moving day

I think its official. My blog is moving to the home server. If you come directly here, you should go to firestormfilms.com/family to find the link to the new homestead. Hubby even wrote something relatively recently!

Plodding along.

What's new around here?

Kids have taken turns being sick. So far, I seem to have sufficient antibodies.

Buying a camper. Just in time for gas prices to go up. Jeez. The kids have slept in it already. Might actually take it out sometime soon.

Kyle is swamped with editing projects.

Got the tree taken out with the help of our own personal Eldon.

More adventures with lawn mowing.

Otherwise, pretty boring around here.

Zombie rock

Night shift last night. Blearg. I actually felt pretty good all night, up until about 45 minutes to the end of the shift. I had a decent nap, but it always seems to take longer to get up and running when my schedule goes wonky.
I picked up a home health client as well
I have all sorts of grand plans to be productive this week. I pulled Geordi's carpet out and put it on the clothesline, fully aware of the weather forecast for 7 days of rain (which turned out to be 9/10 days of rain). However. It's old, hand me down carpet, and I felt rain and fresh air would be just fine before we set up her new room. We now have a forecast of 7 days of sunshine, so I should be able to get it back in soon.
The little projects around here pile up and intimidate me, but I keep plugging a little at a time, and try not to get down.
I should be off and running by now. Just one more cup of coffee...

Dance-o-rama

The aforementioned change of address is coming, but everything is now usurped by the Dance Extavaganza!!! Not only do I have 3 kids dancing in 2 shows today, but Firestorm Films is the Official Videographer of Puttin' on the Ritz Dance Studio, so we will be on camera for 6 hours, and Kyle will be editing for at least 3 weeks (37 dancesx4 camerasx2shows=hell). Blech. Coffee, tylenol and valium will become commodities here.
Now I have girls showering so I can do their hair, so I'd best get at it. Grandma normally does it, but her arthiritis gave her problems on picture day, so she bowed out. She's been doing it since the 12-year-old was three, so I think she's ready for a break. Off we go like a herd of (really cute and frilly) turtles.

Boom boom boom boom

I am writing out of sheer habit of sitting at the computer with my coffee. I have no internet service at the moment, and I don’t know quite what to do with myself.
Storms rolled through last night, loud, nasty windy ones. We had a substantial power outage for the first time since we bought this house. It went out about 1:30 this morning and came on sometime around 7:30. The freezer items are still stiff, but we lost a lot of the fuzz off the freezers. The only other time we lost power here was when the Granite Falls tornado took out a station upline, but they had us rerouted and back up and running within 20 minutes or so.
Kyle and I went patrolling window, lit some candles and found the flashlight (where it belonged, for once!) and sat listening to the radio and enjoying the show. I got to use my makeshift daybed on the porch and watch the clouds and lightning pass over to the east. When all the streetlights are out, it’s amazing how far light travels. There was very little traffic during the brunt of the storm, but when a car did come, especially the sheriff with his spotlight, you could see the light in he trees and on the street for a long time.
The windows in this house are so old and brittle that they fall out of the panes and crack if you look at them too hard, but they all stood up to 75 mph wind last night. I may have to go out and take a peek at the shingles.
One of the trees I was planning to take out anyway snapped in half and landed very nicely between the house and the shed. I was quite impressed God took the time to do that for me with everything else keeping Him so busy these days. Now I’ll be able to take the rest of that one out myself and not hire a tree service. Yay!
It has been so wet. Sunday was the first sunny day in a while, and we did not take the opportunity to mow. Storms rolled through Monday night as well, but we probably could have mowed by evening time yesterday. We didn’t, of course, and then this storm drenched us again. So far it’s just cloudy out, but we’ve been so thoroughly soaked at this point I’m starting to grow fins. I checked the weather channel Monday; it was partly cloudy that day, then every day until next Tuesday had showers or thunderstorms in the forecast to some degree. I’ll go check on TV in a bit, assuming we have cable. The cable and internet have some sort of partnership here in town, but I don’t think they’re actually the same company.
I still haven’t found my weed whip, so I’ll call in the cavalry. Once it dries out I can mow a fair amount of the yard, but the building lines look like jungle.
The internet is back now, so I’ll post and be done with it. Then I’ll get to work…
PS. Watch this space for address changes. Kyle discovered a blogging app on the hosting package from ou ISP, so I may give that a whirl. Or I may leave well enough alone. Who knows. He may actually write again soon.

