boo to being sick

(warning: long post!)

I should have listened when everyone said, in response to my complaining about my sore throat, 'oh, that's how it starts...'. Turns out, they were right. By the time I got home last night (at 10:30, having missed Friends because of the Grad Fashion Show..more on that later..somebody update me on what happened, please!) I was a wreck. Headache, fever, chills, sore everything. I called in sick at 9:30 last night, from school, and the lady I called was peeved that I hadn't called earlier. It's hard to get supply teachers for our school, it's in a rural area, and it's for a Friday too. Well, I'm sorry. I did actually feel pretty bad though, but I figured it was better to call last night at that time than to wait and see how I was feeling this morning (still terrible) and need a supply then. Anyway, one of my carpoolers reassured me with the fact that she's called in sick twice this year, both times at 6:30am. The one other time I called it was around suppertime, so I figure I'm pretty good.

I had to get up early today though, my dear sweet Morty is having some UTI issues again. He hasn't had any problems for about 2 years, and it doesn't look like it's too bad this time, but it's bad enough to cost $170. That's with new food and drugs, and an x-ray to make sure he wasn't blocked up anywhere...but also with a free examination voucher that I got when I took him in for his shots in the fall. I get overly emotional when I'm sick, so I'm sitting in the waiting room near tears because I'm worried about Mort. It only got worse when this family came in with their dog, obviously to put him down. I nearly lost it, I sat there and sniffled and dabbed my eyes until they finally called Mort in. The dog was pretty old-looking, and could be a rabid child-eater for all I know, but it's still really sad. On a brighter note, Mort's fine, but doesn't like his new food. Those of you who know Mortimer will find that pretty funny, because I've never known Mort to dislike any form of food. Before he had to go on his special diet a couple of years ago, he used to beg for (and get) a taste of everything. His favourites were yogurt, bananas, and hotrods. He still wants very much to eat all of those things, but they would mess with the pH balance of his digestive system. Or something.

The fashion show. It was a good time, I'll say that much. I was placed in charge of music. It was decided at first to use instrumental Disney songs. Barf. But, being a good little delegatee, I downloaded and burned a cd of music. It was awful. Ok, not awful, but painfully slow and impossible to walk to, especially for a bunch of grade 12 students who, for the most part, are wearing cute and/or very casual, fun outfits. So, next it was decided to use....something else. Nobody got in touch with me, I didn't talk to the woman organizing the show on Wednesday, and the last I had heard I was to try to find some cool, upbeat songs to use, so I thought on it all day Wednesday, and then took a couple of hours out of my night and made a great cd. I get to school yesterday, to find that the organizer woman has delegated some kids to make a cd out of karaoke songs ('the words are too loud and distracting'), which they have done. Now, I'm annoyed for a couple of reasons. One, I was already starting to feel like crap, as evidenced by my last post, and would have rather slept or vegetated than have made a cd. Two, it was a huge waste of my time and energy, which could have been avoided by an incredibly short phone call to me, letting me know my efforts were not needed. When I went to talk to the organizer, she just smiled and said she didn't think I would want to bother with doing it. The thing is, I was told to bother with it, so I did. Three, if any of you have ever sung karaoke or listened to a karaoke cd, you'll notice a couple of things that make the songs a bit odd. There is a good 10-15 second gap at the beginning of each song, where the words and the cd company and crap appear on the screen. When it's just audio, it's just dead air. Also, the songs still have the backup voices in them, so you're going along listening to your song, which once it has started sounds good, but then at the most unexpected time you get these random 'oooo's and 'yeah yeah's. Very strange. So, and really not just because I had made the cd, I thought mine was better. I had also put some thought into what songs could be used for different types of outfits, where the girls with the karaoke songs hadn't so much, but they were also limited with their selection of cds. Anyway, the cd they made ended up not working because it was burned on a cd-rw, which most not-new cd players don't like. So we used mine, I fixed all the handouts and things with the old song names on them, and the music was great. I got to control it too, which was fun. And anyway, now I have a fun cd to listen to with my classes.

I realized at about 5:00 that I hadn't eaten anything today, so I went to S'store to pick up a chicken for tonight and got an Iced Cappuccino at Tim's on the way back. Tasty. I also got myself an oatbran apple muffin, my favourite from there. I didn't eat it yet though. I had a neocitran and napped away most of the day, and am feeling marginally better now. It's also gorgeous outside, and I have the windows open to get some fresh air in. After my big adventure to Superstore though, I need another nap.

sick

literally. My throat feels like some giant prickly thing has moved in...rather unpleasant. I always get sick this time of year, but that doesn't make it any better, really. I feel like ass.

Rogers has been improving in my books lately. They came and delivered me a new modem the other day, then today we had a power outage, which for some reason fried the digital cable box. So they came and gave us a new one. Sweet. It's smaller, which in electronics necessarily means it's better, and way faster than the other one. It used to take a second when you would hit menu or info or page down, now it's instantaneous.

I'm staying late tomorrow night at school to help run a fashion show. I'm getting someone to tape Friends for me, CSI I guess I'll survive without, and if I'm not home by 11 for ER, I'm going to shoot myself. We came home early today because 2 of the teachers I drive with have interviews for the same job at a school in town. Awkward, no? I'm rooting for one of them, because she's been surplussed out of our current school, and she taught at this other school last year, but was surplussed out of there. Bad luck, needs to change. No word on jobs for me yet, not until the 10th, so I'm just waiting.

Best Pick-Up Lines. Or not.

"Are you a parking ticket? Because you have FINE written all over you.":

McSeagull's Restaurant

I made this! It's not fancy, by any means, but it does the job, and it is actually getting viewed, so I'm pretty excited. Please go admire the menu page, and let me know if there are any mistakes...I think I caught them all though.

it's pretty cold for looking so very nice outside. My apartment is all clean and tidy, and I'm having myself a nice big steak for supper. Right now I'm waiting for the Rogers guy to come look at my modem, it going offline quite often, like...whenever I look at it sideways. rrrg.

so bored

I'm cleaning the apartment. I've gone through 2 mystery boxes that have been sitting on the floor since we moved here in August. I went through my clothes, rehung some curtains so the whole window shows when they're open, and am about to head out to buy a shelf for my cookbooks, which are presently laying on their sides on top of the microwave. I need a more prominent display for my sweet Jamie.

This is what happens when nice weather coincides with my being bored, apparently. I clean.

I hate American Idol

I've seen a total of about 30 minutes this season, but it's just rediculous. The voters have serious musical-appreciation-deficiencies. That's all I have to say.

It's Friday, and I'm glad. I took my grade 11/12 class to the art gallery to see the graduating Fine Arts students' work, and it was really good, and good for them to see what they could be doing in 4 years if they chose to pursue further education in the field.

In less good news...sort of mixed really...my job is not up for grabs for next year. Not because it's mine, but because a teacher from my school who has been on leave for 3 years and taught art at some point (is not an art teacher, but then neither am I...) might be coming back, and might want the job. It's the only one available that she could do, so they have to leave it open for her. The whole thing sounded suspicious to me, but I've checked it out and for once, things are being done properly. I can't say that I'm happy to be out in the cold with nothing to fall back on, but this does save me the awkwardness of having to go to my principal and tell him that I really don't want to be there in the fall. It came at an interesting time though, because I had been putting together an order for some books and posters and thinking they wouldn't be much use this year, but they would be good for next year...that I could get used to the school and learn to just ignore the things I don't like or agree with, that I would probably be permanent next year and thus be more free to voice my opinion on things. Then I find out that's not an option. Irony, folks. The rest of the one-year contract teachers are getting screwed too though, only one of them even has her job posted, but because it's posted, of course, other people can now apply for it and will get it if they've got more experience. It's fair, in a way, but it still stinks. The rest of us don't have the option to even apply, and have to look elsewhere. Also, one other new teacher who got her permanent contract this year at the school has been 'surplussed' out, and has to leave. She was also thinking of going elsewhere, but to have the option of staying taken away is more than a little unsettling. I have to wait until May 10th for the next round of jobs to come out, I can't apply for the first round because I'm not on a permanent contract. This is good and bad, annoying but there might be even better jobs in the next round with all the shifting around. I'll keep you posted, as always.

I have no plans this weekend except to maybe clean up a bit. Only one new movie came out today, Man on Fire with Denzel. I don't have a real burning desire to see it. I wouldn't mind seeing The Prince and Me, or maybe 13 Going on 30 again. I'll have to find a date though. Any offers?

why I don't live by myself

I just made myself a wonderful supper of salmon and a sidekick. No worries, simple enough. I made the salmon in the little toaster/rotisserie oven. I listened and waited and did dishes while the timer on it ticked away the minutes. It dings, I go to take the fish out...it's cold. I have forgotten to plug in the oven. *sigh* The good news is that the Singapore curry noodle sidekick is absolutely delicious. I threw some raisins in for extra flavour, that must have been something my parents did when I was younger. It's good. So I'm eating that, waiting for the salmon to cook, again.

We did end up getting an xbox. It's really fun. I bought myself the Shrek game. It's fun, but surpisingly hard! I got really annoyed last night trying to put a bunch of egg-babies back in a nest, while Humpty Dumpty was beating me up because he wanted to teach them to fall off of walls. I've just now found the website, and was very helpful to find the 'tips and tricks' section, but it isn't all that helpful. It offers such advice as "Evil fairies are very hard to catch...because they are evil.". Thanks. Maybe I'm just retarded, but I find the game pretty challenging. I am still getting the hang of it, but I'm not sure if a younger kid would find it really easy or too hard.

