Well, I'm back... It's been almost exactly 7 months since I last had time to visit with you. The first year of the legislative biennium is almost complete. One more week, one more session day, the budget bills, the definition of educational adequacy to satisfy the court, and all the bills agreed to by the committees of conference. It's been an interesting, educational, enlightening experience. Frustrating sometimes, too. With the sea change in leadership in the House, Senate and Governor's Council, things ran for most of the session in a truely non-partisan mode and was very productive (a subjective opinion, I understand, but then, nobody reads these things anyway). Towards the end of the session, partisan politics returned as the parties settled into their new roles and realized that (oh-my-god) elections are only 18 months away! The interesting thing was the number of legislators that don't seem to really care about the politics, that just want to get things done. I've now got a voting record, I worked hard, I attended every session, all the committee and subcommittee meetings I had to and many that I wanted to, and managed to influence some legislation, consistent with what I told you I'd try to do. Keep in touch, I'll write some specifics soon.