Long time no blog

I haven't written a blog post in more than three months. I know that because they last post I wrote was the start of the 90-Day Weight Loss Challenge at Lifetime, and the final weigh-in for said challenge was two weeks ago. (I lost 7 pounds, for those of you keeping score.)

A few weeks ago, it seemed like everyone I saw said "Hey, so, you, uh, ever gonna update that blog of yours again?"

I won't bore you to death with all of the reasons for the lack of blogging. Just know that, I'll try to do better. I suppose I just haven't felt like anything exciting enough to share has been happening lately, so I've been quiet. School's been really tough, and really busy this semester. Lots of things happened right there at the beginning that made it a hard start to the year.

But, here we are, two school days away from Thanksgiving, and things are going well. I've even gotten in some quality knitting AND reading time lately.

Speaking of reading, if you haven't read the "Hunger Games" books by Suzanne Collins, run, don't walk out to the bookstore and find yourself a copy. They are super fast reads (young adult novels), and once you start them, you won't be able to put them down.

I'd been hearing that from many friends, so I got on the hold list at the library. Only problem was, I was 163rd in line, and there were almost 100 people AFTER me. Luckily, some work friends had copies of the books, so I was able to borrow from them, instead of waiting three years for the library copies to be available.

•••

Hubs and I are having the fam over for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. I'm making a pumpkin pie from scratch. Stay tuned - I'm sure THAT will turn into a blog post. I'll shoot some really high quality food photos...

Monday morning caption madness 2

Running on the brain, sunburn on the head

Sunday's training schedule was an 8-mile run. I got up and did it fairly early, so I wouldn't mess up our weekly Panera grading date. I knew I wouldn't feel like running after we were finished.

Based on the weather, I probably would have felt like running after Panera. When I left the restaurant, it was almost 50 and sunny out. But, because I motivated early, I ran inside. On the treadmill. For. Eight. Miles. At 8:30, when I left for Gold's it was only 30 out, and I knew I couldn't slog through that temp by myself.

Thankfully, I got one of the TWO good treadmills (seriously, Gold's, it's 2010. Can we upgrade our 1987 model treadmills?). And, even better, the one I got was right in front of the TV, so I got to choose my running accompaniment for the morning. I chose E! Channel, because I knew I could watch The Soup, E! News Weekend and The Daily 10. Perfect fluff for 90 minutes of running.

The run felt pretty good. I wasn't dying at the end, but it did get pretty monotonous on the treadmill. I can't wait until temps get high enough to do all my runs outside.

Anyway, back to the title of this post. I must have had running on the brain after Sunday, because that night I had the strangest dream. It's coming back to me in bits and pieces.

I was in a strange city, running in a marathon. In the middle of the race, there was a "challenge" of some sort. We ran into an open stadium, and I remember that I changed my shoes (quickly, as if I was racing) and a man was shouting instructions to me.

"Run up the stairs, all the way, once. Then, run around the top of the stadium once, then run back down the stairs. Then, continue on your marathon way."

Uh, what?

I barely remember doing it in the dream, but I'm pretty sure I was climbing the stairs walking, then crawling, then pushing through it. Somehow I made it out of the stadium.

The next thing I remember from the dream is that there was a stop in a hotel room. I assume it was my room, because all of my luggage and gear was in the room. (How convenient that my lodging was right on the race route, and that I had remembered my hotel key card...)

Once inside my room, I removed the white visor I was wearing, thinking at that exact moment "Jeez. A visor? That was stupid. My part is going to be so sunburned."

Sure enough, the next scene I remember from the dream is me looking at the top of my head in a mirror to see a giant red and pink patch of blistered skin just above my forehead. Ouch.

I fashioned a covering for that sunburned patch out of something, slathered on a bunch more sunscreen on the rest of my exposed skin and headed out of the room to finish the marathon.

I can't tell you HOW I finished the race, because the last thing I remember as my alarm went off was walking out of the hotel room.

I do remember stumbling through my bedroom door into the bathroom because I wasn't fully awake. I hate being jarred from a deep, dreamful sleep by the darned alarm clock. It makes me off all morning!

Driving the Dodge Caravan thru the Taco Bell drive thru

I watch a lot of TV. Those of you who know me or read this blog have probably figured that out. Despite that fact, I don't watch a lot of commercials. I'd say 75 percent of my TV watching is on the DVR these days.

I'm either not home, or too busy at the time the show is on, to watch it live. The other 25 percent is mostly treadmill time, when it's on as a distraction.

Lately, though, I've noticed two commercials that really chap my hide.

First, and some of you have already commented on this on Twitter and Facebook, is the Taco Bell Drive Thru Diet. I'm just going to say it: Are you freaking kidding me? Unless that woman ate super fatty menu items at Taco Bell every day of the week earlier in her life, I don't see how eating Taco Bell can help you lose weight.

Sure, the "Fresco" menu items might be healthier choices than say, the Burrito Supreme, but it's not diet food. Give me a break. I'm pretty sure if I were to go on the Drive Thru Diet I would gain weight, since I don't eat fast food more than once or twice a week (a benefit of not being a newspaper photographer anymore, when I used to eat it all the time!).

The other commercial that is driving me crazy is the Dodge Caravan commercial that tells men "Because come on, what's more manly than driving around with your five offspring in the car?" Seriously? That's the measure of a man now? How many children he can father? Is Dodge trying to cash in on the Duggars and John and Kate "phenomenon"? I'm pretty sure the last thing the planet needs is a car company encouraging people to overpopulate the planet even more.

That Dodge commercial is incredibly sexist. It's okay for women to be stuck driving minivans, but if a man does it...He needs to be pounding his chest the entire time.

Are there any other commercials out there right now we can discuss?

Writing for my grad class - assignment 1

So, I thought since the first writing assignment for my graduate class was to write personally from a prompt, I'd put it here on the blog. That way, at least my (dwindling) followers would have SOMETHING to read this week.

We had a choice of about 15 prompts. None of them really resonated with me, but there was one like this: A time you knew you were in trouble.

So, I chose that one, and wrote about the one time I remember being seriously in trouble (at least enough that I was grounded from after-school activities for an entire semester). I think I've blocked out the major details, but it's still an interesting anecdote. We had to write EXACTLY 350 words. No more, no less. It was a great exercise in editing and word economy.

If nothing else, I'm sure mom will get a good laugh out of it.

•••
Friday night was the cast party for our winter musical. I chose to ride with one of my friends, and a senior friend, to the after party. I don’t even know whose house we went to or where we were. Once there, all I could think about was leaving. I was bored, and I was scared. At 14, I hadn’t been to a house party like that before, and I did not want to be around people who were smoking and drinking. I knew my parents would kill me.

The problem was I had no way home. I didn’t know where we were, but I knew it was somewhere near the Plaza or downtown. How was I going to get to Shawnee? Nobody else was ready to leave the party yet. I should have just called home, but I thought my parents would kill me for making the stupid decision to go to the party in the first place.

Looking back, I’m sure they would have been slightly perturbed at the prospect of picking me up after midnight, but that would have made them much happier than wondering where the hell I was at 5 o’clock on a Saturday morning.

Sitting at the party, I thought I’d be fine if I could just get home early enough that they would still be in bed. Mom never waited up for me, and Dad wouldn’t head for the golf course until 8 or so. Pretty solid plan, except for the fact that I forgot to turn off my alarm clock the day before.

Sleeping soundly, both parents were blissfully unaware their daughter was six hours past curfew, until my own alarm went off and woke them up.

•••

In honor of surviving the first week of yearbook class...

A little fun from YearbookYourself.com.

Now, it's time to go back, officially

School's officially back in session tomorrow. I can already tell you that I won't be able to sleep tonight.

I'm starting my sixth year teaching, third at BV, and the butterflies will be fluttering like mad tonight and tomorrow morning. I feel like I've gotten a lot accomplished on these last few work days, so hopefully the butterflies can calm down a bit.

Most of the day Friday I worked in my room, filing and organizing and sending out items to be copied. Then, I took Friday night and Saturday completely off from school concerns.

Adam and I got to celebrate (?) the Death of Summer by spending Friday night at the Doubletree, along with dinner at the Bristol. We won gift certificates for those two things in a charity auction last year. Dinner was so good, and then we did a little shopping at Town Center Plaza before heading back to the hotel. Our room was on the 18th floor, so we had a great view of all the construction on the 435-69 freeway interchange...

Mitzi and I spent a little time in the pool yesterday afternoon. We got a little sunning in before the clouds rolled in and the rain started. I'm pretty sure I played a little Bejeweled yesterday, as well.

I did go to school today for about four hours. I've gotten my head wrapped around the next few days. Even though I don't like to do that on the weekends, I feel like it's going to make my life easier during school. We'll see if that holds true or not.

Next on tap: I'm going to watch an episode of Ruby, then head out for a run this afternoon. I haven't RUN in a long time. I've been doing lots of TV workouts with Jillian Michaels (the super duper hard core trainer from Biggest Loser) and walking a lot. Usually I shoot for 60 minutes of exercise time each day. I'm not sure why I've lost my running mojo. Hopefully it will return soon. Maybe the heat? Maybe I was bored with it? I don't know.

Does anyone have any new fun workouts they're doing that I should try? And don't say Pilates, because I can already tell you, I will not be doing that any time soon.

First swing through workshop land

We got back from Dallas this afternoon, all tired out but jazzed up after attending the DCS Publications Workshop.

Nine of my students attended the workshop, and I taught the Photo Editors sequence to campers from other schools. My nine students were eight girls and one boy. That ratio is pretty much par for the course at yearbook camp - always about 10 girls for every boy (sing that to the Beach Boys tune...).

Thankfully, I have great kids for students, very hard workers who can be trusted to attend their sessions and not have attitudes for their instructors. That makes me happy, and makes my job so much easier.

June was the vacation month for me - a little marathon training, some gardening, work around the house, TV time, etc., and July is the worky-worky month. I'm home for two days, and Saturday morning I head to Florida for Jostens Adviser University.

I'm pretty excited for it - the instructors are the best in the business, and I'm actually getting to TAKE a class instead of teaching at the workshop, so I'm ready to soak up some new strategies.

Memory Lane

So Betsy posted this a long time ago, and Mitzi finally updated her blog with it, so I thought tonight it would be my turn.

The rules: Bold the things you’ve done, and post on your blog!

Update: post has been edited to add asterisks to the things I've done. After I posted, I checked the blog and couldn't tell the difference between the bolded and not bold things.

1. Started your own blog*
2. Slept under the stars*
3. Played in a band*
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower*
6. Given more than you can afford to charity*
7. Been to Disneyland*
8. Climbed a mountain*
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo*
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea*
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch*
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning*
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables*
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight*
22. Hitchhiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill*
24. Built a snow fort*
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping*
27. Run a marathon*
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse*
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset*
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise*
33. Seen Niagara Falls
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community*
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied*
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke*
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing*
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling*
52. Kissed in the rain*
53. Played in the mud*
54. Gone to a drive-in theater*
55. Been in a movie*
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies*
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason*
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check*
68. Flown in a helicopter*
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy*
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial*
71. Eaten caviar*
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square*
74. Toured the Everglades*
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle*
79. Seen the Grand Canyon
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car*
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper*
85. Kissed a stranger at midnight on New Year’s Eve
86. Visited the White House*
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox*
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous*
92. Joined a book club*
93. Lost a loved one*
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo*
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a lawsuit
98. Owned a cell phone*
99. Been stung by a bee*
100. Bought your own home*

I have done 50 of the things on the list, so I'd say that's a good start for a 32-year-old. Hopefully I'll get some frequent flyer miles saved up and knock out the traveling items I haven't done yet...

Lists like this have to strike me when the mood is right. Usually, I think they're silly, but it was fun to go through this one. It brought back tons of memories of my early time in Wichita - the meteor shower with Travis, Teresa and Andy, filming "Dancing on the Moon" with Rod and the crew, the awesome Eagle ladies book club, and Hubs and my honeymoon. Each of those would have been blog posts unto themselves had I had a blog back then.

I wonder who comes up with lists like this. If I were to make up my own list, what would I include? Maybe that will be a blog post for another day.

