We saw Disney's Tangled last night. It was fun, and I liked it well enough to consider seeing it again, next time in 3-D. Watching it, I could see the elements that would *jump out* at you in the 3-D version, but when I mentioned that to The Girl afterwards, she said that she hadn't noticed. That tells me that they did a good job making a 3-D movie that would stand up well in a "flat screen" situation. I liked the heroine, I liked the ending and I liked the story. It was also nice that Rapunzel is such a generic fairy tale that the inevitable Disney story tweeks didn't jar like they do when there's an "original" (like Little Mermaid or Pocahontas. Go see it.

Oh, and yes, there's singing, much to the DH's dismay. It is a Disney Princess film, after all, but it doesn't have the standard "musical" effect. This was the weakest point from my perspective. There's no "Kiss the Girl" or "Be My Guest" number in this film. But it was nice anyway.

Only eight more school days left in the year, plus two days of conferences to make up for those missed due to the snow. I'll be back in the classroom for a limited amount during the first week in January and then I'm done. Where has the time gone?

In some ways I'm grateful to have the time over the holidays to pull together the last of my certification paperwork, but in other ways, it would really be nice to have it over and done with. There's also the additional hassle of having to file for an 'incomplete' due to needing the additional days. Seems a little silly under the circumstances, but whatever.

I'll miss the kids, that's for sure.

Feh. I've come down with a doozy of a cold. And just in time for Thanksgiving, too, unless some miracle occurs and I wake up tomorrow and can taste things again. And talk. That would be nice.

"Wait, wait", I can hear you thinking, "but won't tomorrow be too late for Thanksgiving? Didn't you have to be well for that *today*?" Turns out that, courtesy of the ice outside our house and Mom's, we opted to have our Thanksgiving tomorrow. We had lasagna today.

Real world problems. Or at least, real classroom problems.

Not only have I been told that my unit of study (social studies) started too late to cover everything I'm supposed to, I found out yesterday that I'll be giving up half of my time twice a week to fit something else in. And I just realized that I need to give still MORE time up this week to make sure that the kids have wrapped up their previous science unit in a fashion that will let them show their parents what they've accomplished during conferences next week.

Welcome to the real world of teaching! ;-)

I had it pointed out to me in a very nice way the other day that I haven't been posting lately. My excuse is that after the FIL's death and our trip to Detroit, I've been scrambling to get caught back up, but that's really only just that, an excuse. Time to get back on the wagon, or at least, on the keyboard.



I found out last night that lemon echinacea** tastes really good with my cocoa mix*, a spoonful of Hagen-daz mint ice cream and a dash of cinnamon. Lemon, chocolate, cinnamon and mint. Not a taste combination I would have normally put together, but it worked. I do have to add a caveat here. I also find that when I need the echinacea, the tea tastes pretty good to me; when I don't (i.e., when I'm not sick or getting sick) it doesn't.



Which does bring up the next question: why am I drinking echinacea? Yes, being in a classroom does expose one to a whole variety of bugs. I've learned early on (during one lunch recess study hall) that it's pretty gross to think that a kid has breathed on your sandwich (ewwwww). I've also learned that it's probably a better idea to skip having a bite than to eat around the kids. I also wash my hands. A lot.



But probably the most important thing here is to make sure you keep up with your sleep. I know I've declared that "You're not old if you can still pull an all-nighter", but it's one thing to come in and drag yourself through an 8 hr. day of class without any sleep. I'd never try tackling a 4th grade classroom in that condition!



And this has turned out to be a Good Thing for an other reason. When I get tired, I get an ache at the back of my throat. Being around the kids makes me that much more susceptible. I've noticed that warning ache for the last few weeks and I've been staving it off through not-so-short nights of sleep and lots of echinacea tea.



4 weeks to go (and a pinch). I'm keeping my fingers crossed and my bedtime early.



** Boy! the blogger spell-checker sure had problems with that word!

* powdered milk, cocoa, cinnamon and powdered vanilla - no sweetener!

It is sad, but true. My 30+ year-old car is now held together with duct tape. White duct tape, with a little black gorilla tape to be added when I get the Saab back again (the gorilla tape is in the Saab's glove box.)

The Volvo started out its life in Colorado, land of snow and salted roadways. All things considered, I'm pretty lucky that the body has held up as long as it has. But now there's a pretty significant leak somewhere, and it doesn't take too much rain before the floor of the passenger side gets pretty wet. Today during yoga, I had an 'aha!' moment about the probable water path and tonight I've applied duct tape to the suspected problem.

