Silver Liningness Sunday

Happy Sunday and Happy Halloween! Since this Sunday lands on a spooky one, I thought I'd changed things up a little and present a few of my favorite spooky film characters in no particular order.

Now, yes, there are the obvious ones - the Darth Vaders, the Hannibal Lecters, the Jasons, the Freddies, etc. What I LIKE in a good scare are the ones that seem absolutely plausible. The ones that could be the guy next door, or the guy in the kitty corner cubicle...

...or, the guy dating your daughter. In the movie Fear, a young Mark Wahlberg (not yet too far removed from the Marky Mark we all knew and loved) is that guy, Reese Witherspoon your daughter!

Yes, he's attentive and gentle and caring... and let's face it, he looks pretty darned good playing pool in a tight shirt and blue jeans. But, don't be fooled! Next thing you know, he's pummeling your platonic high school buddy and worse!

Then there's Colonel Landa from Inglorius Basterds. Wasn't he SO wonderfully EE-VIL?! Truly, in my book, Christoph Waltz deserved every one of the awards he won for that role.

In The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, there were a couple of awful, evil guys-next-door. I will mention just one so as to not present any spoilers for those who have yet to see the movie. The so-called "Guardian" PIG! Evil, evil man.

In the movie "Fracture", Anthony Hopkins plays a successful and highly intelligent businessman. Ooooh, beware the successful, highly intelligent businessman!

And lastly, I'll throw in the movie "Severance", because it's just stupid, somewhat spooky fun.

I would love to hear any other evil recommendations. Do tell! What creeps you out?

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because 2nd place is first place last

I ran in a road race this morning. An actual organized, pay-a-fee, get-a-t-shirt road race. Omigod, it was so much fun!

A DECA (a high school marketing association to which no one seems to know what the initials stand for) group at the local high school sponsored this 5K to raise money, not for them, but for the Disabled American Veterans. I don't typically sign up for 5K's because I prefer longer races - it takes me about a whole 5K to warm up.

This race sounded like a good time though, and certainly for a good cause. Originally, Wolfgang thought he might do it to - which was part of my own motivation. He ended up NOT - slept in instead. But also, the race happened to start and finish about 5K from my house. SHOOT, I just ran over there, ran the race, ran back home.

And... AND, I won! Not tops overall, but I won first for the "ladies". Looky at my loot in the above pic:

* One memorable certificate with my name mispelled
* One $15 Road ID coupon
* One $5 Pizza Time gift card
* One $25 Biaggi's (ristorante Italiano) gift card
* Four shiny safety pins!
* (not pictured - one t-shirt)

Guess who's not cooking this weekend ....

....not that I typically do anyway.
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spent

Happy Illustration Friday where this week's prompt is "spent".

Remember the good old days where we just woke up when we woke up, then just played until we fell asleep in our tracks?

Neither do I.

This morning, both Chaco and Wolfgang overslept. I could tell because of the "sound" of their oversleeping - that would be silence in the place of the usual banging and clashing that accompanies their morning ablutions.

I purposely did not go and wake them, but lucky for them, Magnum's banging and clashing that accompanies his morning ablutions did serve to startle them into consciousness, and they both made it to school on time.

There's a time to sleep, and a time to wake. Too bad we don't always agree when those times should be.

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Who?

Yes, I have a facebook.

I know of facebook users who have a gazillion friends or so, and that's certainly fine. My own style of facebooking is to (a) set it up, (b) hardly ever go there, (c) ignore friend requests from people I hardly know, (d) accept friend requests from people I truly like.

So yes, I've ignored a friend request or two or twenty. The fact that I occupied the same town/school/place of employment at some point with another person isn't enough to get me to hit that "accept" button. (So there, for those of you who are on my friend list, see just how discerning I am!)

But yesterday, I got a strange request. It was from a colleague of my DAD!

I mean, I vaguely remember what the guy even looks like. I remember him being at our house for the occassional dinner party where I was banished to the kitchen to do clean up duty. I remember his wife's name only because he mentioned it in the friend request: "...Glenna say's hello". In fact, I can't even bring myself to refer to him by his first name, he was always "Mr." Colleague of My Dad.