Tomorrow we have grade 8 orientation at school until 8. Sweet ass. It's just me and one other carpooler who have to stay, so we're hoping to make it back here in time for Friends, since it's new. Apparently we're down to the final 3 episodes.


edit: my internet was just down for like, 20 minutes, so I couldn't post this. Rogers sonsofbitches. It's all good now though, and my salmon is darn tasty.

having a conscience sucks

and costs money. I stopped to get some cat food today. Now, I buy a giant bag of vet food, 8kg, which lasts a few months. It's pretty pricey, so I was pretty surprised when it rang up at $34 for the food and a bag of treats. I wait, check the receipt to see if maybe she punched in the wrong number, but no, it says 8kg. I still figure, something is wrong, they didn't lower the price $20. So I mention it to her, and sure enough, she has accidentally charged me for the dog food. I was thinking it was unfair dog food being so much cheaper, but then I thought, dogs eat a lot, so it's good that their food is cheaper. I did manage to save some money tonight though, Sears has their 'sears days' (as the Bay has its 'bay days') sale on, and everything is really cheap. Half price bras! That's a big deal, those things are friggin expensive.

well holy shit

I had a whole post done, but then Blogger did what Blogger does, and it's gone now. I talked about how I'm getting to try gmail from Google, about showing the movie The Shape of Things to my 11/12 class, about Grant going to Florida. I can't be bothered retyping it all, so use your imaginations, and find the links yourselves.
ha

how can you not love this guy?

he's so friggin cute.



I went to see 13 Going on 30, and it was just terrific. The theatre was *packed*, which was unexpected, but ah well. We ended up sitting very near the front, which took some getting used to, but it was alright. I don't know that it will win any big awards or anything, but it's worth it just to see Jennifer Garner and Mark Ruffalo. They have to be 2 of the cutest people on screen. I would definitely run away with Mr Ruffalo, if he were to come calling. I'm sure Grant would understand.

I'd also like to point out that my sister, as usual, found him way before me. She has this knack for doing that. I almost always come around, but I have to say, she's responsible for influencing much of my taste in music and movies. I have to say also though, her tastes have been straying a bit lately. hehe.

anyway, go see the movie next weekend.

yay, I can eat McDonald's again!

not that I ever stopped, but I did feel bad about it.

A while back, I posted a link to a story about a guy who ate nothing but McDonald's for a month. The link is dead now, but basically he just went to hell in a handbasket. He had to eat everything on the menu at least once, and couldn't eat anything else, not even water from home. It's now a documentary. Just this morning, I stumbled upon this little news bit, which I'll post for posterity, instead of posting the link, which will die.


Filmmaker sets out to debunk Super Size Me

WASHINGTON - A filmmaker has set to out to create a documentary that will attempt to debunk the documentary Super Size Me, which follows one person eating nothing but food from McDonald's for a month.

The director, Soso Whaley, is halfway through her own 30-day diet of McDonald's meals. She says she is feeling good and has lost five pounds.

"This experience has taught me not to think of food as good or bad," Whaley said. "Food is food, plain and simple. It's not inherently evil, and our only 'problem' is that we have been very successful as a species in learning how to create easily accessible food sources."

Whaley is an adjunct fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Once her month of fast- food dieting is over, she will compile the footage into a narrative.

Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me will goes into limited release in the U.S. on May 7.

Top 100 Movie Characters of All Time

according to Premiere Magazine. They've got quite a mix of characters in there. I haven't seen all the movies, but judging by the ones that I do recognize, I think perhaps I have some movies I ought to be watching. I was pretty excited to see Indiana Jones and Captain Jack Sparrow on the list, myself.

wow

I'm so tired. I've just been waiting for it to be 10, so I can go to bed without feeling like a total loser. Even though I've been nodding off on the couch for the past hour. I was just about to go to bed and noticed a message from Tiresa about big news from the dept of ed. They're cancelling the P.E.! They're going to bring them back next year, but at a lower grade, so at least 2 years of kids won't ever have to write them. For those of you not from NB, the P.E. is something you have to write in math and English in grade 11, a standardized test that is thus a bit of a farce, and not an entirely accurate picture of how you're doing in English or math. Teachers always end up freaking out a bit, and then completely teaching to the test, which is just stupid. That's not a test of the kids' comprehension; that's them knowing what's going to be on a test. Anyway, the fact that they're cancelling it is strange, especially now with the test only 2 months away.

This week was just awful. Meetings until 5:15 Tuesday and Wednesday, and then we had to stay at school for an entirely useless 'help your kids pick courses' fest until 7:30 tonight, where nobody even came to see me, natch. No wait, I lie, I had another teacher sit with me, and some kids that we both taught came to chat and ask us why we had to be there. Good question. A couple of good things did happen though. One of our supply teachers, who happened to be pregnant, went in to labour yesterday, on the last day she needed to get in order to qualify for maternity leave. We covered for her, of course, and were all very excited, and glad to find out everything went well and she had a little girl (she already had 2 boys, so yay). I covered one of her classes, and it was all grade 9s, who I know all of now, and they were all like 'oh, Miss S, we love you! are you going to be back next year? you're the best teacher! you have to come back!' and so on. Just when I think I've decided for sure that I'm outta there in 2 months, these little bastards make me feel guilty for even considering not returning in the fall. It's not entirely up to me where I'll be, I'm definitely going to explore my options. At the very least I'd like to be teaching a combo of art and something else, not just art. I also had my official evaluation yesterday, which went swimmingly, so if I'm still here next year, I will very likely get a permanent contract. Big load off. I wasn't worried, really, but you always worry a little bit when you know you're being evaluated.

I really have to go to bed now, my eyes hurt. Anyone want to go see 13 Going on 30 tomorrow night? There's a sneak preview.

*sigh*

well due to a miscommunication with the carpool this morning (not my fault), I waited at one woman's house while she waited here. I booted it to work, in my own car by myself, to arrive not as early as I wanted to, to photocopy a bunch of stuff for my 3 new classes. I got whistled at by somebody in my grade 10 class when I stepped out from behind the desk, but since I didn't see who it was I just ignored it. Plus, I was looking pretty hot, so who can blame him. That, sadly, was pretty much the highlight of my work day. New classes are exhausting. You have to go over all the rules and expectations, where the bathrooms, fountains, fire exits are, why they shouldn't throw scissors, why art IS important and how they can all pass if they put in some effort. 3 times.

So that was fine, I was looking forward to my prep and then to going home at a decent hour. Since I didn't have to drive anyone, and couldn't see staying late, I figured I'd be able to skidaddle. Wrong. There was a meeting for grade 11/12 teachers after school, which I won't bore you all with the details of, but suffice to say it was completely idiotic and not at all useful with all the stuff we've already done (PT interviews, progress reports, and report cards coming out this week). And, as usual, it was totally unnecessary that I be there. I doodled, covering 3 sheets of white paper. The music and phys ed. teachers, beside me, read the textbooks for the law class that's usually in there. They tell us we have to go, try to make us feel important, the 'specialty' teachers, but we're not, and we know it, and honestly, I'd rather be useless at home, or at least in my classroom, than be made to sit in a meeting where my input is meaningless. Good times. So I left school at 5:15, more than 2 hours after I sat my ass in the chair at the start of the meeting. And don't even think about commenting on how early we get out at the end of the day - we get only one break, in the morning, and lunch is 42 minutes.

I have to go eat some chocolate.

a collection of four chicken pieces. In the classical style.

Child Prodigy Compared to Mozart

Easter goodies / fun with photoshop

Happy Easter!


A little gift for the messengers among you.


My sister sent me this one, I've seen it before though.



enjoy!

Lucky me! Marks have to go in first thing Tuesday, which means I have to actually mark a bunch of stuff, tally them up, and then fill in bubble sheets. I really, really don't like the bubble sheets. We have to bubble in 2 comments for each student, which is stupid. I don't have 2 comments for each student. The choices are totally stupid, like 'finds subject diffucult', and there's no 'good', just 'superior' and 'satisfactory'. To me, satisfactory is almost insulting, so I try not to use that one, unless I want it to serve as a written *shrug*.

The Easter bunny found me this morning, at Grant's house. How did you all make out?

wisdom from the Mike's Hard box

If you lose your sense of direction, find your sense of humour.

Life is a mystery to be lived, not solved.

You'll find that all great ideas seem absurd ar first.

Looking back won't get you ahead.

(my favourite)
Mike's is hard. So is prison. Don't drive drunk.

amazon.com kicks ass

I know, supergiant companies are evil, but they just make everything so easy. And cheap. I managed to get 3 books (Bill Bryson's In a Sunburned Country and Notes from a Small Island, and a book for Grant), as well as the movie You Can Count on Me for like $50. Granted, there's exchange on that, but with free shipping and my mom coming up in a week, it's a great deal. The weird thing about them though, is that 'gold box' feature. Sometimes it seems to know me really well, like when it suggests a set of pretty green ramekins, or a DSL router. Other times it suggests these weird wine re-corker things, or like, an iron. Odd. I did just check my 'new releases' page of recommendations though, and they're bang on. I can't remember if I mentioned having watched My Life Without Me, with Sarah Polley, but I did, and it was great. You should rent it. Amazon told me to pass that along.

Grant and I are thinking about buying an xbox (yes, I'm thinking about it too). My question to you all is, do you have one, or do you have another gaming system, and what would you recommend? xbox seems to be a good price and have a good following, but I know Microsoft is sort of evil, and there don't seem to be many games. I'm pretty happy with racing games and Tetris, I'm more about fun / puzzle-type games than, say, Grand Theft Auto-type...pick up some hookers and beat them-type games. There's a system at Costco that's $300 for the system, an extra controller, the dvd remote set-up thing, a Star Wars / Tetris combo game (I don't know how those two go together, myself) and a racing game. Seems like a good deal.

My big plan for tonight is to print off my tests for tomorrow. I have to do 2 different ones for my 2 grade 10 classes. They're basically exactly the same, but with either 'period 2' or 'period 3' on the top, and a few questions changed around. My grade 9 one is all made up, and the 11/12 class doesn't write until June. As of tomorrow after school, I'm officially 75% done. Pretty crazy, this term went by super fast. Easter is this weekend...my dad's coming up for a day, Erin might be coming down, tough to say. I think we're going to have supper on Sunday with Grant's family. In honour of Easter, I bought myself a bouquet of tulips at Costco. I'll take a picture later, they're quite nice.

so not trendy

why is it that at American Eagle, all the clothes look like somebody has been wearing them constantly for a week. They're all worn and tattered, and wrinkly. Especially the guy stuff. I don't really like the 'new clothes smell', but I do want my stuff to look new. I can go to Goodwill for used shite.

all about posting

Lissa Explains it All
This little gem I stumbled upon a few years ago, and recently discovered it's run by like, a 14 year old, but she knows her stuff. It's really good to get you started, if you want to break away from the blogger templates, or just spice things up a bit. Figured I should give some credit.

My other 2 boyfriends.


this guy, I think, needs no real introduction.





this guy, we know and love as Mitch. I didn't want him to feel left out of my photo-love. He's very intense here, showing off his climbing prowess. This is one of my favourite pictures of him, which is lucky, because it's also one of only 2 pictures I have of him in total. Other than the naked ones. hehe.

oh, yeah

and I dyed my hair red. "spiced tea" actually. I like it, as do most other people I ran into today. Grant's parents were a bit shocked, but that's the way with parents. It's a wash-out, so in a couple of months I should be back to semi-original colour.

a treat for the lay-days

I am a comment whore.

Jenn says so.

so sue me.

Went to see Hellboy and Walking Tall. What to say about those movies. The first was decent, reasonably entertaining, but you won't lose anything by renting it. The second....well. I love "The Rock". I'm a little disappointed though, he was going by his real name (Dwayne Johnson), but is back to his good ol' WWE name for this one. May have something to do with the fact that the movie as a WWE production. Regardless, he's a hottie. Certifiable. And, as expected, he kicks some serious ass in this movie. He also gets his ass kicked a bit though. You know, keepin it real. It's 'inspired by' a true story, but I'm not sure how much has to be true for that description to hold water.

We watched Something's Gotta Give this weekend too, it was pretty good. Keanu's such a cutie. I couldn't really get past the 20-somethings going for old man Jack, but other than that it was good. I think we're going to watch Runaway Jury tonight. It didn't appeal to me at all originally, but everyone I know who has seen it said it's good, so I'll give it a shot.

In other news, I had guests in today to talk to my grade 11/12 class about pinhole cameras, it was pretty interesting. One of them is coming back Wednesday to help build the cameras. I'm pretty happy, because before I took this job, I had never even heard of a pinhole cameras. Don't tell my students! haha. I have to be honest, I'm not liking my job any better. I do love the staff, but the job itself, not so much. However, in 11 weeks I'll be done, and hopefully sometime before then I'll find out what I'm doing next year, and hopefully it'll be different! whee!

Music | Sarah's Edge

My sister has known this for years.

2 annoying things

Chocolate milk is good forever, right? But not really. I had some, and I guess it's been in the fridge for a while, because I just poured myself a big ol glass, and took a big ol swig, and it was NASTY. I've never had bad chocolate milk before, and I can't say that I'd recommend it. So yeah, gross. Not happy.

Also, my sweet boyfriend had this roommate who used his computer all the time. The computer was in his room, and this guy would just come in, like at 1am, and then apologize if we were in there. Yeah, no worries buddy. Anyway, in all his usage, this guy managed to rack up 2.7g of stuff. That's a lot of stuff. It's almost entirely mp3s. My sweet boy, being a sweet boy, has been not deleting the stuff, with the plan of burning it onto cds. The thing is, that would take a few cds, and I figure if the guy has lived this long without his stuff, he'll probably manage. I had to move it to the D drive so I can format the C...this computer came with the drive partitioned, so C is relatively small but has the OS on it, but also gets full pretty quickly. Especially when people are loading it with mp3s.

So that's my big plan for the rest of the evening, defragment the C drive. wooh! Yeah, and try to forget about that milk.

buy me this

Please.

edit: ok, the link doesn't work, but it's just to an Apple iBook, 14" screen, with an airport extreme card. I briefly toyed with the idea of buying it for myself with my income tax money, but then realized I need to do other things like pay off my line of credit and buy food.

actual news

imagine that.

Last week, I bought the new Norah Jones cd. Yes, bought. It's good. I listened to it in my dad's rental car, no problems. Imagine my surprise when I put the badboy in my car cd player, and it doesn't play. Not just certain songs, or skips a lot, or anything, it just won't play.

Rage.

Yes, the back of the case does say that the disc is copy-controlled, and may cause playback issues in certain players. To me, not playing isn't so much a playback issue, as a lack of playback altogether. EMI actually has a whole website dedicated to problems with these discs. Naturally, I went ahead and voiced my opinion, but surprisingly, I haven't heard anything back yet. I just don't see how the irony could be any richer here. I try to do the right thing, and pay for the cd, and it won't work. Apparently I can return the cd, but then I wouldn't have it at all, and I would still be angry. So, I downloaded some pirated software which overrides the copy-controls, and burned myself a copy of the disc. IT plays in my car. I'm quite tempted to make more copies and sell them to my friends, just on principle.

EMI can kiss my ass.

gulty pleasures

I have to tell you all about Hershey's chocolate filled Classic Caramels. I have a bag in my desk, and I snarf a couple whenever I have a chance. They're delicious. I'm not a big Hershey fan, I'd take Cadbury any day of the week, but I can't resist these bad boys.

I also harbour secret admiration for Phil Collins' music.

in other news

I bought an optical mouse, and I'm loving it. The mouse that came with this swanky computer sucked hardcore, so now we have a fancy light-up one. oooh! it's quieter too, all the better for playing minesweeper with.

details

as per G.G.'s request, some personal info. I try to keep the revealing details to a minimum, but so long as we're all keeping to a fake name / first name basis, I guess some details can't hurt. Most of the relevant stuff you already know, have gleaned from my random postings, or found out in my 100 things list. Maybe it's time for a new list? I'll see what I can come up with. I'm 24, I teach high school art. I'm trained to be an English or Resource teacher. I've been with my boyfriend for over 4 years now, and I really don't like the word 'boyfriend', it sounds very jr high. We met at university, he lived down the hall from me in residence. There isn't a really romantic story behind it, I'm afraid. We were friends, his roommate was my roommate's boyfriend. We started dating, I really did try to do the casual thing, but that's just not me, so after a few months of that we decided we were a couple. We've been living together for...almost 3 years now, but even that started out as just as more a 'we need to get out of residence and it's too expensive to live alone' than a 'whee, let's play house' thing. We moved in together in the summer; we (I) got a cat in the fall, and then another one the following summer. We've talked about getting married, but not officially, and aren't really in a big rush.

now you know.

whee! finished

almost. 6 hours of PT meetings is TOO MUCH! I didn't have a lot of people, probably about 15 altogether. Nobody is overly concerned with how their children are doing in art. Can't imagine why. I don't like feeling like my job doesn't matter. I'm not pity-hunting here, it's just a fact that to most people, my job has no impact other than to fill time. The courses are mandatory, but not required for anything beyond being in grade 9 or 10. You can fail all your specialties, I'm fairly sure, and still pass the year, because who really cares. You can't take the upper level courses, but that's not an issue for most kids. Anyway, I'm nearly 3/4 done the year. I don't know what I'll be doing next year; I'm going to do some looking around. Grant is applying for jobs all over the place, so maybe he'll get some swanky high-paying job and I'll just leave with him. maybe.

Tomorrow is PD. I'm exhausted, so going to have a little nap. Nothing good is on tv tonight, except Survivor I guess. I love how shows give you like 8 episodes per year. Well worth the money those folks at Friends are being paid!

blech

We're in the middle of parent-teacher-athon. We had 1.5 hours last night, we have 2.5 tomorrow night, and another 2 Thursday afternoon. I had 4 parents last night, so I'm not expecting too much to come of any of this. People really just don't care about the art teacher, I have to say. Which is good and bad. I mean really, for the 9s and 10s who make up the bulk of my teaching load, the courses don't count for anything, so why should the parents care? It makes me feel mighty important though, I'll tell you that.

On a brighter and less tiring note, we went to see Taking Lives tonight, and it was pretty good. Jumpy, as I expected, but an interesting plot with a few twists. And you get to see Angelina's boobs. And Ethan Hawke's, for that matter. It takes place in Canada (Montreal), with mentions of Nova Scotia, Tracadie, Winnepeg, and Moncton. They are, at one point, actually in the Moncton train station, but not really, which was sort of disappointing, but as Grant pointed out, they probably do that all the time with US locations, we just wouldn't know better. Still neat.

I'm going to hit the hay because I have PT until 9 tomorrow night, and even if I'm not busy, it's still quite wearing. Thursday we have PD in the morning, PT in the afternoon; Friday we have PD all day, but I signed up for some interesting sounding workshops - media across the curriculum, how to start a school newspaper, and my favourite, 'dough sculpture'. That last one is designed for grades 6-8, but it sounds like a nice way to spend the afternoon, and my jr high art teacher is running it. My last PD day was a complete waste of time, so I tried to pick a little more carefully this time.

I'm plugging away at my book, I'm at the part where he's explaining how life started on Earth. Seriously, it's A Short History of Nearly Everything. Here's an sampling:

"In three minutes, 98 percent of all the matter there is or will ever be has been produced. We have a universe. It is a place of the most wondrous and gratifying possibility, and beautiful, too. And it was all done in about the time it takes to make a sandwich."

Pretty informative, and entertaining to boot. What more could a girl ask for?

good day

Today was a good day.

