holiday tips

via Trinity.


1. Avoid carrot sticks. Anyone who puts carrots on a holiday buffet table knows nothing of the Christmas spirit. In fact, if you see carrots, leave immediately. Go next door, where they're serving rum balls.

2. Drink as much eggnog as you can. And quickly. Like fine single-malt scotch, it's rare. In fact, it's even rarer than single-malt scotch. You can't find it any other time of year but now. So drink up! Who cares that it has 10,000 calories in every sip? It's not as if you're going to turn into an eggnog-aholic or something. It's a treat. Enjoy it. Have one for me. Have two. It's later than you think. It's Christmas!

3. If something comes with gravy, use it. That's the whole point of gravy. Gravy does not stand alone. Pour it on. Make a volcano out of your mashed potatoes. Fill it with gravy. Eat the volcano. Repeat.

4. As for mashed potatoes, always ask if they're made with skim milk or whole milk. If it's skim, pass. Why bother? It's like buying a sports car with an automatic transmission.

5. Do not have a snack before going to a party in an effort to control your eating. The whole point of going to a Christmas party is to eat other people's food for free. Lots of it. Hello?

6. Under no circumstances should you exercise between now and New Year's. You can do that in January when you have nothing else to do. This is the time for long naps, which you'll need after circling the buffet table while carrying a 10-pound plate of food and that vat of eggnog.

7. If you come across something really good at a buffet table, like frosted Christmas cookies in the shape and size of Santa, position yourself near them and don't budge. Have as many as you can before becoming the center of attention. They're like a beautiful pair of shoes. If you leave them behind, you're never going to see them again.

8. Same for pies. Apple. Pumpkin. Mincemeat. Have a slice of each. Or, if you don't like mincemeat, have two apples and one pumpkin. Always have three. When else do you get to have more than one dessert? Labour Day?

9. Did someone mention fruitcake? Granted, it's loaded with the mandatory celebratory calories, but avoid it at all cost. I mean, have some standards.

10. One final tip: If you don't feel terrible when you leave the party or get up from the table, you haven't been paying attention. Reread all tips; start over, but hurry, January is just around the corner.

time flies, even if you're not really having fun

weird eh? I have 8.5 days of class left, since tomorrow I have the morning off for an appointment. My 11 class was like, you miss more time than we do! (which is funny, because they miss a lot of time, because they hate school, and also completely inaccurate; I only miss .5 days per month, plus one morning when we did the school matinee of our play). Anyway, I don't really give a shit. I'm getting much better at leaving lesson plans, which is good, because it really shouldn't be more work to take a day off than to go in and work yourself. Tomorrow, and for the next week, my 11s are working on a project for the novel Hunter in the Dark. I must say, I was pretty impressed with myself, because I could not find a blessed thing to help me teach that book. I had chapter questions, that's it. I made up a project with 5 choices, and I think there's something that appeals, as much as possible, to everyone. My 9s and I are working our way through The Outsiders, which is taking a pretty long time. I'm going to pick up the pace a bit and see if we can't get mostly done before the break. There are 5 chapters left, we should be able to do 2-3, I just have to speed them up and stop doing the stupid activities along the way. I have some good projects for them to do too, but we have to get through the friggin book first. As for the last day, we have an assembly all afternoon, but 3/4 of my classes are in the morning, so I'm just sort of hoping nobody shows up. We'll do something marginally relevant but holiday themed. It's a problem, because kids don't come because we don't do anything because kids don't come. See how it works?

I've got a good start on my shopping, I'm mostly done I think. I have to get some things for my dad, he's hard to shop for because he gives no hints other than socks, which really, he can only use so many of. I have a couple of ideas though, so I should be alright. Other than that, I'm pretty much done family. Friends are going to get warm wishes and hugs and cards I think, because I have about 40 cents in my bank account. This mastercard statement should be interesting.