More of the same

Had to battle a slow sewer drain again this morning. Luckily, today I was alerted to the slowage in the floor drain by the nice clean overflow from the water softener cycling, so we were able to avert any nastiness. This time Mark was able to knock the drain loose with just the hand snake, so it was quick and cheap.
Got a little more purging of junk done today. Since Mark was in his "handy" clothes already, he fixed a couple of drawers and installed a new screen door for me. Slow and steady around here. Hopefully we will get Geordi moved into her own room next week, then finish painting the hall. Then begins the scary basement cleaning project. I want to clean and beautify the basement as much as possible without any structural work, so we can move the arcade down there but have it be nice enough to actually use. We've been slowly moving junk out of storage. The goal is to pare down from four storage rooms to two, so we can use the others for games and actual shop space. Tedious work, that. Now off to bed so I can get at it in the morning again.

Random serendipitous quote

"If by a 'Liberal' they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind; someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions; someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad; if that is what they mean by a 'Liberal,' then I'm proud to say I'm a 'Liberal.'" (John F. Kennedy)

Need to rest from vacation...

Our weekend at Grandpa and Grandma D's lake condo can be deemed a success. The weather changed frequently, and we had our share of rain, but we had games, a DVD player, and an indoor pool that the kids were in and out of on an hourly basis. The girls spent a lot of time catching sunnies on the dock and commandeering the paddleboat when the clouds weren't dumping on us, and the sun was out for longer and longer periods as the weekend wore on. Sand was played in and boat rides were taken. My brother also found reason to question the sensibility of riding on the tube behind the boat on his stomach.
We finally found someone with a baby as good-natured as ours have been. Little Izzy (as the kids have dubbed her) was smiley and content for most of the weekend. Austin is a little card. He's every inch of four and showed great patience with the attention showered on him by his youngest female cousin. She was tickled with having someone littler to play with for a change, and unfortunately latched onto poor Austin.
Right now I have a happy giggly little boy here demanding my attention, so you kind people will just have to wait.

Ready, set, summer!

The family is gearing up for the first summer holiday. My folks have acquired the unit across the hall from their timeshare in Detroit Lakes. We last did this Memorial Day weekend 2 years ago. At that time I was hugely pregnant and my brother's daughter Isabelle wasn't even thought of yet, so the whole fam damily stayed in a 3 bedroom unit with a hideabed. This time, they got another unit to house all of us! We'll need it, too; I have 2 extrys for the weekend. Unfortunately, my sis is under the weather and won't be able to make it. :(
I could ramble on about the crappy weather, and all of our summer plans, but the thruth is that would simply be procrastination for packing and loading, so I'd better just get to it!

Cat magnets

How is it that the little girl with five kittens at home is the one bound to find a stray kitten in the park? *Sigh* Poor mama kitty...

Never underestimate the value of neighbors.

We have a great little town. Last week, one of the neighborhood parents gathered up all of the kids and took them to the ballpark for a pickup game. Last night we started the progressive bonfire. A different yard every week. Last night, due to crappy weather, we sat inside and lit a candle.
Its been raining in this part of Minnesota for the better part of a week. Today, the sun shone, and it had a very odd effect on our town. In the fifteen minutes immediately following the dismissal of the local churches, there was the noise of mowers starting all over town. We had other matters to attend to. All of the kids wound up returning home within about a half hour. We got to spend a little time with my folks as they returned my brood. As they were leaving, Kyle was called to Mark's rescue. He had borrowed Bob's riding mower, and had a blowout with the trailer on the way home. When kyle returned from that, he set to work to start ours for the first time this season. Like many others, we had missed the 6 hour window of opportunity to mow earlier in the week, so our yard looked more like it needed a baler.
Let it be known that my husband can set a Macintosh spinning to complete nearly any task worth doing; however, when it comes to mechanics, he is a bit challenged. He got the mower started on the first or second pull, but it let out quite a nasty squeal. The recoil had come unsprung. Kyle dismantled, adjusted and reassembled the unit in a time and effort that would have made the editors of Popular Mechanics smile.
Meanwhile, the neighbors, who actually enjoy mechanical tinkering, had toted their two mowers up to the old service station garage. A gentleman here in town uses it as a hobby shop, and there are all manner of dirt bikes, go-karts, mowers, snowmobiles, and classic cars in various stages of restoration there. The boys next door, single dad and two teen sons, were each manning a mower or trimmer of some sort that they had refurbished and fired up for the afternoon.
Our mower was now chugging along. The tires were quite worn, and Kyle headed off to put air in them. He did not expect them to drive completely off the rim, leaving a trail of reddish pink goo in his wake. We still don't know what that was. Deteriorated inner tube? Ancient fix-a-flat? Whatever, it was nasty.
It holds true that you can't look a gift mower in the mouth. Our pastor gave us use of an old riding mower in exchange for mowing the lawn at church. This is another side benefit of a small town. That mower eventually sputtered out. Another one, quite similar, lived in the shed across the alley from us, which happened to belong to pastor's brother. It was scrounged out and put into service. We also have a push mower that hasn't started in a couple of years, mostly because it hasn't been needed with the other. Cursory attempts were made to press it into service today, but soon abandoned. Defeated, Kyle went back in the house to attempt something constructive.
I kept on plugging through yard chores planned by Murphy himself. As Kyle could not get the mower going, I thought I'd at least get started with the trimmer. At least I would have if I could have found it. I then thought I'd cull some dead branches, but the bypass shears had apparently nipped off with the trimmer to yard-tool Vegas or somewhere else with better prospects than my shed or basement. I was now left with either the electric hedge trimmer or chain saw, either of which I would have gladly put to use if every single drop cord that we own was not neatly packed in a rubbermaid tub in the DJ van, which Kyle's DJ partner is currently driving. I finally busied myself throwing some yard waste into the trailer bound for the compost heap, and got the recycling out to the curb. Meanwhile, the neighbor was mowing my boulevard (tangent: I grew up calling the strip of land between the sidewalk and the street the "terrace;" in these parts, it is called the "boulevard." I am told in other parts of the country, it is called the "parking." Whatever you call it, the municipality tends to get cranky if you don't maintain it, but the same municipality doesn't let you plant or build anything on it.) I stopped to thank the neighbor, and shared the mower mishap with him. Before I finished the story, he had both riders up on blocks and was switching out parts to make a functional model. Kyle came back out and chipped in, and started mowing when Frankenmower was completed. I fed the kids, then switched off as Kyle ferried them off to church for King's Kids. Once again, the neighbor and his kid were tandem mowing, this time on my lawn. They continued alongside me and we got our four-lot yard mowed in about twenty minutes. I bought them a pop from our machine (another of my husband's clever trade acquisitions, I think he has $14.50 invested in it.) and met the family at church for coffeetime. I love my town.

Synchronicity better than Sting

Hubby and I have time without the kids this weekend. Its weird. And very, very quiet. We got some time to talk about plans, vision, doubts and questions. We also talked about watching for God's plan in things. So as we're flipping chanels, some singers stopped us on a worship service. It was a group we had seen in concert, well worth a second listen. The message that followed however, seemed to answer point for point some of the questions we had raised earlier. We've just got to keep paying attention, I guess.

Quiet time.

Kids do funny things to a person. I have always been a night owl. It's hard, however, when the bus comes at seven, so the kids are up at six, and they need someone to herd them along. Lately, Kyle and Mark, our friend/partner in crime, have been working evenings in the office. They are productive and cheerful, but they make it impossible for me to get anything done. I have recently taken to retiring early, then getting up insanely early to work on lesson plans or other projects. I absolutely hate rolling out of bed, though my body has acclamated to the schedule. Once I am upright, I really enjoy the quiet of the house while everyone else is asleep. The pre-dawn hush, then the slow awakening of the outside world brings a nice transition to my day. The birds are obnoxiously cheerful some days, but it forces me to adjust my attitude some mornings. Its hard to be cranky with incessant chirping in my ear; sometimes I just crack up because of the irony. The downside to all this is that I get tired so early in the evening. Now that there is more light, it should be easier for me to stay awake. I have accepted this shift to "morning person" with stoicism. I try to view it as a natural part of aging. I just know that if I want to stay up and play with the big people, I need to take a nap.

Unstructured time!

I hesitate to say "free" time, because I have so damn much to do, but I'm on my own schedule for a week. Woot! We've been spending little spurts of time on some rather large projects, and are finally starting to see some progress. I love it when that happens.
My brother just turned down a scholarship to attend the HDSA Convention in Atlanta. I was hoping we could attend as a family, but when we couldn't go, I still hoped he would go. He struggles enough with the limitations of Huntington's Disease, I feel he could get some real support from the people there. I went last year, and aside from having an absolute blast, I got a lot of great info and made some real friends. Oh, well, to each his own. Maybe next year.
Well, back to getting some of that work done.

Once more unto the breach...

We just filled out the paperwork for our 4th exchange student (in 5 years). It has become a rather nasty little habit, but all in all its been great fun. We're having another little Dutch girl. Hopefully we won' scare her off Americans entirely.
The weather is downright weird today. We've had glorious sunshine, overcast skies, pelting rain, sleet and even snow. Right now the sun is out again. Oh well, welcome to Minnesota. If you don't like the weather, it'll change in 5 minutes.
One week left in the student teaching experience. These last two weeks I switched to 6th grade. Its been a blast. They are so much fun.
To add to our list of "One more thing to juggle," the dryer is broken. The little switch that indicates the door is shut broke off, so it won't start. I don't mind hanging clothes out for the time being, but it means I have to think ahead and plan so I don't go to school nekkid next week. I have to work a night shift tonight, so I am bringing my laundry along to dry. My job has some perks! If I can get caught up with the backlog, I should be able to keep up. Whee!

The parenting manual doesn't prepare you for days like this...

Wow. I'm bushed. My daughter will prefer her privacy repected, but she put me through the wringer today. Yikes. Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.

Sometimes you just throw caution to the wind...

I was invited to New York by a new friend. We met on the set of the independent film that shot here in our little corner of the boondocks. We had a lot of fun, and did a theatre reading at the coffeehouse in town. She recently produced a benefit run of The Vagina Monologues off Broadway, and invited us out. I wanted to go. We couldn't afford it. I really wanted to go. My boss/friend said, "One of these days we should go off together and do something again." I told her about New York. We decided to go.
We flew out late on a Thursday and rode the subway for TWO HOURS to the Jazz on the Park Hostel on the Upper West Side. The next day we rode the subway to Ground Zero and looked around. Then we walked back up through the financial district, Chinatown and Little Italy before catching the subway back to the Hostel. We sat in the coffeehouse there and visited with people from all over the world until evening, then we went to Times Square when the lights were on. We walked around some more and found a cool Italian restaurant and had a late supper. Then we headed back to the hostel to watch the younguns party.
The next morning was terribly rainy. We called one of the shuttle services and hired a car and driver for two hours. It cost less than a bus tour, and we were much drier! We went to the Museum of Natural History for a little while, then back to the hostel to change. We took the subway to Soho and ate at the Soho Cantina. Mexican cuisine, to DIE for. Very, very good. Then we stopped for coffee and went to the pre-show Vagina Carnival! The show itslef was fantastic, and the little girls from Minnesota cleaned up on the door prizes, woot! After all that, we were invited to the cast party at Brother's Barbecue just up Houston. It was an awesome time. We rose early to discover our airport shuttle had overooked due to Daylight Savings time, so we hailed a cab and got a ride to JFK. It was great. We got there in plenty of time and did some airport shopping, then bounced back home via Detroit. Too bad the layover wasn't long enough to catch the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame. Oh well, next time out...
All in all, the trip was incredibly cheap as far as vacations go; less than $400 for my share of plane, food, and tickets, etc. I'd do it again in a heartbeat. It was a bit of a whirlwind, but it was so great. One more thing to chalk up in the list of experiences, under "drive a race car" and "audition for a VH1 special." Life's a banquet!

Dearth

Yeah, yeah... Life has been busy and posting has not been a priority. I had a lovely whirlwind trip to NYC for a long weekend. I will elaborate on that some other time. Right now I want to concentrate on surviving the last 3 weeks of student teaching, then two more classes.

Wonky servers

Our domain server went down over the weekend. All the files were uploaded for our main website, but the picture files from a few posts down were lost, and I'm too lazy to repost them right now. You'll live.
Planning for the week ahead. Oughta be fun. Two plays, kids' outings and other stuff. Makes me tired just to think about it, though, so off to bed!

Fun on a Saturday

If you want a good laugh, combined with a test of your vocabulary skills, try explaining the definition of the slang usage of the word "douchebag" to a teenager from Brazil.

Back in my place

So after my bitchfest yesterday, I start my daily round of devotions to be confronted by this...
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits. —Psalm 103:2
The theme? Count your blessings. Translation: shut up and clean up your basement and be glad you have a house to maintain. *sigh* Yes, Sir.
I am exceedingly and publicly thankful to our friend Mark who did the grunting, lifting and shoving necessary for the sewer project yesterday. I am thankful that we were able to rent the $40 unit and do it ourselves instead of making the $150 service call. I am thankful that my basement floor is concrete. I am thankful that I have a working washer and dryer. I am thankful that we discovered the problem before it got out of hand. I am thankful that because I was home dealing with the mess, I got a phone call from an old friend that I otherwise would have missed.
I really do feel better now.

Misconceptions about Strong Women

There are a few drawbacks to being a strong woman. I think I qualify as one. Certainly I think most of my husband's family thinks I'm a dowright bitch.
I tend to run in a circle of strong, outspoken women. We frequently hear jokes about being domineering and headstrong. Even though we take it in good humor it gets a little tiring sometimes, at least from my point of view.
Being strong is not always a good thing. People just assume you can handle something. A couple of years back, a very strong friend of mine had a miscarriage. I asked her if she wanted a hug. Later, I could have kicked myself. I had to ASK? What the hell was I thinking? Because she isn't a delicate little flower, I thought maybe she wouldn't react the same way to a physical show of support. How stupid of me. That same friend is now dealing with a (successful) c-section that went septic. She's dealing with it just fine, by all appearances, but I'll bet she's sick and tired of having to.
I've about had my limit of things I can handle. I am working part-time and student teaching full-time. For which I don't get paid, by the way, thanks to everyone who's asked how much student teachers make. With Kyle's back being out, the housework, especially our laundry is way behind. I've been able to do about 2 loads a day, with help from the elder children. We kind of recycle the same clothes off the top of the heap as the bedding and extras pile up. Unfortunately, part of the heap winds up on the basement floor. This morning I went down to get clean clothes and discovered the sewer had backed up all over the basement floor. There are days when I've just had enough, and I want to go sit in the corner and cry. I don't have time for that. I have to try to run a snake before I call the rooter guy, because the last time this happened, he wasn't much help anyway. I'll call as a last resort before I spend $150. Then I have to wash laundry for hours, either here, if the sewer works, or at the laundromat.
Enough venting. Back to it. As soon as I go to the neighbors and use the bathroom.

Hooray for consumer debt!

There is a new-to-me minvan in front of my house tonight. Woohoo! I owe the bank more tonight than I did this morning. D'oh! Anyway, the Pontiac Montana is the new kid-hauler of choice. Time to hose off the Oldsmobile and put a "For Sale" sign in the window.

All's quiet...

Pretty uneventful of late. We had a pretty busy week brewing on the homefront, but happily it was a low-prep week for me at school. My students were working on performances and papers, so not a lot of "lessons" per se. It was to be a two-concert week for my kids, but two little sickos sat out one of the concerts. I worked a bit, so I felt busy.
Kyle had a frustratingly short reprieve from his pain, but now is as miserable as ever. At least we know now that steroid treatment works, so we can see what other options are out there along those lines. Its making all of us tired. He's unable to sleep much past 4 am on any given morning. Although the new memory foam bed is true to its claim that you can't really feel someone else moving around in bed, it doesn't do anything for hearing them. All in all, I've been pretty pleased with the new bed.
Better go now and herd the cats off to church.

Full speed ahead

This week is going to be a long one. I am required to be at school from 7:45 until 3:45 daily. Often I go early or stay late to accomodate make-up work or meetings. Tonight we had a band concert. Tomorrow is the Tuesday marathon; I stay in town, two older go to play practice, younger I meet at library, do shopping and errands until two back-to-back dance classes, then home about 7:30. Wednesday I work my "real" job 4-9. Thursday is a choir concert. Friday I work again, as well as Saturday and Sunday. Whoda thunk a Monday would look so good?

We started Thing 1's debutante training last weekend. One of the really cool things about a small town is cheap, accessible space. The town hall here can be rented for $35. T1 had asked if her dad would set up his DJ equipment in the basement for her birthday. For $35, he could set up the DJ stuff and I wouldn't have to clean my house. Bonus is that Kyle knows his music and clientele, and won't play filth for the kids. So my daughter got to throw herself a dance for her birthday. I came out cheaper than taking the 7-year old bowling with her friends. I'm thinking this will be the plan from now on.

