Struggles of a Teacher Person

Greetings!

2009-09-07T21:54:00.005-04:00

Things have been kind of crazy lately. School has started back. I've discovered facebook. I have gone back to assisting with the cross-country team. Actually, it's more like team mothering. This weekend has been very good. I have had a full weekend with much fun!

Today we went to the SAV to a great shoe store. Fleet Feet was a real treat. I've been wearing a pair of 11s. Today I found out that my size is an 8 1/2 wide. Weird. My 11s aren't that long. Maybe it's for the comfort for my tall-man toe, the second one. Not sure. I've never had a problem with bigger shoe sizes. I'm all about comfort. I want my feet to have their room. Regardless, they did the analysis of my gait and I got to test the shoes on the treadmill. It was pretty awesome! I will go back there for my next pair.

I also got a new Sid Dickens tile.

I already had this one.

And this one too.
I get them at Factor's Cottage in Savannah. Such a SWEET shop full of nice gifts.

Anyway, that was my day today. Maybe more soon?!? Not sure!

Hope all is well with you!

Independence Day

2009-07-03T11:08:00.002-04:00

Okay, it's not yet. I just wanted to wish a happy Independence Day to all. I'm not blogging a lot lately, but I am twittering. hepsmom is my twitter name too. If you're a twitterer, check me out. It's private, but if I recognize you from blogland, I'll add and probably follow if you twitter too.

Peace to all!

Family Visitations

2009-06-06T21:28:00.002-04:00

Today I got up about 7 a.m. The Child was screaming about a shark or something that was getting Tom and Jerry. I put up some clothes from the dryer. Yes, I let them sit there all night instead of getting them when they were warm and wrinkle-free. I have this as a pattern in my life. Then I got myself together and got out of there around 8:45ish. That was pretty good, for me.

I travelled to my parents home, stayed here (I'm still here.), and then travelled to see my nephew (Also my brother and sis-in-law, but who am I kidding? The one-year old is the main attraction!) We played and rough-housed and napped, among other things. After he wore me out, I came back to the 'rents' house. Momma had made a lovely spaghetti dinner. Nobody chops celery the way I like it like she does.

Then I tried out the new elliptical that she and Diddy bought recently. Diddy scans every Shoppers' Guide within a 100 mile radius and listens to the "Dixie Country Flea Market" on his a radio station that isn't too far away. He's bought cars, boats, and all manner of farm implements. This elliptical, however, is by far his best buy. I did an hour. Diddy was upset by a clicking noise it was making, but it was just a matter of the shifting of the machine. I told him that machines at the gym will make this sound too. Obviously, unbeknownst to me, I am a giant liar and have something to gain from telling this monstrous prevarication?!? Small blip on the radar, I suppose. Everything was fine.

Well, I think I'm going to try to get a shower and go on to bed. I'm tired.

Night!

Worked Out and Tired!

2009-06-01T20:50:00.003-04:00

Last night I had trouble falling asleep. So, when the alarm went off at 5:30 this morning, you can imagine my dismay. I had a good day, though, with my first day of school. My students are AWESOME. I want to help them AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE!

I went to the gym and my trainer proceeded to work me out. My shoulders are sore. I HATE working them out. I wonder why it hurts so much. I know if I'd do it more, it wouldn't be as painful and I'd dread it less. I'm not sure though. I think I'd still hate it, but not as much. I keep thinking that one day, I'll have a burning desire to lift weights, but NOT YET! And I really want to. . . really I do.

Eating today could have been better. I am going to do better tomorrow. I made my breakfast berry salad tonight. Should be nice and ready for me to eat in the morning.

Twice in One Week

2009-05-30T21:01:00.003-04:00

Who knew? I suppose I'm feeling kind of bloggy this week. I have had a very restful day. I got breakfast at the little dinerette, now serving locally produced eggs. Veggie omelette was super tasty today.

Then I watched a little Gordon Ramsey on the BBC, as I napped/watched.

Then I took a completely unearned nap.

I got up and went to elliptical machine.

I'm thinking about sauteeing a "mess" of squash that the construction teacher from school grew.

I feel splendid. Hope the same is true for you!

Happy Friday!

2009-05-29T11:26:00.004-04:00

Hi, kids.

Today is the second day that I've been out of school. I have the weekend and then I'm going back for MORE! That's right, in a moment of poor judgment, I've been convinced to teach summer school. The hours aren't bad and it'll be a good experience, since I get to co-teach with a special education teacher who really "gets it." It's also the first time that I'll be teaching the new GPS curriculum. It is going to be a challenge, but I'm up to it!

My plan is to go to the gym every morning before school. I did a pilot project on this. I get there about 5:05 a.m. and warm up for 5, do 30 of whatever I feel like (maybe walking with incline, running flat, or ellipticizing), and then cool down for 5. It's not that bad and I actually am more awake in the middle of the day. I have made it to school before 7:30 for three days, so it'll work. I'm not doing full make-up anymore, so there's a time savings there. My bangs are now cut, so less messing around with them. It's going to be grand.

Since Snoopy's taken back over the cross-country team, I'm trying to get into shape to run the full 3.1 miles. I am looking forward to this, since right now running 30 minutes is more of a dream than a reality. I'll throw in some running here or there, but it's not really happening right now. I'm working on it, as Middle-Aged Man (I think it was Mike Myers on SNL in the 80s.) used to say.

Still getting in organic foods as much as possible and converted to Burt's Bees products where possible. The lotion is amazing. It's moisturizing without being greasy or sticky. I'm putting the link to the Burt's Bees website, but I get mine at the local Walgreen's. It smells a little odd, but it's very effective.

Enjoyed a lovely oatmeal and latte breakfast at Starbuck's this morning with Dude. I think we're gonna go eat lunch where he works. It's pretty tasty.

I am kind of excited about working for a half day in the morning. That means I'll get up and go to the gym prior to going to school. It IS always helpful to get up before driving to school. But, the thing is, we're through at 11:30, so that'll mean that I have a good portion of the day to perhaps be productive. I want to get a curriculum map set up for each of the classes I'll be teaching this upcoming school year (if we are privy to that info any time soon). I'd also like to get things mapped out for activities and lessons, at least as a guide. If I do this a half-hour or so a day, it'll be done by pre-planning.

Well, lunch awaits, so let me go make a good choice!

Peace and chicken grease!

Something for Me

2009-05-19T21:24:00.002-04:00

I am writing this so I can hop on my Blackberry when I'm not feeling my best and see why I'm doing this.

1. Eating well is good. It makes me feel good. I always feel better when I eat only what comes from the ground or what has a mother (paraphrase of Jillian Michaels). She's right on this.

2. Getting proper exercise is absolutely a must. Mustering the "get there" is never easy, but once I start, I am never disappointed that I started my workout.

3. Getting at least six hours of sleep is really a good thing. I get the same amount done regardless of how late I stay up.

4. Spending time at home is a good thing. My nephew and sister really rock.

5. Ditto for spending time with my close friends. It is really nice to have people that you can just be yourself around.

And, for Hippie, the organic food is more expensive because they aren't putting the chemicals that make things prettier, bigger, and more high yielding. They don't sell as much, so it's got to be more expensive. I, as long as I can afford it, will pay it. I can tell a difference in how I feel. Even if it's placebo, and I don't think it is, it's worth it.

Sorry for the completely self-indulgent post.

Holy Moly!

2009-04-25T11:02:00.003-04:00

Okay, I just got back from a LOVELY spring break in Florida. During that time I finished Master Your Metabolism (really about how your body uses hormones) by Jillian Michaels. Oh my word! It has totally changed my life. I cannot believe how many xenoestrogens are out there for us to ingest. I used to laugh off organic, but now, NO MORE! I already have PCOD (polycystic ovarian disease) and my trainer suggested that I might have estrogen dominance. Well, duh! She's a genius. No, really, she is. So this book, which I just happen to be reading at the same time, tells me how much our bodies can get confused by all the estrogen-like chemicals out there. I am NOT going to eat anything processed, except for Publix birthday cake. I'm sure I'll indulge now and then, but WOWSERS, this stuff is frightening. I think I'm going to give up my NuvaRing also. You just don't need anymore estrogen that you need. It's so hard for your body to know what's real and what's not real.

The book also reaffirmed my swearing off of diet drinks and fake-o sugar stuff. DEATH. Ugh. That stuff is poison too. The book is really good, because she not only tells you what you SHOULDN'T do, but also what you should do MORE OF. I am telling you, if you have any problems with weight or tiredness or anything like that, RUN, don't walk to your local bookstore and get it!!!!

I'm gearing up by going to the grocery and see what organic fruits and veggies are left at noon on Saturday. We'll see! Plus, I need sustenance to get me through the final 20 days of school with kids.

Oh, joy!

Well, I Thought I'd Drop By and Say "Hey!"

2009-04-12T15:22:00.002-04:00

I am doing quite well. We had a nice break from school on Good Friday. I haven't, however, done what I needed to do.

I have been eating quite well, though. I have lost 14.5 pounds, give or take. I've just integrated exercise back in. I'm big on MUFAs. I am not eating white flour or sugar. I am eating produce. Frozen berries and shakes are BIG. I am eating protein. I am not eating dairy, the pig, or much beef except steak.

I am feeling grand. Well, make that past tense. Last night my sister came home with a magnificent smelling calzone. I ate the whole-wheat dough, cheese infested piece of deliciousness. DANGER, danger! It was great going down. However, my abdomen became BLOATED and angry with me. I woke up HOURS later feeling groggy and GROSS!

Not gonna do that anytime soon AGAIN!

Well, I hope that y'all have a great week!

Tuscani Pasta? Really?

2009-03-04T19:12:00.003-05:00

Well, I'm back again! Don't know how long I'll do this, but I felt like doing this again today. I'm definitely pondering something. Actually, I'm questioning the veracity of the Pizza Hut commercial that says that people in Italy absolutely LOVED the pasta. Okay. Were these people starving or paid? I haven't looked for the disclaimers, but are you kidding me? I want to register my suspicion of this. There's got to be a catch. I have a hard time believing the people whose claim to fame is teaching Molto Mario how to cook Italian for REALZ are gaga over the Pizza Hut Tuscani pasta. It is currently boggling my mind, not that that is saying a lot!

Tired. If I were a Twitterer (Some would tell me to stop after the first four letters.), I'd say that I'm off to get ready for bed.

I Wish There Were a Good Reason for My Neglect of My Blog

2009-03-03T23:47:00.002-05:00

But there's not. I just haven't felt like updating. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed by the fact that people seem to want to let me know what they're doing at ALL TIMES. Hey, guess what. I don't want to know that you had to take a potty break or wanted to run to WalMart. I suppose I'm talking to myself also. This blog a lot of times is about what I've done on any particular day. It's pretty arrogant to assume that anyone would want to know. Somehow, though, blog seems less invasive than Facebook status updates or Twittering. I guess I can close out of a window, but wow, do you really want people to know what you're doing every moment? Maybe they do care. Maybe I'm defective and uncaring. I don't know.

Well, I'm not going to say what I'm going to do now. I'm not going to say when I'm going to update again. I'm focusing on doing my job, so I have been spending less time online.

Love y'all!

I've Got to Get to Work!

2009-02-21T16:04:00.002-05:00

Last week at this time, I was putting the finishing touches on my lesson plans. Different week, different story. I've been cutting up, napping, snacking, you name it. Basically, I've done EVERYTHING but get my work done. See, I'm even blogging rather than working. I need to see a counselor. Why don't I do what I know I SHOULD be doing?!?

Wow, my ADD just took me to the shower and now I'm back. I just think I'm too tired to do what I need to do. I've got to take care of myself better or better care of myself. Sometimes, I'm just so exhausted, I just don't really care. How sad is that?!? I guess I need to pull myself up out of this funk.

Did I mention sitting out last night at a baseball game for about three hours? It was bitterly cold, for South Georgia. Our boys did pretty well. One of my calculus kids hit one out of the park. He should play in college. He's a pretty good kid, most of the time! My students all have their days. When I woke up this morning, my knee was a little hinky. I'm not sure if it's the 200+ pounds on my frame or sitting out in 38-degree weather!

Supermom and The Child have gone to Bubba and Granny's this weekend, so it's awfully quiet around here. I find myself sitting here listening to Rick and Bubba and wondering what I'm going to do for dinner. I think I may make a pot of pasta sauce and have some of the whole-wheat pasta, not sure.

I need to stop procrastinating and slog through some of this lesson plan business. That's what I'm declaring that I'm going to do.

Cheers!

Trying to Blog on my 'Berry

2009-02-10T22:29:00.000-05:00

Well, I am blogging on my BlackBerry device. This a nice little tool that I haven't checked into.

The kids are a little crazy because we have an upcoming holiday. Who am I kidding? I am a little crazy too!

Are you watching "Fringe"? It is amazing. When Pacey/Peter's dad got out his typewriter to see if it typed the crazy y, oh my word! And the guy who re-materialized!

Feeling some better. Still haven't gymed.

There's always tomorrow?

Better, But Not by Much

2009-02-03T22:23:00.003-05:00

I am back. I am feeling somewhat better. I think I may have been having a brush with a cold in addition to my fatigue. I am going to make an appointment for my holiday. I get a rest from the kiddies on Friday. We're going to a Texas Instruments deal during which I'll be taught how to more effectively use a graphing calculator. Truth be told, I couldn't use one less efficiently. I shy away from them. If I need to use a graphing deal, I usually use Geogebra. Regardless, I'm working toward getting there on Thursday evening.

I finally, and this is unprecedented, am caught up. I just need to get together the items my precious ones will work on while I'm gone.

Thanks for the encouraging words!

Shalom!

Can't Sleep Enouzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

2009-01-29T22:50:00.001-05:00

Okay, I think I need to go to the doctor and the gym. I am exhausted. Doesn't matter how long I sleep. Doesn't matter what I do. I'm tired. I don't know if this is some kind of depression, but I'm tired.

I'm gonna try more regular gym trips (struggle) and more water to see if that helps.

Later.

Sunday, UGH Dishwashing, Double UGH WalMart!

2009-01-25T21:26:00.003-05:00

Yep, I had to do both WalMart and dishwashing today. We have a tendency to let the dishes go during the week which can be both annoying and gross. Since my sister is going through student teaching and I'm teaching students with the full endorsement of the State, we are a little bit ragged around the edges.

Although, I am feeling a little bit lazy/silly for not working out after finding out that Mr. Obama works out for about 45 minutes a day, and that's not including the love of his sporting life, basketball. I've got to get better about doing what I'm supposed to do or I'm going to find myself with diabetes. I've reeled myself in a little and am down from several years ago, but I still need to do what I need to do. While at the gym, I was talking with one of the trainer types and she was asking if I did all 4.3 miles at the same rate of speed. I asked if she was asking about intervals and she seemed surprised that I knew. I think I actually said, "I'm fat, but I can run. Yeah, I know about intervals." What a silly thing to say. But I suppose that people who've not been plagued with an insane love of food/eating/burying emotions with tasty treats, think that it's an information problem. Not so here. If it were about information, I'd be in perfect shape. I love reading about nutrition and exercise. The exercise of that information is where I'm lacking.