"Your school newspaper your first assignments toward success"

Check out this educational video from the 1940s about what it takes to succeed in the newspaper business. It features newsboys, rewrite men, outside men, etc.

Oh, and women just aren't prepared for the rigors of reporting for the real news sections, so if you'd like to work in news, girls, start studying how to write for the society pages.

How far we've come.

I promise I haven't died

I've just been really busy, that's all. And, now I've gone and gotten you all excited that there's actually a new post, and it won't really be that long.

I spent part of last week in Phoenix for the National High School Journalism Convention, and I have tons of cool photos to post from that, as well as a trip to Minneapolis the week before that. I will do it this week.

When I got home yesterday, I headed straight to Panera to do some grading with Betsy. For some reason, I get more done there than I do at home. Adam was working at the Home Depot (or, the Dee-POT, as I call it) when I got back in town, so Betsy and I passed the time until he got home.

Adam and I ate at the "sushi train" restaurant - not really called that but it's what we call it. Shawnee-ites will know it as Sakura at 75th and Nieman. We loved it last time we went, but this time it was too close to closing time. The same pieces of sushi that no one wanted kept coming around on the train. Lesson learned - go earlier in the day if you're going to be eating sushi off of a train that circles a bar.

Then, of course we had school today. Stayed til 5 to get some stuff done, and then I HAD to get a run in. Only did that once while in Phoenix, and we go 18 this weekend. Yikes.

Check back with me later this week for photos and more. Kickball practice Thursday and the season starts next week, so that oughta be some good blog fodder...

For now, bedtime!

Spring Break

Wow, I really thought I would have written a few blog posts during break. Not working on school stuff, not on newspaper or yearbook deadlines, time to blog, right?

Well, not so much.

I've been doing lots of work around the house - general organizing and spring cleaning, cleaning up the yard (raked a lot today). Mitzi and I hit the Shawnee St. Pat's parade and the KC St. Pat's parade to sell beads for Team in Training. We did pretty well at both - sold all the beads she ordered, and didn't have to deal with drunk a$$holes, so that was nice.

Betsy came over Monday night and we shot some photos of stuff to put on eBay. I've got three items out there right now - hopefully they'll sell so I'll have some more donation money for Team in Training.

I got to have lunch with two out of town friends - Candice and her boyfriend on Monday, and Sharon on Wednesday. It's nice to a.) be able to see friends from out of town, and b.) get to go out to lunch!

Mitzi and I will be having a benefit garage sale on April 3 and 4, here at the homestead. If you're here in town, and you've done a little spring cleaning, we'd happily take your cast-offs off your hands! Consider it de-cluttering for a great cause...

I can't believe it's already Friday night of break. This week FLEW by. We didn't do anything special, just tons of little tasks and catching up on home stuff that gets sloughed off during school days.

Our group training is tomorrow morning at Longview Lake. Eight miles. Then, we've got our Silent Auction/Benefit Dinner at Red Robin on 95th and Metcalf. Hopefully tons of people can be there, and we'll get some good traffic. I'll be there a little early, handing out flyers to diners so we can get the 10 percent donation from Red Robin for their food bills.

I'm headed to Wichita tomorrow right after training - it's L's birthday party time again. The trip was supposed to be longer, but I couldn't get everything done before today. So, it'll be a quick down and backer.

I probably have no blog readers left since I'm not regularly updating, but if you're out there:

Ask me some questions. I need some writing prompts so I can get back in the blogging state of mind. You ask, I'll answer...

Adorable little French girl tells us a story...or, KITTENS, the French version

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Spotted in the high school parking lot

It's been a while since I shot this photo, as you can probably tell, since there is snow on the ground.

But, I found it while I was looking through photos on my camera phone, and it made me laugh (again) so I thought I'd post it.

That sticky note hanging from the dashboard? It says "NO SPEEDING" and it's underlined about three times.

Somebody's mom cares about them! Or, somebody's mom cares about insurance rates not getting any higher...

This and that

I'm home sick again today. Thankfully, it's not flu sick like all of my friends have been tweeting about lately. Just your garden variety run-of-the-mill head cold and cough. Sore throat, lack of voice, etc.