Most recently, I just marked the latest batch of projects from my grade 10s, and they're mostly fantastic. I got them to write children's stories; some of them re-did exisiting stories, and others made up the stories on their own. They're not all entirely appropriate for kids, but some of them are darn funny. I'm asking to keep several, just for my own entertainment.

Just before I settled down to mark, I filed my income tax refund, and I'm getting a good chunk of change back. I *should* be able to pay off my line of credit entirely, so I'm pretty excited. Now, hopefully, I can actually start saving some money for a rainy day. Or a house, or something.

Earlier today, I was with my grade 9 class, and it was going really well. This is a big thing. The grade 9s are funny, they're pretty sweet kids, but they're really immature. Anyway, so I'm just meandering around the class, helping them with their projects (they were needing a lot of help because we started a new project today), and they're just being nice and sweet and working really well, when one of them says 'psssssst, Miss S! you have a visitor!' I looked over to the door, but there was nobody there. As I'm panning back across the classroom, I see my principal sitting at one of the corner tables in the class, taking notes. My first instinct is YARG!, but then I realized that things were going swimmingly, so I just kept doing what I was doing, and he kept doing what he was doing, and then after a while he was mysteriously gone again. I have to sidebar here. Thing one, as a first year contract teacher, I am required to be formally evaluated by the principal. If I get a positive eval., then next year I can get a permanent contract. Without the positive eval., there's no way to get one. So that's why I was a bit nervous, but I think I did well. Thing two is that my principal is like 6'7", 300lbs, so they fact that he was able to sneak in and out is pretty funny.

One last thing that didn't happen today but I forgot to mention earlier. One of my grade 12s from last semester asked me to write her a reference letter to get into art school. I had never written a reference letter before, but thanks to my best friend Google, I found some templates and apparently wrote a pretty good letter. I was talking to her the other day, and she thanked me profusely because she got in! I was so excited, it made my day. I helped someone! Like, with life! I feel good. I still don't think I want to teach art forever, but this helps to make it seem like a good thing for now.

a little encouragement never hurts

I've changed the comment link to sort of push you all in the right direction. I need to feel loved!

whee, green day!

but alas, there are no mint milkshakes at McDonald's, so the holiday just seems lacking.

in other news, you should download this, even though I'm sure running it is sucking the life out of my computer. It's just too freaking cute. You should also download the new handwriting plugin for messenger plus, but do so at your own risk, because it killed my mom's messenger.

100 most often mispronounced words and phrases

I miss teaching English. I couldn't resist these, because people sounding stupid is a real peeve of mine. Thanks to D for the link!

for mitch

because he liked it so much when I dedicated a post last time. He's got a new website, and it's purty. Check it out.

all cultured up

I've been to the ballet! It was called Merlin, but was quite different from the only Merlin I'm familiar with, which is Disney's Sword in the Stone version. It wasn't, honestly, very exciting. The lack of dialogue and constant dancing make the plot a bit hard to follow, but it was interesting to watch just for the skill of the dancers. And the shirtless men in tights. There was a synopsis of each scene in the program, which I read before it started but had to refer back to a few times. It did nothing for my self-image though, I'm feeling like maybe I should steal my sister's pilates videos or check to see about adult beginner ballet classes. I'm pretty sure I'd make a kick-ass ballerina.

In other news, 13 weeks of school until summer, quite a few of which are shortened for holidays and parent teacher interviews and such. Jobs for me to apply for should arrive in about a month; I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to try for, I'll just wait and see what comes up. I have to finish up my marking, progress reports go out in a week, and parent-teacher interviews are the 25th, so I need to have everything sorted out by then. As usual though, I would bet that the parents who should come in, won't, and the ones who do come in, I'll have nothing to say to. That's of the 10 people who will actually bother to stop by my table...I'm just the art teacher, after all. I actually had people sitting and chatting with me whose children I wasn't teaching; they were just waiting for the line for the English/math/science teachers to subside. *sigh*. Gives me a chance to get some marking and doodling done anyway.

How to Clear The Messenger Sign In History

whee! Again, Google has saved me, since nobody left any comments on how to fix this one. It was just annoying, because Grant had the computer at school, so a bunch of random people had used it to sign in. This is what I don't like about XP, it tries to be too helpful and save things and do things for you, but it's not usually what I want it to save or do.

I just noticed a dead fish, gross. I think it's the one that was having the expanding stomach issues. Time to clean the tank!

In honour of St. Patrick

Did you know he wasn't even Irish? He was kidnapped by pirates when he was 16 and became a slave, I think. But then he drove the snakes out of Ireland, or something.

My mom sent me these jokes, and I laughed out loud. I'm allowed, because I'm part Irish, way back.


Into a Belfast pub comes Paddy Murphy, looking like he'd just been run over by a train. His arm is in a sling, his nose is broken, his face is cut and bruised and he's walking with a limp.
"What happened to you?" asks Sean, the bartender.
"Jamie O'Conner and me had a fight," says Paddy.
"That little shit, O'Conner," says Sean, "He couldn't do that to you, he must have had something in his hand"
"That he did," says Paddy, "a shovel is what he had, and a terrible lickin' he gave me with it."
"Well," says Sean, "you should have defended yourself, didn't you have something in your hand?"
"That I did," said Paddy... "Mrs. O'Conner's breast, and a thing of beauty it was, but useless in a fight."

===============================================

An Irishman who had a little too much to drink is driving home from the city one night and, of course, his car is weaving violently all over the road. A cop pulls him over. "So," says the cop to the driver, where have ya been?"
"Why, I've been to the pub of course," slurs the drunk.
"Well," says the cop, "it looks like you've had quite a few to drink this evening."
"I did all right," the drunk says with a smile.
"Did you know," says the cop, standing straight and folding his arms across his chest, "that a few intersections back, your wife fell out of your car?"
"Oh, thank heavens," sighs the drunk. "For a minute there, I thought I'd gone deaf."

=======================================================

Brenda O'Malley is home making dinner, as usual, when Tim Finnegan arrives at her door. "Brenda, may I come in?" he asks. "I've somethin' to tell ya".
"Of course you can come in, you're always welcome, Tim. But where's my husband?"
"That's what I'm here to be telling ya, Brenda." There was an accident down at the Guinness brewery..."
"Oh, God no!" cries Brenda. "Please don't tell me."
"I must, Brenda. Your husband Shamus is dead and gone. I'm sorry."
Finally, she looked up at Tim. "How did it happen, Tim?"
"It was terrible, Brenda. He fell into a vat of Guinness Stout and drowned."
"Oh my dear Jesus! But you must tell me true, Tim. Did he at least go quickly?"
"Well, Brenda... no. In fact, he got out three times to pee."

==================================================

Mary Clancy goes up to Father O'Grady after his Sunday morning service, and she's in tears. He says,
"So what's bothering you, Mary my dear?"
She says, "Oh, Father, I've got terrible news. My husband passed away last night."
The priest says, "Oh, Mary, that's terrible. Tell me, Mary, did he have any last requests?"
She says, "That he did, Father."
The priest says, "What did he ask, Mary?
" She says, "He said, 'Please Mary, put down that damn gun...'

====================================================

A drunk staggers into a Catholic Church, enters a
confessional booth, sits down but says nothing. The Priest coughs a
few times to get his attention but the drunk continues to sits there.
Finally, the Priest pounds three times on the wall. The drunk
mumbles, "ain't no use knockin; there's no paper on this side either."

How to display your web site logo on the address bar and in the favorites list

I love Google. I'm always so surprised if ever I can't find something on the internet. It's like...it's the internet, you know? If I can't find it here....

To see the icon, add or re-add (overwrite) this site to your favourites. It might take a second, but it seems to be working for most people! You may have to restart explorer too, and I have no idea if it works in like, Mozilla or anything. It's a bit of trouble, but it's so worth it! ha.

edit: Mitch helped me, he has a fancy icon for his page too. I would truly be nothing without him and his veritable wealth of knowledge and opinions about everything.

whee!

maybe. The address bar / favourites list icon thing seems to be working...or it was, then I changed it and deleted all my temp files, and now it doesn't seem to be working, but it might show up later, we'll see. Are any of you seeing it? I had to change it because the first program I used to make the icon put a watermark in it, boo. I think this one didn't, but I can't see it to tell!

still working on getting rid of the list of names in messenger.

needed: tech help

not really needed, but desired, I guess. Thing one. You know how in winXP, with messenger, it saves the whole list of people who have ever used your computer to sign on? That's annoying, do you know how to delete those names? I always have to scroll through a list of people who, in all likelihood, will never sign on here again. I'm lazy; what can I say.
Thing two. You know how some sites like Blogger and Google have cool little pictures beside their names in the address bar, and in your favourites, instead of the IE 'e' thing? Does anyone know how to do that? That's pretty fun.

The first week back from March break was killer, but is almost over. I know you don't have any sympathy for me, since I did in fact get a week off, but it's harsh. There's a reason teachers get so much time off. We'd murder students otherwise. Seriously. I had sort of a fun day today though, went to a trade/career fair with the grade 10 classes. It was much better than I anticipated, with lots of hands-on stuff for the kids to do, instead of the standard old people standing around with pamphlets. They had CPR dummies for the kids to work on, and they could weld, lay bricks, make little wooden things to hang on keychains or necklaces. Not all of the kids got something out of it, but it was a very refreshing change from the usual tunnel-vision focus on the 30% of kids who will be going on to university. I want there to be some kind of vocational / trade high school here again, I think it's just stupid not to have one. I'll stop before I get ranty.

