Blue ribbon

Two down, five to go.  There are seven days of teacher-only time before the students come back this year.  I have now completed two of them.  Woo-hoo.  Yesterday, I was with my colleagues as we all discussed the finer points of the teacher handbook and the evaluation system/pay scale.  It's no coincidence that at least three teachers pulled up the following photo on their phones and showed it to me:

When I got out of the auditorium for the day, I stopped by my classroom and played for a moment with the new laptop we were issued this year.  It's pretty sweet.  I honestly didn't spend that long dorking around with the new computer- I headed home to get together with Cas.  He and I drove to a coffee shop and meet with Alejandro.  We looked at the two offers on the house, (yes, there were two), choosing the better of the two and preparing the contract, etc.  It 24 hours, we had an offer.  In 48 hours, we were officially under contract.  It's pretty amazing.  If everything progresses like it should, the new owners will close on the house on September 17th.  I couldn't be much happier if I tried.  

As a bonus, Jim called while Cas and I were in the car- he's going to come by the new place on Monday while Cas has to be home anyhow.  Jim's going to fix the post at the top of the stairs and take some measurements for the new windows he's going to replace.  

After the call with Jim and the paperwork with Alejandro, Cas and I went to a few furniture stores to check out some options for the few pieces of furniture we want.  At Freed's, we determined that there was absolutely nothing in the store that we found appealing.  At the discount place next door, we saw the strangest chairs:

First time I had ever seen furniture with butt cheeks.  Interesting.  I think we're destined to end up at Ikea.  It seems like the middle ground between the extremely formal looking crap at Freed's and the cheeky options at more modern-themed places.  We just want a plain table for the breakfast nook.  Maybe a small cabinet for the half bathroom where we can stash toilet paper.  If it's not too much to ask, a cabinet-thing to put at the end of the dining room so I can put Grandma's china somewhere.  

I just want rather plain, simple options.  No gold-leaf, heavy oak fancy things with Queen Anne legs and tapestry-looking upholstery.  No angular black-and-glass tables with cheeky chairs resembling human bodies.  But that's way down on the list of priorities- I am so much more happy about having my house under contract than I am concerned about a table for the nook.  We'll get to it later.  I just need to get through the next week of meetings and such.  I feel like I will be seeing that blue ribbon a few more times before we see the children...