My mom's been couging for what seems like weeks now. Did I get this from her? I hope not, because I don't want to be coughing for weeks!!

I thought I would go to school today. I really planned on it. I even set my alarm for 5:15 like I do every week day.

At 5:16, I decided that wasn't happening. I've figured something out about my body - it will power through just about any stressful or busy time in my life, but as soon as that time is over, my body says: "Sweet! Now we can get sick, since we're done with all the important stuff."

This typically happens around yearbook deadline time, newspaper production nights, the end of a semester (which is GREAT because then I'm sick on my vacation time...). Please read the sarcasm into that last comment. We had a yearbook deadline last week, plus about a million pages of proofs that had to be sent back on Monday. I made it through that, then it hit.

Tomorrow is newspaper late night. If that wasn't the case, I might have TRIED to go to school today, but knowing it will be a 14-hour day tomorrow I erred on the side of not contaminating all of my students...

It's not easy to be away from school when you're a teacher. It's at least double the work. You have to make sure the sub has solid plans. It's not like other jobs where when you're gone, you're just gone, and maybe some shuffling has to happen, but really, everything will be okay.

Considering I slept until almost 11 this morning, I'm guessing my body was saying "Do not pass Go. Stop, and get some rest." Hopefully that means I'll feel better soon. I don't want to be sick in the middle of training for a marathon.

Last night, before bed, I finished "Drunk, Divorced and Covered in Cat Hair" by Laurie Perry. A great book, and super-fast read. I highly recommend you check it out sometime.

"Everything is just a few hundred clicks away"

From the Onion News Network


Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

Previously Unreleased - 2008 Photos

These photos are a selection of my iPhoto library since the Great Laptop Crash of August 2008. I wasn't as religious with the blogging as I wanted to be, so a lot of these photos should have shown up throughout the year, but didn't.

Our aluminum tree.

Thanksgiving Break. (Adam pretty much does this every weekend morning, though.)

Sushi lunch in St. Louis

St. Mary's Mountain and Church, Altus, Ark. Thanksgiving Day

Helping out the neighborhood squirrel population

Adam and I breaking in Rock Band at Mom and Dad's

Adam playing the drums later that night at our house
(for some reason, I love the look on his face)

Waterfire on the Plaza.

Checking progress on a knit in the van on the way to Arkansas.

Kyle modeling (?) his new hat knitted by his mama

The line when we went to vote after school one day

My Thanksgiving dinner at St. Mary's

Kasie wins a pooping reindeer during Christmas bingo

Visit from L means a trip to the park

Jayne was all smiles, hopped up on pain meds after surgery

Why do cats always pick the clean laundry?

How'd you get up there?

Emma's lion

First big snow of the season

Friday night at Blanc Burger

The "other" cat in our lives, Betty

This is what happens when you play too much Rock Band

I love the look on Lauryn's face in this photo

Can't go wrong with a tiny shopping cart.

This post might serve as a bit of a preview for a project Betsy had an idea for. We're working to get it off the ground. I'll keep you posted on that.

All of these photos were taken either with the iPhone, or my Canon Digital Elph. Looks like the blog might be more interesting if I posted these THROUGHOUT the year, eh?

Happy New Year's Eve, everybody! Have fun and be safe.

See you in 2009.

This one's worthy of Jay Leno

As Mom and I were driving home from the mall the other day, we passed a neighborhood elementary school, and I just had to stop and shoot a photo of their marquee.

I guess we can see why they need a "Litercy Night."

Still here

We got back from Arkansas about 8 p.m. yesterday. Adam and Joshua were out at a Grateful Dead tribute show (yuck - the only thing worse than listening to the Dead play one song for 50 minutes is listening to a fake band do it!), so I settled in and watched a few TV shows from the DVR.

Along the way, I worked some more on the knitted Christmas extravaganza. Three gifts are done, much more to go. Thank God for Wool-Ease thick and quick yarn. It might not be the most expensive or boutique yarn, but it knits up quickly, feels good and will keep the recipients warm on the coldest of days.

I decided to stay out of the Black Friday craziness this year. Since we've got no kids to shop for, there's no reason for us to get out for great deals on toys. Adam did go out early this morning for some thing we need. Home Depot and Kohl's got our money this morning. Mom went to a few places. She called to see if I wanted to go, but I wasn't up for it. I would have gone along for the ride, but I was worried about how long we'd be out, and I wanted to keep working on my term paper.

I rolled out of bed at about 8 and went to work. I'm up to nine pages now, and I'm confident that I'll get it done by deadline. Some people might say "Why don't you just sit down and finish it, so it's not hanging over your head?" Trust me, I would if I could. After a few hours of work on it, though, the words start to swim on the screen, and I'm afraid I'm repeating myself. I think it's better to break it up into small chunks.

That's pretty much where I've been the last week - if you've been looking for blog updates and haven't seen them. Much too busy to do much more that tweet about what I'm doing.

Amy and her family are in town, so we're going out to lunch and to do some knitting this afternoon. It'll be good to see her - it's been a long time. I think I'll take the rest of today off from the paper. We want to get out our Christmas decorations and put that stuff up. I feel like if we don't do it this weekend, we won't do it at all!

So much to do, so little time.

TAG - I'm it.

I've been tagged in a game of random-blog-tagging that's making the rounds of the Wichita blogging nation. This is my 457th post, and it's the first time I've ever been tagged in a game like this.

I was tagged by Lori, a cool chick that I miss working with!

Here are the rules:

• Link to the person who tagged you.
• Post the rules on your blog.
• Write 6 random things about yourself.
• Tag 6-ish people at the end of your post.
• Let each person know he/she has been tagged.
• Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Six random things about me:

1. As a child, I was incredibly lucky. I won the most random contests. Unfortunately, this has not translated into mega millions lottery winnings in my adult life. Sometime around second grade, I won a contest on KFKF radio to be an honorary ball girl at the Harlem Globetrotters basketball game at Kemper Arena. I have an autographed basketball from the team, circa the Curly Neal and Sweet Lou days. I got to sit on the bench with the team. I don't remember much about it. I also won a trip to Disney World when I was in fifth grade - all expenses paid, for the whole family. And, any time there was a door prize drawing, I won it. Not so much anymore. We have door prize drawings at our faculty meetings every month and I haven't won one in a year and a half.

2. Even though we've totally remodeled my grandparents' house, so much so that it looks like a completely different house, I still sometimes go where things were in "their house." For example, this morning, I needed to throw something in the trash, and I went to do it under the sink. Our trash can is in the corner, but it was always under the sink when Grandma and Grandpa lived here. Also, I always go to the old silverware drawer, and open it, before I remember that we keep our silverware in another drawer. Old habits die hard.

3. In high school, I was named 1995 Kansas High School Journalist of the Year, and I got second place at the national level. I could have gone to San Francisco to accept my award at the national convention, but I didn't. I was stage managing the spring play, and it was the same week. Couldn't miss it and all the rehearsals. Denise was also a Kansas JOY, and I belive she, too, took 2nd at nationals.

4. I'm a Mac, and I have been since 1991. Trudging home (on the school bus) with a Mac Classic and the database list of the entire student body of Shawnee Mission North High School, sitting at my parents' kitchen table, working on mugs pages and index pages, I forged an indelible bond with the Macintosh. Today, Adam and I own: one MacBook, one old iMac, one U2 iPod, one old white iPod Shuffle, a new clip version iPod Shuffle, an iPod Nano and an iPhone. We have officially been assimilated. I've been through two hard-drive crashes (one on the laptop, one on the desktop) and I'm still loyal.

5. I'm a little preoccupied with state football playoffs right now. BV is steaming toward the championship game, as is Derby. One of my former students plays football for Derby right now (he's a senior), and one of my current newspaper students plays on our team. I might have to ask my mom to sew me a long-sleeve T-shirt that is a mix of the two schools' colors if they meet in the championship. Each team only has to win one more game to set up a face off.

6. Pauly Shore kissed me in an elevator once, and I have the picture to prove it. One day at school, one of my students asked me "Is that your husband?" when she saw the photo.

I tag:
Amy
Cary
Kim
Betsy
Mitzi
Candice

You're it. Let's see what you guys can come up with...