You see, the body of the car has rusted pretty much through in spots on the passenger side in the area where the body is covered by the door. I suspect that the bottom of the door leaks as well, providing the initial stream of water. So I've covered that part of the car body in layers of duct tape. We'll see if the floor can stay dry now. If so, I'll look for a more durable solution.

Whee! I have glasses! (Again. I've had them since 3rd grade, but it's been about 18 years since the last pair.) Things in the distance look crisp and clear again. Things up close look twisted and distorted but that's a combination of 1) my brain learning how to 'see' with both eyes again and 2) the vagaries of age and nearsightedness.

Because of the way my eyes (one very nearsighted and one only needing slight correction) I've had "built-in" bifocals for years. My brain used one eye for distance sight, and one eye for reading. This has worked beautifully up until recently, when the 'reading' eye has started to slip into near-sightedness itself, and the 'long-distance' eye is getting fuzzy as well.

A couple of years ago I tried getting prescription reading glasses, and that didn't wind up working well. (See previous note about eyes not knowing how to work well together.) Ultimately, I resorted to the over-the-counter drugstore glasses for reading and that has done just fine. Until recently.

I found that with my 'good' eye starting to fade, I wanted glasses again to correct my distance vision, and after a journey that has taken two months(!) to complete, I have them. It's lovely.

The interesting twist to the story is that my generic reading glasses work beautifully with the new distance glasses.... except that they're both in 'glasses' form. I'm wearing two frames even as I type this. This is a classic 'engineering' look, but probably will not play well in the classroom. Looks like contacts are in my not-too-distant future.

Had a more or less "free" evening last night. I wasted it.

Just got back from the wedding of a dear friend's daughter (the daughter is pretty dear to us as well, of course). Besides having a wonderful time visiting with people that I don't often get to see any more, I also discovered that Cleveland is actually a much nicer place than my initial visit a few years ago had lead me to believe.

Glenn Research Center has always been on the list of places to check out once my Masters is done, but it has risen sharply up the scale of desirable places. Sister Number 4 might actually get a visit if I moved that close, and I've already mentioned the existence of dear friends that have already moved east themselves.

The only major drawback that I can see at this point is the winter. They have the potential for snow over about six months of the year. A snow bunny, I'm not. This will take some consideration...

We had a staff meeting today after school, and I'm noticing that a lot of the teachers are looking really ragged. So I'm not the only one. I suppose that's a comfort.

But it doesn't help me much right now and I've got stuff that needs to be done tonight for tomorrow. Guess I'll get some hot tea (waves to the formatting ninja) and stagger on.

Let's see, what happened today? Got up at five, off to school before 7:30, left school at 5:00, got home at 5:30 after running a few quick errands, grabbed a bite, checked e-mail and web stuff, and hey, presto, it's 9:00 and way past bed time. Same as yesterday, and the week before, and the week before that... no wonder I'm getting so tired.

How is it that adding another person doubles the number of dishes in the sink? I wouldn't wonder if they were increased by another third, but double?!?!?!?

The Husband has returned to the northwest. When he left, his mom's electricity had been off for about 24 hours. On top of that, the plane left an hour late. Not an uneventful departure. Fortunately, the arrival seemed to be smooth.

The Husband comes home tomorrow evening. Has it really been a week already? Where *has* the time gone?!?!

...and the White Cat now looks like he's been attached by a giant vampire-something with bad eyesight, with two puncture wounds in the side of his face instead of his neck. The antibiotics continue for as long as they last, to the dismay of both of us.

Looks like the White Cat will not be blog-material for much longer, presuming that he even still is at this point. He is recovering nicely from his face abscess and is spending all the time that I'm aware of sleeping... which is pretty much what he did before and during this adventure anyway. The cotton drainage cord comes out tomorrow.

A face with two holes in it? Complete with cotton cord running through them to make sure everything drains? "Pshaw", says the White Cat, "a mere bagatelle." He does seem to be doing fine. Pain meds seem unnecessary when he spends most of his waking time acting like he's already hyped up on catnip. And as for his "Blue Collar of Shame"; he figured out how to pull that off the first evening he was home, and I haven't tried again since.

Missed posting last night because I was video chatting with The Boy. Latest update on the White cat: I'm not sure why they sent home pain meds. He is crazy-playful. One disconcerting thing happened however. There was a message on the phone from the vet who I believed performed the procedure, wanting to check to make sure there were no problems with him coming off the anesthetic. This is good on the face of things.... but The Girl and the Darling Husband both told me that no anesthesia was used. Shouldn't the vet know that? Obviously there was a miscommunication somewhere.

The cat is back from the vets and now has a cotton cord threaded through his cheek and a blue-tarp collar. He is *not* a happy camper. We all get to live with this until next Wednesday. Fun.