I don't have any real plans for the weekend, it's snowing out pretty well right now, but I seriously doubt there'll be another snow day if there's anything less than 4 feet of snow down. We've had 9 days already. I realize it's probably because of what I teach, but I don't really mind. I can speed the kids up or leave out the less important things. Some other teachers agree with me; some thought we should have lost March Break to make up for it. I'm half done with my 3rd group of 9s and 10s, and I've got some absolutely amazing talent in my 11/12 class. I'm going to see if one of the girls in the 11 class wants to move up to the 12; she hasn't taken the 11 class, which is normally prerequisite, but she's just produces fantastic work, is in grade 12, and there's really very little she can get out of the 11 class. I've talked about it with the admin, and I've got to make up some sort of concrete criteria so that we won't have every other art 11 student trying to move up. Which is fair, and I think I've got it about done. The rules are strict, but I do have to maintain the importance of the 11 class, since most kids don't even think they have to take it in order to do the 12.

That was probably pretty boring for you, I apologize. I just finished watching Survivor, and I'm a bit sad to see Colby go, that's one less piece of eye candy for me. hehe. Plus, now that tribe is going to suck hardcore. I'm hoping there is no merge, that would be reeeeally funny. Just keep playing as a team, and now that you have only 2 good players, you'll lose, and you can all get voted off. Except Kathy, she can go to the other tribe.

The Matrix Reloaded: The Abridged Script

For Mitch.
I love this website, I'm so glad this guy's back. He also did an excellent job of The Matrix: Reloaded, which I hated, so loved his mocking it.

so sad it's funny

Have any of you seen The Surreal Life? It looks really funny, but mainly in a, 'haha, Cory Feldman!' kind of way. We're just about to start getting season 1 on MuchMoreMusic. I might have to watch. Apparently season 2 has already started, with such stellar celebrities as Vanilla Ice. I think season 1, with MC Hammer, Jerri "the Survivor bitch", and the guy who played Webster, is much more promising.

Pop Culture

I got 10/10

Supposedly, I "read a good cross section of newspapers and am constantly on the lookout for the next big trend." You all count on me to recommend movies and books and art exhibits.

Most of what I know about pop culture is gleaned from Friends, the Simpsons, and Entertainment Tonight.

Online quizzes

How Sexy Are You? I'm a siren.

I've been learning about myself this evening. Watched a decent movie called SLC Punk, but it's over and now Grant is watching hockey, so I'm doing quizzes on the Life Network page. So far, I've learned that I'm a super-sexy siren, but also that I need to let loose a little bit, that I need a hug, that I'm ready to have a baby (ha), that I should run, not walk, down the aisle (ha, again), that I have 'true romance', and other stuff that I can't remember anymore. I've always liked quizzes, even though they're horribly inaccurate sometimes. It's interesting to see how some formula figures me out. I'll let you know if I find anything really interesting out about myself.

lurkers

who are you? 166 people have visited this site since I switched to this domain. I know that's not 166 separate entities, but I think it is more than just the ... 6 people I can think of off the top of my head. Join in the fun, leave a comment or something!

signs of spring

for me, the first real sign of spring, other than the warmer weather and rain (which we've had lately, yay!), is Tim Horton's Roll Up the Rim to Win. I never win anything beyond a free coffee; I'm not sure what the big ticket item is this year. My theory is that in the warmer weather, people like myself who are more about the hot chocolates and mochas start to buy less, so they bring out the contest to keep us interested. It works, of course.

I'm still muddling my way through A Short History of Nearly Everything, but not because I'm a terribly slow reader. I've read a couple of other books in the meantime, to break it up a bit. It's all very interesting, but it's quite fact-filled, so a bit slow going. Recently I've learned that there are a lot of people who have discovered very important things and not gotten any credit for it, and that we are all here due in no small part to incest. Marie Curie and her husband Pierre both made outstanding discoveries relating to radiation, as most of you know. He started showing signs of radiation sickness but was, mercifully, run over and killed by a carriage before he could feel its full effects. Marie was not so lucky and died of lukemia; her papers are now kept in lead lined boxes and can only be handled when the viewer is wearing protective clothing.

more to come!

earth-shattering revelations

Next thing you know, men will be staying home and cooking, and women will be going to work!

From Erin.

new stuff

well, new to me. We now have the sweet boy's computer here, which is newer and much faster than my old one. Old Bessy has gone to live at Grant's parents' place until I figure out if I want to sell it or what. It's giving me grief about the modem, because I haven't used it in so long, and have formatted, and it doesn't seem to be installed now.

I've also gotten a fixed retainer put in, because my regular retainer sucks. This is much more fun, I don't have to worry about it and it just stays in all the time. Mainly because it's cemented to my teeth, on the back, so nobody knows!

I've been up to absolutely nothing lately, which I think is ok, and sort of the point of being on break. I have marking to do, and I will do it, but knowing me, probably not until the weekend. I'd like to go see a movie or something, but there's not really anything playing that I *must* see. I'm waffling about The Passion, I want to see it just to see it, but it's quite violent and stuff, so I don't really want to see it. Decisions decisions! My plan for today is to go buy School of Rock, because that movie kicks serious ass. I'm also waiting for Elf to come out. Hopefully they won't wait until next Christmas to release it.

off to eat, I've only had a bagel today and my stomach is complaining.

i (heart) march break

even though my big plan for the week is to go to the dentist and get my marking finished, I'm still pretty darn happy to be off. The wee ones get a bit antsy in the....3 weeks leading up to any vacation, so the past bit has been trying. I've managed, obviously; my saving grace has been my 11/12 split class, which is just wonderful. Mostly very talented, and mostly really wanting to be in the class (rather than being forced to take it or choosing it because it'll be easy or there's nothing else to fit in the timetable.

We're switching my old computer for Grant's new one, so I'm pretty excited about that. I had to clean mine up to make it run a bit smoother and get rid of any incriminating evidence of...anything. I backed everything up, it took 8 cds, but I was advised that this was the best way to transfer files, rather than using a USB cable, which I thought would be easier, but apparently takes hours and hours to do.

I know I've been a bad little doobie about keeping this updated properly in the past few days, but it's been sort of hectic. Now that I'm on va-ca, I promise to keep you updated on the minutiae of my days. I've changed the comments system a few times as well, you may have noticed. I'm back to blogback, because mine wasn't keeping counts, and the comment windows weren't opening reliably. Since I have no idea what would cause either of these problems, I decided to take the easier road and let somebody else host my comments for me. Please do comment, so I can see that everything is working alright!

I'm off to watch some tv with Grant, and most likely do nothing for the rest of the day. It is Sunday, after all.

old comments are back

not much else to report, more later, just about to watch a movie. the 'hosted by me' comments sucked, so I'm back to blogback.

vote for me!

I hate the gays! I want to change the constitution so that they can't get married! I *LOVE* war, and I promise I'll do my best to seek out more things for us to fight about. I'll put us even further in debt. Yes, it IS possible! I will run this country into the ground; I give you my word.

fuckin bush. I can't wait to hear his actual campaign promises. I think Oprah should run. I don't even like her, but she would do a crapwhack better than this jackass.

for those of you who don't get snow days

how to make your weekend feel longer. To get to the next page, click the eeny weeny 'next page' icon on the bottom right. I had to hunt for it...

so unimpressed

I hate Rogers, but what can I do. They've taken my website offline until the end of the month. I tried to make a redirect page, but I can't even access my stuff by FTP. This is stupid to me; they tell me my traffic is too high, then I download the bigger pictures off the server to downsize them a bit to slow the traffic, but in doing so, I increase my webspace traffic, and lose all access to it. WTF? I'm going to call them later and question them on this, and see if they'll allow me to just upload the redirect page, but keep everything else offline.

anyway, in a week it'll be back up but it'll just be a redirect page to this one, so y'all might as well update your links and bookmarks! Bonus points to Tiresa, who already has.

new comments

and, as with the rest of the site, I'm still working on it, so be nice. I've got the colours to match, and it seems to be working, of course, I've lost the rest of my comments, but s'ok. The counter thing doesn't seem to go past 1, but this way it'll be a surprise every time I check how many are there! I love surprises!

(always look on the bright side)

so, luckily I've had 2 snow days off school to work all this stuff out, otherwise I would have had to wait until the weekend, and I hate waiting. Yesterday was crazy blizzard stormy, I don't know how much snow we got, but it was a lot, and the winds were blowing between 80-100km/hour. Grant and I played a rousing game of Trivial Pursuit, and with the minor adjustments of some rules, I won! At times though, we couldn't even see the flag on the building across the street, the snow was blowing so hard. So that day made sense not to have school. Today...it was beautiful outside. I think some highways were still closed though, and a lot of people were still digging out, including most likely the busses and such, hence the additional va-cay day. Anyway, 4 day weekend, with more snow forecast for tomorrow and/or the next day, so we'll see what happens for that. People are all up in arms about all the time we're missing, saying we should start early next year and stuff, but this is unusual. It's not like we get 10 snow days every year. Last year we didn't get any 'snow days', but we did get time for the ice storm, when power was out to a large part of the city for like, a week.

anyway, I just wanted to get a proper post up here, keep you folks happy, and tell you all about my past few days and all the adventures I've had. which is to say...I've done nothing.

and on that note, a link from my sister. bang on.

pictures!

I just couldn't do it, new layout or not, I need pictures.

so

I'm so excited to have my own space! be patient while I work out all the kinks, mmkay?

this is what happens

When you type in my teacher name, you get redirected to this lovely site. Should I worry that my name seems to be associated with porn sites? This one's pretty fun, I have to admit.

still the favourite

I don't get many things right the first time
In fact, I am told that a lot
Now I know all the wrong turns, the stumbles and falls
Brought me here

And where was I before the day
That I first saw your lovely face?
Now I see it everyday
And I know

That I am
I am
I am
The luckiest

What if I'd been born fifty years before you
In a house on a street where you lived?
Maybe I'd be outside as you passed on your bike
Would I know?