On that note, we're not buying a house. It's just too much, and we have enough stress going on in every other area in our lives. Now, however, we have to find a nice, 2+ bedroom apartment that takes cats, and babies, and has laundry. Good luck to us! Oh, and that doesn't cost $1000 a month. If anyone knows of any, please pass that info along. Any time between now and March is good. I emailed our old landlord in Fredericton, but he has nothing for us. He was good enough to forward my letter on to a real estate rental guy, who is clearly an idiot, and sent me a link to a 2 bedroom that does not take pets and has no laundry. Useful. So we won't be getting in touch with him. Most of his other stuff is giant apartment buildings anyway, which suck.

ok, I'm done.

who needs power?

me. I do. You know what's annoying? Waking up to no power. Thus your alarm has not gone off, thus you find yourself with approximately 30 minutes in which to get clean, fed, and to work on time. Good luck. I was mostly clean, and semi-fed, and only a few minutes late, so I figure I did well. Turns out the school lost power early this morning too, and we almost had a holiday. That would have been a fantastic way to start the week! As it was, I had super rush this morning, and then, for the first time *ever*, forgot to put the emergency brake on in my car, and it started to roll away when I got out (and had of course locked the door). Luckily, the slope was not steep, so I was able to stop it with my enormous bulk, and get in to put the brake on. And yeah, p.s., the giant alien baby is adding significantly to my enormous bulk. I'm curious to see what my dr. is going to say the next time I go in. Although, my other preggo friend says she gained like 7 lbs in the last week, so I feel pretty good about myself, because I don't feel like I'm gaining weight, and have no scale to make me feel otherwise. I'm definitely gaining girth though. Good times.

In other news, the play is done. It was great, we had fun for the most part, it went well, but I'm awfully glad it's over. I have marking from like a month ago that I haven't gotten to yet, so I don't quite get my life back, but I can at least put off marking. Rehearsals pretty much have to be when they're scheduled for.

Has anyone seen the new cheese commercials? They're like perfume ads, and they're a little creepy. "Gouda, for her". People have too much time on their hands.

funny, and totally not work safe

click me. As I said to Mitch, who was kind enough to show me this site...it may be because I'm so very, very tired...but I laughed my butt off. I've only made it to the vegetable chat, but holy crap.

it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

seriously though. We had our first big snow this weekend, and it was great here, because I didn't have to go anywhere. Elsewhere, not so pretty. My parents lost power and had about 2 feet of snow in their driveway and a plow that wouldn't work. Snow though, I love it. It makes me think of cuddling up and being with family and all that other Christmassy stuff. And missing school. Mmmm..snow days. No 'teachers have such an easy job' comments please, I've about had it with those. You all are annoying, and until you have been / lived with a teacher, you just don't understand. Anyway, I got enough marking done to put together term 1 marks, and got all those badboys bubbled in last night, to hand in this morning. I got to come home today at like 4:15, which is early compared to when I have been / will be coming home recently / for the next while. Rehearsals are going like mad, we start our show next Wednesday with a matinee, and we have a lot to do before then. Come on down / up and see it! Or not, totally your call. I've updated the gift blog a bit, and will continue to do so, if you're so inclined to visit it. It's over on yonder sidebar.

some musical entertainment for you. Oh, yeah, obviously, the site has music playing, consider yourself warned. I have the other 2 cds, they're pretty good, so will probably end up getting this one too.

That's all my news. I want to go to a movie or something tonight, because I can. Shall We Dance is still playing, and I'm pretty sure the fiancé won't mind if I see that one without him.

too cute, and helpful too!

click

every time somebody 'pulls on the rope', Avon donates 10 cents to breast cancer research. Go, click, ya lazy bum! And tell your friends to do the same!

*sigh*

so much to do. I have this really strange habit where, when I get really overwhelmed with stuff that needs to be done, I just freeze up and do nothing. I think that maybe if I ignore it, it will all go away? It won't, that's just stupid. But, so what am I doing? Marking? No. Organising shit for the play? No. I'm blogging. I'm looking at houses online. I'm looking at pictures from my uncle's wedding this weekend, which was fantastic, and trying to figure out if maybe I'll do up a website for them instead of emailing the pictures all over the place. This is a short week, and even we teachers get Remembrance Day off, but we have a PD thing on Friday, the big provincial dealie. Might go up to Freddy to look at houses Saturday, and then have rehearsal on Sunday. Also, all of our term marks are due in by Wednesday, which would just be hilarious if it didn't make me want to cry. Then again, most things make me want to cry lately, so I shouldn't be surprised.

I should really go mark.

detes

frig, when you guys want something, you really want eh?


the detes, for those of you into this sort of thing: white gold, 0.41ct Canadian Diamond. mmm, sparkly!


I had gone out to supper with some teacher friends Friday after our PD session, to recover from the marathon of PD and Parent Teacher interviews. We had fun, I had a virgin daquiri, which wasn't very good because at Don Cherry's they use mixes for nearly all their drinks. FYI, Mexi's and Boomerang's make superb non-alcoholic drinks. Anyway, so one of my teacher friends was not drinking the non-alcoholic drinks, so needed to walk around a bit before heading home. Fair enough, I want to go to WalMart, and she suggests we also go ring shopping. She's already engaged, and I don't really think I need to ring shop, but what the hell better do I have to do? So fine, we go to Charm, and they actually have a few nice rings. This is unusual, because ususally jewellery stores only have one or two nice rings and then a bunch of big gaudy ones. So fine, I buy nothing anywhere and come home, the boy gets home about 10 minutes later. We chat for a bit, then he's in the bedroom getting his stuff unpacked and such for the weekend. I mention, in telling about my day, that I went ring shopping, and that Charm had a few really nice rings. He's like, oh, really? Yes, weird eh? He's in the room for another couple of seconds, then comes out and is standing behind me, I'm sitting on the couch, and he says, but were they as nice as this? and is holding a box with The Ring in it. I have to say, my immediate reaction was like, 'what are you doing??' because I just wasn't expecting that. I laughed, we kissed, I put on the ring, blah blah blah. Then later the boy, henceforth to be referred to as the fiancé, says 'did I actually ask you?' I say no, I don't think you did. So he says 'ok then, do you want to get married?' I say hmmm, yeah ok. haha.

So, there's your story, it very much fits us, I think.

And now, today I go for my ultrasound to see if I'm having 4 babies. Wish me luck!

boo!

Happy Halloween!

That's basically all I have to say. Nothing new going on, still busy as heck. Oh, yeah, and I got engaged. wooh!

seriously though, that's it.

things I hate

waking up 5 minutes before the alarm.
parent teacher interviews when I'm not teaching art, and people are actually going to want to talk to me.
that my fish tank gets dirty so quickly. it's a trade-off, the algae eater keeps the sides clean, but produces an inordinate amount of poo.
realising only after I am all cosied up in my pjs that it is garbage night, and having to get all that shit together and take it outside before I can go to bed.

edit: also, when I put a banana in my lunch, and it makes everything not in good tupperware containers smell and taste like bananas. Why is that? What makes the banana so powerful?

phewf

so busy!

I have just been running around like the proverbial headless chicken, getting things going for the play, trying to get done the roughly 1 358 239 things I have to get done by Wednesday for parent teacher interviews. So much to mark, so little time! It's true, it's mainly my own fault. I hate marking, and thus tend to put it off as long as possible. It's now been as long as possible, so, here we go. The only good news in all this is that it's a short class week, only 3 days, with Thursday going half to P-T interviews and half to PD, and Friday entirely for 'curriculum support' PD. Works for me.

I've been up to not much otherwise, trying to find some new and not too expensive clothes to fit into and wondering why none of my students has said anything about my completely popped out belly. It's intriguing. I'm not sure that I would have said anything to a teacher either, but I thought that maybe one of my somewhat, shall we say 'lacking in social graces' 11s might comment, or one of my theatre / musical kids might notice. I think it's more fun for me just not to say anything. Most of them probably won't even notice for a while, even though it's really quite noticeable.

Went up to Freddy for the weekend to see the boy and my sister, had a lovely dinner with the boy on Friday night at Luna, consisting of enough food and garlic to feed and ward off an entire family of vampires, and then a homemade supper of some kind of tasty but unknown meat at my sister's place on Saturday night. It's fun to live dangerously. We also went to see 2, count 'em, 2 movies. We're wild, it's true. We saw Friday Night Lights on Friday, suitably enough, and it was pretty good. Better than say, Varsity Blues, but with no whipped cream bikini, so I guess 'better' depends on what you look for in a football movie. Billy Bob did a great job of playing a normal guy, which I have a feeling is a stretch for him. We also saw Team America: World Police . Really funny, yes. Horribly offensive, yes. Offensive to Canadians, no! Sweet. I'm wondering how the Americans are feeling about it though, and the actors portrayed as puppets non-too-favourably. Drop me a line if you fall in to either of those categories.

