Mutal of Watson's Wild Kingdom

caricature by Chip Cooper

Hello and welcome to this weeks's edition of Mutual of Watson's Wild Kingdom.  The housecat, usually docile and calm, will revert to its instinctive predatory habits when in the presence of prey.  We see here Felis Cattus lounging carelessly in the back lawn, when a baby blackbird drops into its field of vision.  It is a scientific mystery as to why the blackbirds have suddenly become so clumsy, but this spring they have been dropping out of the nest, and complaining loudly about it, at an alarming rate.  This young fledgling has chosen an inopportune spot to descend, and squawks helplessly as the housecat takes notice of the bird's prediciment, and hunches to pounce.  Adult birds hop through the trees in the yard,  setting off a noisy shrieking alarum call, following the cat's path in the air even as she trods it afoot.
As the cat prepares to take her kill, the birds, so clumsy in their youth, show a surprising aptitude for military airstrike tactics.  The birds form a respectable five-man strafing formation, dive bombing the cat.  Her concentration ruined, the cat slinks away, mightily offended at the interference of the adult birds, who have caused enough distraction for the nighbor kid to scoop the bird into a low hanging nest, allowing a few minutes of respite until it takes the plunge again.  Tune in again next week, when Jim Fowler braves the front sidewalk against the mighty peril of the barn swallow.

meh

It seems that every time I get worked up enough to write about something, someone beats me to the punch. Not too long ago I got an email about the men who guard the Tomb of the Unknowns.  My spidey sense immediately began to tingle at catch phrases "for life," "swear an oath," and "never."  So I googled up the National Cemetery website and the Tomb of the Unknown's site and verified my suspicions.  Someone felt it necessary to embellish the already interesting story of these tomb guards by injecting a bunch of hyperbole and outright untruths.  Isn't their job honorable enough without all the claptrap?  It seems like I'm getting more of these sorts of emails lately.  About the time I got a good rant worked up to write, I found this site as I looked for sources.  Go there.  They do it well enough.  I don't have to reinvent the wheel.

May has been just about enough to wear a body out.  We came out of April with unseasonably warm, beautiful weather, then dove into a week and a half of March rain.  Once we shook that off, the gnats came out in attack mode, and the temps shot into the nineties.  Between our family activities and my commitments at work, we've churned through three choir concerts, two band concerts, two recognition breakfasts, one honors awards night, a camping weekend involving no showers, exchange students from 15 countries and a voyageurs canoe, a junior high dance, two dance shows, and a retirement party.  Still left: another campout, a graduation and, sadly, two funerals, one for a young lady gone far too soon.

I also made my semiannual leap of folly into MASC's production of Hello, Dolly!  Mrs. Levi ought to keep me out of trouble for a few weeks.

Now it's time to fetch the McKid home from work.  Here's hoping I can put my nose above water again soon.

My lawn maintenance plan is sanctioned by God!!!

So you may have gotten this forward in your email, but it is too good not to share:

GOD:
St  Francis, you know all about gardens and nature. What in  the world is going on down there on the planet? What  happened to the dandelions, violets, milkweeds and stuff I  started eons ago? I had a perfect no-maintenance garden  plan. Those plants grow in any type of soil, withstand  drought and multiply with abandon. The nectar from the long-lasting blossoms attracts butterflies, honey bees and  flocks of songbirds. I expected to see a vast garden of  colors by now. But, all I see are these green rectangles.

St.  FRANCIS:
It's  the tribes that settled there, Lord. The Suburbanites.  They started calling your flowers 'weeds' and went to  great lengths to kill them and replace them with  grass.

GOD:
Grass?  But, it's so boring. It's not colorful. It doesn't attract butterflies, birds and bees; only grubs and sod worms.  It's sensitive to temperatures. Do these Suburbanites  really want all that grass growing there?

ST. FRANCIS:
Apparently so, Lord. They go to great pains to grow it and keep it  green. They begin each spring by fertilizing grass and  poisoning any other plant that crops up in the  lawn.

GOD:
The spring rains and warm weather probably make grass grow really fast. That must make the Suburbanites happy.

ST.  FRANCIS:
Apparently not, Lord. As soon as it grows a little, they cut it-sometimes twice a week.

