A couple of days ago, I got a package in the mail from Beth. That’s weird, I thought, Why would Beth be sending me a package?
So I opened it. Inside, it said: “Happy Birthday!” Oops! I opened a Birthday present early. But Yay! I opened a Birthday present early! Inside were some lovely new pieces of art from Tara for my refrigerator, and a giant blanket. I had told Beth that when I share a blanket with Max on the couch, my feet always end up sticking out because it’s too small. Well, this new blanket is really big. And soft. Max loves it.
And as requested, here’s a picture of the artwork:
I had lunch supervision duty yesterday and found a mysterious list on the floor. It’s very small. The left side is about the size of a quarter. I have no idea what it could be. What’s interesting is that under certain circumstances, this list could have been generated by me. Is it a message from myself? What do the colors mean?
When I find bottles of water in my classroom, I first check to see if they’ve been opened. If not, I will drink them. If the seal is broken on the bottle, I’ll open it up and smell it. I want to be sure it’s water. If it has no smell, I pour it into my potted plants in my classroom. Watering my plants can be tedious, because the pots are pretty big, so it takes a few trips down the hallway with my coffee maker pot. An extra bottle of water now and then really helps. Thank you, forgetful students!
Yesterday I watered my plants with water all the way from the Fiji Islands!
Over the weekend, something happened to our server at school and it froze. While I was trying to work on Sunday morning, I kept getting error messages from my school laptop. Yesterday morning, our IT guy got the server going again, but my laptop was still giving the error messages. Something was wrong with the hard drive. IT Guy ran a diagnostic/repair program on my laptop, but it didn’t work. I think he might have to replace the hard drive.
In the meantime, I’m using a laptop from the student cart. It’s not entirely compatible with my server profile, so I’m having some trouble accessing my files. Fortunately, they are not gone from the server. And fortunately, I have them all saved to a flash drive. But still, my computer access is slow and labor-intensive.
I hadn’t realized how much I use my computer for school. It’s not just the notes and worksheets stored in my files. It’s also daily announcements, This Day in History, movie clips, PowerPoint presentations, and internet trivia. If we ever lost power at school, I’d be done for.
I have mentioned Ron Smith, my favorite radio talkshow guy, a couple of times. He died in December from pancreatic cancer. It was fast. He announced his illness in November. I loved listening to him. He had a big influence on my way of looking at politics.
I miss listening to him on the radio, but even more, I miss the internet links he would post on his show’s webpage. He found political articles from all over the spectrum. I enjoyed the different perspectives. I’ve been trying to find another source for articles, but it’s hard. First of all, sites seem to have a particular political slant, so going to any single source leaves me wanting to hear the other side. Secondly, searching takes time, and if I want to read a quick article during lunch or something, I find that I use up all my time just searching.
I have had some limited success though. Maybe instead of a single source, I could whittle it down to four or five. I think I might have one already; I have enjoyed several articles from Forbes.com. You would think all their articles have to do with money, but they don’t. HERE is an example of a fun article I liked so much I printed it out for my classroom (but I couldn’t use it because some of the language is inappropriate). I especially love the graphs in the article. It reminds me of THIS place, which just posts interesting charts.
Dang… now I’m late for school.
Yes indeedy, those sqwunched up eyes say “Mmmmmm” like nothing else can. So……does Max ever share your blanket with you? Or was it really a birthday gift for Max himself, and yours is still on the way? Nice sister, that Beth. I’d keep her.
That picture is pure relaxation. I think it’s completely appropriate to open your present early, since you’ll get a couple more weeks of enjoyment out of it. Well done, Beth!
YAY!! Birthday Day 1!!
(And it should be noted that the unsigned rainbow picture was from Tim, with some added parts by Mommy at Tim’s direction.)
It occurs to me that, were I a veterinarian, I could use this oh-so-comfy shot of the Max-meister (not to be comfused with a Mix Master) to reassure you:
I see no ear mites; he’s clean.
But I’m not. A vet. -erinarian, that is. So my comment is pretty meaningless, I guess.
[When do we get to see the refrigerator drawings from niece and nephew, though?]
That’s a cute picture and all, but where are the pictures from Tim and Tara? We gotta see!
I took a picture of the drawings, but I didn’t post it. It’s on my computer at home. I’ll upload it when I get home.
Not good enough!
I want you to ask for a sub, say you have “a thing” (with hand motions), and get home now so we can see that picture!
Haha! I would LOVE to do that. I’d post the picture, then play Xbox while sitting with Max under the blanket. Warm fuzzy Xbox time…
UPDATE:
I added a picture of the rainbow drawings.