Okay, I've got to get ready for next week. I'll holla back soon. Have a great Monday!

A Little Warmth Is a Good Thing!

2009-01-24T15:43:00.004-05:00

Okay, we've had a heat wave the following couple of days. Yesterday morning, standing out in the parking lot, I had an epiphany. It was over 30 degrees. It was about the first time in about a week. I know there are people in parts north who would be thrilled and probably start sweating if it got over 20. Mild winters are one of the best things about living in the South. I don't know how you guys do it anywhere north of Tennessee do it. Going outside and being slapped in the face by 20ish weather is just astoundingly difficult. (Again, I feel that I must say that if that is my worst problem and I have a warm place to leave out of and go into, my life is AWESOME!)

All that to say, yesterday and today it's been BALMY. Right now, my computer is telling me that it is 63 degrees. How awesome. That's more like the normal winter around here. I'll take some more of THAT.

Let me add this information. I'm currently listening to a local radio station (not Slacker right now) that runs ESPN Radio. The dude was talking about how just as soon as the Steelers (the Pittsburgh variety, of course) won the AFC Championship, people began going out in droves to stores to buy their AFC Champs gear. I have to affirm Pennsylvanians' LOVE for wearing their team gear. When Snoopy and I went during the summer it absolutely amazed me. EVERYBODY, men, women, and children, were wearing Steelers or, but usually and, Penn State garb. I thought people down here were outrageously UGA fans, but they have NOTHING on the people in the greater Altoona/Pittsburgh area of Pennsylvania. The guy said that the store (It was a Dick's Sporting Goods, reportedly.) was open after the game finished, around 10:30 and stayed open until they sold out around 2:00 a.m. They then opened the next day at 6:00 to brisk business. They LOVE their football in that area.

I'm going through a little lack-of-football depression. After the big game next Sunday, I'll go into sports withdrawal until pitchers and catchers report. I can't wait until September.

I need to go do some school work, so later!

Amazing, Historical Day!

2009-01-20T22:47:00.004-05:00

How amazing was this? It was planning for me at school, but we watched parts of it in between was going on during classes. I found myself that about to cry when Joe Biden was taking the oath. When Mr. Obama took the oath, wow, I thought about all the people who are not here who are celebrating the moment. I think the whole world is more hopeful because of Mr. Obama. I'm not being sarcastic or facetious (I'm surprised myself!?!). I found myself feeling very hopeful.

I don't know what else to say. I hope that Mr. Obama is the President that I HOPE he can be.

God bless our new president and his family. God bless the U.S.A.!

Well, It's Almost a Weekend

2009-01-18T19:53:00.002-05:00

Way to go Cards! Ken Whisenhunt and Kurt Warner, along with all the other guys, Larry Fitzgerald and crew. I'm watching and hoping that the Steelers are going to make it a current Steeler coach vs. former Steeler assistant Super Bowl. That's a nice story.

I have traveled over the the 'rents to check on my dad. He had some teeth pulled and has been having some trouble. I'm sure a visit from me is going to help him spring back to his normal self! Right, I know.

On the way over here I listened to my cached Slacker.com stations. First it was 40's and then the Lyle Lovett station. You can put in a person or group that you like and it will make a station for you!?! It's amazing. I can cache the stations and then I don't have to have internet/3G techno stuff. I played the BlackBerry all the way home. It's a free service. Once in a while I'll hear a commercial, but it's not anything unbearable. You can also tell it to play a song more or ban a song from the station. I can't believe how much I am enjoying it!

Exercise?!? Haven't done that in a WHILE. I've got to get back on track tomorrow. I'll go between my haircut and (wait for it, wait for it) going to see Paul Blart: Mall Cop. I don't care how bad reviewers say it is. I think that Kevin James is second to Craig Ferguson in degree of funniness. Yeah, back to working out. I guess that after I killed myself by doing weights last Monday, I was so devastated (read: in pain) that I didn't want to go back.

I can't think of anything else to add. I guess I'd better do some lesson plans, since my day is so crammed full of fun plans tomorrow.

Shalom to your home.

This Was a Good Day.

2009-01-16T21:21:00.003-05:00

My semester is going quite well. I'll grade my first round of tests this weekend and then I'll really know for sure. I have a feeling that all but two in calculus are okay, 3/4 of those in trig are okay, and about 55-60% are okay in Algebra II. Of course the calculus nerds are doing well, only true "math-ers" would sign up for that. Fortunately, my trig class is relatively small and they don't have problems asking questions about things. My algebra kids, well, there are some who do really well, and then there are those who just barely scraped by in Algebra I. These kids don't seem to want to put forth the effort necessary to make up for the lost Algebra I ground AND take on the Algebra II stuff too. It gets kind of exasperating. I try to create an environment where you aren't stupid if you don't understand. I WANT the people who don't understand to tell me why so I can help. I want students who understand to help, if they really know how to do it.

I am really sleepy tonight. I've actually nodded off twice while doing this. I'm going to go get in my snuggly warm bed! 'Night all!

Mild-Mannered Wednesday

2009-01-14T19:37:00.002-05:00

Hi! It's a really cold day here, apologies to anyone above the Mason-Dixon Line. I have outside duty for about thirty minutes in the parking lot every day. There are kids who would rather stand outside than go inside the building. That makes them tough? I'd say cRaZy. Oh, well.

I seem to be boycotting the gym. I waited too late last night. Not after the gym closed, but too late for me to get off my arse to go. Plus the cold outside.

Well, I've gotta make out some tests for my students.

Later and shalom!

Today Is a Good Day!

2009-01-10T22:21:00.003-05:00

Well, it's Saturday, so we dined at the little diner after Weight Watchers. Oh yeah, it's time for the beginning of the year influx. Not a problem though. Most folks are very nice. Anyway, after my triumph last week, I was up a little. I felt a little heavy and bloated when I got up. I didn't run as much, thus the moral of the story: Run, run, run and watch what you eat. I slacked up on both late in this week.

I really enjoyed watching Flacco lead the Ravens to the AFC Championship. If Ryan couldn't be the first rookie to lead a team to two post season wins, Flacco will do. I like the way the helmet pads make interesting patterns in his hair. Check it out. It's interesting.

Now, I'm watching St. Kurt Warner taking the Cardinals to what looks like a surprising win. What is the deal with these home teams? Ken Whisenhunt is the shizzle. Just looking up his name, I just found out he walked on at Georgia Tech, which means he had to be pretty brilliant just to get in the school. He went on to nine years in the NFL and helped bring Ben Roethlisberger up to speed in the League as a coach with the Steelers. Pretty interesting. Anyway, Carolina may come back to win, but it's nice that Arizona has had almost three quarters of surprise.

Well, it's an exciting night here because I'm going to cut this short to work on lesson plans for next week!

Later.

One Week Down!

2009-01-09T23:37:00.002-05:00

Well, this week has certainly been busy. Getting back to work was more tiring than I wanted it to be, but because I did my workouts last week, the standing and walking has been a BREEZE! I have to stand outside in the mornings and have had to walk while patrolling the cafeteria at lunch. This is in addition to walking the room for regular, routine teaching stuff.

May classes are, as I thought they would be, GREAT. I have two really small classes and one big, but well-behaved class. I've focused on prerequisite skills this week and it's gone great. I think I'm going to do this as a routine going forward.

I have done something everyday but Thursday. At least thirty minutes. Since the big game (college football is over, sniff) was last night, I was good with skipping the workout. And I did get back on it today. St. Tebow won, with help from his boys who, I think, were inflamed by the comments of the maroon from Oklahoma, essentially that Tebow would be the fourth best quarterback in their conference. I think they proved he'd be third at worst! Why would you give bulletin board material to the folks who have a close-to-perfect dude for their captain? He is an amazing person, even if you don't think his football ability has merit. I mean missionary trips to the Philippines (or somewhere, I may have just sent him to another country), are you kidding me?

Happy weekend!

New Day, New Semester

2009-01-06T20:30:00.002-05:00

Today was a really good day. Of course it's not a true picture, since the clientele was mostly asleep (well, sleepy) today. I really like my classes. Today we didn't have time to do much more than go over the syllabus for each class, behavior expectations, and prerequisite skills (the beginning).

I'm going to go do my thirty minutes on the tread. Ugh!

Later, skaters!

And the Curse Continues . . .

2009-01-04T16:47:00.002-05:00

Okay. I normally have about a 50/50 record on teams I support and teams that win. This would be expected, since I usually have an emotional reason for the team that I chose. This year I'm on a roll. Call your bookie and put your money on Minnesota, since I'm pulling for Philly. It's a certain kiss of death. All totaled, it's not that bad. Again, if this is the worst thing in my life, I've got it made!

I've done virtually nothing but look at the Crackberry website and play around with my BlackBerry. I'm going to LOVE tomorrow, trying to get everything ready for school. Crackberry detox, here I come!

Happy 1st work week of the year to everybody!

My Life Has Been Transformed

2009-01-03T12:02:00.002-05:00

Santa brought me a BlackBerry device. I love it. There is SO much I don't know about it. I have enjoyed getting to know it this week. One of my favorite things about it is Flycast. I am listening to it on my BlackBerry right now. There's a little hiccup every once in a while, but overall it's great. The sound is very good (for something this size). The channel I really like is Swingin' Pop Standards on the Accuradio menu. Right now, Nat "King" Cole is singing "Unforgettable" to me. It's simply divine. Tony Bennett and K.D. Lang were just on. Norah Jones was the previous singer. You get the drift.

I went and weighed in this morning. This is going to be amazing, but if you follow the nutritional portion of Weight Watchers and exercise, you are going to lose weight. Revolutionary, I know. I'd gained over the past couple of weeks, but today showed a six pound loss. I was very happy. My minimum of thirty minutes of exercise a day really has proven successful. I've actually enjoyed it, except for the other night when I put it off until 10 at night when it was (for me) cold.
I guess I've learned a lesson. I know that I won't lose six pounds every week, but at least I have the template in place.

I just saw a piece on ESPN about how awesome Kurt Warner is. He really is such a nice guy. I know that making multiple millions of dollars a year is not exactly a cross to bear. He has worked with children who have traumatic diseases. He is such a sweet-seeming guy. It's ALMOST enough to make me want Arizona to win today. (I proclaimed that I want them to win already, because every team I've wanted to win in the bowls has lost.) I hope it's at least a good game.

Here are my predictions for the NFL games today:

4:30 Atlanta at Arizona It depends on whether Arizona can contain Michael Turner. If they are successful, I'm afraid they'll be moving on. If not, Atlanta should be playing next week. I hope that Matt Ryan and the boys go on to play next week.

8:00 Indianapolis at San Diego It is unfortunate that Ladanian Tomlinson is not 100%. This would have made for a super game. I think that it will be a good game, but that it would be a better match if LT were his old self. I think I heard on ESPN that something has come detached. Regardless of what is detached or believed to be detached, detached is definitely bad. I predict that Peyton will take his Colts to the next level.

Nothing else.

Must go CrackBerry.

Later!

Matt

2009-01-02T10:40:00.002-05:00

Well, this morning, I was aghast to hear my sister watching a video of Matt, the dancing guy. He was talking about how the video was a hoax. I could not believe that the Matt of "Where the Hell Is Matt" dancing video fame was disingenuous. I loved this video, as did most everyone who saw this video. I was astounded. Oh no, not this too. He talked of some company who sponsored it and that he was actually an out of work actor. Then he started talking about the animatronics. Whew! Dodged a bullet. The foundations of my very life would have been shaken. If you are one of the four people who haven't see it the video is here: original and the "hoax" admission.

Plans for this fine second day of the new year? Ummm. . . I think I'll go to the gym for a jog or maybe a jog/walk combo.

Another question. The song "Take You There" by Sean Kingston. What is this guy talking about? I really like this song, and since I'm so edgy it's been on my i-pod for ages. But it's been a favorite of my i-pod lately. (Incidentally, on a "shuffle songs" setting, does your i-pod pick certain songs or artists and get a favorite from time to time?) He talks about giving his girl a choice of going to "the slums where killers get hung" or "we can leave the slums and go to paradise." What kind of a choice is that? I know that he's trying to show off his "street cred" by saying that he can survive regardless of his environment. I don't know about all women (or as more of my students say than I'd like: womens), but I'd rather feel safe. Am I part of a sane minority? I feel crazier and crazier for having the capacity to use the powers of logic.

Well, that's all I've got right now. I'll holla later!

Peace.

I Realize I May Have Been in the Only Home in the US Watching FOX News

2009-01-02T00:19:00.002-05:00

But, the three of us (I know, party animals, right?) who were at Mrs. C.'s on New Year's Eve, decided that Bill Hemmer decided to get hammered on satellite television. I know it was cold, but Heavens to Mergatroid, Bill get a hold of yourself and NO not there! Either he was suffering effects from a new "medication" or he was drunk as Cooter Brown. Wowsers! I don't know when I've seen anything like that.

Perhaps I was just traumatized because LSU found the combination to the lock that has been the Georgia Tech triple option. Evidently they needed a quadruple option for the SECers. And today I was looking forward to watching JoePa kick Pete Carroll's arse, but dadgumit, it was the reverse. Should I declare that I DON'T want Florida an Mr. Tebow to win NOW so that they'll have ANY chance whatsoever?

I'm tired and going to bed. I think I'll treadmill it tomorrow. Boo! And happy new year.

Well, I'm on a Roll for a Monday

2008-12-28T14:15:00.005-05:00

Well, I got up before six and met Hippy at the gym today. I'm glad we'd prearranged this yesterday or I certainly don't think I'd have gotten out of bed. The CrackBerry woke me up at 5:30.

Then I went to see what wondermousness was available at the local WalMart. I can't remember the last time I actually went and bought a bunch of groceries. I bought some salmon burgers. What is that really? I'll be sure to alert y'all, because I feel as if that's something that needs to get out there. Actually, I was wanting salmon and that's what I found. The fish market deal wasn't open yet. I thought it was interesting enough to try. I also stocked up on healthier things as well as some interesting peanut butter, or should it be peanut better? It has ground flax seeds, flax oil, and is sweetened with cane sugar and honey. I got out for less than $100. BONUS!

Yesterday my sister went to our local Lowe's. She was getting a storage cabinet. (Sidebar: She was first cussed (no, not cursed) for taking a parking space. The guy had no blinker on nor any other indication of his intention of pulling in the space. She got out and then APOLOGIZED. The guy told her, "Shut the f*#$ up." Did I mention that she had just come from church? Did I mention this dude was also in his Sunday finery?!? What WOULD Jesus do? I don't think he'd tell people to shut the f*#$ up. I don't mean to step out or anything, but I feel pretty safe in saying that.) Well anyway, she survived that lovely guy and went in, found her item of choice, bought it, and then took it to her car. Realizing it was going to be too big to fit in the car in the way it was boxed, she opened it up and part of it was broken. Well, as you might imagine, she loaded it back up in the box and took it back in. Since it wasn't her fault, she suggested that they go get another one for her or give her back her money. The cashier guy looked at her and just processed her refund! Not I'm sorry, not let me call somebody, NOTHING. Well, I'm sure this one transaction isn't going to bring down Lowe's or anything, but for crying out loud! What a loser. She then went to K-Mart and purchased two items for even less. Wonder why the economy is bad? Maybe one of the reasons is that people working at retail don't give a rat's a$$ about anything. I'm glad that a person of this ilk is at the cashier stand at Lowe's and not at a hospital or something, but come on!

How about I'm going to the school today and tomorrow to try and get things in order for the new semester? I'm secretly very excited. My classes, unless something has changed, will be calculus, Algebra II, and trig. That's the best schedule I think I've ever had. I'm geeked out and very fortunate. I have planning at third block, so three out of four weeks of the month, I get an additional thirty minutes a day because it's the lunch period. Did I say I'm geeked out?

Well, I probably will go drop in on Snoopy after doing a little work.

Happy Monday!

Edit: 8:41 p.m. The Lowe's thing is apparently policy. For Lowe's to get credit for the bad piece of shiz, they have to run it as a refund. Too bad the person couldn't be more forward-thinking and said, "I'll process the refund, it's our policy. Then I'll call Joe and see if he can go get you another one." Am I crazy? Well, customer service being what it is, I guess I. My sister had the opportunity to talk to a former Lowe's employee to get the low-down.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T16:26:00.005-05:00

This is what excitement looks like. The Child is running to see what Santa brought him. Santa did not disappoint.

I am thankful for such a good day! We have enjoyed a lovely day. The Child got his three gifts. Supermom said that if three gifts were sufficient for Jesus, then they're good for The Child. Of course three gifts with all of the accouterments probably was actually ninety-nine items.

We have managed to eat a HUGE lunch of oven chicken and rice, broccoli, baked sweet potatoes, ham, field peas, crescent rolls, deviled eggs, cranberry sauce (complete with ribs from the can), and a delicious chocolate delight. Talk about full as a tick.

I also managed to get a pretty slow, but good run in before lunch. It was a balmy seventy degrees here in Georgia with 100% humidity, since it had just rained. It was a good run, but the humidity was kind of breath-taking, since it hasn't been as humid, especially inside!

We then had to take The Child to meet up with his dad's people. I rode in the backseat with The Child on the way and since they needed the car seat (score), I got to lie down and nap on the way home. My sister declared that I was a horrible traveling buddy and she's 100% correct.

It was weird going through town and everything being closed. EVERYTHING. It happens once a year, and I'm waiting for it to not be the case anymore. It's kind of refreshing, actually.

Well, there's some baking about to occur, so I think I'm going to go get in on that. Happy Christmas to all.

It Really Is A Wonderful Life

2008-12-24T20:48:00.004-05:00

Well, I realized last night that I didn't have everything that I needed. I got up this morning around six and made my way to town. WalMart was totally kickin' when I got there to get some rechargeable AA batteries, hair gel, and a new overnight bag. I inadvertently stole a bag someone had put in the overnight bag. I thought, "Wow, I got a bonus bag. Cool!" Then I realized, "Not cool. This has an SKU on it. It wasn't a bonus." I haven't taken it back yet, but I will. The tote bag has wheels, so I did self check-out and rolled it out, I guess under the radar.

Then I went back to Belk. I found my sister THE BEST necklace. It's silver and very dainty. There are tiny colored stones stationed all around it. She'll be able to wear it with almost anything. I also got Mrs. C. a mug and gift card from Starbuck's. They put the cable-knit sweater looking mugs on sale. They are so pretty. I bought one for me, too! I know I'm going to enjoy my evening hot tea in it.

The Child put out reindeer food for, duh, the reindeer. He is about to BURST with excitement. There have been random shouts throughout the day, "Santa's Claus is coming!" That alternates with a "Mer-ray Chris-mus!"

Well, as Santa is on his way and I'm watching Clarence show George that his life really has made a difference, I'm singing off and wishing a merry Christmas to one and all.

My Favorite Things

2008-12-22T11:06:00.005-05:00

Here are some of my favorite things. The good news is there are no $900 pashminas. More good news is that most are readily available in my relatively small town.

This is the BEST body wash. It's cheap. It's not harsh. My sister told me that the guy on The Doctors said not to use bar soaps on your body. Let me introduce you to Johnson's.

These two books are really good. They not only entertain you, but they make you think.
The amazing Nine West bag. It's on sale at the local Belk. If you're lucky, you can find one like it! They also come in an unusual corally-red and a lovely green.
This is one of those recycling bags. I got it at World Market in the SAV. It was a whopping $1.99. I've gotten lots of compliments on it. It's very sturdy for what it is. I like it.
These Clark's shoes were on sale. They are perfect kicks for teachers. So soft and comfy.
This smells so fresh and so clean.
This sideways (I wish I knew why it did that!) picture is what I received from Fiona for my birthday. I actually didn't think I'd like it, but I SO do.
I'm new to these, but I actually feel very Al Gore for using this. I actually am using a boom box in my car, since the radio is dead and it's a Saab deal that I have to have a Saab replacement for. Boo on that. Regardless, I have to use eight batteries in the aforementioned boom box, so I've been trying to use these. I bought another one on Saturday so that I can charge the two groups of four simultaneously. With two of these going, is that really helping the environment or is the net against it? Oh well, I like it.
These are MY FAVORITE favorites. Burt's Bees Radiance Day Creme, Burt's Bees Radiance Night Creme, and Burt's Bees Radiance Eye Creme. I actually got them in a trial pack of some Burt's products. THEY ARE THE BUZZING BOMB (and I mean this in a good way). I really like them. My skin is oily, but these just make my skin feel nourished, but not greasy.
I like the Burt's Bees Blemish Stick also. It's a roll-on and it seems to be VERY harsh if you have sensitive skin, BUT it does the job for me and any renegade zits that come my way.

What are YOUR favorite things?

The Diner I LOVE

2008-12-21T22:23:00.003-05:00

Okay, you've noticed, if you've visited on weekends, that I frequent a local diner. It is in a shopping center. It's actually a former Subway location. But it's OH, so much better.

This is an Egg Beater omelette with veggies. It includes broccoli, mushrooms, zucchini, and onions. Also, I have been enjoying grits without anything but salt. The corn taste really comes through.

The folks at the place are SUPER friendly. The only complaint that I have is that the coffee could be better. It's good, but I'm totally addicted to the Burger King coffee. I enjoy what I call the "fo' realz" coffee, but the BK is really good for a fast food establishment and more affordable.

I have appointed my room with a new comforter. I also went to Big Lots and got some fluffy pillows to go with my new stuff. New 300 thread-count sheets were also purchased. The textile-engineer part of me was completely geeking out. Oh well.

I get a haircut tomorrow. Then a brunch. Then lunch with other friends. Then check by school to get some textbook counting done. It's going to be a long, but enjoyable day.

Night.

Fun and Frolic

2008-12-21T09:11:00.003-05:00

Welcome to my friends' lovely garage. They didn't know if it was going to be warm (It was.) or cold. So they took the party in their garage. The spread was like this:

My friend Fiona crafted a LOVELY Rice Krispies Treats wreath. I was a bit concerned when she kept pouring in the green food coloring, but it didn't have weird food-coloring taste at all. As a matter of fact, it was DELICIOUS.
THIS was my favorite dish. You can see I was not alone in my liking of this. It was enjoyed by all, since this picture is from the beginning of the party and it had already been replenished. OMG, it is SO tasty. It's the fabulous Buffalo chicken dip. It's so hot it burnt my lip, but then again, anything is hot to my delicate palate. (Actually, I don't usually eat hot stuff.) It was GOOD. Nice chicken, Buffalo sauce, and cream cheese. How can you go wrong with that? Talk about some GERD.
I also got a lovely smelling candle in the Dirty Santa trade, but only one person took something from somebody else. Nobody dared take my candle from me. It smells REALLY good, but I think that Borat would use it for "sexy times."
Well, I'm off to the local diner for my veggie omelette. I'm taking one of my new Malcolm Gladwell books with me. I'll post more about it later, if I feel like it!

I'm Awarding Myself

2008-12-20T15:56:00.002-05:00

I am giving this to myself. Here. Thank myself. What is it for, you ask? Why, it's for getting all the shopping done that I need to get done prior to Christmas. All gifts were tasteful, but not too much. Unfortunately, I chose two sweatshirts for my diddy, so he may never get to wear them. While (or whilst, which I actually prefer) the North is completely snowed under with no signs of relief, I'm sweating my *insert body part you like to use in this expression* off. We actually switched to AC earlier today. But I scooted out at 7 a.m. and did all my shopping locally, but mostly with chains. Regardless, I'm through. I'm quite relieved because I was a little worried if I'd get the "right" stuff. I just got stuff I thought they'd like that was relatively low-priced. I decided on about a $30 limit for family members. $20ish for friends.

I'm off to a "Night Before Christmas" themed party tonight. We're supposed to wear our pajamas. I'm going to sweat my *same as above* off. I have really cute flannel pajamas. I'm gonna wear them anyway. I'll just wear a t-shirt with them. My friends hosting the party are TOO excited. I'm actually excited too. There will be sugar cookies and spinach dip. I wouldn't recommend mixing these two items, but I'm looking forward to each in its own merit. Yum-o. Wait, can I revoke that? I am boycotting Rachel Ray. Talk about overkill. Replace the yum-o with "wowsers!"

I am looking forward to a hair cut on Monday and dinner with this chica. There are quite a few REALLY good restaurants that have come to our area. We are planning on patronizing one of them. There's one that has an AMAZING mushroom ravioli with a pesto cream sauce. That is what my gluttonous tum-tum is thinking of.

Well, I've got to get ready to go to PJ Mania 2008. I'll let you know how awesome it was. And it WILL be awesome.

Hugs and finished shopping celebrations!

Miscellaneous Saturday Stuff

2008-12-13T20:31:00.005-05:00

1) Hero/Heroine (Tom Lord-Alge Remix) - Boys Like Girls
2) Burnin' Up - Jonas Brothers (I realize that liking this is a character flaw, but I don't care! JB RULE!)
3) 100% Pure Love - Crystal Waters
4) Love Runs Deeper - Lindsey Buckingham
5) Dear Maria, Count Me In - All Time Low
6) Glamorous - Fergie
7) Temperature - Sean Paul
8) Let It Rock (Radio Edit) - Kevin Rudolph & Lil Wayne (Lil Wayne creeps me out, but the beat is good.)
9) What You Got (Main) - Colby O'Donis & Akon
10) Check Yes Juliet - We the Kings
11) Release - Timbaland featuring Justin Timberlake
12) Get Up - Ciara featuring Chamillionaire
13) She Loves Everybody - Chester French (The words are a little oogey, but the beat is good.)
14) Just Dance - Lady Gaga (Completely and totally infectious!)
15) My Love - Justin Timberlake

This was the list that my i-pod chose for me during my run this evening with a couple that I overruled. It was a chilly/brisk evening at around 48 degrees. (I realize this is pretty hilarious to anybody north of Tennessee.) It was a good run.

I have basically vegged today. Weighed in at a +0.8 lbs. Boo. I just can't get all my pots on the stove cooking like I like it. We went to our regular Saturday breakfast spot. In an effort to be more awesome in food selection I chose a veggie omelette. And I had my recent discovery that is unbuttered grits. They are SO tasty. I realize I could not be more boring. But I'm very happy with my stone ground corn!

Then we went to the local Big Lots store to pick up some bargains. I got some books for Toys for Tots. I know that books aren't technically toys, but I am buying them for a colleague. We do a gift exchange in which you are to buy something "for" someone, but wind up giving it to Toys for Tots. It's entertaining and a win-win all the way around!

Upon returning home, I found it necessary to get online for several hours, take a nap, then run. I really have had a good day.

I hope that all of you are having a good day as well!

Just Another Manic Monday!

2008-12-08T19:19:00.002-05:00

Lesson plans were late (actually still not done), kids were crazy (think school is ALREADY finished for the year), and it seemed as if it was dark BEFORE I knew it! I did get the fundraiser sent off (whew).

I just got back from the routine of my nephew. He was asking his mom for something, so I told him he needed to use the magic word. He happily proclaimed, "Meeska, mooseka, Mickey Mouse!" I thought I would roll. This, for those of you not having contact with a preschooler, is what Mickey says to make the clubhouse appear on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. I then went into a description of what the magic word actually is.

I'm having to give a state-mandated test tomorrow, so the day should go relatively quickly. I'm very excited about getting it done so we can start preparing for the next test!

I'm signing off to go to the gym. I hope my favorite treadmill is empty!

I Ran the Bridge!

2008-12-07T15:15:00.007-05:00

This is a picture of the Talmadge Bridge. I got it from here. We left the Savannah International Trade & Convention Center at around 8:30. The picture came from here. There was a little distance to go from the convention center to the start. They had good music and the running crowd is always a good one. People were dressed in Christmas regalia. (Snoopy, Fiona, nor I did.) I wore the trusty thick sweatshirt, yoga pants, a t-shirt, and the run's shirt tied around my waist. Oh yeah, THAT was a good look. My shoes were amazing! We finished up the run at the Savannah Civic Center.

Well, I ran the 5K in 45:48. I don't think it's my best, but it was WAY fun. I can't wait to do it again next year.

We've slated the Shamrock Run, which is an evening run on March 6. Click here if you're interested. And, I am ECSTATIC to report we will be participating in the Susan G. Komen Run for the Cure in Savannah. It'll be on April 18th, which is a Saturday. I'm going to try to get some others to run/walk as well. Consider this your invitation to participate with us on any of these with us. At least Snoopy, Fiona, and I will be participating. Supermom may be doing the Komen also.

This past week was crazy. The only day I didn't have a mania was Wednesday and I got outta school late, so it was a handle anyway. This week should (operative word being should) be much less hectic. THEN, the last week of the semester! I'll really miss SOME of my students. Others, I will be happy NOT to see anymore.

Have you been to World Market lately? We went yesterday after the run and after a luxurious breakfast at Burger King. It was tasty. World Market has CRAZY good ornaments and gift wrap, bags, and gift card holders for 50% off. Maybe that ended today, not sure. Regardless, I got one of my BEST friends, whom I'll call PeeWee Herman, two GORGEOUS ornaments. I found some for gifts for a brunch I'll attend and a gift for the hostess. After World Market, we went to Best Buy where I got The Child a Thomas the Tank Engine DVD. I got myself new earbuds and Smokey and the Bandit, parts 1, 2, and 3. Then we came back and I went to the school gym and worked in the concession stand from about 2:30 to 9:30. Needless to say, since I sat down on the way to and from to Savannah, and that's all for the entire day, my feet were TIRED. Fortunately, I wore my running shoes to do the concession stand duty. This made my dogs bark a little less loudly.

Well, I'm looking forward to fun this week, although I don't know what it'll be. I do know that Fiona will be cooking dinner for Snoopy, her husband, and me on Wednesday, so that'll be fun.

I wish each of you a week that is full of getting things accomplished and less stress than last week!

This Week Has Been Quick

2008-12-04T21:05:00.002-05:00

Wow, I've come up for air and it's Wednesday. It's been good, but it's been fast.

Tomorrow and then the Bridge Run on Saturday. Due to lack of training, I'm not sure if it'll be a run or a walk. Either way it'll be fun.

I'll put more in this weekend . . . she claimed.

Nice Day!

2008-11-29T20:13:00.003-05:00

This is one of those days that I'm just going to run down the excitement I've enjoyed today.

1. Get up.
2. Shower.
3. Get ready.
4. Go to Weight Watchers. (0.4 pound loss)
5. Go to restaurant where we're regulars. Enjoy Philly Steak Omelette.
6. Go to Starbucks. Enjoy Thanksgiving blend coffee. (It's very bitter, in a good coffee way!)
7. Go to department store. Purchase Clarks slides.
8. Come home.
9. Watch Georgia Tech put a whuppin' on Georgia. (I pull for Tech as default UNLESS Georgia is in for some national accolades or SEC championship{This makes me a traitor to both sides. I'm all about my state or an opportunist; you decide!} -- no and no this year. Triple option, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways!)
10. Go to the gym. Yes, they were shocked. So was my body. Gotta get ready for the bridge run NEXT SATURDAY. I've been grossly neglectful in getting the old bod ready. Ugh. Stretched like I haven't stretched in a L-O-N-G time. I'm trying to avert soreness. Yeah, I know. Good luck with that!
11. Get home. Shower again.
12. Go to restaurant with Mrs. C. The grilled meatloaf was magically delicious. I halved the meal. Hello lunch for Monday!
13. Put up clothes. (Ugh, I hate this.) At least they ARE clean!
14. Flip back and forth between USC/Notre Dame and Oklahoma/Oklahoma State. Would LOVE to see Charlie Weiss get a win tonight. OK and OK State? Don't really care, no offense.
15. Go to sleep.

I love days like this where I just do what I want. I've really enjoyed these days off. I'm looking forward to finishing up this semester so I can have an even longer break!

TTFN!

If you didn't see the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, check out this link. The bomb twenty years ago AND now!

11.

My Shopping (Virtually)

2008-11-28T10:47:00.008-05:00

A lovely turquoise tunic

A nice yellow-y dress shirt

I bought these two shirts. They were both on sale. Obviously, Thanksgiving has blessed me with brevity of sentences. Anyway, I also shopped for a pair of brown corduroy cargo pants and two more shirts. I'm pretty stoked. I found them, they were all on sale, and I didn't even have to get dressed, shower, or deal with others. How awesome is that? Pretty awesome.

My Thanksgiving was really good. It was very low-key. It was just the immediate fam, with my sister-in-law, who is now considered immediate fam. She's wonderful. She just doesn't care. Whatever is fine with her.

We had the big spread. Momma outdid herself. We had turkey breast, dressing, sausage muffin thingies, baked sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce (the kind with rings on the side--delicious), broccoli casserole, deviled eggs, giblet gravy (I try to get pure gravy. Giblets totally creep me out.) We just talked and hung out. It was nice. Nothing too much. Then the tryptophan kicked in and I was asleep (Yes, asleep no adult beverages for me! Actually no adult beverages in the 'rents' house.) on the den floor. I woke up really snotty and gross. It must've been a bad pillow, because I'm fine now. Weird.

I drove back over here at around 8. I just went to bed. In bed and slept until around 9 this morning. That's when I did my awesome shopping.

I found out that my mom and my sister did some shopping for me this morning. This should be interesting. Our tastes don't necessarily run in the same realm.

Have I mentioned here that I'm doing the Intermittent Fasting thing? It's just a little trial to see what happens. I like what I've read about this. Here's some information about it. This guy seems to be pretty reliable. When I told my parents about it yesterday, they weren't even surprised. My mom's brother used this method to lose 50+ pounds and get to his goal weight and has always struggled with being too heavy. He said that it was pretty easy and virtually thoughtless. Instead of obsessing about food, you can ignore it for long stretches, and when you do eat, it's whatever you want, but according to the information I've read, you really want something that is good and good for you. They stress that you should go for whole foods. I am on board with that. Let's see if that's the ticket for me, at least through the eating season that is the holidays!

I Hope This Is True

2008-11-25T12:06:00.002-05:00

I'm not sure whether this is true or not, but it makes me feel WAY less overwhelmed. I was telling Hippy Chick about this during my hair-shedding this morning so I thought I'd link to it here.

Basically the person says that we should be working out no more than 45-60 minutes. Eating is the majority of the way to lose weight. I don't know about this, but I'm going to try and see what effect doing this has. It costs virtually nothing to try, so I'm going to do it.

I ate a HUGE breakfast with Dude this morning. There's a cute place near Big Lots here that is a delicious little diner-type place.

I am also on fire for a Blackberry. I have found the one that I want. I have conferred with knowledgeable people including Mrs. C., Dude, Hippy, and CNET. I am pretty happy with the choice and soon it will be mine, MINE!

I am listening to President-Elect Obama. I am TRYING to decipher what he's saying. He's definitely not a smooth-talker in a press conference. He's not said "strategery" yet, so I suppose that's a good sign. I'm really trying to be hopeful, but it was as if he were speaking in Chinese which, incidentally, I don't understand. Millionaire farmers? Wow, I know a lot of farmers and NONE of them are millionaires. Maybe all of them live somewhere in Iowa? Not sure.

I'm sorry this has been SO random, but I'm having a BIG-TIME ADD day. More later? I don't know.

Five Things I Love

2008-11-23T12:56:00.003-05:00

Because of this post, another one from me.

1. My nephew's laughter When he's watching one of his movies or when we play tickle monster, he has this laughter that comes from WAAAAAY down deep inside his belly. So hysterically funny.

2. My job I am miserable a lot of the time, but as when a student (whom I dearly loved BEFORE she asked me the question) asked me, "Can I ask you what I need to do to be a math teacher?" TOTAL bliss. It makes up for every ornery-tail I deal with. There are enough moments for me like this that it outweighs the bad.

3. A family that accepts me I am over forty. I am not married. I am not particularly hepped up on the idea or pursuing any behavior that will help me move in the married direction. My family doesn't seem to care. They let me be me.

4. AWESOME friends I have a group of friends that is small, but GREAT. They are nothing but supportive. Like my family, there is very little judgment, but there is the occasional, when it is needed, "Hey, do you hear yourself? You're talking crazy. Get down out of the bell-tower."

5. This week off from school I plan on working on my running for the Bridge Run 5k, sleeping a lot, and spending time with my family and friends.

I Agree with Barack Obama on at Least One Thing

2008-11-23T12:19:00.004-05:00

Well, I voted for John McCain. I am quite conservative on some issues that I believe are most important. This being said, there is at least one thing I agree with Barack Obama on. We should have a playoff in BCS/NCAA football so that we can crown a definitive champion on the field of play. As it is now, depending on who beats whom, it may come down to conjecture. With last night's drubbing of Texas Tech by Oklahoma, more questions were presented than answers.

Actually, Alabama is still unbeaten. They still have the SEC championship looming in their future. They may beat Florida, who is expected to beat Florida State in their last game. If they do, they'll have made it unscathed through the not-as-brutal-as-usual SEC. But, with the way Florida has played so passionately lately, who knows what should happen. (I am one of those people who usually thinks that the SEC is the highest level of play, but admittedly this year has definitely been a down one.)

Even today, who will be higher in the BCS? Oklahoma or Texas? Texas beat Oklahoma in a head-to-head, but Texas was beaten by Texas Tech, who was DESTROYED by Oklahoma yesterday. Good luck sorting that out.

I'm a proponent of the top seven in the BCS poll getting into a play-off. Then eight and nine competing in a play-in game. I'm not sure why I like the idea of a play-in, but I do.

I think that college football is SO good, that a play-off system wouldn't be harmful to it. I would at least like an opportunity to see if it is the case.

Okay, I'm stepping down off my soap-box. I hope everyone has a really good week!

The Child Has a Birthday Party

2008-11-22T22:24:00.009-05:00

Today, The Child had a birthday party. It was WAY fun for him. There were about 5 adults for every child.

This is my brother's (and Rx-in-Law's) son, a.k.a. the Roaming Gnome, who is very cute and excellent at cheesing it up for a camera. I meant this to be the last picture, but I am techno-goofy with this blog picture uploading deal.

This is the cake AFTER. Being the official picture taker is difficult. I was distracted and didn't get a picture of the cake before. Incidentally, it had one of The Child's favorites, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, on it. The cake was pretty tasty.

Here, The Child is getting his koala, George, who happens to be sporting quite a dandy Batman shirt, out of the box. He chose all the components at the Build-a-Bear Store. He wanted to name the koala "Snake" but that was nixed by his dad. The Child also chose "Snake" as his Indian name for Thanksgiving at school.

More opening of gifts. . .

Here is Supermom, The Child, and a friend from school. She was SO precious. She was assistant present opener. There were so many gifts that The Child didn't seem to mind.

Snoopy and Mrs. C. attended the birthday antics. I'm hoping they had a good time.

This week has been a little crazy. You've seen above what today was centered around. Friday was a little crazy, because the day prior to a holiday always is. We did test-prep in all classes because, for some reason, it's easier to focus on that than some new topic. (I chose not to test all day yesterday because everybody else was and we'd done testing last week.)

We also finished up our fundraiser for the seniors this week too. We sold Joe Corbi items. They have regional distributors, but the people we deal with have been great. The cookie dough and frozen pizzas are really good. (Incidentally, they have a breakfast pizza that is divine, but deadly. It's an alfredo-like sauce. You put that on a crust, then top with real bacon and cheese. Really divine.) It's actually a really good value, as far as fund-raising goes. I'm not sure about the percentage, but it's pretty favorable. It beats the pants off of selling Reese Cups and candy bars.

After school, I went to Snoopy's and there was a PARTY. I don't usually drink, so it's ALWAYS an adventure. I was really tired when the last partiers left at 1:15 this morning. It was then that I took to the sofa and rocked it out, getting to sleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. I woke up at 10:15 and today's craziness started.

Wednesday, I took off from school to take the 'rents so my mom could get some testing done. It should have been a few-hour situation, but wound up being all day. It's taxing to sit in a hospital waiting room. Forunately, all was fine. And, I should be thankful that the doctor was super-cautious. It was nice to see them in the middle of the week.

Tuesday, we had training on differentiation during planning, so I couldn't start the plans done until after school. It was one of those things that it seemed as if the harder I tried to do it, the longer it took me. I had a really good sub, so all of that went well.

Monday wasn't bad, but I was exhausted. I really have to reel in my eating. I am mostly exhausted from no exercise and from eating poorly.

Saturday Run-down

2008-11-15T22:08:00.003-05:00

1. Get up really early for Saturday School.
2. Go to Burger King and get breakfast.
3. Eat breakfast on the way to school.
4. Conduct Saturday School (roughly 8:00 to 12:00) and clean out office in my classroom.
5. Lunch with Snoopy.
6. Decide where amassed paperwork, notes, and other associated items should be put. (Yes, I do realize that I should be doing this routinely, but I am a big-time clutter bug.)
7. Get AWESOME new quotes to put up on bulletin board. (I hate doing bulletin boards, so I keep quotes up ALL the time. You elementary teachers with your elaborate bulletin boards and word-walls, etc. , my hat is off to you.)
8. Make notes on simplegtd.com listing.
9. Return home.
10. Play with nephew. Annoy sister. (This is totally a two-fer.)
11. Go to Walgreen's to redeem my $5 gift certificate I got for getting their newsletter online. Purchase more Burt's Bees products.
12. Decide that I do want to eat something horrible for me. Instead, opt for some Chick-fil-A chicken nuggets, the best of the worst.
13. Surf a little.
14. Change my picture on my blog to a tree that is WAY more lovely than the picture I took with my phone shows. This tree has got to be over a century old. Just looking up through the branches totally Zens me out.
15. Type this list of what I've done today.
16. Go get ready for bed.
17. Sleep as long as I can.

What a great day!

Hello, I'm Back.

2008-11-14T20:25:00.002-05:00

I've started several posts, but have been unable to finish any of them. I'm even distracted somewhat now by an ADT commercial. My ADD is horrific. I'm worse than the students I teach.

Well, last week I went to the Georgia Educational Technology Conference. It was FANTASTIC. I knocked myself off of all working out and exercise in general by going. I was honored to sit under the genius that is Patrick Crispen. He was basically teaching/telling about Google, technology, and how students best learn. It was amazing. There were other speakers, some of whom were good. But Crispen was AMAZING. The knowledge he was dropping was serious. His website is www.netsquirrel.com.

Also, we got to hear (and see) the one and only Ron Clark. He is a wonder. I love teaching and think it's what I was born to do. Seeing Ron and his passion for educating is unbelievable. Here is some video of his students who took a life-changing trip. The quality isn't that good, but it was so fantastic that I found it necessary to share it with all of my classes. His Ron Clark Academy is in Atlanta. One of my colleagues won a trip to his school to see how he (and the other members of the faculty) works with the students.

This week has been very tiring. I think I'm recovering from the high point of last week. I can't seem to get enough sleep, so I'm going to go to bed now.

Today Has Been Interesting

2008-11-02T18:05:00.003-05:00

Greetings. I've had quite an interesting day. I woke up and began watching an O-L-D movie about Andrew Jackson. It had Joan Crawford in it. She's quite captivating.

I then got "awake" and went to shop at my arch-nemesis, WalMart. Wow, it was nice to get in there at about 7:30 and out around 8:30. I hate it. I was trying to get all the stuff I need, supply-wise AND stuff for my trip to the conference in Atlanta. It's really quite a pain. We're leaving Tuesday afternoon after school, so everything I need done has to be done essentially tomorrow afternoon since we get no planning block to speak of on Tuesday. Being absent is really a pain if you want to do your job as a teacher.

Then I began the cooking process. I improved the whole-wheat pasta dish I made last week. I also made a switch in the chiliesque soup business I made last week. They both seem better-tasting. That was good.

I joined up on this GTD website. I really like the idea of it being accessible online. You can also print out your lists. It's simple and makes sense. It's working for me so far today!?!

Supermom went and got Chinese for us. I think my taster is broken. The sesame chicken had a very odd taste to me. I wonder if it's the meds I'm taking. I'm on the loogey-ridding medicine Mucinex. I hate the commercials, but that stuff really does work. It's not cheap either, but it does work.

I've got to fold some clothes and get my work together for my students, so I'll sign out.

It may be Wednesday or Thursday before I get back to y'all, so have a good week!

The Crud Has Gotten Me

2008-11-01T14:51:00.004-04:00

My mileage has suffered due to the creeping crud that has infested me. I have managed to teach school for the past three days. I haven't felt bad, just been voiceless. I warned my students to keep their distance and have encouraged them to sanitize and have done so myself. I'm going to the tech conference in Atlanta next week for three days, so I just couldn't afford to be out this week.

It was so good to go to bed early last night. Lights out was before 10 p..m.

Thought I'd show you the gains of my shopping trip. Mrs. C. bought me the CUTE bag (a birthday gift!), which is actually closer to a butterscotch color. The shoes are a pair of the Softspots mules. The top part is embroidered and the "gathered" part around the outside is suede-y. They are comfortable. Not EVEN on sale, but they are so comfortable!

I'm going out with Snoopy and her friend Library Lady to a way-out-of-the-way restaurant. It should be fun.

Not Much Going On . . .

2008-10-27T23:17:00.002-04:00

I went to vote. Early voting cost me 45 minutes, which I gladly gave. I was in front of a delightful 5-year-old who was amazingly well behaved. (She wasn't voting; her mom was!) I found out she is the niece of a co-worker. It's trite because it's true, but the world really is small!

I still have the picture of Susan B. Anthony in my mind ready to kick my butt if I have any negative ideas or even think about complaining about anything to do with voting.

I did my 3.5 miles today. It was slow. I was running against the wind. Wow, and dodging UPS trucks. It was actually enjoyable and fun. It really feels good getting the Monday exercise in. It's easy to fall between the cracks.

I'm tired, so it's time for bed. I'm sure there's a rant in me nearer the end of the week.

I Am Alive

2008-10-26T12:47:00.003-04:00

I was a little frightened after my max mileage that I'd be really sore and tired today. Well, I'm happy to report the only casualties of my run yesterday were my calves. Oh, how they hurt!

I got up this morning and went to WalMart. And filled up the car. Less than $2.50 a gallon?!? So nice. At WalMart, people seem to stand in places for no apparent reason. I wanted to check out the pre-packaged snacks, but there was a lady standing there on the phone. I have a real problem with this. She was just standing there cackling at her friend's obviously hysterical conversation. She didn't even seem to be looking for anything. She also seemed to be hard of hearing or very intent on letting everyone know how much she was enjoying her conversation. How is it that several years ago, heart surgeons had beepers and that would suffice? Now we all need a phone. I plead guilty to this. Regardless, when I'm in public, I go outside of the business to conduct my business. Or, I will text people. It's far less intrusive in others' lives. Regardless, if this is my biggest problem, my life is AWESOME.

And it is. I just made a chili-esque soup. I put a little ground beef, tomato paste, petite diced tomatoes, beef broth, black beans, navy beans, white corn, and a ton of chili powder, cayenne pepper, and onion powder in to simmer. I can't wait. It's gonna be deilicious and, along with a pasta casserole, the bulk of my meals this week! Yum!

Well, since I slept with some of my cooler season clothes on my bed last night, I'd better go put some of these up.

Have a great day!

I Am So Excited!

2008-10-25T21:18:00.003-04:00

Okay, if you'd told me last year, I'd have had difficulty believing you. TODAY I RAN 6 (SIX) MILES! It took almost an hour and a half, but I did it! I decided that I could run a little more than my max, and since it was Saturday, and since I gained 0.4 pounds this week! Ugh! (Darn my friend Brian's mac and cheese! Not only did I eat it for dinner Thursday, but they made me a to-go plate for lunch Friday, and I would not say NO.) So, instead of balling up and getting sad, I decided I would do something proactive. Get myself into the right mode of eating and do some excellent workout work. And I did.

This running thing is so addicting. My friend Snoopy signed Fiona and me up for the 5K bridge run in December. Fiona declared that she will walk it. Snoopy is going to do the 10K. I'm very excited about this. The bridge has a 5.5% grade, so I'll be practicing at Mrs. C.'s on the treadmill with the incline cranked!

I think I'm going to pile up and go to bed. Running 6 miles is tiring!

Art and Old Music

2008-10-21T22:14:00.005-04:00

Check this out. It's macabre, but it's actually very pretty: http://shapeandcolour.wordpress.com/2008/10/10/david-maisel-library-of-dust/.

Also, I hopped in the way-back machine today. I put this in my CD player on the way to work:

Oh yes, I remember when I was in about the second grade. My parents had this album. It was one of the first albums I remember. I listened to "Back Home Again," "On the Road," the AWESOME "Grandma's Feather Bed," and "Thank God I'm a Country Boy." I LOVED it. I sang at the top of my lungs. I got in the car to come home and repeated. If it's good enough for lather, rinse, it's certainly good enough for John Denver!

Incidentally, the other albums my parents had at this time:

I must admit "His Latest Flame" is one of my favorites from this one.

I remember listening to "Scarborough Fair" and thinking, "How can they be singing something I had to sing in music class?" Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme? Really? Anyway, "The Boxer," "America," and "Homeward Bound" are all songs that can make me cry.

There's not a bad song on this one. Maybe there are some that are SAPPY, but I like them all.
Goodbye to Love, Superstar

I really like this one. "Southern Nights" and "Country Boy" are the two besides the title song that make me really happy. "Country Boy" is really good. Rhinestone Cowboy

Thanks for indulging my walk down pop music lane.

Rant Alert

2008-10-20T23:36:00.004-04:00

Flipping through the channels on the satellite, there is a channel that is running a commercial of a guy made of chocolate that has women biting his butt, tearing off his arm, and dipping strawberries in his navel (or somewhere). REGARDLESS, this is very disturbing. It's for Axe "Dark Temptation." The commercial is running over and over and over and over. You can text to win prizes and play some kind of game. This is disturbing and gross. I realize I'm obviously not the target of this marketing campaign, but who is? The female Hannibal Lecters out there? Help, oh sweet sanity, where have you gone?

Thinking. . .

2008-10-20T23:19:00.004-04:00

I like this blogger's posts. She's very good. This post was particularly interesting to me. I like to read people's work that makes me think from a different perspective. Here is the post: http://thegreatfitnessexperiment.blogspot.com/2008/10/classic-eating-disorder-tips-make.html.

I never have thought of myself as having an eating disorder, but I guess by being obese, I do. I don't think it's as extreme as anorexia or bulimia, but it's still an attack on my body and wielding power over food.

I am trying to work through some issues. It's a constant struggle. It's weird though, because I don't feel as if I'm in that bad of a way. I've often said that I have reverse anorexia because I don't mentally realize how big I really am. It's kind of like when you've had long hair and get your hair cut and see yourself in the mirror. You keep thinking, "Hey who's that in my bathroom mirror? Oh wait, that's me with my short hair." I'm still around a size 12 or 14 in my mind. It's weird, I suppose. I guess we all have our deals to work out. That, in a nutshell is PART of mine!

Blessed Bloggers

2008-10-19T23:07:00.002-04:00

Well, I had an exceedingly good day today. It's kind of funny because my the bloggers I tend to read seem to have had the same experience this weekend!

Today I got up around 8:30. It was nice and nippy outside. I decided to snuggle in my bed a little longer. I actually got up around 9:00 and got to the laundry. I put up WAY too much that had been laying around my bedroom. I then had a nice brunch.

After finishing up my laundry, I took a small nap, watched some football, and decided to go run. It was a glorious day for a run. I went 4.8 miles. That's quite a bit for me. What's funny, and more than a little gross, is that my back was KILLING me. Well, then I engaged my core, as Ellen from my yoga/Pilates video is always telling me to do and voila! My back stopped hurting. I was telling this to my running mentor and she said that since I've lost weight around my midsction, my back is having to redefine my center of gravity or something like that. And you know what? I believe it. It makes sense.

Since I'd not had lunch, I was ravenous from the run and met the mentor (aka Snoopy) at the Mexican restaurant in the town where my school is. Wow, was it good! I had a plate of beef and bean nachos without one iota of guilt. Then I went to school and got a good bit of school work done. We have an open house tomorrow, OH JOY! I'm SO excited. I don't know about elsewhere, but here, only the kids whose parents you DON'T need to see attend these things.

Oh well, you do what you can.

I hope all of y'all in blogland have a most enjoyable week to go along with a nice weekend!

A Wedding Day

2008-10-18T17:33:00.003-04:00

The Child with one of his dad's sisters in the background

There is a nice winery near here. They aren't common in the area, but it's quite nice. The Child's daddy was married there today. It was very small, but nice. The crowd was really a good group. I'm not big on talking to people I don't know, since I hate people. Well, not really, but in a group of people I don't know I'm not a social butterfly. It was very nice. The ceremony itself was pretty good: short, sweet, and to the point. The bride and groom left to the Beach Boys song, "Wouldn't It Be Nice."

There was lunch, since the wedding was at 11:00. Grilled bone-in chicken, hash brown casserole, green beans, and broccoli salad. Yum!

The Child was ring bearer and walked in his grandmother. He kept dropping the pillow, but it was very cute.

Since it was a blustery day, I came home and piled up in bed and slept. It's been a great day.

Oh, and at weigh-in I'd lost 2.4. I was slightly ill, because I thought I'd done a little better. But I'm proud of the work I did! Now, a tiny supper.

Days Off Are Over

2008-10-14T22:27:00.002-04:00

Hey, I have been really enjoying all of this time off. It was only two days, but it's been nice. I went and saw the other nephew yesterday. He's grown so much. He's shed that little baby look. He's still got quite a mean widow's peak, so he's ready for halloween. Did I mention that he loves to play the act-as-if-you're-tossing-the-baby-in-the-air game? It's a good thing I do too!

I did the Crunch yoga/Pilates video again and ran 3.05 miles. It was really a nice day out.

I'm trying to reach a milestone on Saturday at weigh-in. 20 pounds. I really would like to do this during this week. I've done the working out and the eating has been pretty good. I've got to go get my lunch ready for tomorrow. It's called lunchroom duty and I have it and I hate it. It could be worse, but it's just a pain.

Now, I'm off to fix lunch, watch the rest of Eli Stone, and get my things ready for tomorrow.

Teacher Person Makes Good Use of Time

2008-10-13T08:14:00.003-04:00

Well, how did I do this? It was easy. I used the DVD

This is a great one. I don't know how this would be for anyone who is super-fit, but for me, it's great. It is difficult, but not too much so. Are you a person who hates way-too-perky teachers/demonstraters? Ellen Barrett is GREAT! I really like the way she describes each motion. It's not difficult nor dancy. She is encouraging without seeming as if she's ingested 18 venti lattes. I met Mrs. C. at her "gym" and we did this at 6 a.m. It was refreshing and relaxing. It's 42 minutes (or thereabout) and very good. I know I'll feel it, because I've done it before.

I just had a heavy breakfast. A boiled egg, a homemade mocha (chocolate milk + coffee), and oatmeal with Smart Balance and brown sugar. I'm testing a theory/study from, I think, FitSugar. The study showed that if you eat a really big breakfast, as the day goes on, you won't have as many cravings and you'll eat fewer calories. I'm considering myself a test case. I'm going to try to not eat anything after 7 p.m. either. Watch me go! I really need a good week at Weight Watchers on Saturday, so my goal is to do stuff that will make that possible.

Have an enjoyable day!

Sunday and a Little Shopping

2008-10-12T19:17:00.003-04:00

I bought a shoe that looks like this. It's not only cute, but it's got a super-pillowy footbed. Perfect for a teacher. I'd been avoiding my black pants, skirts, and dresses simply because I didn't have a go-to pair of black shoes. The flower on mine is about half the size and there is some black-patent trim. I had even resorted to wearing some tennis shoes/sneakers with my black pants. I hope that I have now purchased a pair that I will look forward to wearing. And, they were on sale!

I went and worked out at Mrs. C.'s gym yesterday. I'm still getting acclimated to the treadmill. I walked for an hour with a tad of running in it. It's weird that outside that I can run pretty easily, but on the treadmill, not so much.

Well, since we have two days off this week, I think I'm going to visit my other nephew. I can't wait to see how big he is. He lives about two hours away and I'll get to see the 'rents too.

Later.

Homecoming

2008-10-11T12:08:00.002-04:00

Hi! Sorry I haven't blogged in a few days, but anyway, here I am! It's been an exciting few days. Yesterday was homecoming for my school. It's one of the high points for teaching high school. The kids were really excited. They were really good. We had a court which was ALL really nice girls. In years past, we've had some that I really would have rather not won, but this year, all were okay.

I drove a tiny Solstice in the parade with two senior representatives up doing the pageant waving. I told them that the last time that I drove, one of the girls in my car had won. Well, there's magic in my driving, because again, the queen was in my car! She is a really nice girl who's not only very cute, but very conscientious in her studies and just an all-around good representative of our school. Her boyfriend, who graduated last year, asked me to drive carefully with her in the car. I assured him that we'd go no faster than about 8 mph, so she'd be pretty safe!

Our football team WON! We've won more this year than any year I've been at the school with the exception of my 1st year during which I had NO idea what was going on.

I haven't run since Sunday. I've gotta get back out there. Ugh, I don't really want to. It's yucky outside. I think I'll power nap first.

Oh, How We Laughed!

2008-10-07T19:09:00.002-04:00

Well, in the class that I had my unfortunate outburst in, we had a hearty laugh today. I apologized again for going a little nuts. They were very good and seemed to understand. "Miss (used to refer to all but men, so much so that I use it to refer to other teachers), I never saw you that mad before. You almost poked a hole in your Smartboard!" I laughed. They were talking about how weird it was that I got so mad yesterday, but that I was laughing about it today. I told them that everybody acts like an idiot from time to time and if you can't laugh at it, well, you're missing out on a good laugh!

To me, I'm teaching trig, but more importantly, I'm trying to equip these kids for life. And that's what's REALLY important.

The Child has been going through this whine-mania thing. He will just commence to whining when he doesn't get his way. Oh, awesome it is!

Gonna run a little later . . . maybe?

Today I Had a Nervous Breakdown in Class (Essentially)

2008-10-06T22:34:00.002-04:00

Apathy is what I'm used to. People not studying, absolutely. But today a student told me that he had never seen or heard the term cube root. He became somewhat belligerent about it and I became somewhat belligerent about it. I tried to give him an out, "I know that you may not remember, but that doesn't mean that you didn't see it in Algebra I or II." He declared that he'd NEVER seen it. I then explained for about the fifth time what it meant. I had others who told me later that they didn't remember, but that after the examples they were on board (perhaps on "bored" would be more accurate, no?). Wow, I hate it when I get like that. Kids are supposed to be like that, but I just lost it.

On a good note, I went to Mrs. C.'s exercise room to do my workout today. She has a Health Rider. I did a little reading on line and it's not the best workout either, but since I've got quite a way to go, it will work for now. It is also a good thing to do on non-running days.

Tired and the lady who does grades wants them sooner and sooner and sooner. I love her, but the teacher work day is Friday and she wants the grades tomorrow. Good luck with that. I don't do it to be a pill, I'm just not through yet.

Yes, I am a big ball of complaints. I do realize that I really, in the great scheme of things REALLY have it good, so I'll shut my yap.

I Am a Marinating Fool

2008-10-05T15:37:00.004-04:00

I've got three different meats marinating in the fridge right now. Salmon in tequila-lime, pork chops in mesquite, and chicken in garlic-tomato-basil. I also was suckered in and bought one of those cheapish Reynolds air-sucker-outers. I have a friend who has the big, ornate atomic sucker outer that requires special plastic, etc., but I don't require that big of a deal. I thought that $10 was a pretty fair price to pay for seeing if it'd work. I smacked the chicken around a little with the meat-hammer, as I am fond of calling it. The other meat seemed okay without it.

It's about time to start cooking, so I'll holla back when I'm done. Later, tater!

Edit: 6:26 p.m. I have George-Foreman grilled myself into a frenzy. Verdict: The mesquite on the pork chops is just pretty much added salt and smoke flavor. Won't do that again. The garlic-tomato-basil is pretty garlicky, so it's not my favorite. It's still pretty good. I didn't try any of the salmon. I'm going to surprise myself with that tomorrow at school. All of these marinades started out in powder form. I chose them because all the pre-made ones have high fructose corn syrup as the first ingredient?!? This has driven me to the conclusion that I need to buy some spices at the local gourmet shop and make my own marinade. This will be a project for next week, since my meat situation for the week is settled!

A REALLY GOOD WAY TO WASTE VALUABLE TIME Okay, I'm not sure how I navigated to this page, but this listing of the top 100 of the past 50 years by Billboard Magazine is mesmerizing. Stevie B. really is a good singer. I hadn't thought of him in years. Also, John Lennon's "Starting Over" is pure genius. I remember hating it every time it came on the radio, but then again, I was around 11 at the time. Look through the list in descending order. I started at #1 and actually enjoyed the latter ones more than the top ones. There are some CrAzY ones in the list, but my sister and I took a walk down memory lane with it. Some of the ones that don't have a YouTube link actually are on YouTube, if you're interested.

Going to go finish my day. I've got to go work out. Mrs. C. has furnished a gym at her house that is open 24/7, so it's convenient for me . . . and cheaper than my current one.

May you all have an excellent week.

Shalom!

Edit: 9:43 p.m. It seems as if it's about 1 a.m. I still haven't done my lesson plans. I have been foraging like a bear going into hibernation. I've tried tea, water, and chocolate and "I still haven't found what I'm looking for." (Apologies to Bono and the boys. Incidentally, why does he wear windshield-style sunglasses? I don't understand this.) Ugh, I hate it when I'm in this mood/mode. I'm gonna wash some delicates and see if that helps.

'Night again.

Turpentine

2008-10-04T17:42:00.003-04:00

Well, I was in the Turpentine Festival Run, the inaugural edition this morning. It was a very nice course. A little hilly in places (This is hilly for south Georgia, which pretty much means not flat.) , but not too bad. I had a personal best! After not running all week, I managed to finish just under 45 minutes. I finished second in my age. Did I say there were two of us? I also got some turpentine and some rosin! Yay for me. (Call Charlie Daniels and tell him I'm ready to help him rosin up his bow!) I'm going to do another run in a couple of weeks, so I've gotta make sure to do my running in the next couple of weeks.

We have a work day next Friday, since it's homecoming and the end of the nine weeks. Since I have perfect attendance, I can leave at 12:30. Hooray, only I have to stick around to drive some of the homecoming court gals in the parade. And go to the game. Oh well, it was a nice offer.

I finally got the car tire situation under control today. The alignment was done today on the FOUR new tires. Ow, that really hurt. But I have a sporty car and it takes money to keep up the appearance, you know. Well, now if I can just get the short in the radio taken care of, I'll have it under control.

Okay, just so you know, I dropped the car off at the tire place and hopped a ride with Snoopy. We went to the run. She ran in about 30, which was slow for her. I know, right? We then got our prizes. We then hopped in the car, picked up my car, and hopped over to IHOP. I had an EGG-CELENT omelette filled with Swiss cheese, spinach, and mushrooms. Yummy. And, of course, pancakes. There was a short trip to WalMart and then I came home. A little Game Day, a little lunch, and then a BIG nap.

I've had a great day to be capped with washing of clothes and grading of papers. AWESOME!

A Tire and Some Perfume

2008-09-30T22:25:00.004-04:00

Wow, what an interesting day I've had today. I hadn't even heard of this today, but now it is mine. I LOVE it. Well, maybe love is a little strong, but wowsers, it smells good.

Prior to finding this lovely smell, I got a new tire mounted on my wheel thingie to take back to put on my car. Well, at least I intended to do this. Snoopy came and got me and we went to dinner and WalMart. Wow, does she know everybody. We went in around 8 and left close to 9:30. I'm tired, but I smell prositute-y because I tried LAMB (the Gwen Stefani fragrance) and something else which smelled old ladyish on me.

Oh My!

2008-09-29T21:33:00.004-04:00

This picture was not me, unfortunately. I did assume this position when I went to the parking lot and found the happy little convertible only 3/4 tired. I had the initial reaction of wanting to throw all my stuff down and have a tantrum. I resisted this, since the middle school football team was practicing within sight. I thought to myself, "Hey, I can do this. People do this every day. There is no reason why I can't do this." So I proceeded to the task at hand.

First, I took stuff out of my trunk. I then made myself aware of the process by reading the instructions. I then made sure that the jack would work. It didn't look as if it would, but it did. Anyway, as I was toiling, one of my "besties" (best friends in high school speak), Fiona, came out and provided moral support. . . and comic relief. We had trouble with the nuts, but eventually we triumphed. Then I put the spare on. I lowered the jack. THE SPARE WAS FLAT!!! AWESOME!

Well, fortunately, Fiona was willing to meet Supermom halfway, so I got a ride back. I also got dinner at Chili's and a trip to Mrs. C.'s to get the trusty Jeep. Thanks to Mrs. C. and her Mr. C.!

So, the tire, wheel, etc. is in my sister's trunk. I'm going to attempt to take it to a tire place tomorrow and replace it on my car. I need to take it in to the tire shop anyway, so I guess it's pretty cool that the tire went flat in the parking lot and NOT on the highway on the way to school at 6:15 this morning. I am so blessed!

Sunday Has Been Pretty Good So Far

2008-09-28T16:42:00.002-04:00

Today, I got up and ran. Yesterday I ran the furthest I've ever run and I did it at around 6:30 or so last evening. I knew I needed to do some mileage. I decided that the regular 3.5 was appropriate. I went out and did it. I wound up walking the last 1/2 to 3/4 mile. I was kind of sore and out of breath. I think I'll probably do Nordic Track tomorrow.

I think probably 3.5 Tuesday and Wednesday will be appropriate. Then rest Thursday and Friday? I'm not sure. The last 5K I was in I couldn't even run the whole thing.

I've got to go, since I have a TON of papers to grade.

Good luck and Godspeed, y'all!

The Moral of the Story

2008-09-27T11:20:00.005-04:00

The moral of the story is if you run enough, you can eat pretty much what you want (within reason) and lose weight. Granted, I'm not rolling up to Mickey D.'s to have the Big Mac Extra Value Meal, but I've been less than stringent this week. I thought I could've gained about pounds, but I lost 1.2. Yep, not just one, but one point two. EXCELLENT. I am loving the running thing. It has also become my personal mission to tell people who run that "Green Light" by John Legend with or featuring Andre 3000 is a GREAT song to run to.

Secondarily, I spent a second Saturday with Mrs. C. at Starbucks. My sister joined us this time. Loving the Starbucks oatmeal. I know it's a little pricey, but it's nice to have something while sipping on a latte that will stick with you throughout the day.

School has been good. Friday was a senior-proclaimed senior skip day. So incredibly stupid. You're failing trig and midterms are coming up. I know what'd be great; let's not go to class on Friday! But it's my fault they're not passing! Have I mentioned that some people STILL haven't memorized the information on the unit circle which was introduced week 2 of class? That was almost 7 weeks ago. Wowsers, is high school annoying sometimes?!?

Next Saturday is a 5K for me!! The first since I've actually been able to run the whole thing, so barring some unforseen trauma, I'll absolutely have a personal best. I'll keep you posted. There's also one on the 18th, so I'm totally geeked out.

Have a lovely day! It's beautiful here, so I think I'll go outside for a run. Training!

Edit: 9:07 p.m.

I went out and ran. I had an epiphany. I left a jogger, came back a runner. I sped up to maybe do a few intervals. I was running to the extended dance remix-y thing for "Umbrella." I kicked it up into a higher gear and guess what. Yep, I was running in a way that I could actually get away from somebody! It was amazing. When I got home, I wasn't even tired. I did 4.8 miles in 69 minutes!!! How awesome is that?!? For me it was nothing short of amazing.

Great day!

Happy, Healthy Me!

2008-09-24T22:51:00.002-04:00

Okay, I was able to drive with the top down today, which was very nice. I taught The Child the expression "not a cloud in the sky" today, too. Score on both. He can not only push the buttons, but he is very good at helping me latch the top back on. I'm sure he's a raging genius.

I ran outside yesterday and today. 3.5 miles on both days, running all but the first five minutes and the end bit. I feel as if I'm conquering the world. Love it!

I am going to stop here, since I'd like to go to bed. Planning on around 3 miles tomorrow. We'll see if they materialize. I may walk, just to give a little relief.

Hello Again!

2008-09-20T21:50:00.006-04:00

This past week has been excessively busy, since I had to stay at school late two days and stayed with Snoopy on Thursday. I had a gain of 0.6 at Weight Watchers this morning. I'm down 10.4 overall, though.

Today was a BEAUTIFUL day and very cool, so I went to the local university outdoor track to run. I RAN 4.02 MILES. This is WITHOUT stopping. I did a total of 4.69 miles. Did I mention I ran 4.02 miles? I'm totally geeked out about this because that's (obviously) more than a 5K. Losing weight makes it easier to run and running faster and more makes it easier to go run. I love this kind of vicious circle! I really didn't keep my meals as strict as I should have or I'd have lost this week.

I am still enjoying my car. It's so fun.

I've done nothing but laundry today, so at least I've been productive to some degree, I suppose.

Knowshawn Moreno is awesome. He's an awesome Georgia Bulldog. His style is very reminiscent of that ultimate bulldog, Herschel Walker. He was 34; Knowshawn is 24. I'm not the biggest dawg fan, but watching Knowshawn makes me SO happy. A. J. Green isn't too shabby either!

Thought I'd add my playlist from my run this morning:

Just Dance - Lady Gaga
Love Runs Deeper - Lindsey Buckingham
Fight for Your Right to Party (Yes, it's the same song.) - Big & Rich
Get Up - Ciara f. Chamillionaire
In the Ayer - Flo Rida f. Will.i.am
Mr. Blue Sky - Electric Light Orchestra (Maybe my favorite running song ever!)
Damaged - Danity Kane (I know, it's insipid.)
Green Light - John Legend f. Andre 3000
State Your Peace (live) - Hootie & the Blowfish
American Boy - Estelle f. Kanye West
Mercy - Duffy
Whatever You Like - T. I. (Good for recovery, but it will eat your brain. I'm still singing it.)
Umbrella (Workout Remix) - Rhianna (or a sound-alike)
Closer - NeYo
Get It Shawty - Lloyd
Champion - Kanye West
Dear Maria, Count Me In - All Time Low
Run-Around - Blues Traveler

Tuesday

2008-09-09T22:27:00.003-04:00

I am still on my workout regimen. I've had two really good days. Yesterday I ran 4.1 and today 2.96. It's very addicting. I'm liking the old endorphin kick. And, I KNOW there are people running it to death. My friend Snoopy runs ten miles in a clip routinely. Wowsers and props to her. But for me, a proverbial infant in the running world, I am liking what I'm doing.

The car is still AWESOME. And the gas mileage . . . INSANE! Over 30 mpg!!! Can it get any better?!?

Dude, who left and went to France, is back! I'm going to have a lovely dinner with him tomorrow. I can't wait to hear all about his escapades on the continent.

I am rambling. I am tired, but for some strange reason, I'm not getting up to go to bed.

Peace out!

Excuse Me While I Completely Geek Out

2008-09-08T17:23:00.004-04:00

Okay, Saturday I went with my friend, Mrs. C. and her husband up to Atlanta. Why would you do such a thing, pray tell? Well, TO GET A NEW-TO-ME CONVERTIBLE!!!!!

Yes, I never knew I was a convertible person, but guess what. I SO AM!!! It is such a zen-out to have the top down and drive the awesome 20ish miles to work. And back. I was ready to leave school earlier today just because I wanted to drive my car. It's silver with a nice very-navy top. Oh boy!!!

The picture above isn't exactly it, but it's very close. School is good; working out is good. But the main thing going on now is driving the car! The Child said, "I can see the sky," when he looked up with the top down. I thought he was going to freak out when I took the top down. He was even more amazed when he was able to put the top back on the car.

Too cute!

Get Off Gov. Palin!

2008-09-03T20:05:00.003-04:00

Okay, it's official. This is even more ridiculous than I thought it would be. Mrs. Palin is an inept mother because her daughter has become pregnant? Really? It happened to my mother. She instilled the "correct" ideals to us. My nephew is the result of this. No reflection on my mother. It was someone else's choice.

And, having seen the US magazine covers last week and this week. Glory for Mr. Obama. Scorn for Mrs. Palin. I think she'll give an awesome speech. I'm DVRing it.

I was actually lukewarm about McCain until he selected Mrs. Palin. I think it was a stroke of genius. I'm looking forward to voting for the McCain/Palin ticket.

Sorry this sounds disjointed. I'm tired.

Stamp It "Redeemed"!

2008-08-24T13:01:00.007-04:00

Okay, I'm not the hugest fan of NBA players. I did enjoy watching the NBA Finals this year, but overall I'm lukewarm. I AM, however, super geeked about the "Redeem Team" getting back the gold for the US today. The fact that these GREAT players had to band together to make sure that the gold was returned to the appropriate country is what is so awesome. Kobe is awesome. (There, I said it.) King James was impressive also, but the SOLID player for the USA was Dwayne Wade. When both the aforementioned superstars were benched due to early fouls, he picked up the team. He's such a quiet leader.

I would totally be remiss if I didn't also give MAJOR props to Coach Mike Krzyzewski. He is impeccable in all areas that are important for a coach. He has major credibility in his years of success. He has done what few others (Coach Wooden notwithstanding) have done. He's a West Point graduate for crying out loud. Seeing him singing the National Anthem (or maybe mouthing it) was so touching, I think I felt a tear. The picture of him with all the team members' medals was also incredibly awesome. You can tell the respect these guys have for Coach K. I am not a Duke fan, but I am a HUGE Coach K fan.

Congrats to BOTH USA b-ball teams. Well done, y'all!

Edit:

Sunday 7:52 - I'm wondering about my use of notwithstanding. So a check to m-w.com which only confused me more. I'm still not sure. I meant excluding John Wooden, so if notwithstanding is appropriate, then okay, if not, I don't know.

Thank You, Tropical Depression!

2008-08-22T21:59:00.002-04:00

Well today was WAY awesome at school. All my blocks were scheduled for testing. Don't they say that God laughs at our plans? Well my fourth block was interrupted by, "Okay, y'all. Move to your tornado drill positions, only it's not a drill." Nice for a Friday afternoon. Well about thirty minutes later, we returned to our classes. My class said that there was no way I'd give the test. Well, I proved them wrong on that. Not because I'm mean, but because I wanted them to do as much as possible AND some of them will study over the weekend.

We wound up staying at school about 30 minutes over. You just can't, in good conscience, release children into a potential tornado. They can, however, act as if they've lost their ever-loving minds. I have attributed everything bizarre this week to the barometric pressure. Cuckoo-town.

I cleared my desk, mostly by putting it in my take-home bag. I dashed by Snoopy's and caught up with her, Fiona, and Shrek, grabbed my stuff and rolled home. I promptly spent a little time with The Child and fell into nap-time in bed. I got up around 9 and am now about ready to go back to bed.

Not Much Here

2008-08-19T19:12:00.002-04:00

Not much is going on today. I went to school, of course, but I'm exceedingly tired. I'm trying to choose between going to bed and going to the gym. I think sleep is going to win. Gym won Sunday and Monday. It's all about being fair, right?

See this <---? It's me in about thirty minutes. Nighty-night.

Golden Deliciousness!

2008-08-17T19:18:00.003-04:00

Hey you guys! This soup is delicious. I roasted parsnips (about 4 small), butternut squash ( a big 'un), and sweet potatoes (2 medium) for about an hour and fifteen minutes. I then put them in about 20 oz. of chicken stock. After letting it simmer 30 minutes, or so, I put it in the blender and (duh) blended it up. I then added 1 cup of fat-free evaporated milk. Then I added some cayenne pepper, not much just enough to kick my taste buds, cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg. It's thick and really hearty. I think I'm going to try to eat this cold for lunch tomorrow. It's such a pretty color, too. The sister thinks it looks like baby food, and I agree, but it's a tasty (that's t-a-s-t-e-y, if you're Fergie) treat! Yum!

A Little Update on the New Regime at my School

2008-08-17T10:31:00.002-04:00

I'm a little worried about the title of this one. It looks weird without the "my" capitalized, but possessive pronouns are with prepositions in the you don't capitalize without it being the first word thing, right? Not sure about that, but whatever.

Regardless, (or as Snoopy is quick to say, irregardless, knowing she shouldn't) I thought I'd give y'all an update. Well, there were the visits to my room by the new principal that were the nightmare type. One, when I was screaming at the kids about not talking while I'm talking. The next day he came in and I was talking about how some people are happy/perky like our added counselor versus the cRaZy smiley, happy people who are so extremely happy they either are heavily medicated or should be heavily medicated. These people irk the snot out of me. Calm down people, you don't have to be "Shiny Happy People" at all times. (Now Furry Happy Monsters are a totally different thing!) Put a growl on your face from time to time, just to prove you're human, for crying out loud! A student once got written up at our school because we had a substitute that was a crazy smiler. He told the assistant principal at that time, "Go ahead and write me up. That lady's just too damn happy." I thought that was hysterical. Of course, just before the quote was when the principal came in. Now, I could have walked over to my awesome Smartboard and said something about degrees, but if you know me, you know I couldn't. So I tied the story up quickly and without the quote.

I have become accustomed to the personalities of the principal and the assistant principal in their roles. I think that there was just a lot of stress on everyone to do well. Roger that. My trig classes are already kicking hiney. There's been yelling, screaming, and gnashing of teeth, but that's just me. Anyway, things are going quite well. Hey, that reminds me, I need to do my lesson plans.

Sunday. . . or What I'll Do to Avoid College Students

2008-08-17T10:02:00.004-04:00

Parsnips, nutritious & delicious!

After the mania of screaming the Phelps team to victory (the satellite came back, I suspect it was powered by the sheer awesomeness of Michael Phelps), I found myself getting in bed at 1:00 a.m. Since the lovely students have descended on our small town, I rolled out at 6:15. After a little waking-up process, I managed to get to WalMart at 6:40(Oh, how I hate them! But if you need Q-tips and shallots, where else can you go?). I grabbed the old pocket book and found it to be quite light. Yep, I had left my wallet in my gym bag. Hooray! Drive back home, get wallet, kick myself, say "I'm sorry" to Al Gore, and toddle back to WalMart. Now it's 7:00 and I'm starting to get a little edgy because there are more people there than I'd like.

I did find all the produce I wanted, along with some toiletries. Surprisingly, the produce, for the most part, did not look as if it had been resting up for a week-and-a-half. (Thanks, college students. They are good for something besides driving like bats out of hell.)

I'm very excited about a little project I have planned for today. Cooking. I'm cooking some black-eyed peas from dried, making some Fiber One muffins from the mix, and roasting some veggies for a lovely soup. Okay get this: butternut squash, shallots, sweet potatoes, parsnips, pumpkin (the only veggie from a can!), and a little evaporated fat free milk. These will be staples for the week. I'm very excited. I've never roasted these veggies before. I'll holla back with the results of these culinary endeavors.

Phelps Did It!

2008-08-17T00:08:00.002-04:00

Phelps is AWESOME. He has been SO good for ratings. He's been great for USA spirit. He is what this country is about. Diagnosed with ADD as a small child, with a family abandoned by his dad, his mom put him in swimming to get some of his energy out. I say, "Well done, mom!" The Olympics ROCK and I normally don't get that excited about them. Kobe and Lebron watched HIM. Go USA!

Several Items of Interest . . .

2008-08-16T20:17:00.003-04:00

Yes, I finally did it. I joined Weight Watchers. Ugh! I hate it. But I do know that if I follow the program, I'll lose weight. My sister joined about two weeks ago and has had success with them in the past. It's annoying, though, to have to go pay someone to monitor me. Oh well, a smart person knows her weaknesses, right and works within the parameters.

Also, I had a really good workout today, since I am bribing myself now with "Activity Points." I spent most of the day sleeping, so I didn't eat breakfast or lunch. I had a late day meal and then a post-workout meal.

The music for my walk/run went a little something like this:

Kick Push - Lupe Fiasco

Wait a Minute - Pussycat Dolls

Who Knew - Pink

Run Around - Blues Traveler

Hero/Heroine - Boys Like Girls

Time (Live) - Hootie and the Blowfish

Diverse City - TobyMac

Temperature - Sean Paul

Got to Be Real - Cheryl Lynn

You Get What You Give - Young Radicals

Hella Good - No Doubt

Heaven Knows - Donna Summer

Kiss Kiss - Chris Brown featuring (as all recordings now must be) T. Pain

We WERE watching the Olympics, but have lost satellite feed!!! Ugh, I hope that the AWESOME Mr. Phelps can get it done without two South Georgians screaming him on!

Well, on to something else.

Check out Darius Rucker's video. I've always loved his voice, but this song has a great hook.

Quote of the Day

2008-08-15T23:35:00.002-04:00

Overheard by me during one of my senior classes:

"I hate Hannah Montana, but I want me some Miley Cyrus."

I wish I could make this up, unfortunately, it's true.

More Trouble

2008-08-10T12:11:00.005-04:00

Okay, clearly I'm in a world of trouble or enough sleep is ruining my brain function. I saw the commercial for Beverly Hills Chihuahua. I found myself actually laughing at the promo and wanting, probably somewhere in the reptilian part of my brain, to see it. Yow. What is happening to me? I only wish I knew.

I'm now watching the rowing. It makes me want to go find a rowing machine. Wow, these folks are in awesome shape. The Olympics make me feel even fatter. Boo.

Something Is Incredibly Wrong.

2008-08-10T08:27:00.004-04:00

It is 8:30 a.m. on Sunday and I am up and watching (wait for it, wait for it) SOCCER. I hate soccer. It's the anti-American football. You can play for 90 minutes and then have a score of 0-0? Why even go out there? Now, I am an admirer of the physique of the general soccer player. Hubba hubba, to use an expression from the first half of the last century. There is definitely something that the conditioning for the sport does. I guess I've officially got Olympic fever if I'm watching soccer. It's brought to me with limited interruption by Kia Motors. Thanks, Kia for letting me see more soccer!

I just saw a thing on one of our weightlifters who had back problems, including surgery in 2006, Melanie Roach. Mighty inspirational!

I've got a ton to do today, including lesson plans, UGH! Later, y'all.

Coming Up for Air

2008-08-09T17:40:00.004-04:00

Okay, we started school with the kids a week ago Friday, so we've got six days under our belts. It has been pretty good, overall. The students seem to be more focused on learning (I know it's week one.). A great focus has been placed on bell-to-bell teaching. I disagree with this. Focus needs to be placed on bell-to-bell learning. That is what I've been working towards.

It's been a little difficult to adjust to our new regime. It's a deal where we've pretty much been allowed to whatever we want with very little guidance. My room is in the back of a secondary building, so there was very little traffic back there. We've got to have standards up, essential questions, and everything pretty much has to look perfect when an administrator comes in.

Don't get me wrong. I WANT my students to learn and I have been working from bell-to-bell. It's something that I've (with an exception or two) done the entire time I've been teaching. It's just that it feels as if administrators are coming in to "get us," not, as an administrator who left did, coming in to affirm that we are doing our job. It's the punitive tone that is very unappealing. It makes me feel very beaten down. It's not that I don't like the administration. I really don't have an opinion yet about them. I am pretty neutral about them. It's just that I forgot to do attendance for a block and got a very patronizing/inflammatory e-mail about it. Other people have been crawled about things that in the great scheme of things, don't seem very important.

I love my classes. I have two senior-level classes and one predominantly tenth-grade class. They are all very good. my favorite, I think, is my fourth block. This is actually GREAT because I look forward to the end of the day. Planning for me is first block, so it's kind of nice. It's not so good because second through fourth blocks are an endurance test.

I went to my friend Snoopy's house yesterday afternoon and found my friend Fiona there as well. We piled up in the den and proceeded to take a L-O-N-G nap. Fi was on the sofa with her trusty doggie and I was in a chair with a nice blankie, since Snoopy keeps her house cold. We then watched the end of Major Payne and indulged in a great bacon cheeseburger pizza.

Today, I got up a little before 8 a.m. and watched my nephew while my sister went to Weight Watchers. At about 11 a.m., I went to bed for a nap and slept until about 1:30, tried to call Mrs. C., didn't get her, and decided to go back to sleep. I then got up around 4:30. I am not going to have trouble going to sleep tonight either. I am so tired from school, it's not even funny. I sit down during first block (between trips to the main building) and at lunch, but that's it. I think that I'm going to go get fitted for inserts for my shoes. My back has been killing me.

I'm going to go fix some quinoa for supper. That may be part of my problem. I haven't been getting my quinoa quota met. Hmmmmm. Something to think about!

School Has Started

2008-07-30T01:02:00.001-04:00

Quickie here. School has started and I'm trying to get my stuff ready for the young minds! It is, however, at the expense of my blogging time.

Later, skaters!

I Did a Craft!

2008-07-24T10:24:00.003-04:00

Okay, I am not crafty AT ALL. But, I found this little bracelet at some random Hallmark store in the Altoona Mall. I took some pictures of my two nephews and the bracelet's makers have a website that will shrinky-dink them for you. The website is www.luckyfeather.com (I got the baby memories bracelet or somesuch.).

It was WAY easy to do, but did take about 20-25 minutes to shrink the six pictures I wanted to use. It's Granny's birthday present and, I have to say, it's the best I've done in years. I just printed the pictures out on my computer on regular paper. The packet suggests that you use index prints from your photo center. That's not a bad idea, but this bracelet is fine with regular paper. I'd say that it took me about an hour to do this. The payoff was great for me looking at it. I think Granny will like it.

There are five charms. You could put pictures on both sides, if you wanted, but I put the babies' initial (first name) and years of birth. I know that I'm gushing, but the bracelet is CUTE. It's got one of those really cute toggle closures too!

Weight

2008-07-23T10:38:00.008-04:00

Okay, I have come to a weird conclusion. I have weighed myself almost every day for about three weeks now. The wild swings in my weight are crazy. There's been as much as a 3-pound swing. That strikes me as crazy. I am large. I've got about 90 pounds or so to lose. I decided to weigh myself daily to see how much difference there can be on a daily basis. For about the last two weeks, I've been eating very wisely. I've discovered that if I eat a smaller dinner, that not only do I sleep better, I also seem to have more energy the following day.

Some of you may think that I am crazy. Weight is very simple. Just expend more than you take in. I've heard all about this. My grandmother always talked (read: nagged) me about my weight. She said that she always weighed within 5 pounds of 130. She said, "If I see the scale creeping up, I just cut back until I am back down to around 130." I totally understand this idea. It makes complete sense. But for some reason, I have not been able to implement it. I don't think I'll ever be down around the 130 area, because I'm just more comfortable a little heavier. I was in that range when I was in college. I had the unitard with the little "underwear" that you wore over it. It was hard core. Of course this was when "Home Sweet Home" was number one on the MTV countdown forever, needless to say that was YEARS ago.

Can I just say that if you have a few pounds to lose, take care of it NOW? It was so easy to lose weight when I was young. Your metabolism is your friend. Now, at age 40, it's quite a bit more difficult to shed the pounds.

