Saturday, March 31, 2007
Friday, March 30, 2007
Boyscouts aren't the only heroes
Are you smarter than a 5th grader?
Is your self esteem caught up in being smarter than a 5th grader?
I thought so.
Here's the test, anyway. I know you're going to take it. I did.
What did I get? Hmm, I scored a 90%. I guess I'm smarter than most 5th graders. It doesn't matter; I know I'm smarter than most college freshmen. See, I used a semi-colon correctly.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Pollen Sucks, Redux
prayers for my friend Greg
In other news, the pollen count is now 10 bazillion. We can't find Vicky's car under the pile of green and yellow dust.
edited by me at noon: check out this video of pollen falling like snow. I'm just sayin', things around here are pretty crummy.
In a sympathetic reaction, I woke up this morning with my eyes glued together with green and yellow goo. Yikes! After some warm water and a little bit of elbow grease (and a jackhammer) my eyes are wide open, but I can't see. I love spring in Atlanta.
Somebody needs to get Chief Knockahoma* out of retirement and doing the politically incorrect rain dance. We need the relief of a good rainstorm so that I can then complain about the yellow foamy residue in the driveway.
Have a nice day!
* you can read about Native American/Indian mascots here.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Random is a good thing
Friday, March 23, 2007
Pollen Sucks
Okay, maybe you can reverse that, mostly because of a lull, and partly because I've ben doing some other stuff.
Anyway, realizing that it is Friday, I mosied over to my favorite creative workshop, Ink 'n Doodles, and doodled up a Friday Rumination. You can read the beginning here, and catch the rest of it over there if you are so inclined.
Pollen sucks, and so do a lot of other things in life. But, I'm not gonna let it
get me down. No. I'm going to suck it up. Pop an antihistimine. Snort some
saline solution and move on.
I didn't even realize what was wrong with me today until I came back from lunch in a foul mood, oozing liquids from all the mucus membranes in my face.
I grabbed a fish sandwich at the BK Lounge and thought I was having an allergic reaction to it, when I pulled into my parking spot at work and noticed all the yellow-green tinged cars around me.D'oh! I was crying because the pollen count is like 12 million, not because I
was upset about the homeless man holding a cardboard sign at the frighteningly
busy intersection down the street. . . .
Monday, March 19, 2007
Real Life...Uma...and Bloggers
Before you think I'm all intellectual and thumbing my nose at TV, I readily admit that I do enjoy some shows on DVD. I have one Miss Elaine, and her big sis to thank for an addiction to The Gilmore Girls, and I watch that in marathon sessions, even though the show has gone to crap.
Anyway, I don't need television dramas--not when real life is far more amazing. One thing that I have done, is really immersed myself into a few blogs that I read often. I haven't linked to them because, in at least one case, the blogger prefers that I not, but the rest aren't listed because...well, because I haven't gotten around to listing them. I should do that soon.
One of those blogs I discovered through playing the 12 of 12 adventure. OK, several of those blogs I discovered from the 12 of 12. The one I'm talking about is a casting director in California named Bonnie Gillespie, who evidently has some ties to Atlanta, so that's cool enough for me. The funny thing is, I really have no interest in the acting thing that she promotes, but her blog entries are funny and clever and very disarming, if you go for that kind of stuff. I realize that I now sound like some kind of terribly bored stalker or something, but nothing could be further from the truth. I find that different blogs have different merits, like for example, Wil Wheaton, who is the cleverest man in the universe. He can probably have that title because as Wesley Crusher he travelled all over the universe. But who cares about Star Trek (gasp! did I say that?) he's brilliant. Read for yourself. Anyway, I digress.
At Bon's blog (yes, I can call her Bon because in my stalker imagination anyone who has posted a comment on my 12 of 12 is now my friend) she's had a running update on a young woman I've been praying for named Uma who had an aneurism and stroke over the Christmas holidays, and her miraculous recovery is being documented through links at her blog.
It's an amazing story, way the heck better than anything Oprah promotes with The Secret. It's about the power of positive thinking, the power of prayer, the power of love. Anyway, rather than linking to Bon's blog for the story, I found the blog by Uma's friend, who has to be the best friend in the history of friends. It's a good story, and so far, it looks like there's going to be a happy ending.
"289 is an ugly number"
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Gooooooooaaaaaaal ! ! !
Friday, March 16, 2007
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Houston, we have a problem
I learned there's a difference between a B engine and a C engine. John learned it, too, since that's what put him up a tree. For the record, that was Christy's launch that landed in a tree.
The other launches, by Jonathan and Baker, pretty much blew up the rocket. The parachute caught fire, the string that held the nose to the fuselage burned off, the nose went flying (with the camera in it) but they found it.
Anyway, enjoy.
What's an outing with the boys without the plot to mock and ridicule them?
Evidently rocket science really IS complicated.
I was perched on Vic's old haunt. I figured, it was safer that way.
It made for great comedy, too. Check out who is in the tree. Jonathan and Baker are weenies.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
The last time I linked to an article...
Monday, March 12, 2007
March 12 of 12 version 2.0
7 AM Christy incredulous--partly because she can't believe it's so early, and partly because she saw the 847 herbal supplements and fiber shake I had for breakfast. Yeah, you can thank me for not showing it. Gross doesn't really capture the...essence of the shake.