And in a white sea of eyes
I see one pair that I recognize
And I know

That I am
I am
I am
The luckiest

Ben Folds - The Luckiest

I love you more than I have ever found a way to say to you

Next door there's an old man who lived to his nineties
And one day passed away in his sleep
And his wife; she stayed for a couple of days
And passed away

I'm sorry, I know that's a strange way to tell you that I know we belong
That I know

That I am
I am
I am
The luckiest

more loverly lyrics

this is a beautiful song I've done in a couple of coffee houses. the last time I did it sans accompanying guitar, but I think it was still good.

I don't know why
The sky is so blue
And I don't know why
I'm so in love with you
But if there were no music
Then I would not get through
I don't know why
I know these things, but I do

I don't know why
But somewhere dreams come true
And I don't know where
But there will be a place for you
And every time you look that way
I would lay down my life for you
I don't know why
I know these things, but I do

I don't know why
But some are going to make you cry
And I don't know how
But I will get you by, I will try
They're not trying to cause you pain
They're just afraid of loving you
I don't know why
I know these things, but I do

I don't know why
The trees grow so tall
And I don't know why
I don't know anything at all
But if there were no music
Then I would not get through
I don't know why
I know these things, but I do
I don't know why
I know these things, but I do

Shawn Colvin - I Don't Know Why

no more pictures

for now, anyway. I don't know what's going on, I got an email from my ISP saying that I'm at 70% of my allotted bandwidth for the month, and it's only the 13th (12th when I got the email). I've never had that before, so I don't quite know what's up there. I do know that the face site itself is quite small, so I figure disabling the pictures will do me for now, until I figure it out or get a real site running. Does anyone know how to check if people are linking to my pictures? That would be annoying.

anyway, it's Friday, and I need a nap, as usual, so off I go. more later.

I (heart) train

not new, but still good. I have to say, for all this hooplah I'm doing, I have no plans for v-day whatsoever. Tomorrow is pink and red day at school, so I have a sweater to wear. As for the actual day, nothing going on. I'm holding out that Grant is going to pull some fantastic surprise, but I can't see it, since we're broke and that's not really his style. enjoy the lyrics!



When it rains it pours and opens doors
And floods the floors we thought would always keep us safe and dry
And in the midst of sailing ships we sink our lips into the ones we love
That have to say goodbye

And as I float along this ocean I can feel you like a notion that won’t seem to let me go

Cause when I look to the sky something tells me you’re here with me
And you make everything alright
And when I feel like I’m lost something tells me you’re here with me
And I can always find my way when you are here

And every word I didn’t say that caught up in some busy day
And every dance on the kitchen floor we didn’t dance before
And every sunset that we’ll miss I’ll wrap them all up in a kiss
And pick you up in all of this when I sail away

Whether I am up or down or in or out or just plane overhead
Instead it just feels like it is impossible to fly
But with you I can spread my wings to see me over everything that life may send me
When I am hoping it won’t pass me by

And when I feel like there is no one that will ever know me there you are to show me

Train - When I Look To The Sky

classic love poetry

We're no strangers to love
You know the rules and so do I
A full commitment's what I'm thinking of
You wouldn't get this from any other guy

I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling
Gotta make you understand

Never gonna give you up
Never gonna let you down
Never gonna run around and desert you
Never gonna make you cry
Never gonna say goodbye
Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you

We've know each other for so long
Your heart's been aching
But you're too shy to say it
Inside we both know what's been going on
We know the game and we're gonna play it

And if you ask me how I'm feeling
Don't tell me you're too blind to see

( repeat)

Give you up. give you up
Give you up, give you up
Never gonna give
Never gonna give, give you up
Never gonna give
Never gonna give, five you up

I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling
Gotta make you understand

Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up

remember Robyn?

I sure do. That's where I got the new tag for my comments. It's funny, if you go to her site, and click on biography, it actually starts off with "Remember Robyn?". I still have her cd around somewhere, I'm pretty sure. I remember driving around aimlessly in high school listening to it on my portable cd player hooked up to the cassette player.

in other news...

I have no other news. Classes are going along, and though the worst of my jackass-y students got switched into another period, so he's away from all his jackass-y friends, he's now totally throwing off the dynamic in that class, and making it suck too. What to do? 13 more school days til March Break. I have no plans, other than sleeping in til noon every day. I have to go to the dentist one day, so I guess my plans are to sleep in til noon for all but one day.

I have to take a trip to Home Hardware and Dollarama to get stuff to facilitate poster putting-up in my classroom. I've resigned myself to the fact that I'm at least there for another 5 months. 4.5 months, I guess, but I might as well make the most of it while I'm there. I'm just going to buy some corkboard and glue it to the wall. I put in a requisition to have wood molding put up, in September, and haven't heard anything since, so whatev. Time to take matters into my own hands.

I think I'll keep this up

as long as I can find good quotes.


"Love each other or perish." (W.H. Auden, poet, 1907-73)


I actually found this one in Tuesdays With Morrie, which I finished, and recommed to everyone. It's a bit emotional, but you know what's going to happen, and it's ... just a good read.

Lovey quotes of the day

Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love.

Hamlet in a letter to Ophelia - William Shakespeare


also, a very lovely song by Melanie Doane, inspired by our dear Will...

Never Doubt I Love

in an age of troubles
in an age of uncertainty
in an age of dwindling hope,
you still have me

no matter where you are
no matter how far from home
no matter if you're lost,
you still have me
doubt that the stars are fire
doubt that the earth doth move
doubt truth to be a liar
but never doubt I love
never doubt I love

you may lose things dear to you
you may feel naked and alone
you may think you're losing your faith
but you still have me

remember when you're tired
remember when you're defeated
they can take all your dreams
but you still have me...

I know your pain I won’t pretend
serve God, love me, and mend

why

why is it that every woman on tv who is ever not feeling well, ends up being pregnant? it's annoying, unrealistic, I think, and makes me paranoid whenever I wake up feeling icky.

I have to comment

I tried to avoid it, but I keep being bombarded with this whole Janet's boob thing. Who gives a rat's ass? The Superbowl halftime show is hardly family entertainment, and it's not exactly on at a kid-friendly time. I think it was about 9:30pm here. Also, this was possibly an accident, and even if it was intentional, her nip was covered, so I really, really just don't get it. Do any of you recall a few years back on the Grammys, Britney singing "I Can't Get No Satisfaction"? She came out in a suit and top hat, actually looking pretty spiff, but promptly tore that all off to reveal....some see-through diamond encrusted number. Nobody complained. Kids can watch MuchMusic or MTV in the middle of the day and see videos with women in thongs, asses and boobs hanging out all over the place. Anybody watched a soap lately? Everybody's mekkin out with somebody, usually a different somebody every couple of weeks. Having a breast with a covered nipple exposed for roughly 2 seconds, and it was maybe that long, because I missed it, I was looking away from the TV at the time and didn't turn back quickly enough to catch it...just isn't that big of a deal. I think there are far more important things for people to focus on right now than whether or not Janet and Justin should be banned from this year's Grammy's.

This isn't directed at anyone specific who's reading here, but just the public, and I think the American public in particular...get a life, folks.

home remedies

just a quick, completely off topic tip about canker sores. Listerene works wonders, gets rid of them in a couple of days. Either swish or use a q-tip soaked in the stuff. I've read that rubbing an asprin on the bastard will get rid of it too, but that sounds even more painful and sort of gross, so I'll stick to the mouthwash option myself.

it's another quiet night here in my apartment. I'm watching the Wedding Planner, and I must be pmsing or something, because I've nearly cried twice. At a J-lo movie. Something is wrong with me. I had a khalua and milk, which was lovely, but now I'm out of milk so it looks like that's the end of my drinking binge for this evening.

damn, I'm boring. I find myself always counting down to something now. 3 weeks til March Break. 8 weeks til term 4. 17 weeks til summer vacation. During the week all I do is count down to the weekend, then when the weekend hits I count down to Monday. I think I'm obsessive compulsive or something. ah well. would it be totally lame if I went to bed right now? I've been just wiped lately. I go to bed at a decent time every night, have a nap most afternoons, and am still very tired all day. I'm taking my vitamins! I think I'll go to bed and read for a bit. once again, I tell you, the fun never stops.

rethink your pet food purchasing

Warning, quite upsetting. Why you shouldn't buy your pet food from Iams. Again, very sad, upsetting. You can just take my word on it that apparently the Iams labs are awful and they do bad and neglectful things to the animals.

hockey night

or day. We get to go watch hockey tomorrow during school. I'm not normally really excited for hockey, but it doesn't usually involve me getting some lazy time at work. There's a big tournament this weekend, so of course we get to go support the team. As far as supporting non-sporting events that might enrich our students ... we're not so big on those. For the sporting events they even make the homeroom teachers collect money and dispense tickets, keep an eye on their kids, get them to the busses etc. Not so for...anything else, really.

Can't complain too much, tomorrow is Friday, payday, and there's a staff 'get-together' in the evening. Tonight is all new TV, so I'm pretty excited about that. For now I just have to make myself some supper, then the shows will probably have started. whee!

mmm, Big Mac

go ahead, click. I just had supper there. I'm worried about my liver.

update coming soon!

I made a v-day layout, not to offend anyone who chooses not to celebrate this admittedly uber-commercialized holiday. I'm going to put it up in the next couple of days, I figure better early than late, this way I can take it down right after the big day and nobody will feel like they just haven't had enough of it.

I did a little v-day shopping today, although I find myself always looking over my shoulder, praying that I don't run into a student. That would be unpleasant. Or at least uncomfortable.

In completely unrelated news, remember the frighteningly fat fish? I don't know what was going on with it, I'm pretty sure it wasn't pregnant, because it was fat for like...months. Anyway, it's not fat anymore. It seems happy, so whatev. There aren't any baby fishes swimming around, but they tend to get eaten pretty quickly when there aren't good hiding places. Circle of life and all.

