Just to clarify things...

We've gotten a few concerned emails and phone calls since my last post.  We really are not just going to move off with no plan at all.  If we have no teaching jobs by about mid-June, we'll find something--anything--that we can interview/apply for as soon as we get there.  We've got enough savings (for about the first time ever) to make it a few months without jobs.

I love you guys mucho mucho, but seriously it is not my plan to live in a tent in a horse pasture until someone calls to offer me a job.  Don't worry.

Dead Computer

The fan on my laptop stopped working, so the engine wouldn't even turn over.  Sorry, Target card, I missed that payment.  I couldn't get to my login information in time.  It would be no problem at all to move all of my settings to Tyson's computer with the miracle of Transfer Wizard or whatever Vista calls it, but my hard drive has been turned into a slave drive and I can't install the program.  And I didn't export my bookmarks before my computer died, so I'm having to find them again manually.

Ugh.  I think I'm done for a while today.

I am tired.

School has been in session nearly four weeks now, and I am pretty exhausted.  I am usually there from 6 to 4, then I come home, usually with more school work in tow, and make dinner (sometimes), clean up (on some days), do laundry, or just sit on the couch and ignore everything until I go to bed sometime between 8:30 and 10.  (I'm usually quite proud of myself if I make it into double digits in the evening.)

So for everyone bugging me about not posting, fuck off.  

And for everyone else (especially parents and in-laws), kindly pardon my absence from cyberspace.  

Posting just feels like too much work after everything else.

P.S. Deidre: Happy Birthday.  Your phone must be broken, too.

Hmmm.....

So my statcounter says I had 74 visitors last Tuesday, with a larger-than-usual smattering of folks trickling in just before and after. Unfortunately, I can't tell where they are coming in from because there's not anyone linking in from somewhere else.

It's more like someone is emailing a link to all their friends.

All their 14- to 18-year-old friends who go to their high school, says the paranoid part of my brain.

I sort of figured having, you know, my actual name in my url was one day going to make things awkward. So anyway, I hope everyone found the place okay, and never goes back to some of my earlier posts where I link to myself because I'm not going back and manually changing a bunch of dumb hyperlinks. Sorry.

Anyway, T and I are going to pick up the new adoptee-dog tonight. I will put up some pics and possible names very soon!

Excuses for my recent and prolonged absence

1. Busy. This summer I had more free time than I knew what to do with, and I spent about 6 hours a day in front of the computer. Now I spend 6 hours a day in front of a room full of teenagers, and the rest of my time recovering.

2. Lack of Interesting or Original Thoughts. I am not thinking or doing anything lately that a) I have not done before (and possibly failed at, anyway, like being able to buy skinnier pants), b) you would find interesting or care about (grading papers, making more papers, assigning papers, and grading them when they are turned in, and meeting with other teachers to plan, assign, and grade papers. Oh, and one of my classes won a donut party.), c) are not too gross to talk about, such as the discharge resulting from my cervical biopsy and resultant cryotherapy, or d) that I actually want to talk about, such as...

3. Being Depressed. Things have been bothering me lately, not the kinds of things I feel like going into here, right now, and usually I get over pretty quickly, but, really, most of my "adventures" lately have consisted of mood swings.

So anyway, yes, I am still alive, but just sort of idling in neutral while I wait for Christmas break. Hope everyone else is doing okay.

An Apologetic APM

Last week's APM turned out kind of sucky. That's the last time I use a Dinosaur Comic to get us started; I guess Ryan North is just funnier than you guys.

This week's APM, while also comics-related, takes a different tack.

Ok, so Tyson said he would buy me a Mac (and Illustrator, I hope!) if I write 10 installments of a comic of my own. So I need a plan, because I have a freshly-sharpened set of extra-hard pencils, nearly a whole empty sketchbook (plus like a whole box of copy paper at school), and suddenly all my ideas are stuck.

Anyway, your task today is to turn yourself (or your secret alter-ego you always knew was hiding in there somewhere) into a character suitable for comics. Give me a few important, definitive characteristics, like "smells like dryer sheets," "pathologically averse to bananas," or "on a mission to save the universe from people who say 'literally' but mean 'metaphorically.'" Then give me a situation your character might be in, like sitting in an all-night laundromat waiting for your child to be born or correcting a stranger's grammar.

If your imagination is good enough, you/your character/your situation might be featured in the first installment of my comic, which will eventually make it to the internet. Eventually.