Figured I'd try what I've been bugging The Boy to do, and make a point to post some small snippet each day. Here's today's: Came out after school to a text from The Girl to tell me that the White Cat has an absess. Oh fun, oh joy. Just spent 15 minutes holding said cat with a wet (hot) compress to his furry face, in order to coax it to a head and to open up. The cat was not impressed. Stay tuned for more developments.

So, Spring might finally be arriving here. The rhododendrons in the front yard are *finally* blooming. There's been other years when they've been spent by Mothers' Day, but I don't think that's going to happen this time. It's still cool and drizzly, but I'm finding that most days there's actually a lot of sun in between the showers.

And my semester is FINALLY OVER!!!!!!! It's been a demanding one, and I'm looking forward to having two weeks where there is NOTHING DUE, before it starts all over again. Of course, The Boy is coming home for the summer, so I don't get to goof off yet, but instead I'll be trading too much homework for too much housework. But it would be nice to be able to get the dining table cleared off, get the files sorted so that I could actually *find* the records that I'm so intent on keeping, and maybe to even get the last of the Xmas ornaments put away.

And then The Girl comes home, at least for a bit, at the first of June, so we'll need a place to put her that doesn't include rabbit fur, rabbit hay, or rabbit. That may take some doing, but, The Boy's not doing anything else, right?

There's a cat in my lap, purring. This shouldn't be unusual, but it is. The Pirate cat does not sit in my lap. Even when it's immobile in front of the computer for hours. It's just not something he does. Except, we are now home from being gone for a very long weekend, and I guess he missed us. I just wish he would be a little less enthusiastic about the lap-bit. He's got claws in my knees and is drooling all over my hand (he does that when he purrs too much). And he's heavy so my leg is falling asleep... But you'll notice I haven't moved him off. It's nice seeing him again, too.

We are home from a wonderful trip to Ft. Worth. We watched the dear daughter of dear friends get married, got to partake in a crawdad boil (oh man, did I ever eat too much), spent a little time with family and a lot of time with friends. This sort of balances out D's trip down May a year or so ago (when I couldn't go to the niece's graduation) where he spent a lot of time with family and just a little time with friends. So I suppose that all's good.

It was a good trip. And the cat is *really* asleep. And so is my leg.

It appears that my cat has me trained.

This will come as no surprise to anyone who has cats, but it was intended to work the other way. Originally, I actually thought that it had.

While down at Northwest Trek this past January, there was a little (~3") set of chimes that were intended as a tree ornament, marked down to half price. A ha!, thinks I, I can support NW Trek *and* get something that I need, so I bought them. The Yar cat has been stretching up the length of the door when he wants out, and while he hasn't been scratching anything to damage it, I figured if I put the chimes up by the door, he could learn to hit them instead of scratching and all would be good.

Well, this didn't take, not for the longest time. Then, during the period where I was always swamped and staying up late with one assignment or the other, I tended to ignore his door 'stretches' more and more. Occasionally, however, he would accidentally hit the chimes. I'd always stop and get up then, because I really, really wanted him to associate the bells with the door opening.

So, recently, he actually started ringing the bells. He would tap them, and then look at me, and then run to the middle of the room. I'd scratch his back, go over to the door, and let him out. Cat trained, right?

Well, maybe. He's running to the middle of the room after ringing the bells, but I'm finding that he doesn't necessarily follow me to the door afterwards. It appears that he has realized that the chimes will make me get up. If he meets me in the middle of the room, he gets a scratch and some play time... I think I've been trained...

One more class. The last session of our very intense, most-valuable-class-to-date will be this coming Friday. I've got a final project due before then, and then life might return to so-called-normal. It's been a strange week and it's only Monday, but I'm booked for guest teaching jobs already as well. Nice to be wanted... ;-)

Fallen off the face of the earth? I suppose it looks like that. So, classes started again in January, and there was a lovely MLK weekend holiday when we didn't meet, after which I *finally* decided to look at what I had coming due, and discovered I had to scramble. A FRANTIC two weeks later, I'm currently caught up (mostly) and life finally can return to what passes as normal around here.

The Boy and I are both working with spreadsheets to track our homework assignments now and we'll see who manages to keep themselves out of trouble. This is the most intense semester that I'll have. Due to scheduling problems, last semester was a light one and we're making up the missed credits now. We have another break coming up over Presidents' Day weekend, and thanks to my handy-dandy electronic 'This Is What You Need To Be Working On Now' list, I should be able to use the time well. Or at least that's the plan.

Oh, and we almost have our income tax paper work ready to file. This is amazingly early. There may be hope for us yet. Now to get the Xmas stuff put away... ;-)