I am on board with a newish eating plan including the awesome QUINOA, and more veggies. I am training for 5Ks since that season is coming up. I know that if I keep this up, I'll lose some weight, but I'm really good at starting these things, not so good at keeping them up. I'm keeping a journal of things that are good about this way of eating to help me realize how important it is to have good nutrition.

SIDEBAR: Last night I had a tasty bowl of quinoa (cooked in beef broth), black beans (rinsed and heated in beef broth), and two fresh small tomatoes diced up and thrown in. It was SO good. I just added a little cayenne pepper (don't really care for black pepper), onion powder, and salt. The tomatoes really brightened it up.

Well, to keep with the plan, I must go to the gym. I'm enjoying my last week of freedom until school is in. Grrrr.

(Edit at 11:20 a.m. -- I am losing my mind. I have told this stupid post every way that I know how that I'd like it all to appear in the Georgia font. Some paragraphs have acquiesced, others not so much. Sorry for the font change right in the middle. Boo!)

Training

2008-07-22T13:02:00.003-04:00

Okay, I am officially in training. I am going to do another 5K. My friend Snoopy has gotten me into this mess, and I won't forgive her for it! Actually, I'm really glad she got me started on this. I feel better than I ever have, well, since I was bouncing around doing aerobics in college. That was 1988.

Anyway, I am having a really good time getting this together. I am planning on continuing this when I go back to school next week. Since it's over 100 (degrees Fahrenheit) here, it's difficult to train outside. I do have to get several of those workouts in because the 5K is in about two weeks.

One More Farm Parade Item & Drum Roll. . . Pittsburgh's Children's Museum

2008-07-21T20:49:00.006-04:00

This truck was rolling on through the parade. I laughed when I saw the small sign below the tank.

Field of Dreams is one of my favorite movies. I like the license taken with the catch phrase from this movie.

After a bit of terror in downtown Pittsburgh and Snoopy lamenting that we weren't going to PFC Park, we were beckoned by fish on a stick. There were three to be exact, but here's one.

This is the Children's Museum. The back side is what must be a re-purposed Allegheny Post Office, or so says the historic places marker.

I really liked this detail on the former post office.

Okay, I have to tell you that I love Mister Rogers. It's almost to the point of obsession. I just know that he always liked me just the way I was and that was cool. Another cool thing was that he was the first person to introduce me to jazz, which I LOVE. My parents never played jazz in my house, so I don't know if I would've been so appreciative of it otherwise.

Mister Rogers memorabilia is located in a special part of the Children's Museum.

Here are his sneaks! I loved watching him take off his street shoes and put these on.

Made by his mom, Mrs. McFeeley, here is one of his zip-up sweaters!

I saw many a film on the illustrious (literally) Picture, Picture!

Oh yeah, it's the trolley.
As the placard says, here's the very gentle Daniel Striped Tiger. He was SO sweet. Notice he's wearing his watch!!!!

King Friday and Queen Sarah Saturday were there too!

Henrietta Pussycat has definitely seen better days, meow meow.

I'm still totally wigged out by Lady Elaine. Toot, toot!

My all-time favorite is X the Owl. He is SO kickin'.

Look at that expression on his face. Nobody rocks it like X! I think he's responsible for my elementary-school obsession with Ben Franklin.

The actual swing from his porch
The traffic light
The aquarium

Okay, I've totally indulged myself on this post, but the Children's Museum is WAY cool. More on that another time!

Exasperation . . . and then it was gone

2008-07-16T09:36:00.007-04:00

I am so exasperated, or I was. Some changes have been made at my school, which do not affect my job directly, but do affect me personally. To be wise, I shan't mention the particulars except to question. . . Why do people use businesses and public entities for personal get-backs that run counter to the good of the business or entity? Why is this allowed? The public has no idea what kind of foolishness goes on behind the scenes in entities they have concerns with. Although, sometimes they do know and don't care.

Good is often rewarded with evil, but that doesn't mean that one should stop doing good. I will go on, with a smile on my face, thankful for all that I have and all the wonderful people I am allowed to work with. I am even thankful for the not-so-wonderful people I work with because I have faith that things will work out for good. The funny thing is, the "hurt" person will be fine. It's other innocents that will be adversely affected. But personal issues and vengeance is obviously more important than the innocents?!?

It is nice to at least know where evil people are. . .

All this fell into perspective after I flagellated about it all day yesterday. I got up and turned on the radio to ESPN Radio (Is there any other radio?!?). Of course, "Mike and Mike in the Morning" is usually the first thing I hear. Today is the V Foundation Auction Day. Jimmy V is Jim Valvano, who was the basketball coach of NC State from 1980-1990, among other things. He took his 1983 team to the NCAA National Championship. He died of cancer in 1993.

Two months prior to his death, he gave a speech when he received the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage at the ESPYs. The speech is INCREDIBLE. You should bookmark it. It will help you re-focus on occasions when you are misdirected and spinning out of control. He truly puts it all in perspective. Please watch and contribute to the Jimmy V Foundation, if you are so inclined.

Please check out Jimmy V.'s speech.

More Trip to Pa

2008-07-13T15:28:00.008-04:00

These people were totally for real. I don't know if it's visible, but some of these tractors obviously are in parades routinely. You can tell by the little plaques on them that tell what year and model they are.

Lady tractor-driver is pretty cool. I like the tractor.

I liked the flower arrangement in the front of this tractor. Festive, no?

Front view. . .

Side view. . .

Nice RED wheels. Contrast was GREAT!

I guess I'm just over the whole John Deere thing, because I really am digging the orange and red ones.

This girl was riding the tractor with Paw-Paw.

Farmall, I didn't even know that there were tractors by that name.

For my friend Fiona, whose brother is named after this tractor!

Even Uncle Sam drives a tractor.

Check the look on the dog's face. It's as if the mother-ship has contacted him/her. "Hey Marge, I'm taking Rico to the parade. He's gonna ride shot-gun with me! Be sure to take the camera to the parade!" I'm totally glad I had mine there!

The funny thing is that this wasn't even a drop in the bucket. There were probably over 100 tractors and pieces of farm equipment in the parade. It was really pretty cool. . . for the first hour and a half! After the first 90 minutes, I was D-O-N-E!

Pics from the Farm/Agricultural Parade

2008-07-10T11:25:00.005-04:00

This was my ox-roast sandwich dinner. It's actually not ox, but I think it is roasted. It is beef that is kind of chipped up. There was some kind of seasoning that was kinda/sorta like sloppy joe, but no goopy sauce. The fries were quite tasty. I even made an exception to my no artificial-sweetener policy to try the tasty Ritchey's Diet Iced Tea. That was a HUGE bun! So delicious, I ate it all. Later, I wished I'd left some on the plate!

When I looked down the road, this was my view. Evidently, the farm parade is a pretty big deal.

I don't recall what this squirrel was supposed to represent, but getting a thumbs-up from a squirrel is pretty cool!

I didn't catch the names of these fellows, but I tip my hat to them. The jeep was restored and the gentlemen looked resplendent.

Never before seen by me, these were milk maids and dairy princesses handing out milk! I have witnessed the throwing of candy, but never the dispensing of milk.

The Ritchey's Dairy is very big in this area. We went to the ice cream store during the week, and I have to say they know what they're doing.

I Might as Well Face It, I'm Addicted to Quinoa

2008-07-10T10:12:00.005-04:00

With apologies to Robert Palmer, I am addicted to quinoa. It is DELICIOUS. I've eaten it almost every day since my return from Pennsylvania. I feel GREAT!

My favorite way to prepare:

1/4 cup of quinoa

1 "dab" of butter/Smart Balance buttery spread, etc.

1/2 cup of chicken stock

splash of half-and-half

2 "grabs" of extra-sharp cheddar cheese (shredded)

Melt butter (at a medium heat) in a small sauce pan (a really small one). Add quinoa and cook for about two to three minutes. (If it burns a little, it won't hurt. I did this the other day and it just gave a sweeter, nuttier flavor.) Next, add the chicken stock and let it come to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to low. I cook the quinoa for ten minutes then check to see if all liquid is absorbed. If not, I cook a few more minutes. Then remove it from heat, add the half-and-half and cheese and stir.

It's really enough for two or, if you're hungry, it's for one.

I also cooked 1/2 cup in chicken stock, let it cool and added cherry tomatoes, celery, and green onions, chopped really small. Then, I added a balsamic vinaigrette (just a mix of balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and brown mustard, whisked together). It was good right away, but wow, after marinating all night, CRAZY DELICIOUS!

Yum. It's almost lunchtime and that means some more salad!

Trip to Pennsylvania -- Part I

2008-07-09T17:07:00.011-04:00

Well, I am considering myself officially recuperated from my trip to Pennsylvania. Three days was what it took. It's nice to be back home. But, I would like to thank Snoopy for inviting me and driving me the WHOLE way there and back.

This was my lovely lunch from the trek we started last Monday. It was consumed in the Lake Norman, North Carolina area. The bun wasn't too toasty, but the sandwich was pretty good.

Later in the day, we stopped at a place called Fancy Gap (I think it was in North Carolina.) for gas. It was here that I got Fiona some things for her history class. Actually, I got her two shot glasses. One has generals of the Civil War and the other has all battles that took place in Virginia.

It was a lovely trip. We made really good time through Georgia, South and North Carolinas, and Virginia. I didn't think we'd ever make it through Virginia. I just checked the map. I thought we went through from east to west, with my lacking sense of direction. It was south to north. It seemed infinite.

It started raining/misting in West Virginia, through the tip of Maryland and into Pennsylvania. By the time we stopped in Pennsylvania, it had cleared up.

Once in Pennsylvania, we dined at the ever-delicious Bob Evans. I enjoyed a tasty dinner of breakfast. I had the healthy egg omelette with spinach, 1/2 as much cheese, and onions. I indulged in the home-fries. They were pretty tasty. I didn't get the before picture, since I was REALLY hungry.

We then arrived at her dad and step-mom's house in the hills of Pennsylvania. The area was near Altoona. Think Al-T(heavy on the T)oona. It was one of the most lovely areas I've ever visited.

Well, I was quite tired when we got there, but we went to WalMart to pick up a few things. I forgot shampoo?!? Snoopy's step-mom works there. She wanted something to do in her spare time. She started out as the quintessential greeter, but they moved her to cashier. You can't hide talent, you know! She's a wonderful lady and was very welcoming to a stranger from down south!

This was my lovely accommodation after watching the end of the Pirates game and a little David Letterman. The mattress was FANTASTIC. I probably should be scouting out a new one soon, but that's lower on my priority list.

When I awoke on Tuesday, this was the lovely site I saw while I ate breakfast. Their garden with water-feature. Everything up there was so lush and green. They are, as you can see, BIG TIME gardeners. Their yard is completely immaculate.

I am so NOT an outside person. I just happen to have a yard outside my home and someone else mows it. I haven't even wanted to take care of the yard and start some gardening, but this has made me at least THINK about it.

This is the view out the front of the house. The hills are so lovely.

Tuesday was the AWESOME agricultural parade. I can't wait to post some of the sights from that!

Later!

Quick Post

2008-07-04T10:41:00.001-04:00

Hey! I'm in the Land of the Yankee, Pennsylvania. It's BEAUTIFUL up here. Hills galore!

Pictures will be posted when I get back!

Puzzle Problems

2008-06-25T16:30:00.003-04:00

Hey, I am having trouble. I am sitting in the den, just chilling and surfing. Next, my sister comes in and starts organizing The Child's new puzzle collection. All of a sudden, there's an itching in my throat, you know, the one that is midway between both ears, with a point of intersection straight through the top of your head and perpendicular to the line from one ear to the other. Then the sneezing starts. I then asked my sister where these cardboard puzzles were manufactured. I think they must've been packaged by cats in China. I have this reaction every time I'm around cats. So therefore, I have determined that cats, maybe kittens, are manufacturing children's puzzles in China.

She then suggested that I take some kind of medication. I am not afraid to take an over-the-counter for such things, so I just did.

We need to start an initiative to limit kitty labor in China. There needs to be a group set up to stop the injustice. It is hurting kittens, their moms and dads, and most of me. No more kitty labor!

Down with kitten labor! Sound the alarms.

A Whole Post on Slogan Generator

2008-06-24T22:28:00.003-04:00

Realizing this is very stupid, I've started a brand-new post all to put in this:

My slogan generated by Blogthings: Delightfully Tacky, Yet Unrefined.

This is incredibly on-point. I must say Blogthings is awesome.

General Foolishness

2008-06-24T11:30:00.003-04:00

Hey, what's rockin' out there? I'm at my parents' house enjoying doing nothing. Let the record show that finally I've had a vacation day. I slept the latest I've slept: 9:12 a.m. Isn't that amazing?!?

I tuned on my player to listen to some music and it chose to play "Walking in Memphis" by Marc Cohn. (I think he's married to Elizabeth Vargas from ABC news and he was shot in a drive-by.) What a great song! Some country group tried to do this, but boo on that. It was kind of like some group trying to sing Michael Buble's "Home." Ruination! Leave it alone, I say. This holds about 94.8% of the time. Regardless, is there a more evocative song than "Walking in Memphis"? Can't you see where he's going and even who he's talking to? I really dig this, thus it's placement on my player-thingie.

Okay, Obama is on my nerves again. Why did he even say that thing about ". . . And did I mention he's black?" I don't want to not like Obama. But this kind of stuff is annoying at best and off-putting at worst. I understand that the best defense is a good offense, but come on. I am NOT not voting for Obama because he's black. I'm not voting for him for a multitude of reasons. I don't agree with most anything he's for. I am not for nationalized health care. I'm not for raising taxes on the "rich." I'm not for getting out of Iraq. And here's the bad thing. I'm not for Obama, but I'm not FOR McCain either. I just have more in common with McCain's way of thinking. What we really need is a good independent in there who would keep government's intrusion in private lives to a MINIMUM. Boo on that. I really have NO decision whatsoever to make in the election. Actually, I was more excited about the democrat race than I am about the general election.

How about the alleged showing out of Keith Olbermann pitching a fit for the "Meet the Press" moderator's chair? Now, let me say for truth purposes, and this isn't any secret, that when Keith Olbermann suggests that I zig, I would proceed by zagging 99.4% of the time. What is a grown man doing that sort of thing for? Anyway, he's just the same thing, only on the opposite side, as his arch-nemesis Bill O'Reilly. I can't watch either one of them. They are so ALWAYS right on everything, it's sickening. Now, do I think I'm on the wrong side of things? Obviously not, but I can have a discussion with people who have a differing opinion (often Snoopy), agree to disagree, and not think she's a total idiot for not sharing my opinion. How about we act like grown-ups for a while? I was just looking it up, and it seems that Olbermann didn't pitch a hissy over this. See here. I'd like to send out a big "my b" as my students tell me when they're wrong.