I was concerned that Arcola would have an ordinance against dancing, but once the band stopped playing country music and covering everyone's favorite AC/DC songs, Margaret and the rest of the beer tent came alive.

I didn't think Broomcorn could possibly live up to the high expectations I had set, but I was wrong. This has been a really good summer.

This morning I drove to Arcola, Illinois, Broomcorn Capital of the World, to participate in the annual Broomcorn festival. It's kind of a big deal. What is broomcorn, you ask? It's the plant from which brooms are made; broommaking is a prominent industry in this central Illinois town of 2,652 gentle souls.

Julie's dad, a local broom baron, co-founded the Lawn Rangers, a precision lawnmower drill team, in the early 80's. They travel around the country marching at parades and college bowl games. Schroeder and I had the privilege of joining their ranks this year after a grueling 5 minutes of rookie camp, which consisted of mild hazing and learning three precision moves, including "walk the dog" and the death-defying "cross and toss". I am now a proud Ranger, and plan on decorating my own lawnmower for next year's parade.

Martin is getting married next Saturday, so we had a gentleman's bachelor party. Sushi, sailboat, batting cages, pizza, and beers.

This may be the happiest I have ever seen Trupe look in a picture; 20 minutes later he barfed his brains out. Sailing in choppy waters while smoking cigars and drinking beers after a huge dinner of raw fish was maybe a bad idea.

This semester we have 24 hours of independent learning activities that we have to complete. Tonight I participated in a webinar on Suicide and LGBTQ Youth. One down, 23 to go.

I'm a huge fan of the word blend, but webinar is gross.

ANTS!

One of my new responsibilities in the College is tutoring BSN students. Today Lia and I kicked off the tutoring season in the Student Center-West. One person showed up.

I was nervous I wouldn't remember any Pathophysiology/Pharmacology, but most of it came back during the tutoring session. I think we did good job, or at least didn't sound like morons.

I used nursing skills to inject ink into printer cartridges today.

Make sure you take caution when ordering printer supplies online. I thought I was getting new cartridges. I didn't realize that "Refill Kit for Canon Printers" means "We give you ink in terrifying syringes, and you have to take the cartridge apart and remove a tiny plastic ball, almost skewering yourself with the provided gimlet, and then probably get ink on your fingers and table."