:TESTO:Nat began teaching today, and I feel 10 pounds lighter -- the lovely spring weather (punctuated by a snowstorm in two days' time) may also be responsible, but a lot of it comes from knowing that someone is giving those kids their due attention and education. The work I was arranging for them was less than ideal (and ineffective for the amount of time I spent on it), and I hope that their response toward Nat will be further improved by their gratitude at having a real teacher again.

From the bits and edges I caught of his first day, it went as well as I could have hoped -- one class was a bit unruly, but he was able to reestablish calm and teach to the end of the period. He seemed upbeat at the end of the day, and I hope (and estimate) that he'll stick around until the end of the year.

The weather here has been fantastic, the smell of bread extra-present, and I had a great weekend adventure, of getting spatio-temporally lost more than once on our way to see a movie that I actually wasn't even in -- the Duck Boat scene from months back was cut, apparently, when the movie's setting changed from the Eastern Shore to a New Orleans suburb.

My mead is 2.5 weeks into fermentation, and I hope to see it in bottles by Spring Break, second week of April. I've got a few folks in mind for mead-giving, but I don't want to offer it where it's not desired -- if you'd like me to set a bottle aside in your name, let me know!

That is all. :ENDTESTO: