Progress on the bambino blanket

Here's the Baby DeVault blanket so far. These are the squares we knitted at the shower. I was a little worried while we were all working on them because divergent knitters knit divergent sizes, but so far the squares are sewing up quite nicely.

I think it'll be more of a security blanket than a blanket to cover up with. It's a little smaller than I expected, but we'll see. If I end up with extra squares, I guess I can always add an extra column down one side.

Last night at Betsy's I finished a rainbow colored crochet scarf. It turned out pretty cute. Might be an Etsy post in the future. I've been neglecting my Etsy shop since it's been crazy with school stuff lately.

Hopefully this summer I can build it back up. To those of you who have checked out the Etsy site: What do you like? What would you buy? What do you want to see more of?

•••

It's almost dinner time, then I've got to finish my school stuff. I did go up to work and get a bunch done, just not enough!

Race Day

Got up early this morning and ran the Trolley Run through Waldo, Brookside and down to the plaza. It's a 4-miler, and allegedly it's the largest four-mile race in the country.

It was pretty fun, but a little chilly.

I'm headed to school today to get caught up on some work. I hope it will make the rest of my week a little easier.

A new Guitar Hero addict

Last night, Adam and I got back to our pre-teen routes, with our friends Matt and Megan.


Matt teaches Geometry and Algebra 2 at my school, so he came over to help Adam on his take-home math test. While the boys did homework, Megan and I played video games. It was like middle school all over again - homework and video games. Though Megan (or Megaaaaa, her new Wii name) did decide that really, it was a little opposite - the boys would normally be playing video games while the girls did homework.

It was Megaaaaa's first time with Guitar Hero - she did really well for a first-timer. I think she only got booed off the stage once, on her very first song. I think it was her cross-legged stance (see above) that got her in the zone...

Here's Matt rockin' out. Can't remember what song he was playing at that point, but check out his rock stance. Leg out, leanin' back - all we need is rock face and he'd a textbook GHer. They're getting married this summer, so I told them they should register for a Wii!

We played a little Wii Sports, too - bowling and tennis were probably the best.

We all had lots of fun, but it's also sad for Adam and I - Matt and Megan are moving back to be closer to their families this summer, after school gets out, so we'll miss them a lot. I think they'll either be near Omaha or all the way back to Sioux Falls. We've hung out with Matt quite a bit so far this year - he's been a good boy-space-friend for Adam. Megan moved here at semester after she graduated, so we've just gotten to know her better recently. They're into the same kind of music we are, and pretty much all-around laid back folks like us.

Hopefully we'll get to come out and play lots this summer before they move!

Uh, oh, it's Tidy Town Day - Watch out for Junky Monkeys!

The trash company is picking up large trash items in eastern Shawnee today. Folks have been putting out old couches, tables, lawn furniture, beds, lawn mowers - you name it, they're tossing it.

It's kind of sad, really. Look at all this crap that is going to be tossed in the landfill most likely. Of course, there are those folks out there who make this a sport. Look at this truck.

Seriously? You're going to drive that thing down the road?

I'm sure that man is headed to the scrap yard to make big money off some of that crap. I should have looked at some of the license plates as people were driving down the road. I'm sure they come in from surrounding counties - Shawnee is in Johnson County, after all, so people probably think they're going to find some great junk. This is the day of the year that JoCo becomes more like Arkansas.

We helped Mom put that junk out by the street last night. In the span of an hour or so, probably five different cars, trucks and vans stopped to dig through it.


Anybody need a combination turntable/eight-track player? If the trash company hasn't been by yet, I know where you can get a great deal on one...

It's a rain out

Well, it's official - school was canceled today due to high water. At 4 a.m., the principal got a call from one of the custodians, who said, "You better get down here. NOW."

So he did. Standing water in the main office, 15 classrooms (not mine, thankfully), and two hallways.

Heavy rains last night, combined with a school under construction, an old building, and a broken drainpipe combined to create what I'm sure students are calling "The Perfect Storm" - so perfect they got the day off.

About 2:30 this morning, I woke up to lightning, thunder and hail hitting the windows.

I didn't get a phone call while I was getting ready for school, so I didn't know until I got to school and observed the mysteriously empty student parking lot. I saw one of the APs standing out there, talking to someone in a car.

"That's weird," I said to myself.

Then, as I was schlepping in my purse, lunch bag, and school bag, one of the other teachers called out - "No school today!"

I thought he was kidding. Seriously.

Obviously everyone else got the call, because they were all dressed in shorts and T-shirts, meanwhile I showed up in my "grown-up clothes." Oh well. Minor irritant in an otherwise glorious day.

Don't get me wrong - it wasn't glorious because of the lack of students - it was glorious because we got to use it as a teacher-design work day. That means I could work on whatever I needed to, and the timing couldn't have been better. I got caught up on stuff since I was out of town for three days last week. Entered some grades, organized my work area, and worked on my sub plan for tomorrow.

The best part of the whole day was that the math department teachers and I got to go out to lunch. Thankfully, my math friends invited me along since I am basically my own department and I don't have co-teaching cronies to hang out with. We went to Jalapeno's, a cool little Mexican restaurant in Stanley.

It might not seem like a big deal to most, but having a day that we can actually spend more than 20 minutes on lunch is a real treat for teacher types.

Conflict of interest, much?

In a roundabout way, the government already has a tight fist on the media, and now Rupert Murdoch is strengthening his grip on the media front. At this rate, pretty soon he'll own MY blog.

The first link is a NY Times investigative piece that ran Sunday. Gee, come to find out, the TV analysts we see talking about the administration's war policies are still connected to the Pentagon, like, as in mouthpieces for the Pentagon. How convenient for "military analysts" to keep up the drumbeat of war, when they're in the pockets of the BIG businesses who'd be happy if we were over there for the next hundred years.

Why do those in power have to trick us, the American people? To me "representing" doesn't mean "I'm going to tell you whatever the hell I want to keep myself in power." But obviously that's exactly what it means to politicians and military officials.

Please, keep up your healthy doses of skepticism - it seems we need it more and more each day.

No longer pushing my (snooze) buttons

Those of you who know me well know that usually, by this time of night, I am either a.) in bed asleep, or b.) quickly approaching bed.

Thanks to the four and half days spent on the West Coast, my schedule is a little off. It was great while I was in California - getting up at 6 a.m. Pacific each day felt like sleeping in for almost three hours. Of course, I did get tired a little early in the evenings, but since we were usually busy doing or seeing something, I stayed awake.

Alas, I think I was gone just long enough for my body to adjust a little bit. I had trouble falling asleep last night (could've been the hourlong nap at 6:45), and tossed and turned a bit. Normally, in the mornings, I'll wake up a few minutes before my 5:30 alarm. Today I actually snooze-buttoned it.

I haven't done that since I started using my cell phone for an alarm, almost three months ago. I used to be that person who set the alarm for a certain time, only to hit snooze for a total of 30-40 minutes each morning before I finally dragged my butt out of bed. I would even do this when my alarm was on the dresser ALL THE WAY ACROSS THE ROOM.

Yeah - I got up, out of bed, walked over, hit snooze, crawled back into bed, only to do it again nine minutes later.

A little tip: This method is great when you're single. Not so much when you're married and the spousal unit doesn't like being woke up every 10 minutes for an hour. (I can't imagine why...)

I'm glad I've stopped snoozing. I have time to eat breakfast, watch the news and check my e-mail and the blogs before I leave the house. And I STILL get to school about 15 minutes before contract time. That way, I've got some peace and quiet in my room so I can collect my thoughts before my first-hour class arrives.

•••

I'm going to watch "The Paper" and head to bed. Hopefully I'll fall asleep before 11 p.m. I hadn't watched the entire first episode until last night. I really hope that all of the intra-staff drama is mostly contrived by MTV. Watching that show makes me glad I have the kids I do, and not some of the ones featured on the show.

After tonight, maybe I'll have a better idea of what's happening and I'll write some more about it. I know there are a bunch of current and former yearbook and newspaper nerds reading this blog - are you all watching the show?

Snapshots - Anaheim

Here's a few quick snapshots from the trip. An hourlong nap once I returned to KC felt pretty good, but I'm still pretty darn sleepy, so this will be quick.

I'm fascinated with the palm trees. They are always the first thing to catch my eye when I fly into California. This photo was taken outside Hilo Hattie's in the Block At Orange, which is an outdoor shopping and dining area. The maestro kids did the reporting for their projects here.