GOD:
They cut it? Do they then bale it like hay?

ST.  FRANCIS:
Not exactly, Lord. Most of them rake it up and put it in bags.

GOD:
They bag it? Why? Is it a cash crop? Do they sell it?

ST.  FRANCIS:
No,  Sir, just the opposite. They pay to throw it  away.

GOD:
Now, let me get this straight. They fertilize grass so it will grow. And, when it does grow, they cut it off and pay to throw it away?

ST.  FRANCIS:
Yes,  Sir.

GOD:
These Suburbanites must be relieved in the summer when we cut back on the rain and turn up the heat. That surely slows the growth and saves them a lot of work.

ST.  FRANCIS:
You aren't going to believe this, Lord. When the grass stops  growing so fast, they drag out hoses and pay more money to  water it, so they can continue to mow it and pay to get rid of it.

GOD:
What  nonsense. At least they kept some of the trees. That was a sheer stroke of genius, if I do say so myself. The trees grow leaves in the spring to provide beauty and shade in the summer. In the autumn, they fall to the ground and  form a natural blanket to keep moisture in the soil and protect the trees and bushes. It's a natural cycle of life.

ST.  FRANCIS:
You better sit down, Lord. The Suburbanites have drawn a new circle. As soon as the leaves fall, they rake them into  great piles and pay to have them hauled away.

GOD:
No!?  What do they do to protect the shrub and tree roots in the winter to keep the soil moist and loose?

ST. FRANCIS:
After  throwing away the leaves, they go out and buy something  which they call mulch. They haul it home and spread it around in place of the leaves.

GOD:
And where do they get this mulch?

ST. FRANCIS:
They cut down trees and grind them up to make the  mulch.

GOD:
Enough!  I don't want to think about this anymore. St. Catherine, you're in charge of the arts. What movie have you  scheduled for us tonight?

ST.  CATHERINE:
'Dumb  and Dumber', Lord. It's a story about....

GOD:
Never mind, I think I just heard the whole story from St.  Francis. 

Be careful what you wish for

The weather in these parts has been gorgeous.  Too gorgeous.  After our soggy flood stage, the water has receded and not been replaced by much rain.  It's also been dreadfully windy lately, and last evening as I was driving, clouds of topsoil were visible gusting across the road.
On the competition front, a good time was had by all at knowledge bowl, but the team placed well out of the running.  Meanwhile, two of my speakers have qualified for state, so we're bound for that tournament next Saturday.  Then, I'll have my Saturdays back!
Meanwhile, I think I'll find something constructive to do with my few remaining hours of weekend...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Spring sprang

Here in our part of the upper Minnesota River valley, its been all about the high water lately. Two of my three routes to work were underwater for the better part of the last two weeks. The third came close. Tuesday last, the wind picked up and blew ice onto the causeway, reducing traffic to one lane. MnDOT had electronic signs in readiness in case they had to post warnings. The water receded and MnDOT in its infinite wisdom decided this was the perfect time to drag those signs out and light them up. And leave them there for two weeks.
Spring has been busy. I had planned to roll seamlessly from Knowledge Bowl season into Speech season, but my first Varsity team decided to be stinkers and qualify for state, requiring another month of practice and extending the season into April. We'll head to a lake resort up north for State competition on April 15, and the way the weather's been, some of the parents may be booking tee times. Meanwhile, the speech team has been plugging away as well, and I expect a couple of them to qualify for state as well. The regional competition starts this week.
We've had a dryer on the fritz lately, and have made quite a challenge of line drying and ironing. It will be interesting to see the electric bill. It has led to wonderful family togetherness, enjoying games like "Sock Concentration."

The local Chamber had an Easter event downtown:  egg coloring, Easter Bunny, and a door to door basket fill, a la trick-or-treating, but with more pastels.  The kids named it the Creepy Bunny Crawl, however, due to the stylized rabbit poster marking participating stores:

And, in a sure sign of spring, the train is back:

Although you'll note, the engineer is not so optimistic as to remove the snowblower just yet...

Holy Cow, did I let a month sneak by again?

