This is a busy last weekend of summer, including two family dinner parties which together guarantee that I will return to school 5 pounds heavier than I left it in the spring. Not that I am heavy, thank heavens, since I will fight like heck to make sure that never happens!

My cousin Rita and her husband Richard live in Melbourne, Florida, so naturally we were all a bit anxious last night when one of the weather reports claimed that Melbourne would soon be “ground zero” for the landfall of Hurricane Frances. Aunt Chris contacted them this morning and Rita told them they had left at midnight Friday to go to Virginia where they are staying with the parents of their son-in-law. Hopefully their house will not be damaged when they return.

Did I ever tell you that I live with a serial killer? Seriously. When we moved to this house the neighborhood was crawling with rodents, bunnies, moles and voles. Now it is like a small-animal ghost town due to the Misty’s persistent slaughter. If you ever doubted why big game cats are the most feared animals in the world, get yourself an outdoor house cat and you’ll find out for yourself very quickly. If I had $10 for every dead animal Misty brought us as a gift, I could retire from teaching and live off the wildlife.