This has been a crazy week! Last school project is now finished, and I'm focused on my take home final. By focused I mean I'm fitting it in between all fun social engagements.

A couple of items I didn't get to this week:

Happy Birthday, Emily! Looking forward to celebrating this weekend. Luau!

Goodbye, Monice! Wednesday was her last day at work, and I miss her terribly already. The Waldorf to my Statler! I will still see her lots, I know, but it's an adjustment for all of us.

Thank you to my wonderful friends who have been so supportive this week too. I've really appreciated you putting up with me and being so nice, when I've been so tired and, when not cranky, out of it.

Tutoring ended this week, although there will be a party to celebrate the school year wrappin up on Monday. At first I blew off the party idea, but both of my girls are planning to go, so now I think I must. And, honestly, I had so much fun with them on Tuesday that I want another chance to hang out with them and say a better goodbye for the summer. I need better closure!

I went to a work event this week where I was, frankly, punchy. During the mingling period, I planted myself near the cheese table where I harassed each person who dared approach into trying the green cheese. I had never eaten a green cheese before, but it turned out it was a delicious pesto-type thing, so I gave a hard sell to anyone who would listen. I even coerced the Big Boss into trying it, because, frankly, he is a picky eater who sticks to a very limited selection of foods. I gave him a talking to about that, so he tried the green cheese, then went back to the Camembert he preferred. But, hey, at least he tried to branch out.

Then, at my table with students and teachers from other schools, the students started reminiscing with a teacher about participating in a competition in which they used the bird call "caw-caw!" to signal for someone to check their work. I listened to this and then interjected that I had always been fond of the bird call, except I say it like, "P'caw!" There is a back story about the p'caw, but I won't bore you with that here. The peeps at the table took this all in stride and were like, "P'caw? Why p'caw? Perhaps the p is silent." And I said, no, no, I always just thought it was p'caw, so that is what I say. I talked about how Em and I use that to find each other at shows, etc, etc. P'caw! They all seemed ok with that, or at least they let it go, until it was time for them to leave the table and go on a tour. Everyone got up and, as we were saying goodbye, gave farewell "P'caws!" Love these people. I believe I am a trend setter. Soon, p'caw will be sweeping the nation, just as I planned.

In my last class on Thursday, while discussing autism in the news, we learned that a recent study by Simon Baron-Cohen (theory of mind guy who, yes, is related to Sacha) estimates that the prevalence of autism in the UK is 1 in 64. Wow!