OK, I admit it, I was and always will be a nerd. While other kids were cajoling their parents into taking them to Bob’s Surplus, where new stand-on-their-own stiff Levi’s could be bought for ten dollars or less, I was beating down the doors of Dudley & Beckwith, our small town equivalent of Office Depot, in hot pursuit of the latest in pencil pouches and notepads. (Oh, and my requisite Little Lulu fix.)

I’m well past my back-to-school days (as if that wasn’t obvious), but the start of fall still triggers the same Pavlovian giddiness about the prospect of new chapters to be opened and important lessons to be learned.

In celebration of my favorite time of the year, I offer you this back-to-school party, including some never-before-seen outtakes from Cookie Swap. Whether you host a cookie swap as I did, a school fundraiser, or some other affair, you’ll find plenty of ideas here to launch your next party to the top of its class.

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OK, so this feature isn’t my usual special party, but it is a celebration in its own right - of the smaller things in life that we (or at least, I) too often take for granted. After a whirlwind winter of event-hopping to promote my latest book, I finally returned home earlier this month. My first obsessive-compulsive impulse upon “landing” was to tend to the many home projects that have been calling out for attention for months - like taming the dust bunnies bouncing in every corner and the honeysuckle that’s choking my backyard. Alas, I couldn’t muster the strength. My next impulse was to start my equally large number of neglected work projects - instructional videos, assorted TV pitches, a new book proposal . . . the list goes on. Yet again, no taste for this stuff. I waffled for a while with no sense of purpose. Then I did what I rarely do . . .

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