That's basically been all the excitement in my life since I last posted. More detail about the preggo stuff on the preggo blog, again, leave me a note if you want to read it, I'm not going to post the link for all on the main page here. I've also had a cold for about a month and a half. It keeps going away, sort of, and then coming back with a vengeance as something new and less fun. It's right now camped out in my throat / chest / nose. I can only take stuff for the coughing, so it's getting mighty old mighty fast to have symptoms that I would normally just blitz with some Advil Cold and Sinus or an extra strength NeoCitrin. mmm...lemony.

I'm off to make supper and mark. wooh!

gobble gobble gobble

happy return-from-gorging-yourself-with-turkey day! I know I ate my share, and also had good-sized helpings of side dishes (my dad's stuffing and my uncle's cream cheese mashed potatoes mostly, mmm) and of course, dessert. Desserts, who am I kidding. Blueberry cheesecake, pumpkin cheesecake with whipped cream, apple pie..drooly drooly. My whole (immediate) family was there - aunts, uncles, 1st cousins, grannie, except for one uncle who lives in the states. My whole family is composed almost entirely of people on my dad's side, since my mom has just my grannie and aforementioned US uncle, and there are only like, 18 of us, but it's always a nice time when we get together. We had some death-match ping pong and a pretty fierce game of Taboo. Much wine and beer was consumed, and I had my own creation of blueberry punch with Sprite deal going on, so I didn't feel too left out.

I had an extra half day off for an appointment this morning, so only had to teach 1 class today, which was fantastic. Also, apparently my morning classes went well, with the exception of a couple of kids, surprisingly from one of my 9 classes, not the 11s who I was a bit worried about. Those 2 9s will of course be spending their break with me, one practising silent reading, one practising sitting quietly and doing work, since those are the 'responsible skills' (as the admin puts it here) that they seem to have forgotten in my absence.

All in all, a great few days, and it's not so bad being back to the routine. How was your weekend?

news

well, most of you know, but for those of you who aren't close, personal, in-the-flesh friends, I figured I should keep you up to date...turns out I'm 15 weeks pregnant. Surprise! That was my reaction too. haha. It's all good though, after the initial, wait a minute...2 lines? what the... Everyone's being really supportive and the parents are pretty stoked to be grandparents, so there you go. I go for my first dr. appt on Tuesday, and then an ultrasound on the 4th, so it's becoming pretty real now. I've also heard the heartbeat, which was incredible, and really made things hit home. There's a tiny person in there. I find the whole process pretty amazing, really. I know how it works, obviously, but really, how the hell? 1 cell, 2 cells, 4 cells...heart, brain, person! Crazy. I've been keeping a preggo-journal too, but I don't really want to post the link on here, since it's a little more personal and has names and such, but if you'd like to read, let me know and I'll send you the link. Some fun stuff though...the heartbeat, wow, and the bump (that's not from too many french fries, folks). Some of my pants don't fit! I'm hoping nobody at work notices if I just don't do them up all the way for a while, until I'm big enough to justify actual maternity clothes.

a little quiz (I'm 2%)

I've spaced it out a lot, because you're supposed to answer each question before reading the next, so try not to cheat.


This test determines human thought patterns. Humans fall into 1 of 2 percentiles: 98% or 2%. 98% think alike, and the remaining 2% stray from the norm.


Here's the test:

Just follow the instructions as quickly as possible. Do not go to the next calculation before you have finished the previous one. You do not need to write or remember the answers, just do it using your mind. You'll be surprised by the results...

Ready, Go....


How much is:

15+6
















3+56













89+2















12+53
















75+26















25+52


















63+32






Come on, one more...























123+5
















QUICK! THINK ABOUT A TOOL AND A COLOR!











Scroll further to the bottom...

















A bit more...
















(highlight the next line to see the "normal" answer, hidden for you friggin cheaters!)

You have just thought about a red hammer, haven't you????