The process of planning and thinking through pages and stories is what makes maestro work.

Um, maybe this is a delicacy only found in California? I'm not really sure what buff-U-lo wings are.

If you read the Wednesday afternoon post, about being next to the pool, now you're seeing what I saw. This is the courtyard of our hotel. Interestingly, it's the exact same hotel I stayed in while covering the 2003 NCAA tournament.

I didn't shoot very much at Disneyland because it was practically dark before we even got there. Here's the Hub, where you can choose to visit one of the other "lands" - Tomorrowland, Fantasyland, Adventureland, Frontierland or Main Street.

Not once did I see Mickey or Minnie or Donald or Snow White walking around. I couldn't get my photo taken with any of the lifesize characters!

Here's the castle entrance into Fantasyland.

De Plane! De Plane!

I've made it through one leg of the trip home. Unlike every other "businesslike" place I have been so far this weekend (the Marriott convention hotel, Orange County airport) DIA actually has fre WiFi available for weary travelers.

That's me.

I've got about 20 minutes before boarding the flight to KCI, so I'm charging up the laptop and re-connecting with the outside world for just a bit.

The great irony of attending the journalism convention is that it's the two times of the year when I am least involved in the news of the day. Usually, I can't easily get internet access. I'm up and out of the room by 7 a.m. most days, preparing to teach and attend workshop sessions. Once down at the convention, we really are in a bubble. It's all yearbook and newspaper all the time. Trends, headlines, great design, how to improve writing, staff morale - we've got it all. And we usually go straight until dinner time.

Except current events! About the only thing I've been keeping up with this week is the compound story out of Texas. And that's only because it's been all they're talking about on CNN and Today as I'm getting dressed and heading out the door.

I thought the flight from Orange to Denver was supposed to be three hours - it flew by. (HA!) Really, no pun intended. I watched one episode of The Office - they showed it on the inflight TV. Then, I had a very nice talk with the gentleman sitting in the aisle seat of our row. Normally I am not a talker when it comes to airplane neighbors, but our chat made the time go by really quickly. He's an East Coaster - so I'm hoping I made a good impression of Kansans.

Sometimes I feel as though I'm on a personal crusade to change the backward image of my state brethren.

I just had to run over to the podium to have a seat change. I don't think I've ever been paged over the gate intercom before. I was a little nervous getting on our flight because my good friend Laura was on the plane. (That's not what made me nervous.)

Lunch with Laura on Friday included about 10 tales of her flight woes - she's been in three emergency landing situations! She's also been re-routed, had flights canceled right under her nose, and had to drive all night to get to destinations. At lunch, I said "Jeez, don't take this the wrong way, but I hope I NEVER am on the same flight as you."

I should have known better - I'm flying United (she has about a bazillion frequent flyer miles with them and she's on a first-name basis with most of the employees) and I flew into Denver, her home airport. So, of course I'd be on the flight with her.

Luckily, no craziness occurred. It was smooth sailing all the way. Interestingly, the pilot AND co-pilot were women. That's the first time that's ever been the case on a flight I've taken. Kind of cool, I think.

•••

I'll put up a big photo post later tonight. I'm afraid I'll run out of time if I try it now. You'll see palm trees and Disney. We got home from the park about 12:45 a.m. last night. Even though I only got to do Space Mountain, Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise and Pirates of the Caribbean, I had a great time. Really, the only long line was Space Mountain (60 minutes) - on all the others, we got right in.

The "Walk in Walt's Footsteps Tour" was interesting and educational. I'll try to remember some fun facts with which to caption the photos.

It's time for me to fly.

Finally found some free internet

Yes, still alive. Still in California.

I'm teaching a session in 30 minutes.

Last night we went over to Fullerton for dinner. There's an old Fox Theatre there that the community is trying to restore. They were showing "Blue Hawaii" with Elvis on the side of the building like a drive in movie, except people were sitting in lawn chairs.

Cool stuff in California.

Yikes

From the airplane earlier...

File this under things you don’t want to hear your pilot say as he walks down the jetway:


Gate agent: How are you doing this morning?
Pilot: I’d be a lot better if I wasn’t awake at this time of the morning.

