoints and actually experience from high above how great and wide our part of the world is. Flying over Lake Erie - seeing just a bit above its surface the cloud formations that looked like some kind of fancifully concocted foamy dessert topping- was awesome. You wonder how many of the Native People, who once lived on Lake Erie's shores, believed it had no end. To them it would have seemed as wide as the ocean to us.
The plane was so full on the way from Salt Lake City (first stop) to Detroit that we were encouraged to check carry-on baggage at the flight deck. (Or they were going to start taking it away from us!) So I gave up one bag not remembering that Scar, my body guard for the trip, was in that bag. With the chocolate!!
I quickly found my bag in Detroit at the luggage carousel and guess whose little head was sticking up? Yes, Scar. Sent with me by the Mister and mistreated by me in the worst way. Scar had gotten hungry along the way and got into the chocolate. What a tummy ache he had. Fortunately there was a doctor in our group who administered an enema (oh, poor Scar!) and he was soon feeling better. Scar, not the doctor.
The Model Student Assistance Program coordinators' meeting I attended got me all fired up to go back to work and sign up new Oregon teachers to attend the Model Student seminars to get the help they need to improve children's lives. The next three-day seminar for teachers in Oregon is in March 2010. If you know an Oregon teacher, have them contact me. They will learn to set up a core team within their school to learn to identify and help at-risk students. (Many schools already have their own programs, and this one doesn't take the place, but gives additional support.)
Meanwhile, when all the meeting attendees went out to dinner, I got another unbirthday celebration thanks to Earl W. He takes delight in "gifting" me with more and more birthdays. And it's OK with me as long as another year older isn't included in the deal. I got a delightful slice of tiramisu.
I had asked Mark Bernardin, a coordinator from Ohio, if he would do a magic trick for me. He has been doing magic since a visit to Disneyland when he was around 11 years old. He told me he had a card in his wallet and asked me to guess what it was. I was thinking the Ace of Spades. Then he said "Don't think of something easy. People are always guessing the Ace of Spades of the King of Diamonds."
I gasped, "I was thinking of the Ace of Spades!"
"Well, think of something harder he said."
So I thought about it and said, "OK, the seven of spades."
He wiggled the card from his wallet after I said this. It came out the six of spades. I was a little disappointed. I really wanted him to guess right.
He looked at me and said something like "Sometimes I come up a little short and I'm off a little." Then he flipped the card over and written on the back in black marking pen was what is in the picture: Off by one.
Well, it was a good productive time in Michigan, but I'm glad to be home. When I found Scar trying to use my BlackBerry to call home I knew he was missing Oregon too. Even though he had me and the queen size bed all to himself - femminismo