Posted by Brad on April 30th, 2009 — Posted in Journal
Yesterday was Field Trip Day at school. The 6th - 8th grades all went somewhere. I went with the 7th grade. We went to Annapolis.
In the morning we went to the Banneker-Douglass Museum of black history. It was an interesting museum, but unfortunately one of their volunteers didn’t show up, so we went through in one large 44 person group. It made it a little more difficult for the kids to listen. They made underground railroad quilt designs at the end of our visit. It was a cool idea.
After having lunch at the downtown dock area, we went to a marina where we learned about pirates of the Chesapeake Bay. The kids made sundials, but they couldn’t try them because it was cloudy. After the sundails, we got on a boat and made a short trip in the bay. It was fun, but I would have liked it if the kids had more free time to look at the water. There was too much “program”, and the people dressed like pirates were talking a lot. Even I found it hard to pay attention after a little while. They eventually let us go to the upper deck, and the kids really enjoyed themselves. Note to self: next year, we should do the simple “harbor cruise”. It’s much less word-intensive. And it’s cheaper.
The most interesting thing I saw all day was at the museum in the morning. One of their displays was about fishing docks, and there was a post there that someone had painstakingly painted bird poop on. I thought it was fine craftsmanship, and wanted to congratulate whoever had done it. What commitment to detail!
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Posted by Brad on April 29th, 2009 — Posted in Journal
It has been unseasonably warm the last couple of days. The heat made things difficult at school because our air conditioning wasn’t switched on yet. We have a system that uses hot water or cold water to heat or cool the air. Switching from hot to cold requires a visit from our friendly neighborhood air conditioning company, so it can’t be done very quickly.
The weather went from 60’s to 90’s in a flash, and we didn’t get an appointment made soon enough. The result was freaky warm classrooms. The last couple of days have been interesting. I don’t know what these kids would have done if they lived in an age before air conditioning. They were all sure they were going to die because they were so hot or thirsty. I am happy to say that we didn’t lose a single student to the heat.
The air conditioning came on yesterday around 4:30. Just in time for highs in the 60’s again. We’ll be on day-long field trips anyway, so we’ll be experiencing nature’s air conditioning.
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Posted by Brad on April 28th, 2009 — Posted in Journal
I don’t normally do much shopping during the week, but I was out of Carnation Instant Breakfast, so I had no choice. I went to my local membership discount warehouse store. It’s called BJ’s. I’ve been glad to be able to get Carnation for cheap, but my big complaint was about their shopping carts. They were all chained together, and in order to release one, you’d have to put a quarter into it. If you wanted your quarter back, you’d have to chain the cart back up. It made me angry that I had to jump through a stupid hoop just to shop at their store. Why not make it easier to shop at their store instead of harder? Isn’t that something they cover in Marketing 101? Because of their restriction, all I would ever buy from them is Carnation. It’s all I could carry without a cart.
Well, yesterday I had a pleasant surprise. They got new carts. And they’re not chained together with quarter locks! Yay! To reward them for finally fixing a serious problem, I bought more than just Carnation. I got a bottle of TUMS that will last me until 2011 and I got a dozen bars of soap. Hooray!
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Posted by Brad on April 27th, 2009 — Posted in Investigations
Beth’s plane left yesterday at 6:30am. That meant getting up pretty early to go to the airport. I didn’t get to sleep until around 11, so every minute counted. But in the middle of the night (around 2am - I looked at a clock), there was a lot of noise coming from the bank parking lot. I got up to see what it was. Two police cars with lights flashing were framing a group of about eight men and women. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but they sounded drunk.
I went to the bathroom, because that’s what I always do in the middle of the night. When I returned, the police cars and the people were gone, but I saw two men leaving my back yard. One of them had something in his pocket that might have been a gun. I thought to myself: Yikes! Did they step on any plants?
I looked yesterday. No plant damage as far as I can tell, but they did leave some physical evidence. After taking several pictures, I brought it onto my back porch so it wouldn’t get rained on. It might contain some epithelials or something.
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Posted by Brad on April 26th, 2009 — Posted in Journal
It was a shopping day yesterday. Beth was curious about Arundel Mills Mall, since I had talked and written so much about it. After a leisurely morning and a walk around the neighborhood, we headed to the mall. We were there by noon. I specifically wanted to get a new belt. I have a black leather belt that has a buckle that pinches instead of hooking in a hole. That makes it infinitely adjustable. I love it. It’s my second belt of the same model. I was hoping to get a third one and keep it in storage until I needed it. I had success!
Beth was looking for many things at once. She found all of them except for jeans. Congratulations, Beth!
After the mall, Beth needed to make another walk-through at IKEA. I dropped her off and went to Lowe’s because I’ve had some sky pencil holly fatalities. I was hoping to find replacements. No luck. I’ll have to check other Lowe’s locations.
The weirdest thing I saw all day, apart from a very large man with very saggy pants, was a shirt that boasted that it protected skin from the sun. The shirt even had a protection number. I was a little confused. Isn’t that what shirts are supposed to do? Cover you? It’s like a car bragging about being able to take you places.
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