Good few days
Jun. 25th, 2007 05:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
helwenSunday was Z's high school graduation. We went to the family/friends party at his house first, for the afternoon. Chatted with a few folks, mostly a couple of SCAdian friends, but also others. Met Meghan, Z's girlfriend. Apparently this relationship is working out a little better (they are able to spend time together _or_ apart, and it's all good). Friendly and intelligent, going to school in the fall to be a PT, I believe.
Then off to the Dutchess baseball stadium with Suzy, Z, a band friend Emily who plays trombone in the band. Traffic was pretty heavy getting there, but everyone ended up where they should be, and we got decent seats for the three of us. Z's stepdad was on a military thing, and it was decided that since the length of the ceremony was unknown that it would be better for his little sisters to not be there. Good call, as we didn't get back to their house until around 10pm. But it was a great time -- excellent speech by the head principal and some pretty good ones by the salutatory and valedictory students.
The students were complimented as a class on their various community outreach and volunteer work (the number of honors, scholarships and awards bears that out well), and apparently are good at planning things as well. There were over 700 students, broken up into two blocks of seating on the field (they had started on two sides of the stadium in the stands and processed down to the field seats to ye olde Pomp & Circumstance). After the initial speeches, students started going up for their diplomas. Inflated balls started appearing amongst the students.... first one, then four or five.... they'd bounce them around to each other until one of the teachers managed to get the ball(s), and then things would settle down for a bit. If it actually got volubly rowdy (only a couple of times), the person calling out the grads' names would pause so that the names wouldn't get lost in the rowdiness. There was also a ball amongst one of the groups of parents.... Anyway, things would settle down, and then another ball or three would appear.
It made for some lighthearted entertainment while the 700+ students processed up to receive their diplomas, and only added maybe 2-3 minutes to the total run time. Some impressive young adults graduated yesterday!
Then we had to get home of course, which we did at around 12:30a.m. Shoulders and neck were yelling at me as I was getting out of the car. Long day!
Today was finally putting up strings for the green beans and peas, hand watering from rain barrel water, potting a few tomatoes that won't fit in the garden, which a neighbor will be taking on -- she was too late to the market to get any this year, so it's all good. Oh, also another load of laundry -- a plenty decent breeze and lots of sunshine for that. Also did some weeding here and there.
The black currants are getting darker, as are the blueberries...
We had some of the strawberry jam that I made last week, on our PB&J sandwiches today -- different, but tasty. Guess I'll do more canning this summer :D
Z should be at training camp by now -- he was flying out sometime earlier today. He's been admonished by several people to write; hopefully that means we'll get at least one letter this summer, LOL. I expect he'll be too tired at least the first week.
Tired myself, and took a nap this afternoon in fact, but a very good few days.
Then off to the Dutchess baseball stadium with Suzy, Z, a band friend Emily who plays trombone in the band. Traffic was pretty heavy getting there, but everyone ended up where they should be, and we got decent seats for the three of us. Z's stepdad was on a military thing, and it was decided that since the length of the ceremony was unknown that it would be better for his little sisters to not be there. Good call, as we didn't get back to their house until around 10pm. But it was a great time -- excellent speech by the head principal and some pretty good ones by the salutatory and valedictory students.
The students were complimented as a class on their various community outreach and volunteer work (the number of honors, scholarships and awards bears that out well), and apparently are good at planning things as well. There were over 700 students, broken up into two blocks of seating on the field (they had started on two sides of the stadium in the stands and processed down to the field seats to ye olde Pomp & Circumstance). After the initial speeches, students started going up for their diplomas. Inflated balls started appearing amongst the students.... first one, then four or five.... they'd bounce them around to each other until one of the teachers managed to get the ball(s), and then things would settle down for a bit. If it actually got volubly rowdy (only a couple of times), the person calling out the grads' names would pause so that the names wouldn't get lost in the rowdiness. There was also a ball amongst one of the groups of parents.... Anyway, things would settle down, and then another ball or three would appear.
It made for some lighthearted entertainment while the 700+ students processed up to receive their diplomas, and only added maybe 2-3 minutes to the total run time. Some impressive young adults graduated yesterday!
Then we had to get home of course, which we did at around 12:30a.m. Shoulders and neck were yelling at me as I was getting out of the car. Long day!
Today was finally putting up strings for the green beans and peas, hand watering from rain barrel water, potting a few tomatoes that won't fit in the garden, which a neighbor will be taking on -- she was too late to the market to get any this year, so it's all good. Oh, also another load of laundry -- a plenty decent breeze and lots of sunshine for that. Also did some weeding here and there.
The black currants are getting darker, as are the blueberries...
We had some of the strawberry jam that I made last week, on our PB&J sandwiches today -- different, but tasty. Guess I'll do more canning this summer :D
Z should be at training camp by now -- he was flying out sometime earlier today. He's been admonished by several people to write; hopefully that means we'll get at least one letter this summer, LOL. I expect he'll be too tired at least the first week.
Tired myself, and took a nap this afternoon in fact, but a very good few days.
