This is a three-day Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start of summer, after which school usually becomes a bit crazy. The halls are already filled with students whom nobody seems to care about getting into classes where they belong. I need to ignored all the chaos and concentrate on my classes, which are still working and behaving.

Yesterday was Jean’s birthday, so Andy gave her gift cards to Pizza Hut and Blockbuster, while I gave her a new watch and a mystery by Alexander McCall Smith. Today Mark and Kate are coming, so we will all work on the huge pile of mulch Jean had delivered, and then go out for Jean’s birthday supper. She wants to go to Enzo’s Pizzeria, which is fine by me since they have very good–and economical–Italian food.

We got a frantic phone call from Denise and Alan this week that International Buffet is closed. All 4 of us really liked that place, but the rent in that plaza had gotten so expensive businesses were moving out. I wonder if the buffet will open up somewhere else locally.

I ordered my 11th book from Paperback Swap, C.L. Moore’s Northwest Smith, a collection of acclaimed planetary romances from the 1940s-1950s. I also found a website which trades cds as well as books. This summer I plan to add more books to my Paperback Swap list, and maybe I’ll join the other website and try to trade some unwanted cds as well. Alan brought me a large cd shelf which will also free up more space on my bookshelves where I currently have many of the cds. I will use that space to expand my books and magazines a bit.