7:15 AM The usual commute. Again, how many times can I show the tail lights? I gave in to a staged picture of the obligatory woman putting on make up in traffic. I hate that cliche. I do much more complex things, like pluck stray hairs on my chin.
8:00 AM I down a cup of green tea before going to teach a class. We won't discuss the...effects of so many herbs and such.
11:00 AM Round 1,356 of grading. It's interminable.
12:30 PM Wendy's has a really nasty salad. I'm guessing, I'm not getting another one.
1:00 PM The saga continues. More grading. Things are getting bloodier.
2:30 PM Hitting the stress ball. I didn't squeeze it, though. It was more fun to bounce it across the room to the wall. It came back every time. I had a rhtyhm going to the soundtrack of Dance with Me.
3:00 PM I entered the grades and got ready to split.
3:05 PM But first I spokewith Christy about the after school schedule.
4:00 PM As it happens, Jonathan had nothing going on, so we went home. There's Pol Pot in the picture. That cookie (yummy) was what's left of my birthday "cake." I shared it with the boy, who was already making his way towards it.
6:00 PM Gossiping with the coaches. That's Christy holding the lacrosse ball sack. Um, yeah, that's what those wenches delight in calling it. I'm sure there's a much more delicate way of putting it, but there you have it. Actually, if you've seen the musical, The Music Man, they actually say "Balzac!"
7:00 PM Vicky didn't have dinner with us, because she's not here, duh. So we used her spoon with the flower.
Bonus picture: GREEN
Okay, it's a bit washed out, but this stretch of road is really getting green. Only, the damned Bradford Pears are blooming, and they stink, really badly. Why would all the builders tear down the natural flora in this beautiful area and plant the smelliest trees in the world?
it's 12 of 12
I'm still behind and have to post the pictures from yesterday's adventure at the park with rockets and the goobers who launch them. Let me just say, you won't want to miss the hero in the tree.
Sunday, March 11, 2007
What a full Saturday!
First, we attended Abigail's baptism, which was lovely and sweet, and then crashed the godparent's house for an afternoon of continuous snacking. The trouble with snacks is that I want to taste everything, and it just goes round and round from there. And then I get round and round....
There was plenty more running around--Christy had to be at school to catch the bus for Augusta. They won their lacrosse game, 18-0, which is a lousy thing to do after getting rousted like that last week, but I guess the coach had her reasons. Some defensive players tried out attack and scored, and they tried some other things.
John hauled Jonathan up to Winder for the Literary Meet, where the Quartet performed in an extraordinarily bland way, and gave a painful performance. Too bad for them, but there was some trouble with focus and other silly stuff that....well, again, I don't know I would have put up with and so there's next year to look forward to.
On a high note, the GaTech Drama group closed their run of Stephen Sondheim's musical Assassins last night. Just to round out my backseat coaching, not a topic I'd necessarily get excited enough to write a musical about-- presidential assassinations, but it worked. Rather nicely. It was funny and sad, and the characters were terrific.
And Eryn continues to have a marvelous voice. Two thumbs up. I didn't get the toaster, though.
It made for a long day, but it was lovely.
Friday, March 09, 2007
Thursday, March 08, 2007
The Picard Maneuver (the jacket, not the tactical move)
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Spring is toying with me
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
I'm baaaaack ! ! !
Apparently, some little blogger-bot decided that my blog had some questionable content due to over-linkage or something like that. Whatever. It thought I was automating things, and so I had to request a review to verify that I was indeed, a real live person. Who knew? I still don't. I'm just happy to have the blog unlocked.
Anyway, great excitement around here, since my suspicions come from a recent little interlude with my friends over at the aptly named Methuselah Foundation, who evidently don't understand irony, or my total lack of interest in their goals for eternal life. I figure, I'll be getting my eternal reward with different packaging--frankly, the idea of living 1000 years just isn't appealing to me. Admittedly, my birthday does engender ruminations on my mortality (hmmm, SAT words)but it's not something that a) scares me or b) sends me into despair. I guess that's the advantage of being Christian, huh? There's more to life than self-serving egotistical gratification. Enough of that soapbox.
In other news, Jonathan getting over an upper respiratory infection. The little nerdlinger pulled a very nice score at the recent math competition, helping the team to 2nd place overall. Christy socked the heck out of Decatur, only to be beat into the ground by Columbus. You win some and lose some. Hey, that's life! All 80 years of it. Lest Vicky should point out that I don't mention her, she gave a phenomenal review to Erin's play, so I'll be watching it this weekend. Hurray. She's got a heck of a voice. Oh, and in case you missed Vic's brilliant comments before---the kid is brilliant!
Meanwhile, work continues to be...work. I may have found the solution to the time situation, as my honey gave me a tres nice birthday gift in the form of a delightful mp3 player. Yes, it's true, I am getting closer to the 21st century every day. One of these day's I'll be able to change my own DVD, or saints alive, maybe I'll be able to get rid of the blinking 12:00 on the stereo. Pathetic, I know, but I prefer to think it lends me a certain charm.
Meanwhile, I'll have to deal with Rascal Flats next to Willie Chirino, because you know that's how I downloaded it.
Cheers, and I'm glad to be back.