Hubby and I went to see The Gaithers in concert Friday night. We got our money's worth. Four hours of gospel music. Wow. It was a great variety: some family singing groups, a few southern gospel soloists, a bluegrass group, and a couple of men's quartets, along with some awesome CC soloists. Well worth the cost of admission. I shake my head at our eclectic music tastes, though. Among the concerts I have seen in my life: Rick Springfield, Michael W. Smith, Quiet Riot, Alice Cooper, Blues Traveler, Ronnie Milsap, and now the Gaithers. My husband saw Deep Purple, Ozzy and the Scorpions at an outdoor festival. We've been to REO Speedwagon, REM, ZZ Topp, and stood in awe of BB King. We watched Kansas blow Lynrd Skynrd off the stage. What a long strange trip it has been, indeed.

I'll just shut up now

So I get another call today from work. This time, things worked in my favor. If I work nights, I get to weasel out of my evening shift today and half of it tomorrow. Athough the vampire schedule is awkward, the night shift is also quiet enough to allow me time to get some of my paperwork done for school. I also got to stay for my grandma's birthday party today. She was surprised, and a good time was had by all. I left my 3 oldest swimming with their cousins and aunties, and I will return to pick them up tomorrow. So, after all my bitching and bitterness, things actually worked out fairly well for me. I think I'll go sit quietly in the corner and count my blessings. I do need to get about taking a nap if I'm going to work, tho. Nite!

What weekend?

The trouble with student teaching at 36 instead of 22 is that when I come home from school, rather than having an empty house to correct papers and work on lesson plans, I have a family to feed, children to not neglect, a husband who needs varying levels of attention depending on his pain these days, and sometimes a part-time job to go to. Where do I find the time?
Tomorrow I am missing my grandma's surprise 80th birthday party. I will make it for the family dinner. I made arrangements back in December for someone to cover my shift at work, We have a very informal system; no slips to fill out or requests. Unless we are working with vacation or something, we handle it ourselves. Unfortunately, the co-worker in question forgot and offered to work for someone else. I have called every other person on our payroll, and no-one can do it. This past semester I have had more conflicts on my scheduled weekend than I can ever remember. I have made all my plans for the upcoming summer according to my scheduled weekend. Last week, the gal incharge of the schedule for the time being called up and asked if I would switch weekends. Argh. I said no. I just made arrangements to take my kids to the family party tomorrow, and dump them off on my mom and sister so they don't have to miss the fun. Then I got a call from someone asking if I could pick up a night shift tonnight. The poor soul got an earful she probably didn't deserve. Nine more weeks and I can start job hunting.

Bleargh.

That about sums it up.

Ramble on

Busy round here. The school district gave us an oddly long president's day break. Thursday I succeeded at nothing beyond frustrating myself with the housework. Did a little bit of minvan shopping on Friday, while Kyle had his appointment with an orthopedist. After that, we left for the Cities and stayed with Kyle's auntie for the duration of the Scottish Ramble in Saint Paul. She joined us for Saturday, then we split the kids Sunday after church. It was a lovely time. The Folks from our clan and the Twin Cities Scottish community in general are a fun bunch. Came home Sunday night ands rolled straight into bed, then rose Monday to another day of household frustration. It seems like the more I do, the less it shows. I'm tired of being unable to walk accross my own floor without tripping.
The orthopedist told Kyle to start PT. Well, duh. The MD wrote a PT order as well, where the heck did that go? The therapist told him that his back injury so many years ago wasn't as serious as the fact that he's been walking for 38 years on one leg shorter than the other. It's knocked him way out of alignment. He's got lifts in his shoe and exercises. He rested much better last night, so its a start, anyway.
I am swamped with backlog correcting. I just got a batch of really fun papers from the 10th graders, though, so it's not so much like work. Better get at it.

Frustration

Well, I've lost this blasted thing twice in messy drive-by clicking accidents. Screw it. I'm busy. I'm tired. Here's the quick-n-dirty as opposed to the well-thought and witty: Student teaching is fun and challenging. We got a new bed. Its great. Kyle aggravated an old back injury moving out the old bed and had an ambulance ride to the hospital after keeling over from pain at 1:30 am. He's at home on serious drugs and had an MRI. No news yet. We're going to the Twin Cities all weekend for various charity events and Scottish Ramble. It should be fun. Now I'm going to bed. More later.

Back to blogger

Was not planning on this, but wound up here trying to leave comments for someone. We'll see how it goes.