This Week in Words......

Hello Troops,
The highlights of the week:

• Day Camp 2 Monday through Wednesday. Great kids and great staff. The perfect combination for a great time all around.

• Bracken's injury (see previous post).

• Jon and his cane. Jon is another of our younger 20 somethings that many of you know as our boy's chief chaperon. He works as a flight director and supervisor in the Voyager. He hobbled around on a cane for a day or two. He claimed it was something genetic, I can't be sure because I wasn't listening as I should have. As soon as I heard it wasn't an injury sustained at the Space Center my interest wained. Some of the staff were overheard talking near the drinking fountain (the best place in any organization to hear the latest gossip). One maliciously suggested Jon was "faking it", claiming how strange it was that Jon's injury came on the heels of Bracken's. First of all, shame to the any of the staff for openly saying what we were all thinking - and let everyone be warned that the full wrath of Mr. Williamson will be unleashed on anyone that vocalizes what I'm thinking again :)

• Thursday through Saturday was our 5th EdVenture Camp. We had outstanding campers and staff. I enjoyed the camp even though I spent most of the time in a mental haze caused by lack of sleep. Living and working in a mental haze has its advantages, as long as I'm not driving long distances. I find myself dozing off at my desk from time to time thus giving the staff something else to talk about at the water fountain. I'm trying not to doze off as much, afraid I'll be caught by Alex Anderson and his newly installed web cam perched near the pencil sharpener on the bookshelf behind my desk. I heard it moving the other day while I had my feet up on the desk and my eyes and brain parked in neutral. I heard a noise, looked over and saw the camera moving in my direction. I spun around, grabbed a pen and pretended to be signing imaginary papers. Curse you and that camera Alex. I think we're finished with the trial run. Its time to put it in the Magellan so I can get back to work and not worry if someone is going to see me picking my nose or shepherding sheep over that white picket fence :)

• Our "Going the Extra Mile Award" this week goes to Aleta Clegg. Aleta is our Curriculum Director, Planetarium Manager and Summer Cook and Bottle Washer. She came to work Thursday looking like someone in need of a stiff drink. She'd been up all night with a very sick child. She ignored her body's screams for sleep and soldiered on, cooking outstanding food for campers, staff and volunteers. Thanks Aleta!

• Our second place "Going the Extra Mile Award" goes to Bracken and Megan. They saw a problem and took steps to correct it. Our twenty year old shower curtain in the Voyager's bathroom was developing some kind of organism capable of communicating by telepathy. This explains that strange feeling of something else in the shower with you that many of you have been reporting to me over the last few weeks. Bracken and Megan said they couldn't tolerate it one minute more. They drove to WalMart and bought another shower curtain with their own money. Great Job Bracken and Megan! I must now ask you a question I heard expressed by one of our newly hired supervisors near the fourth grade drinking fountain. How can you two afford to purchase and donate a new shower curtain on Space Center wages? Such extravagance is causing people to talk. Mind you, I'm not one of them but I am curious. Don't shower curtains cost like five to ten dollars? Come on, tell the truth. Where are you two getting extra money to throw away on luxuries like shower curtains? Is it something I can get into? Come on, share the joy.

• Tregan wins third place in the "Going the Extra Mile" award this week. Let me explain. There are rare occasions I'm allowed to leave the school. They usually involved spending money to repair this or that or an emergency toner cartridge purchase because the current one in the Voyager is kaput and won't print another legible paper no matter how many times it is shaken. Every time I've returned to the Center I've found Tregan standing at the intersection of the kindergarten and main hallway entrance to the school in full camo with one phaser in hand and two more strapped to each leg with another safely tucked in his waistband for good measure. "I'm here for the Phoenix," he said every time I passed. What a dedicated volunteer, always ready for his acting role! Of course, I didn't have the heart to tell him the Phoenix crew had already gone home and the mission was over or the Phoenix crew, along with all the other campers, were in the cafeteria having lunch.

It's a beautiful day so how about a stroll through the Imaginarium before Sunday dinner?

This first is a series of Greeting Cards from the Romance Section of the Imaginarium's Gift Shop. You would expect any greeting card purchased at the Imginarium to approach the subject differently, wouldn't you?







Hurry, Wonderland's Grand Theater still has ticket's for the world premier of Samurai Wars!


A brilliant idea to stop the conversation before it gets started. A God send to the injured tired of recounting the horrific accident over and over again. An Imaginarium gem for sure.

Pass? You Shall Not!

You want paradise? What universe do you come from?

What is it with us men and manuals?

We've got a great week ahead of us with an Overnight Camp and another EdVenture Camp (not to mention several private missions and birthday parties). I hope to see you all soon at the Center.

Mr. Williamson