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The closing date for my condo purchase is the 17th. That’s coming really quickly. Even though it’s just a move down the driveway, I still need to organize things a little. The area in the worst shape was the storage closet by my kitchen. It has kind of became a catch-all for anything I didn’t know what to do with. And it was junky.

But yesterday I got it cleaned up and packed up. I threw a bunch of stuff away, and the stuff that was left is in boxes, or is too big for boxes and is ready to be carried out.

The three boxes are: Decorations, fun stuff, and hardware.

Ever since I set it up, the aquarium in my classroom has included guppies. I got yellow ‘cobra’ guppies. They were spectacular. And little by little, they have died off. It may have been a water quality thing. Or it may have been that I had lots of males, and few females. That could have caused the males to fight and kill each other.

I periodically look for yellow guppies to boost my population. I see yellows every once in a while, but no more cobra-style guppies. I’m disappointed about that.

A few months ago, I bought two females, one of whom gave birth and had one female baby survive, then she died. So I was down to two females, and one male. Then on Thursday, I bought three more yellow females. I now have five females and one male. That seems like a good balance.

The problem now is my loaches. They did a great job getting rid of all the snails in my tank. But now they’re getting bigger, and a little aggressive. I think that any baby guppies that are born will just be loach food. I wonder if my local pet store would accept them…

We were doing our vocabulary test this past week, and one of the seventh graders said: “Number one sounds like you.”

Question: Taking turns while speaking and listening to another person is a good way to have one of these.
Answer: A conversation

Ha! I’m always coaching them on manners and respect. Today I gave a lecture about how it can be rude to ask someone to share their food with you. Sharing is nice, but it’s not nice to make someone feel obligated to give you some of a tasty treat they brought. I encouraged people who were being asked to share only if they wanted to, but told them they should also have boundaries and be able to politely say “no”.

They of course made a joke out of it as soon as we brought out our food, but I do think they heard what I said. After all, taking turns while listening and speaking is a good way to have a conversation.

This morning, a student interrupted me to tell me there was a bug on my head. I brushed my head off, but she said it was still there. Then she wondered if maybe it was some kind of mark on my head. I don’t have a mirror in my classroom (I need to fix that), so I got my phone out and took a picture:

But I couldn’t see the picture very well because I had my contacts in, and my near-vision is blurry when I’m wearing my contacts.

I forgot about the whole thing, but when I got home, I remembered and looked in the mirror. It’s a red spot that has developed over time. I think red spots like this have a name, but I can’t seem to remember it.