Hmmmm. I can’t tell you how much confidence that instilled in me as I sat waiting at Gate 69 this morning. This, after I woke up at 3:35, got the airport at 4:45, and had to wait 15 minutes before the Continental desk even opened.

Made it to Houston in one piece, despite having Sleepy Sleeperson in the driver’s seat.

This leg of the trip has vastly improved my outlook:

Lots of leg room. Window seat. No one between me and aisle-seat guy.

AND – breakfast and a movie! We got a little cereal, milk and a banana, and I’m watching National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets.

Okay, I gotta go watch the rest of the movie, but I wanted to get some words down while they were fresh in my head.

Back on the trail

Oh my gosh - I actually got to run more than 3 miles OUTSIDE today. I can't believe it.

When I left the house this morning, there was frost on the windshield. I guess at some point today, the weather turned, and turned for the better. When I walked out of school, I popped open the sunroof, put the windows down and headed home.

In less than 48 hours, I'll be in sunny southern California for the JEA convention. When I checked weather.com last night, it was 88 degrees in Anaheim. I know it won't be that warm the whole time we're there, but it HAS to be warmer than it is here.

Tonight's the night - "The Paper" debuts on MTV. I have to watch it, because I know all the kiddoes will be talking about it tomorrow. Most of them have already seen it because I guess you could download it from iTunes this last week. I'll be interested to see how it goes. I'm always curious to see how other school publications staffs tick. (And, yes, I know, this one will be ticking based on the whims of MTV producers, but still.)

Snow on a Saturday in April?

Okay, so there's no snow on the ground, but when I woke up this morning, it was snowing/flurrying pretty darn heavily outside. It's cold as blankety-blank out there. I was supposed to hang out with Jayne this morning so Dad could play in a tournament.

When I called to see if he was still planning to play, he said it was too windy and cold. THAT's when you know it's crappy weather in KC - Dad stays home on a Saturday morning. He golfs in what most of us would consider bad weather conditions, but even he has his limits.

So, instead of going over there, I just been puttering. Watched the last 30 minutes of "Reality Bites," grading some essays over "All the President's Men," laundry, and cleaning house. I guess my "get stuff done" mojo is a little heavier when nice weather isn't calling my name.

I'm doing the essays in bits and pieces instead of all at once. That way, I won't go crazy. I think I'll probably go up to school tomorrow for a while - I'll be at convention later this week so I need to have three days of sub plans ready by Tuesday night. It works better if I'm not doing them as I'm trying to run out the door on Tuesday after school. Even though I don't want to work over the weekend, it'll pay off when I leave behind a cleaned off desk and a clean slate.

The work isn't too bad when I break it into bite-size chunks. A little knitting and crocheting mixed in helps as well.

Last night, Bets and I crafted, while Mitzi and Adam played guitar, so it was nice and relaxing. A good way to end the work week. Plus, "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" was on, so we definitely watched that while we ate pizza. I love it when random favorite movies of mine are on cable. "Reality Bites" is supposed to be on again tonight, and I've already set the DVR. I freakin' loved that movie in 1994, baby. Even better? It's on MoviePlex, so no commercials!

•••

In other news, I hope the weather is better in Wichita since the DeV's are moving today.

Off to work some, then go work out. (In the fitness center - I'm not running in 30-degree weather.)

This IS April, right?

My new TV crush...Ace of Cakes

I've always flipped to "Ace of Cakes" since it's been on Food Network. Tonight, they ran the Chefography on Chef Duff.

We've been watching it a little more lately - it comes on at bedtime, so I watch as I'm falling asleep. I'm now totally addicted.

First of all, I love the cakes. I've always loved the challenge shows where they do the crazy cakes, and now I get to watch these crazy cakes all the time.

Second, I love that this young guy is doing what he loves and making a living at it, and that he gets to work with his friends. Remember that whole "Jill wants to own a yarn shop" thing? It's the same deal - get paid to do what you love.

Charm City Cakes make people happy. Who doesn't smile when you see something like an incredibly creative cake? It's happiness on a platter.

On Tuesday, the Charm City crew produced a cake that was a yarn basket for a woman's 90th birthday. It was awesome! They used an extruder to make the yarn, and the basket looked great, and you wouldn't believe the "knitted scarf" she made. (I think it was Anna but I can't remember.) I searched for a photo of it, but couldn't find one.

