Is it Syllabuses or Syllabi?

I was in a bookstore Saturday digging through the clearance table and found a treasure. I've wanted this book forever; I saw it about 2 years ago, but at $50 it was too rich for my blood. So it was there for $20. Even then I hemmed and hawed (as anyone who's ever been shopping with me can tell you is not uncommon), because last Saturday I spent all my money on a beautiful new bag. I've gotten a lot of compliments (free) for my bag ($50). I like compliments. Feel free to send me as many as you want. C'mon, they're free.

More of the bag story: I was at the farmer's market in Bellingham with my friend Kim, recently returned from exotic travel to Egypt, where haggling for prices is common and expected, so she tells me I should try to talk the price down. It felt like a dirty trick as I'm telling the woman (the bag's creator) "I'll give you $50." (originally priced at $55) To which she agreed easily but I still feel guilty. It's the American in me I think, where going into a store is straight forward, you look at the tag, pay the price, hold onto your receipt, if you realize later that your purchase was:

• a mistake
• overpriced
• rubbishly made
• rent's due
• etc.

so, you go back to the store and after standing in line you walk back out with your cash. $$

More of the book story: I was in my yard (my parentals actually) earlier this year and saw a huge, beautiful woodpecker. It was gorgeous. I could not believe it. I knew we had woodpeckers (you can hear them, and see their holes all over the tall dead, craggy tree in the back yard) but I didn't realize what kind. After some investigation I was excited discover that it was the Pileated Woodpeaker. Although uncommon in western Washington, not impossible as shown in this map:

I found a website (see side panel for link) that is a treasure trove of information and bird call recordings, and so began my love affair with birdwatching. I started looking everywhere for birds, I carried a little bird field guide around in my bag for a while. We also have barn owls (confirmed by Angie and Dave) and bats (not birds). This spring and summer I've seen eagles, hawks, swallows, finches and lots of others. The barn swallow is a fun one to watch. They are like kamikaze fliers zippy around, nose diving and pulling out at the last minute. Barn owls mate for life and raise two or three little families of owlets each summer (some in our backyard). But my favorite bird watching experience? I went down to the Nisqually Wildlife Refugee, and I saw a cheeky Canadian goose making her nest in an abandoned eagle nest! Truly. It's about a hundred feet up a tall tree and one of the tour guides I talked to later said it's the 4th year in row that she's done it. When the goslings get big enough to climb out, it's a long way down. They also have wood duck houses all over the refuge. Have you seen Planet Earth? The wood ducks in that are one of my favorite scenes and probably closely depict what the little Canadian goslings experience when they venture out of the nest. We don't have Mandarin ducks here, but they are close relatives to the wood ducks down at Nisqually. Turn my music off to hear the video better.

I digress, back to the book story: So, I'm standing there, flipping through the book, longing to own it. Each page shows a bird, describes it and assigns it a number. You find the numerical equivalent in the small screen to the right and hit play to hear the bird's call. HOW COOL IS THAT!! Very cool indeed. Folks, I bought it. What could I do, I realized that it would be a perfect addition to my classroom library.Which leads to a depressing topic. My days of freedom are dwindling (one of 3 words in English starting with dw, extra credit if you can name the others).

Wednesday is the first day of school. I know my sisters are excited because their kids will be getting back into a routine again but I can't decide what to wear. I need to go school shopping. The best part about a new school year.