Small steps, you know?

Yes, this was a while in coming...

I'd been sort of stalling until I took some pictures of my pink hair, which, in turn, was waiting for the following convergence of events:

1. School to be out


2. My hair to be pink


3. Having bought a new camera to replace the lost one


4. Getting Tyson to take a picture

As you can clearly tell, I was so anxious to have the preceding 4 qualifications met that I didn't wait for the fifth, which, obviously, would be a non-napped-on hairstyle. But whatever. I knew you, my six loyal readers, were anxiously awaiting my post, and I didn't want to delay it any longer.

The other reason I have been remiss in my blogging commitment is that last week was the last week of school, so therefore when the Nevada lege awarded grant money the Thursday prior to teachers in at-risk schools who completed 30 hours of professional development by the end of the school year, that meant I had eight days to put in an entire additional workweek. <-- That sentence, by the way, is only an overture to a workday that starts at 6 a.m. and ends at 7:30 p.m.

So now that I've successfully (I think) justified my absence over the past two weeks, we can get down to business.

It's actually been quite a productive first four days of summer vacation. I got new contacts, put my student loans back into forbearance, cleared up some insurance stuff, applied for and turned down a job at REI (no pink hair, no last trip to Bishop with Tyson before he leaves--even the hefty employee discount couldn't persuade me to change my only two firm plans for the whole summer), unloaded my carful of classroom stuff into my new room (one wall is approximately this color--eew!), drove all the way back across town to my old school to retrieve the jump drive I'd left in my computer upon check-out, helped (mostly by staying out of the way) friends train horses, and schooled Tyson at Guitar Hero in front of his class. As penance, here is a picture of me sleeping it off with my elbow straight up in the air last night.

So there it is: my update. In a few minutes I will post a new (belated) Audience Participation Monday, then I'm making breakfast-for-dinner.

Elaine, I think I may have changed my mind...

Having read Stephen Pressman's engaging Gates of Fire, I watched 300 and couldn't help but make unfavorable comparisons (although I have no doubt the pictures in the original graphic novel are pretty). However, PZ may have changed my mind on this issue.

Apparently, what I saw as mindless, over-hyped doggerel, was actually a complex parody of the creation/evolution debate. I actually get a little thrill picturing PZ in tight spandexy underwear and a cape hidden beneath his white lab coat. Tammy and Elaine, maybe we can find some pictures like that and put them on our blogs.

Yes, yes, yes....

Whatever you're thinking, the answer is yes. Now isn't that a freeing idea? What I had in mind was something like "Am I a slacker?" or "Am I just writing tonight because Deidre did?" but really, why stop there. "Should I have ice cream for dinner?" "Why not skip laundry tonight?" or "Those dishes will still be there tomorrow, right?" all seem like perfectly acceptable questions for which the answer could conceivable be yes.

I don't have too much to say, but a couple of things came up that I thought I'd share before they got too stale.

First, for all of you who found the last week depressingly void of campaign ads, here's a link. Yeah, it's a week old today, and, given the AMAZING week we Dems (and Indies) have had, it seems like even longer. However, I know most of ya'll lead lives approximately as exciting as mine, so it's not like you don't have sixty seconds to check it out. Listen, don't read.

Second, I played soccer today for, like, the first time since fifth grade. The teachers played against the kids after school today (for Educator Appreciation Week--go figure). So I'm chasing the ball down the sideline and one of my seventh-graders mutters under his breath, "man, she's faster than me," and even though I was about to have a heart attack it was the best part of my day. Okay, we got beat 3-0, but, to be fair, the kids got to rotate out every five minutes until the last round, when 11 teachers had to defend against 25 kids. Plus, one of the deans accidentally kicked a kid in the crotch, which, because of my non-involvement in the situation, was quite hysterical (and satisfying).

Third, I saw Stranger than Fiction on Saturday, and I was super-impressed. Will Ferrell was strikingly believable in a straight role, and the existential factor never got too weird or self-conscious. Plus, Maggie Gyllenhaal was extra-cute as a liberal grassroots bakery owner (the bakery is called Uprising--get it?) with a great haircut and tattoos. Then there was Emma Thompson, looking an awful lot like Hugh Grant, and Queen Latifah. I don't care what ya'll say, Latifah is a great actress.

Fourth....hell, I don't remember what fourth was. I'm half-watching my giant projector TV, which, despite looking great and extending across six feet of my living room wall, is still filled with the same mediocre crap everyone else is watching on TV. I think it's making my brain melt.