Off to watch the rest of tonight's show and head to bed.

...a very very very fine house

Tomorrow's the day. Our little pink house officially goes on the market. I hope it sells quickly. It's a pain to live in a house that's being shown, so for Langston's sake, I hope it doesn't drag out.

Today at lunch, one of the other teachers was talking about her house, which has been on the market for SIX MONTHS. Please, God, don't let that conversation be an omen to what will happen with our house. Obviously, she's talking about a house in the KC area, not Wichita, and it's a house that suits a family of four, not our little starter house. I'm hoping we'll have better luck in our price range, and in the Wichita market. She said her house has been shown 35 times or something crazy like that.

I've been sort of bad about blogging lately. I guess my brain is too busy trying to keep everything straight. Work, three trips to Wichita in three weeks, cleaning and prepping the house and yard, preparing for a convention and trip to Anaheim next week - it's been a mountain of work. When I come home from school, I'm so tired. I had planned on staying at school until 5 tonight, but left about 20 minutes early because I couldn't focus on what needed to be done. This will be a long week, I think, just because I haven't had a RELAXING weekend in a while.

In my crystal ball, I see some quality sofa time - tons of stuff to catch up on the DVR. And, YIPPEE - "The Office" is back this week!!

I went over to the fitness center tonight, ran and watched the first half of "The Biggest Loser." It's almost over, and as soon as I throw a load of clothes in the washer, I'll be hitting the hay. Even though the "wrong" team won last night, I still had to stay up for "One Shining Moment" so I was up WAAAAY past my bedtime.

Support A Great Cause

I had been thinking for a while that I would write about Team in Training, the major fundraiser and fitness training program of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I'm not training for a marathon right now, but I still think it's a great cause. Since 1988, more than 360,000 participants have raised more than $850 million for cancer research. The great thing about Team in Training is that 90 cents of every dollar raised goes directly to finding a cure, not into bloated administration costs.

And, I have TWO reasons to write about TNT!

One:
Today, on our way to eat at Thai House (worthy of a blog post of its own, I might add), we saw the TNTers out on West street doing a boot block. They were standing on the curbs, collecting donations. I got a little choked up seeing them out there, remembering how the whole experience made me feel.

Two: My friend Deb is training with Team in Training RIGHT NOW. She's going to walk the Oklahoma City Half Marathon at the end of the month. She's 80 percent of the way to her fundraising goal. Adam and I have contributed a tiny bit (the best we could do on our lovely public servant salaries).

If you or someone you know has been affected by this disease (and too many of us know someone who has), you should go to Deb's fundrasing page and contribute some dough. You can find her here.

Let's help get her over the goal - so she can concentrate on the training in these final couple of weeks. Her marathon is April 27.

Dress Up Day - aka Parent Teacher Conferences

Today all the teachers were dressed like grown-ups! Many of the guys wore jackets and ties, some of the girls wore snazzy pantsuits. Not that we look horrible on a day-to-day basis, but when you're going to "meet the parents" you want to look nice. Especially in our district.

I was pretty busy for the first hour or so of conferences, but after that, I did a bunch of reading about Watergate, in an effort to have answers for some of the questions I know my students might ask tomorrow. It was a good time to catch up.

I've been teaching "All the President's Men" this last week - using a unit that another journalism teacher offered up. It's really helped the kids understand the movie - it's kind of heavy for freshmen to process. It's fun for me - some of them are really getting into the story of Woodward and Bernstein and asking lots of questions. Maybe it'll inspire some of them to pursue journalism as a career.

Tonight, a couple of the parents said that their kids have come home and talked to them about the story, and about what it was like in the U.S. at that time. I'm glad they're making connections with their parents and what we're doing in class.

Blow me away, man.

When I walked out the door yesterday, I almost ended up in North Dakota. I think the wind was blowing 300 miles an hour - really! Driving across 135th street, I had to white knuckle the wheel to keep it on course. I can't imagine what driving a truck must have felt like yesterday.

I hope the weather was nicer in Wichita - we're officially going to sell our house, and the last thing we need is for the wind to blow that brand-new roof off!

Gotta go get ready for school. More later.