After 2 days of just ridiculous classes with one of my grade 10 classes, I had a super day with them today. It's unfortunate that it took a trip to the office and chat with the parents of one of the kids, but I guess they know that I mean business now, so today was super. We listened to Red Hot Chili Peppers and practised grid enlargement. I like to think that my being me had more to do with the change than the office visit; I start each day fresh with them, I let them know that I'm interested in how they're doing and that as long as they show me and each other some respect, we'll get along fine. The student I was having the hardest time with was the one who brought in the RHCP cd. The song 'Airplane' came on, and when I walked past his desk I asked him if this was the video with all the little kids singing in it. He *smiled* at me, and said he wasn't sure, he hadn't ever seen the video. He *smiled*. He didn't ignore me, or make some smart comment. It was like a civilized, albeit short, conversation. Anyway, this may all turn around tomorrow and bite me in the ass, but for now I'm really happy.

I'll keep you posted, as usual.

first pink sheet

I had to get a kid kicked out today. He was just behaving like a general ass, making rude comments back to me, taking other students' work, sticking his pencil in the ceiling tiles, etc. Anyway, he got kicked out of somebody else's class today too, so he's out for a few days I guess.

I don't have anything exciting to talk about lately! I'm not the only one though, most of my daily reads aren't daily-ly updated, so I don't feel too bad. Right now I have a wicked headache and am going to go nap.

edit: a pink sheet is just a form we fill out whenever we have disciplinary issues that the office needs to deal with. I think they're pink so the students can see them when we're filling them out and know when they're in trouble. haha.

rosemary mint body wrap

fan-freaking-tastic.

I got a salt scrub for my feet, then spent the remainder of the hour and a half lying on this heated water bed thing, getting exfoliated, moisturized, and wrapped up in thermal blankets. While I was wrapped, I got a foot massage, and a scalp massage with scented oil. Then she did my lipstick. She had a client right after me, but I went back after and got my eyebrows done, and they look terrific. $10 well spent. I actually considered buying myself some rosemary mint lotion, but it's $33 a bottle, and it's not a big bottle.

Last night I finised up my course outlines for tomorrow, then went to Chapters and sat at Starbucks for about an hour and a half, reading Tuesdays With Morrie and nursing a caffé mocha. I recommend any of my day's activities yesterday to you folks.

My big plans for today include making up a schedule for each of my classes, maybe buying a cheap dry erase monthly calendar for each class, and figuring out what the hell to do while people are here watching Superbowl. Wooh!

oh, yeah

and an update on the smoking rant, word on the street, and the radio, is that there will be a province-wide smoking ban by next year.
effin-a.

ooh, new hair! and sweater!

I know, I grow it and cut it. But I didn't cut it *all* off, and I really like this. It looks like I haven't just been growing it out now. (I look annoyed, but I was just trying not to smile like a jackass while taking a picture of myself. I really do like it) It took 2.5 hours, but that's with a fair bit of chatting, and I got some colour done too. Today I'm going to get a 'rosemary mint body wrap'. I'm not sure exactly what that entails, but Erin gave it to me for my birthday and I've just been waiting for a good time to go. I figure the start of 2nd semester is as good a time as any, really. I'll be all fresh and new for all my new students. That's at 12:30, I have to head out before that to get some cash money and see if I won the $30mill last night. I haven't checked my tickets yet, but I'm pretty sure I won. Seems fair. I'll share if I did win, promise.

I have to reiterate my love of Train. I've been listening to them, Sam Roberts, and Jack Johnson for the past week, and have been enjoying all 3 immensely. And of course, I have Erin to thank for pushing the latter 2 on me. They're all very sing-alongable.

I've been just ridiculously busy this week, getting all my marking done, cleaning my room up and just generally getting ready for the new semester. I took all the ugly tables out of my room except for some round ones on the sides, and brought in beautiful art desks that I didn't know existed until about 4 days ago. I have to tell you, I was pretty annoyed when I found out that they had just been sitting in a storage room down the hall from me. I only have 23, which isn't enough for all of my students, but will do for most. Some will prefer the tables anyway, and I'll have some students who will have a TA with them and will need a table as well, so it should work out just fine. Anyway, that's my lame excuse for not having updated all week, but it should get better now. I've also just not had anything to talk about that wasn't just complaining about school, and I want to keep that to a minimum. I might go see Cold Mountain next week. I personally don't think it looks very good, but it's been nominated for a bunch of awards, so I figure I'll give it a shot. I haven't heard any neutral reviews, it's always either excellent or terrible. We'll see. Grant's mom might be coming up to see Something's Gotta Give today, he's gone to Fredericton to get power bill money and visit a bit; I had to stay here for my hair and wrapping appointments. I'm excited!

I went to bed at about 11 last night, party animal that I am. I woke up around 9 though, so have actually had a productive morning. I cleaned the fish tank. Well, I changed the water and vacuumed the gravel, Cletus does a good job of keeping the tank itself clean. I have one fish that looks like it's going to burst, I've decided it's not pregnant, but I don't really know what to do about it. Grant finds it pretty gross, he wants to perform surgery on it to fix it. I don't think that would help, somehow. The cats really enjoy the tank cleaning, it freaks the fish out so they go all nutty, then the cats try to catch them through the glass. Good times. I should go shower and check my lotto tickets!

in other news

I made myself a fluffernutter, and had a glass of chocolate milk with it, and it was freaking delicious. I was out with Tirésa for her b-day supper, and had a good meal at Lonestar, so I don't hate it there anymore. I had only been there one other time and the food was gross.

I've spent the rest of the evening marking papers, some of which are great, some of which I don't even want to waste ink on for marking. That's to be expected though, I suppose. I still want to go teach kindergarten, for anyone keeping tabs.

I'm going to go watch tv and cuddle with a cat.

Yes. I do mind.

In the name of good health and manners, here is a link, some info from that page, and a rant for you all. Nothing specific brought this on, I've just been stewing on it for a while, and it's time to let it out.

The dirty facts about second-hand smoke.

Everyone knows second-hand smoke kills. Everyone knows. Yet many public places knowingly allow it to hurt us.
Second-hand smoke is poison. It's the deadly smoke exhaled by the smoker, plus the smoke released from the end of the burning cigarette.

It contains over 4000 chemicals, many of which directly cause cancer. Six of these chemicals are so dangerous that the North American Air Quality Rules say that no one should ever be exposed to them. And over 50 of them are so toxic, many of them are banned at any level in workplaces everywhere. Like 4-aminobiphenal - a substance so harmful it has been banned in the workplace for over 30 years!

Second-hand smoke causes first-hand illness. Lung cancer, heart disease, asthma, croup, Sudden Infant Death, miscarriages… need we go on?

Ventilation systems don't work. Research shows that ventilation provides no solution to the problem of second-hand tobacco smoke. In fact, it takes three hours to remove 95% of the smoke from a single cigarette.

Non-smoking sections don't work either. Even when the smoking is out of sight, it's still right there in the air we share. The smoke sticks to your clothes and hair, not to mention your lungs!

Second-hand smoke is the leading cause of workplace death in Canada. Employees who are routinely exposed to second-hand smoke have a 20% higher risk of lung cancer. Food service workers have a 50% higher rate of lung cancer than average.


Scary, no? Now for my 2 cents.

I think smoking should be banned from all public places, if not illegal. I realize the illegal part is a bit harsh, but if you think about it and perhaps compare its harmful effects to other banned substances, it begins to make more sense. At the very least, the laws regarding legal age to purchase need to be more strictly enforced, and there need to be laws brought into effect preventing 8 year olds from being able to smoke legally. If you can't buy them, you shouldn't be able to posess them either.

Why should you be able to smoke wherever you want? The whole, 'it's my right as a smoker' argument doens't fly at all with me. It is never your right to willingly and knowledgeably inflict harm on other people. What you want to do to your lungs, skin, teeth etc. in your house is your business, but beyond your front doorstep, you lose that privelege. I can't walk up to you and spray my perfume on you, you'd kick my ass. I don't mind the smell, but I understand that other people may not agree with my tastes. I can't walk up to you and punch you in the face, or even the arm. It's not going to do any permanent damage the first time, but it will leave its mark on you.

I realize that smoking is an addiction, and it's not just something you can stop doing at the drop of a hat, for most people. I have nothing against the people who smoke; smoking itself doesn't make you a bad person, obviously. Wanting to inflict your addiction on other people, however, is something I will have to take issue with. I apologize if I've offended anyone, but this whole debate is getting a bit old, and somebody needs to make a decision.

I love rootbeer! And kitty cats!

Random quotes from cute little girls are fun, aren't they?

We're in exam mode now, I marked today's and about 1/3 of the students failed. What a bunch of jackasses. I gave them literally everything they needed to know on 2 sheets of paper; all the answers to the textbook questions, and definitions for art elements and principles of design. I even made up a review crossword puzzle. I had one student show up today (who was at the review, and received all 3 of these useful tools) and ask me what the test was on. I really had to restrain myself from saying something very rude. I told her, and reminded her that she had gotten all 3 sheets on Tuesday. She got 0 on the test. Zero. Of course, she did fill in the crossword with "I luv _____" rather than the answers, and leave alll 3 sheets on her desk, but that's not really my fault now, is it.

This and a few other things going on with admin and the ridiculous way things are done, and not done, are making me hate work right now. I still like my co-workers, very much, and I still like the students for the most part, but the politics are just absurd. If I had to choose today, I'd leave this school and go teach elementary somewhere. Kindergarten.

