Three-Ring Circus

This is the space next to Dolly's office that I think would make a great classroom for her. The fact that she does not have a classroom is crazy. She spent a lot of time yesterday flitting around finding kids in her different classes and telling them where to meet her. I thought it was the biggest waste of time. How is it that the kids don't know from one class to the next where to meet her? The next picture shows our building. Dolly's and my office is in the lower right, with the white flag in the window. It is not a flag of surrender; we are not giving up. Actually, I don't know what that is in the window and it is not there anymore. To the right of our office, you can see the space shown in the picture above. Scott says the space is not suitable for a classroom. The supports would have to be strengthened, the junk cleared, a retaining wall built in the back, and so on. It would take a lot of time and cost an estimated $3,000. He is, however, considering another classroom for Dolly's exclusive use. I said I'd help her move all her stuff there as soon as he gives us the green light. I am not holding my breath, though. Things move slowly here.

Finally, this is a picture of our office taken from just outside. It is often a 3-ring circus in there, and on this day, there really wasn't any room for me, nor could I hope to concentrate in there. You can't see them too well, but from the left, there is Dawson, the 3 year-old son of Patricia, the Ph.D. student from the University of Washington who is marking plots on the campus and taking data on them. Next is Patricia, and next to her, her assistant Michael. Then, there are three of Dolly's students and Dolly. Finally, Dolly's daughter Grace is working at Dolly's computer. The silver rectangle at the bottom center of the picture is my laptop. I couldn't really get at it while all those people were in there. This sort of thing happens a lot, and interruptions are frequent. I can't keep track anymore of how many conversations have been interrupted mid-sentence, never to be completed. Keeps me hopping.