If this is not the case, you a re among 2% of people who have
a"different" if not "abnormal" mind. 98% of those tested would answer a "red
hammer" while doing this exercise. If you do not believe this, pass it
around and you'll see. Be sure to put in the subject line if you are among
the 98% or the 2% and send it to everyone, including the person that sent
it to you.

so long, birthday counter

the 361 days makes it seem a long way away, so I'll take it down for now. I had a great time at my partay though! We pot-lucked, and I've been suppering mainly on left overs from that all week. Mini pizzas and perogies are a perfectly acceptable dinner. Tonight I had mini pizzas and homemade salsa. I thought about the guacamole too, but it looked decidedly sketchy, so I decided against it. I have nearly made my way through all of my birthday cake, and just remembered that I also have frozen mini cheesecakes to deal with. mmmmm. I also got presents, which I honestly wasn't expecting, I think I'm past the point where I expect anyone other than family to do things like that. I'm a big fan of gifts though, so it was great. The Fantasia part of the evening was also pretty good, although I didn't get the feeling that this lady knew her stuff as well as say, Jenn, or previous presenters I've had. Also, she called me Dawn at the end of the night, and let my cat out, but really, it was fun.

Tomorrow I've arranged my classes so they're all writing a quiz, except the theatre kids, but I can always think of things to do with them, they're a great bunch, and I could, any day, say...ok kids, you're running the show, and they would, eagerly, and it would be good. I don't know that we'd learn a lot, but whatever. Today the girl who did the warmup (named Hyde, pronounced Heidi, why would her mother do that?) had us play a concentration game where we all sat around in a circle with our eyes closed, and we had to count to 20. Tricky! No, but the trick was, we had to take turns, in no particular order, and if anyone repeated a number or went at the same time as another person, we had to start over. We never did make it, but I'll try it again once we've done some more concentration excercises and see if it gets any better. Anyway, yeah, quizzes for everyone, whee! Also, I've gone from having my class of 24 students in 113 English (remedial, for those of you on different systems), 3 of whom are modified to the point of not being able to even remotely follow curriculum in *any* subjects, 1 of whom we don't really know what's going on, but he's really weak, and hasn't been in school for like 10 years, and all but 3 of whom are just the weakest readers / writers / students I have ever met, with no TA support, to having 2 TAs! I'm so excited. I went and talked to the resource teacher, just to see about possibly getting some support in that class, got someone the next day, then today I had 2! I'm not sure if they're both here to stay, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Anyway, I have to now go make up the quizzes that are going to keep my students busy for tomorrow. Luckily, there's nothing good on tv tonight, because of the GD presidential debate. Hey, I'll save you the trouble of watching: don't vote for Bush! Sure, Kerry's no gem, but, and this is the only time I've felt safe saying this, but it really can't get worse. The country is in an absolute mess, it can only get better, or it will just collapse on itself and get sucked into the centre of the earth, leaving the rest of us to say, hmm, that was weird, and carry on. Of course, all the cool people would get out of there before that happened. Not GeeDub though. He'd be the first to get sucked in.

blah

so, still not much to report, I'm afraid. Tomorrow is meet the teacher night, where we all get introduced on stage and then go to our classrooms, then parents come through their kids' class schedules for like 6-7 minutes per class, and we run through the outlines etc for them. Good times. I'm mostly annoyed because ER premieres tomorrow night, and this means I'll have to stay up until midnight to watch it. Boo-urns. I stayed up late last night watching Amazing Race, and I'm just so glad for who won. It wasn't who I was really rooting for, but it wasn't who I was really rooting against either. I'll not say who, because I know some people watch it Saturdays in the afternoon when it's rerun.

I'm still struggling a bit with my 113 class, just because even though they're mostly good kids, which is fantastic, they just don't really care about anything. All the stories in the anthologies I have for them are just lame, about broken homes and that kind of bullshit that we assume, or somebody assumes, that lower level kids must be able to relate to and want to read about. Maybe for a story, but not for the year, thanks. We read a pretty good one today that I found in another text, and thus had to photocopy for everyone, called "Of Missing Persons". Anyway, I think we'll do a bit of resume / cover letter building for a couple of days, some more short stories, once I find some good ones, and then the novel. We're going to do "Hunter in the Dark", which seems decent, but I don't have any kind of activities for it, other than chapter questions and tests, and there is a surprising lack of resources for the book online. I have found a pretty good site for short stories though, here, if you just like reading them, or can use them for something.