Other than that, things are good. Jenn's coming back this weekend for a visit, and Tiresa's also coming down, her birthday is Tuesday and we're going out to supper at Lonestar. I've only eaten there once, and it was really bad, but I'll give it another chance. I'm a little sleepy, it's Friday, so I'm going to nap for a bit.

damn cold

Yeah, so this is day 3 of school being cancelled because it's too freaking cold to have the little winkies waiting for the bus or walking to school. I don't think it's really *that* cold out today though, but who am I do make these sort of decisions? We were supposed to start exams on Monday; I made up a terrific review crossword for my classes, on the elements and principles of design. Now Monday is a regular day, which gives me a chance to use the crossword, and Tuesday starts exams. I'm just hoping we still get at least one turnaround day, because everyone needs it! I have to photocopy all my exams, as will every other teacher I'm sure, so Monday should be interesting.

Tonight Jenn is coming over for her going away party...which involves just the 2 of us, some munchies, and a great deal of alcohol. wooh! I'm not sure if that qualifies as a party, but I'm looking forward to it. I also have to return the baseboard heater I bought yesterday, because even though I picked the least beat-up looking box, when I took it out it had a huge dent in it. WalMart bastards. I'm not sure if I'll bother getting another one or not.

The days are just PACKED with excitement!

Big Fish

Go see this movie. Grant and I went the other day, and it was outstanding. Very entertaining, funny, sweet, the whole shebang. That's all I can say really. Go see it.

Grenade?

I bought new scented oil to burn in my little....scented oil burner thingy. Anyway, it's orange pomegranite scented, and it's just delicious smelling. Mom and I were at Bowring and trying and trying to find what was smelling, the people were completely unhelpful, but we found it anyway, in potpourri form. I'm not a big fan of potpourri, plus the cats would probably eat it, or at the very least knock it all over the floor, so I bought the oil instead. I just wanted to share that with you all. Go buy some! Oh, yeah, and pomegranite en Francais is 'granade'. Interesting.

In other news, my car is at the doctor's; the speedometer is broken. You know how there's a little peg that stops the needle from going below 0? The needle on mine is below the peg. Magically. I wasn't out driving 240km/h...I'm fairly sure that's not possible in my car. So rather than just flicking the needle over the little peg (which I tried to do with a paperclip and failed at, leaving a paperclip in the dash), they've replaced the whole thing. Fine by me, as long as it's under warantee!

keep your pants on!

or not, it's your choice really.

I *have* been a bad blogger, but I've been pretty busy with end of term, trying to get my classes finished up, marking done, and exams made. I got a whack of marking done yesterday, I had after school detention duty for 2 hours yesterday, it wasn't very exciting, but was productive. I've finished my 9 and 10 tests, but have to do the 11/12 one today. I'm home on a 'cold day', it's -42 with the windchill. Supposed to be -46 tomorrow. Woohoo!

The most exciting thing lately is that Grant finally got his last mark, so we know he is actually finished school now. He was waiting on the ethics mark, and got an A+. Pretty smart guy! He also ended up on Dean's list this year, which is pretty good considering he was taking 7 courses. I think he should get a job for that fact alone.

What else. My sister just got a cat; his name is officially Teddy Bear, but that's a stupid name, so she might change it to Chester, but she's not entirely sure yet. My cats are still retarded, they were running around knocking stuff over last night, no good. It ended up being ok because there's no school, but it was still annoying. I have a fish that I thought was maybe pregnant, but I think more likely has some kind of tumour or something, it's gross. It doesn't seem to notice there is anything wrong with it, so who am I to judge.

My big plans for today are to call the dealership about my broken speedometer, make up a review sheet for my classes, and make up my last test. Good times! I'm reading 2 Bill Bryson books right now, still the one Tiresa gave me, A Short History of Nearly Everything, as well as one Grant gave me for Christmas, The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got That Way. They're not related, but I feel like I'll be a veritable ocean of useless but interesting trivia when I'm done. I already learned why we can talk but our pets can't, and that Captain Jean Luc Picard of the Starship Enterprise was named after a real astronomer. Neat eh?

It's drafty at the computer desk, so I'm going to move over to the couch. I'll most likely be back later, and possibly tomorrow if it is as cold as it says it's going to be.

for all you locals

and yeah, this is really the most exciting thing I have to report....Superstore has the 1L Paderno casserole pots on sale for $18.99, where they're usually like a million dollars. I already have that one, so it's no good to me.

check this out

I got this email from an unknown address, with the subject "hi Sarah" and opened it anyway, which is totally unlike me. Silly girl! But it turned out to be a very good thing.

A Picture's Worth is, as described by the site creator, "a simple 'show and tell' site that invites visitors to share their story behind a special photograph in 300+ words". It's non-commercial, run by a university student in Melbourne, and just seems like a really neat idea. I'll put up a permanent link here tomorrow, when it's not 2am, but you should all check it out and start trudging through your photos to come up with one that has a good story to share. And tell your friends.

That's it for now.

as promised

new pictures, same colours, stop your whinin'. haha. I think I'll keep this as the regular template and then do seasonal makeovers.

oh, yeah..

new template tomorrow or the next day. Promise.

better late than never

well I just couldn't let the year turn over without one last post. Just about 5 hours left here on the Eastern seabord, and I have to say, I don't really care. When I was little, or even just slightly younger than I am now, New Year's was a big deal. It was a hell of an excuse for a party, at the very least. Now...I just don't see what the big deal is. Am I too cynical? Whatev, Grant and I are just chillin', having a nice chicken supper and perhaps getting drunk together. Wooh!

Christmas was nice, I never went through the stage where I didn't want to hang out with my parents, and I don't think it's going to come along at this point. I got to spend some time with my Grannie before my parents and sister arrived, which was pretty cool. I don't go visit near as much as I should. I think I forget that she's 75, because she doesn't really act it at all. She has a better social life than I do, goes on trips and has bridge nights and whatnot. Pretty happenin' chick. Anyway, presents were great all around, I got a bunch of stuff and some money from santa, which is always appreciated. I'm going to stick most of the money in my savings, but I'll take some to do some holiday shopping this weekend for a treat. I got 2 glass balls, a nice (non ice cream bucket) holder for kitchen utensils, a new set of utensils, a stand mixer, a pair of Levis, new flanner pjs, Sheryl Crow's new cd, and some very nice books. I'm sure I'm leaving stuff out, but I don't have my loot in front of me, so forgive me! I splurged a bit on my shopping, but I just kept finding things that I thought people on my list needed, so what can you do. I still need to have Christmas with Jenn who has some pretty exciting news of her own, and I picked up a little something for Calleen and made a (very, I promise) little something for Tiresa, so whenever I see them I'll deliver those.

The chicken is smelling done, and there are potatoes to mash and a half full Mike's Hard Limonade to drink, so I'm off.
Happy New Year to all! Just because *I* don't really care, doesn't mean you all shouldn't have fun! I promise I'll be back more in the new year, I'm back on highspeed, so all is well.

it's beginning to look...nothing like Christmas

well, not outside anyway. I'm in Halifax, and there's hardly any snow, just some small piles where there used to be banks I guess. Not like Moncton!

Grannie and I decorated the tree last night, I put the lights on because this has somehow become my job, but I like it. It was sort of fun going through all the ornaments, because most of them have a story behind them. I suppose I should start a collection of my own, I'm thinking next year I'll get a tree for sure, I find it really makes it seem more Christmassy.

Thanks for the well wishes! I feel all warm and fuzzy. I sort of want to keep the Christmas layout all year, but I have a feeling I'd get tired of it eventually. Any requests or recommendations for the new year? I should really do a total overhaul, but I think I like this general style with the pictures. I should do something a la D and have random images, but I'm sure that involves some sort of code that I don't know, so we'll see. I'm holding out for www.goatsarebest.com, that way I'll be able to host my own comments and stuff, and upload obscene amounts of pictures!

I really probably won't be back tomorrow, because my parents and sister will be here, so best wishes to you and yours!

holidays!

I know, it's not nice to brag, but DAMN am I glad to be on vacation right now. I'm heading to my Grannie's house this afternoon, and will spend about a week there. My parents and I think my sister arrive tomorrow, and apparently we all get to go shopping Wednesday. Barf! I do have a couple more things to pick up though, so it'll be an adventure. The kitties are off to Grant's house for the holiday, so I've got their stuff all packed up, and the fish are going to be on a bit of a diet over the holidays, but supposedly they only need to eat every other day anyway, so they'll be fine, Jenn is going to come and feed them one day and Grant another, then I'll be home. I cleaned the tank this morning, I think they're happier now. Hard to say with fish. My one new guy is still kissing/cleaning my giant algae eater...I always assumed the big guy is a guy...and the new one is a girl (on some fish, I can tell if they're boys or girls!) ...what's Cletus's girlfriend's name on the Simpsons...Brandine or something? that will be this fish's name.

I watched Olive, the Other Reindeer with my students on Friday, it's such a cute movie. Sort of strange, but funny. Then the other night there was a funny funny show on called Robbie the Reindeer. There are 2 episodes, and again with the celebrity voices - Ben and Jerry Stiller, Hugh Grant...funny. Britney Spears too, but don't let that spoil it for you.

anyway, I'll be confined to ye olde dial-uppe for the next week, so updates won't be daily for sure. I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday, whatever your celebration of choice may be, from Christmas to just being glad to have some time off work/school. Enjoy!

100 things update..

sort of. I haven't actually updated mine, a la Jenn, but I was re-reading it, and my #7 thing is "I want desperately a job, a home that isn't in somebody's basement, a dog, and babies. Probably in that order.". That's sort of exciting, I have 2 things! They didn't go in that order though, I moved out of 'somebody's basement' before I had a job, but I really didn't feel safe living where I was by myself, so it was sort of a necessity. Then I got my job, and while it's not my ideal, it's definitely a step in the right direction, and will hopefully get me where I want to go. Then I can get a dog. And, at some point in the future, babies. ha!

That's my happy thought for today.