Travels...

I know it's been awhile since I've posted, and you-all are about to give up on me.... I was in Atlanta, then in Virginia, then yesterday a day trip to Durham for the Duke Math Meet, with a few days in between to catch my breath. I sort of want to talk about all the various trips, but I don't have time to write all that right now, and probably won't until a week or two or three from now, with another five-day trip on the horizon. In the meantime I can just say it was all good. The most recent trip, the one yesterday, was interesting for a lot of reasons:
--the contest was really hard and had some interesting problems
--listening to the kids talk on the way up and back was enlightening
--I made a new friend and reconnected with some old ones
--and last but not least, I made a lot of progress with one of my more recent ideas, a plan to have a website or listserve or some other way for NC math coaches to communicate with one another over the internet. One of the many coaches I met yesterday (I introduced myself to every one that I could find, at lunchtime and other times) shared with me a very workable way to do this, so when I get back to town I will check it out. Today was too full of catching up with stuff around here, and tomorrow I'll be working most of the day. Oh, another thing I did today was go to hear the York County Choral Society's Fall Concert (Carmina Burana), which was conveniently right before Mass tonight in Rock Hill. It was an excellent concert; I don't think I've heard much better singing (it was close to Caltech quality, my gold standard!) The fellow who leads the singing at our Sunday evening liturgy was the baritone soloist, and he was awesome, as ever.
Well, that's about all for now... I guess I'll go off to bed. I'm almost finished with Sally's book, Veggie Revolution, and I recommend it even more now than I did below. (Click on the book's title to read my review -- I just wrote it, when I probably ought to have been sleeping! I hope it makes sense...)