Things overall are going well though, so I'm pretty pleased. My big plan for tonight is go buy bagels and cream cheese, and watch CSI: NY. I don't normally watch Miami, but I caught the premiere the other night, and they killed off my favourite guy, Speed. I am superpissed. Now I will make a point to not watch it. He was on Dazed and Confused, how could he *not* be the best character? I also have to clean this damn apartment sometime before the weekend, and at least partly before Friday evening when my mom and sister arrive, so they won't know I live in a sty when I'm here by myself. shhh! The party is still on, of course, and you're still invited, if you're in the neighbourhood! and have boobs!

in honour of the impending b-day...

I'm having a party! I figured this is the best way to get the word out, although expect real-ish invitations shortly. Saturday night, and you're all invited. Well, those of you who know where I live, anyway. It's a birthday / potluck / Fantasia party, so there's something for everyone! Anyway, if you're interested, which you should be, then come on down.

I(heart) parties!

whee! presents!

so, unless you're, say...blind, you've probably noticed the giant birthday counter up yonder. If you're the kind of person who might buy me something for my birthday, I have continued the tradition of the gift blog from Christmas time. enjoy, kids! I also have a bit of an announcement that a lot of you have heard, but the rest of you will get around my birtday. Whee!

wow

longest delay between posts ever.

I survived week 1 of my new teaching job, which is quite something, I think. I'm pretty freaking tired, and have been all week, but it's Friday, so I have 2 days to sleep. And to figure out what the hell I'm going to do for the rest of the year. Wooh! Feel free to provide ideas. English 9, 113, and Theatre Arts. I have basic ideas, but new ideas are always fun.

This weekend, as most weekends, holds no really exciting plans. Last night I went out to supper with some teacher friends and had fajitas, they're damn tasty. We had planned to see a movie but we took too long eating and chatting, and missed all the starts, so we went to Chapters and Starbucks instead. Probably a better, although not a cheaper option. It's not possible to go to Chapters and not buy anything. I think we'll go see Garden State this weekend. It's written, directed by, and starring Zach Braff, the funny guy from Scrubs. I love him, and this looks like a great movie, I'm really surprised that Fox made it.

I'm afraid the posts are going to dwindle now that I'm not sitting home on my ass 24/7, teaching hasn't yet provided much interesting blogger fodder. One of my students did, yesterday, point to another student in the hall and ask me, quite seriously, if she was my daughter. I told him I'm 24, so...no. Thanks though, buddy. He's like, but she looks *exactly* like you! That may be, but no. Unless I had her when I was 7, which is unlikely at best. I think I had a better concept of people's ages when I was in high school.

I'm going to nap and think about supper.

I'm alive

but only barely! I'll post more soon. I'm super busy being back to work, the admin are very tricky and schedule meetings all day so you actually have no time during this prep week to prepare for your classes. Sneaky! I'm very tired, and my computer is pissing me off, so I'm going to bed. Grant took his computer to Freddy, so I'm using my older crappy one, which is infected with some sort of spyware thing which sets my browser to about:blank and gives me all kinds of nice popups. I've run adaware, I'm running browser hijack blaster (which helpfully lets me know every 30 seconds that my homepage has been changed, and would I like to change it back?), and I've run hijack this! several times, but the damn thing just won't go away. I'm not using IE anyway, I'm using Firefox, but I'm still pissed off and getting annoying popups, even when IE isn't running. I want to uninstall IE, but can't seem to figure that out either, and I do like to use Outlook, which apparently needs IE to work properly. Can I disable IE or something? I have Firefox as my default, but when I click links from my outlook mail or click '1 new message' in Messenger to get to my inbox, it opens IE automatically. If you have any ideas, please help. I've searched for help, but everything seems hopelessly complicated, and what I can do, I've done, with no good results. I'm willing to play with regedit even, but the files I'm supposed to delete aren't where the help pages say they will be. Dammit! I may end up formatting, I don't really care, but I can't find my windows cd, so that's not so much an option. My computer, for some reason, will not install winXP, so I'm stuck with 98, which is fine, but again, I can't find my cd.