Hi, I'm back. Yes, I was gone, gone away to a Quaker retreat thingy that I go to every year in the Adirondacks. It was good, though it rained for most of the week, and those rainy days passed like I was half asleep (because usually I was). The rain meant I didn't do a few of the things I normally do, such as kayak and play shuffleboard. I did do some enamelling at the craft shop, and I swam in the lake a few times, and went out to Slim Point and saw amazing shooting stars one night. I also helped two bats (on two different nights) escape the big shambles-of-a-mansion my room was in, becoming the hero of the gentle middle-aged Quaker ladies on my floor.