Anyhow, my life is boring. Really, really boring. Link, soccer, movie, and you're pretty much caught up on everything since the last time I wrote.


Oh, wait. Deidre wanted to hear something domestic. I'm making white chili (chicken, white beans, and green chilies instead of the regular stuff), and it smells great.

Man, oh man

I hadn't realized I'd been almost as negligent as Deidre, but I guess I have been. Sorry 'bout that. (Is it weird to you that neglige, as in, the lacy little nightie, and negligent probably have the same root? It is to me, too. As soon as I get some things off my chest, I'll look it up in my OED. Yeah, that's right. There's an Oxford English Dictionary on my desk, and it kicks lexicographical ass. Just you wait.)
So anyways, I'll just take a cue from Deidre, and since I have probably three more devoted readers than she does, I can always pretend I came up with the idea first: a list. And using colons.
1. The first quarter ended last week. WOO HOO! That means there are only 29 more weeks of school left!
2. I am going to LA for my first-ever professional conference and we're staying at a seriously swank hotel called the Standard that is so hip, they write their name upside-down. And they project movies onto the side of the building next door and you can watch them from your balcony or from the rooftop bar. How cool is that?!
3. I bought a table saw and put it together myself. Then I used it to put new flooring down in about half my house. If the batteries in the digital camera were charged up, I'd take a picture, but it would take to long, and I'm really just writing this until the dryer dings so I can hang the clothes that will wrinkle if I don't do them right away and then I'm going to bed.
4. Ummm......I think those clothes are probably about done, and it's getting late (for me, anyway).

So, the negligent/neglige question. They both mean the same thing, we just stole the word for the undergarment from French. I guess because if all you're wearing is your negligee, then you must have neglected to put clothing on. Or something like that. It's a bit anticlimactic, really. I could tell you what year the French version crossed over into English usage, but the print is really, really, really tiny, and, anyway, I already closed it up and don't want to be bothered finding it again.

Besides, I have laundry to take care of.

Yes, yes, I know

what an incredible slacker I am. But, unlike Deidre, I have a "real job" and a "home life" and "papers to grade" and "hobbies" (including playing too much Sims2 while waiting for the release of Neverwinter Nights 2).
So I came to announce the winner of the poster contest, as well as to pass along a few news items. First, the moment you've been waiting for:

My mom is the winner of the poster contest. I'd like to say it was a difficult decision, but because of the shallow entry pool, I just tossed Deidre's and eeny-meeny-miny-moe'd the rest. Mom, I will be calling later today to offer my congratulations, and to ask for money for Thanksgiving plane tickets.

In other news, Tyson may have obligated us into another cat; we'll know tomorrow. It'll be a 12-week-old black and white kitten, and there will definitely be pictures.

Battlestar Galactica, the best show on TV since Six Feet Under, started its new season on Friday, so I have something to look forward to every week, besides a two-day break from the kiddos.

School is moving along nicely. There are 3 weeks left before a long weekend and the end of the quarter; after that November and December will go fast. I am going to the National Reading Conference in LA the week after Thanksgiving and school might even pay for it, which is way cool. I am also getting ready for a Halloween unit, where we'll watch some Twilight Zones and Nosferatu and write scary stories. I can only show G-rated movies, so my choices are a bit limited, but I think I will just substitute Wallace and Gromit for Monster House, and everything will be OK.

Besides those things, everything is very normal. Again, congratulations to Mom, winner of the poster contest.

Corrections and Addendae

I've been informed that the poster submitted by Erica is, in fact, a woman with a beard, not a man in a dress. Whatever, you'll still have to do better than that.

Keep those entries rollin' in, oh people-who-are-not-Erica-or-Tyson! For more information on the ongoing poster contest, click here.

Because I haven't checked in for awhile...

One of these days, I will get around to reading this book. Seriously. I finally just read my first David Sedaris book, only to find out that he's seriously famous and only people who don't read books aren't familiar with this guy.

My real reason for being here today, besides the nagging voice coming in stereo from inside my head and from my husband and faithful reader telling me to at least put something up, is to bring you this, and maybe to mention that I had to go back to work yesterday. More on that, as well as a bringing up-to-date of my profile, etc, to come in the future. Also, I am working on a weekly interactive activity to give you something to look forward to each week (and keep me here each week!).