Winter plods on in our little corner of Minnesota. The slush and rain is ugly and grey, but hopefully will precede not so much flooding this spring,
We pulled over on the way home from school to watch a HUGE bald eagle just sitting in a field, hangin' out, minding his eagley business.
Kyle is home from a weekend trip to LA, where he had meetings and training for our job with EF There are so many awesome kids this year, we want to host them all. Instead, we're looking for awesome homes for them. If you'd like to host an exchange student and touch the life of a kid from another country, check out the link or contact me here.
My team goes to regional Knowledge Bowl competition tomorrow, and hopefully on to state from there.
Sorry to be such a poor hostess here. I've got spring fever and I'm itching to clean, putz and plant.
You all keep warm and THINK SPRING!!!

Snow day!

Made pancakes. Kid helped.
Kids did chores on their own. (they wanted something)
Got a few chores done.
Had a real conversation with my husband.
Made a big dinner. Other kids helped.
Cooked ahead for the week.
No wonder the day seemed to fly by.

Why I'm neglecting you

In brief:

Someone quit at Job2 and I'm working more lately.
Education cooperative gigantic inservice day
End-of-Quarter workday
End of quarter work load
Beginning of Semester lesson plans
Training weekend for foreign exchange program concurrent with...
Supervision of ski trip for 102 foreign exchange students
Watching the Vikings, yet again, snatch defeat form the jaws of a victorious season
Nearly weekly knowledge bowl tournaments disrupted by...
Nearly weekly snowstorms


Aside from all this, we're all well, if a bit winter weary.
Off to prep for next week's mayhem!

Take it Tuesday: Winter Blues

A recap for the Winter Blues theme: the view from the landing.

Mr. Murphy and the knowledge bowl tournament

Our New Year's Eve game party was mostly harmless. A good friend and "auntie" to the kids came out for a visit over the long weekend, bringing along the boyfriend of Thing 2. He's a great kid, and was nice to have around. We got in a good visit as we alternated shotgun duty... The kids have started inviting their friends for the NYE party, and this year it was kind of a pain in the butt. There is such a continuum of maturity in kids that age. Some of them were great fun to be around, and some were toddlers in teen bodies. I don't think they'll be invited back en masse. The grownups all behaved themselves fairly well.

I managed to spend a few hours that Sunday getting myself ready to go back to school. In our infinite wisdom, the regional Knowledge Bowl coaches planned subregional competition the day after break. I thought I did a pretty good job of laying out my sub plan and my preparations for our home tournament. Monday went fine and one of my teams qualified for regions. I came home and got to work on the tournament planning. Tuesday I accomplished quite a bit, and assembled my packets for the printer, planning to send them Wednesday. On Wednesday, school released early in the onset of a winter storm. At bedtime, Thursday school was already two hours late. By 5 am it had been cancelled. I got quite a bit more done working from home, and hoped for a late start Friday to get my tourney packets to the printer and set up the scoring software with the IT dude. They called off school. By 8:30, I'd made a few calls, and determined that if I could get myself to school and find a custodian to let me in to print, I was home free. By 11:30, I was there, none the worse for wear (the side roads were still plugged and the windchill was nasty, but the main roads had been cleared) and spent the day in a blind rush putting my tournament together. Saturday dawned clear and cold, and the tournament went off well, but not until after a good deal of hairpulling on my part. This past week I spent catching up all the stuff I let slide while I worked on the tournament, and putting in a few more hours to help cover at Job 2. Hopefully that serves as an explanation of my absence around here, especially when combined with the fact that my life has been pretty uneventful and boring.

We did discover another impostor cat, this one resembling our grey striped tabby, Raelin. This one is also much friendlier than the other impostor, inviting himself in. Our Vietnamese daughter let him in, not realizing until later it wasn't Rae. My sister-in-law was just here for a short visit and let him in on the way out. He was here long enough to have a quick snack and use the rest room, so I suppose he's no worse than the kids' friends.
Tonight the Vietnamese daughter must participate in "Snow Days" coronation, so I'll get in a little work time at school and get prepped up for the rest of the quarter. The school year is nearly half over. It boggles the mind.

New Year's Eve

I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year
"Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown."
And he replied, "Go into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way..."

Minnie Louise Haskins, "The Gate of the Year" 1908

Christmas break

Teachers get as excited for this time of year as students do. I've been having a lovely mix of lazy slacking and productive putzing through the Midwestern Snowpocalypse of 2009. Our local snowfall amounts were relatively tame, totalling 12-15" in spurts over three days, enough to make the backyard all purty and provide impetus for a snowfort. There were enough lulls in the storm for most folks to get out and dig in spurts rather than face an insurmountable mountain at the end. We only had one short trip into town for Christmas with my in-laws, then back home to snuggle in for the next round. The real crap came the day after the snow stopped falling, when it thawed just enough to get wet, and the wind blew to refreeze sheets of nasty packed snow and ice onto the roadways. This, of course, was the the day we were scheduled to drive to the cities for a Christmas party with friends. We made the attempt, but turned around after creeping along the sheets of ice until a 4x4 passed us in the opposite lane, then spun out directly behind us across our lane. We stopped by McDonald's on the way home, where they were all too glad to see our Things who work there, as so much of the help had called off due to weather. So, after forgetting to take the day off, then scrambling to cover their shifts at the last minute, they wound up working anyway. They always tell me they want money... The county roads still suck, but the major highways are finally in decent shape.
Tonight is our annual game party for friends and neighbors, and I expect goodtimes all around. It's been another rollercoaster year, with plenty of adventures and the loss of my brother to keep life interesting. We are blessed with relatively good health and steady income for the time being, and count our blessings as we face our challenges. May it be as well for your you and yours.

Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated

I'm here, all is well, just busy.
I have been keeping my nose to the grindstone and making some progress.
Knowledge Bowl has been fun, but no big wins yet this year. Saturday morning was the last day of firearms deer hunting in our neck of the woods. On my drive around the lake to meet the K-Bowl bus, I saw a hunter in full winter camo and blaze orange trudging back toward his vehicle. About a hundred yards behind him, a deer picked his way along the path in the opposite direction. I swear he was chuckling.
As mentioned previously, we're gearing up for a quiet Christmas at home. My family's big gathering is done, and no-one else can get together until January. Brother's wife #2 is visiting over the weekend, and we'll have some friends visit for a couple days over our annual NYE game party, but otherwise we'll enjoy some quiet time together.
While our December has been mostly tranquil, some of our friends and neighbors have been dealing with illness and death, and we keep them in our hearts.
I guess now I need to get ready for work. Take care!

Withdrawl

My internet at home has been down for 36 hours.
I think of a million things to look up or people to contact, then remember.
I am an addict!
Thank goodness for datsphones...

NABLOPOMO fail

28/30 in a very hectic month. Not so bad.

Ow.

After a cold, nasty, October, our November has been mostly dry and beautiful. Yesterday the temperatures crawled up into the low 50s, and the sun shone all day. We spent most of the afternoon out in the yard playing the yard games ma picked up on the Black Friday sales. The fresh air was welcome and a little disconcerting for those of us preparing to hibernate. After supper the bulk of us trundled off to the indoor ice rink, where I perched myself atop a couple of metal blades for the first time in over 20 years, and teetered around the ice for about an hour. I discovered a couple of new muscles in the process.
I'll check in again tomorrow, if I can roll myself out of bed.

Success!

Fat. Sassy. Sleepy. Thankful.

Thanksmas

Well, I got all the activities for this week completed, and managed to teach a little in between, too. Oy. Looking forward to four days with family for Thanksmas. I will get to curl up in a comfy corner and do a little grading. Our Thanksmas gatherings have plenty of activities to join as well as quiet time to visit and just chill. It will be nice not to have the housework and other distractions calling to me. It will be good to reconnect. Now it's time to pack and prep and bake a bit before we leave.

It's a wrap

Kids pulled off their show with aplomb. Not without a glitch here and there, but they had energy and carried it off despite lapses. I am very proud of them. And really, really glad its over for a while.

Show time!!

Matinee and 7pm tonight, then it's time to pack this baby up. I've had a lot of fun with these kids, and maybe they'll ask me back next year. I'll try to curb my response rather than run screaming or laugh in the poor woman's face.