Month: March 2009 (Page 4 of 7)

Somebody at school told me about a new side item at Arby’s called Loaded Potato Bites. They are fried packages of potato, cheese, and bacon. Mmm… they sounded delicious. Yesterday, I found myself looking for a place to stop and grab a bite to eat. Of course Arby’s came to mind. I had a Beef ‘n Cheddar and some Loaded Potato Bites. They were delicious.

The outside has some sort of herb flavoring, and the inside is smoky and cheesy. They give you a Ranch dip to use, which I opened just because I was curious. I’m not real big on dipping sauces. I like my fried food unadulterated so I can taste the oil-soaked goodness. I would not eat these every day, for fear of dying, but they’ll make a wonderful occasional treat.

Yesterday after choir practice, I was an errand-running champ. The first and last stops stand out:

The first stop was the shipping store. I’m finally returning my ring for exchange. I paid for the shipping with cash, and I’m pretty sure I used a twenty, but the lady said I used a ten. I wasn’t thinking fast enough, or I would have asked her to compare the serial number from the top twenty in her drawer with the twenty in my wallet. I got them from an ATM, and I think they were successive numbers. Too late now. That store received a donation of ten dollars from me yesterday.

My last stop was Jiffy Lube. I’ve needed to do an oil change for a while. Of course I always say “no” to anything they offer except the oil change. This visit cemented that custom even further. First the guy said that the differential gear box on the rear axle was up for the manufacturer’s recommended servicing. After I declined, he said it was supposed to have three quarts of fluid in it, but only had one. He said the gears are not being lubricated like they should. I declined again. Then he said the gears are running dry and the whole gear box is going to seize up and be destroyed. I declined again. Then he went back to talking all normal-like as we completed my transaction. His progression of escalating scares seemed artificial and dishonest. “No thank you.”

Yesterday we held a prayer vigil at school. It went from 10am to 10pm. During the school day, high schoolers were allowed to sign up for a visit any time during the day. If middle schoolers wanted to go, they went during their Religion classes. It was awesome! The kids received it very well. They made many positive comments upon returning to the classroom. I was very happy.

We had set up several “prayer stations” around the room where they would read different instructions and experience different sensory input while praying. You can read about prayer station instructions HERE.

They were really in to it. I snuck away from class a couple of times just to check out what was going on. It was quiet and the kids were praying. So cool!

But I was really impressed with how many kids were just sitting and praying. Why didn’t we do this before? We will definitely do it again. A once-per-semester schedule seemed good to us, but we’re thinking we might do it again this year already since the kids responded so well.

My class schedule had no breaks, so I finally went over after school. It was just me and Brady, so I actually lit some of the incense. I’ve always wanted to do that. First you light a little charcoal disc, then you sprinkle incense on it.

It smoked so much we thought it might set off the fire alarm. We quickly opened a window and door. Ooops.

I left Brady to man the library for the evening. I’m embarrassed that I didn’t stay to help, but not sleeping well on Thursday night left me tired and grumpy. I went to bed exceptionally early last night. Sorry Brady.

Last night was the second installment of my beekeeping course. I didn’t want to fall asleep again like I did last time, so I stopped at Dunkin Donuts for a coffee on my way to the class. I got a large.

I had decided to introduce myself to as many people as I could this time, since last time we didn’t do any icebreakers or introductions. When I arrived, I started by saying “Hi. I’m Brad. I’m from Hamilton.” The three people who were there looked at me, then down at the table. Dang. I walked around the building a little bit. An eight-year-old boy who is attending the course with his dad walked around with me. We talked about the fish and turtles they had in aquariums. At least I made one friend, even if he was only eight.

I enjoyed last night’s session. We learned about bee life cycles and spring management stuff. We talked a lot about swarms. I actually got to ask a couple of questions. It seems like a lot of the people attending the course have experience with beekeeping, so he says things that don’t seem to faze them. At one point, he was talking about holding a wooden frame full of bees and looking real close to see if there are eggs in the cells. I had to ask: “The bees don’t mind you just putting your face right in there?” He said “no”. I was glad to finally out myself as someone who didn’t know anything. Now I can ask all kinds of stupid questions and it won’t surprise anyone.

The coffee worked. Really, really well. After the class, my jaw hurt from clenching my teeth so hard. And I couldn’t get to sleep last night.
Note to self: get a small coffee next time.

My hellebores are blooming. It’s a sign that Spring is coming. My least favorite season is Winter. Fall is my most favorite, followed by Spring, then Summer. But I’m glad Baltimore has a winter. There are a lot of plants I couldn’t grow if there were no Winter. And snow days are nice. But the Early Dark is hard.

Once I see the first flowers of Spring, I know I’ve made it through Winter. Now that the hellebores are blooming, I can look forward to the forsythia, then the daffodils, then the fruit tree blossoms. After that, things will be blooming and growing like crazy and I’ll be refreshed daily by an after-school walk in the garden.

The hellebores poke up through the wreckage of Winter: