Posted by Brad on February 28th, 2007 — Posted in Journal
I totally forgot to wish Erin a Happy Birthday. She had a really good one. She went to see Bløf. Here is her report of the experience:
I had a fabulous time at the Blof concert this weekend in Rotterdam! Martyn was bored stiff, but was a good sport. Afterwards, I met up with Peter, the bass player, and got to meet the band - even got invited out for drinks! 
Best birthday in years!
Isn’t that AWESOME?!? She went for drinks with Bløf!
My current favorite song of theirs is “Wat zou je doen”. It’s fun because it’s a live track and the crowd sings along. It also reminds me a little of Joey from “Friends” saying “How YOU doin’?” Hehehe
Happy Belated Birthday, Erin!
And Happy Half Birthday to Beth today!
Yesterday’s Lenten Chore: Clean out all the trash floating around in the garden pond.
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Posted by Brad on February 27th, 2007 — Posted in Journal
Every year for Lent, I have my seventh graders make a Lenten sacrifice. It can be the traditional one of giving something up for Lent (they most often choose soda), or it can be taking on some new task, such as drinking a glass of milk each day or daily reading. I have four requirements: it must be challenging, it must be measurable, it must be daily, and it must not be unhealthy. Though there are some kids who don’t really do much with this, most of them do a pretty good job.
I always do something for Lent along with them. This year, I decided I would exercise every day. But I only exercised once in five days, and that was just a walk around my neighborhood.
So, I decided to change my Lenten sacrifice to something else. My new one is to do a chore at home every day. My habit has been to let the chores pile up until I have to do something about it. Then it’s usually a whole day on the weekend. So Sunday I cleaned the aquarium, and yesterday I gathered the trash to put it out (today is trash pick up day). Maybe this Lenten sacrifice sounds like a cop out choice, but at least I can do this one. These are all things I would need to do anyway, but this way, I’m spacing them out and taking them at a better pace. I’m thinking this may help me develop some better habits. Plus, I’ll have a cleaner house!
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Posted by Brad on February 26th, 2007 — Posted in Haircuts
I have waited a long time between haircuts again. A big part of this is that I think my regular hair cutting place is permanently closed. They haven’t been open the last four times I stopped by during the day. I could get pretty dependably good haircuts from them, so I’m sad. I don’t know what to do for haircuts now. Last time, when I went to a new shop, I got a ledge in my head. I was talking about it with Denis and he said he used to clipper-cut his friends’ hair all the time. Trusting in his powers of OCD, I agreed to let him cut my hair.
I wasn’t disappointed. He took a long time, especially on the “corners” of my head. I’m always telling the hair cutters, “No corners.” I say that because if any hint of corner is left where the sides of my head meet the top of my head, I will start to look like Bozo the Clown as my hair grows. Well, I have no corners! And it was a free haircut!
Thank you, Denis! Thank you, OCD!
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Posted by Brad on February 25th, 2007 — Posted in Journal
We have Saturday detention at school. The duty rotates among the teachers. Yesterday was my first turn this year. There were three students slated to come. When they showed up, I had prepared for them: The wall clock was covered with paper and no longer visible, and I had a CD of Baroque music playing.
I had them sit as far apart from each other as possible, told them they would be sitting silently for an hour, and gave them each a Bible. I told them if they got bored they could read from it. I sat in the student desks near my desk and graded, while Handel’s Water Music and Fireworks Music played in the background.
It took at least one of them by surprise, because he was expecting a “work” detention. This was interminably, mind-numbingly boring. It was awesome! They sighed a lot. It was like legalized mental torture! I wonder what it would be like to have a job in the torture industry. Are there many openings in that field these days?
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Posted by Brad on February 24th, 2007 — Posted in Journal
Last night after I had come home and eaten and messed around a little, I settled into the couch to watch TV. My couch is a futon from IKEA and is not very uncomfortable to sit in. It is nice for lying on though, so I put it down last night. I was going to get comfortable under a blanket and watch Monk and then Psych. Monk starts at 9. It was about 8:30 when I fell asleep. I stayed asleep until about 10:30, at which time I tried to wake up for about 30 minutes. Then I just went to bed.
I couldn’t sleep past 5:00 this morning. I was having crazy-weird dreams about trying to plan a celebration or a choir tour or something. My plans kept getting interrupted and everything was falling apart. I had to get up because the dream was so stressful!
So instead of my regular 6, I had 8 hours of sleep last night… a good solid two of which were here on the futon:
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