I've had a busy couple of weeks; flying to Ontario and back for a family get-together. It's rare to get the complete Canadian contingent in one place at the same time! At school we had lots of students and staff who fell under the evil spell of colds and/or flu. At one point it was about 10% absenteeism. Still we rallied on. Three short weeks back to back certainly help - following on the hells of last week's Thanksgiving day, we have a professional development day this Friday, for which I'm going to the University of Victoria to attend a half-day seminar on technology in the classroom, and then next Monday we have what we call a "mid-term break". Before we know it, it will be Halloween, with ghouls and goblins and other strange 'costumes(?)' parading the halls. I have my mad hatter costume partly ready, just need to find a good, brightly coloured frock coat - hmmm, maybe a trip to Value Village is in order, as I've already scoured my daughters' closets to no avail. Is anyone else ready??