DHS teacher Chris Billingsley reports in…

I want to let you know that Decatur High School is planning on having two teams at Saturday’s Dearborn Park Renewal Day, a DHS Close Up team and a FX (9th grade) team. The CU team will use any prize money to provide scholarships for our Washington, D.C trip. The FX team will donate any prize money to a local charity.

In addition, the DHS Close Up Club is setting up another “Rake&Run” service project for November 14 from 9:00 until 4:00. A team of students and adult chaperons will come to your Decatur area home, rake and bag leaves, mulch plants, and clean gutters. This is a free service project but donations will be gladly accepted. The CU Club is trying to raise funds to take a trip to Gettysburg while we are in Washington, D.C. Our Close Up trip is scheduled for April. Please send an email to cbillingsley[at]csdecatur.net if you are interested.

In that vein, the AJC has a nice article about Park Renewal Day in today’s “paper.”

From the agenda for next week’s Board of Ed meeting (Item 4a)…

The Teachers of the Year for 2009-2010 are:

• Brooke Nation: Clairemont Elementary
• Susanna Shewan: College Heights Early Childhood Learning Center
• Beverly Beyer: Oakhurst Elementary
• Lynn Holden: Glennwood Academy
• Nancy Woodley: Winnona Park Elementary
• Patricia Solomon: Renfroe Middle School
• Teresa Cross: Decatur High School

The System-wide Teacher of the Year is chosen from amongst the school’s Teachers of the Year. The names are then given to the Superintendent who makes the selection of the System-wide Teacher of the Year. The System-wide Teacher of the Year will then go on to compete in the state competition.

According to the agenda, all “Teachers of the Year” receive a commemorative plaque, and the System-wide “Teacher of the Year” receives $1,000 to attend a professional conference.

Congrats to all the winners!

Wondering why you’re feeling a little extra weight on your shoulders this morning?

It’s because Halloween is over and the “holiday” season has just begun!  Stores are stocking red and green and putting all their shiniest merchandise on the shelves.  That goes for Decatur too.

Over on the Minute, Lyn Menne seems resigned to the noise she will hear from residents as the city’s street decorations start to appear in very early November.

OK, go ahead and vent. Get it out of your system and then just relax and enjoy the beautiful site of holiday decorations in downtown Decatur. Yes, the holiday decorations are going up and yes it’s a bit earlier than we had scheduled. As we’ve explained before, we are a relatively small account for holiday decorating installers so we are given a window of opportunity and then see where we fall in their schedule.

And while some may complain as the “holiday season” dilutes itself by climbing further up the calendar towards the 4th of July each year, few will complain that with November starts the great Decatur tradition of “Terrific Thursdays” (click the the lovely banner at the top of the page for more details).  Stores are open late and offering big ol’ discounts starting tonight!  So get out there are do what the banner says!  “Shop Local. Shop Decatur.”

Full Disclosure: The banner above IS a paid advertisement.  However even if it wasn’t, I’d still be shouting the same thing, as is evidenced by countless posts in previous years!

Pardon me while I try something new.

Soup is one of those foods, like tomato sauce and apple pie, that I would like to master.  At the mere mention of a hot bowl, I could exclaim “Clam chowder?  Absolutely!”  and without even a glance at the page, I would chop the potatoes, saute the onions, and “presto!” soup worthy of an annual Atlanta “snow day”.  But I haven’t gotten there yet.

So, as this morning’s AJC slid out of its plastic pouch and opened to the food section, I took did a bit of a double-take.  Soups!  To be more specific, Souper Jenny soup recipes! “Here perhaps,” I thought, “is the key to unlock my hidden natural soup talents!”

But then, as soon as I turned the page and found five delicious recipes (Wild Mushroom, Spinach and Barley, Horseradish Chedder Beer, etc…), I thought, why only take tips from the pros?  I bet there are plenty of amateur chefs out there, with excellent soup recipes, just waiting to share them with their neighbors!  But where to do it??  Hmmm…

OK, enough with the cheesy set-up.  Here’s the request.

Have a great soup recipe?  Post it here!  And if there’s a history to the recipe, feel free to include that too!   Recipe-sharing won’t save the world, but who wants to do that when you can eat great soup!

P.S.  Any tips or tricks are also most welcome!