Pros of accepting his friend request:

* I won't feel bad about not accepting it.
* I do have a few fond memories of him and the family.
* He went through the trouble of finding me and sending the request, so I should reciprocate.

Cons of accepting his friend request:

* I'll worry about him reading my rare but possibly raunchy status updates?
* It's difficult for me to refer to him by his first name.
* I'll worry about him reading my rare but possibly raunchy status updates?

Oh, what the hell, I hardly never even do status updates (yes, I know I'm breaking a grammar rule there).

It's still sitting there. A day and a half has gone by since he sent it. I want to know if others have ever gotten an atypical friend request and couldn't decide. What to do?
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Silver Liningness Sunday

...on an actual Sunday! It's only right.

First of all, this week was a nice mellow one work-wise. Really, I'm not a work-a-holic at all, I was just posing as one for a while there. I only had two class sessions this week.

One of my tutor students cancelled because of sickness, and another class that was supposed to begin this week was cancelled because only 4 students had enrolled. Normally, these aren't necessarily good things, but I really needed the break. So, while not happy for the sick student or the 4 others that are now scrounging for another class, I'm grateful!

On that note, I'm thankful for the flexibility of my job and also thankful for Magnum and his job, all of which allow me to take a load off as needed.

Wolfgang had his final cross-country meet on Friday as mentioned. It was a nice way to finish out the season. Conditions were perfect - favorable temperatures, slightly overcast skies, the pink shoes.... - he was very pleased, unlike the previous meet where it was an unseasonably hot 80 degrees with the sun boring down and Chipotle for dinner the night before... um, yeah.

As for my activity, I surpassed the 1300 mile mark for my own running on the year this week. Fall is my favorite season for running. Next stop, 1400 miles.

AND, we mustn't forget quality time with las bicicletas! I don't keep track of those miles, but they're all good.

(segue into the learning-to-speak-Spanish thing). Yep, I'm making it a priority to keep up with my spanish lessons each day. Today, for instance, I learned desayuno, almuerzo, y cerna among other things.

In movie news, we watched The Red Baron. I mainly got it because I figured the kids would like the dogfight scenes, which were very well done by the way. But I actually liked it for myself. Gotta love a love story.

Smooches!
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racing II

Okay, I couldn't let an Illustration Friday go by with just a photo! As mentioned in the last post, this week's prompt is "racing", so here's a coupla kids doing just that.

I recall that a local school banned the kids from playing tag at recess because it was deemed "too competetive". And while they were allowed to run, they weren't allowed to race. Same reason. Phooey! They're gonna do it anyway! The little criminals!

Go for it, I won't tell.
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racing

Happy Illustration Friday once again. I drew nothing.

Ironically, the prompt this week is "racing" and I drew nothing because I was at Wolfgang's cross country meet. So, in lieu of an illustration, I took the above pic of him owning the field. He came in FIRST out of his JV team while setting a new PR! (He's the kid in the dark top and yellow trunks and pink shoes which he swears are more red than pink).

Actually, I did start to draw something, but didn't finish. Unlike Wolfgang.
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stay at home, mom

Hey gamers (yawn), how about that Fallout New Vegas?

Okay, I'm not a video gamer at all. However, my living situation requires that I am constantly in the know about the world of video gaming. I will say that I find it rather interesting that the video game world is one of the few that has hardly been affected by the recession. People will find ways to stretch their toilet paper stash, but don't take away the video games!

Anyway, yesterday was another big release date for a game lovingly named "Fallout New Vegas". As per usual with these big release games, Chaco had pre-ordered his copy, happily paying a premium in order to getting his on release day Tuesday.

Except it didn't show.... HORRORS!

I don't know, something happened with amazon dot com where a bunch of "guaranteed" orders were not delivered (I'm curiously monitoring the backlash). Now, here I was, under strict request to please, Mom, please!! be home to sign for the precious package on release day Tuesday.

So I made exciting plans to accomodate this request by cleaning my kitchen. That was Tuesday. Amazon dot com then sent further correspondence to explain that the copy was on it's way, would be overnighted and delivered by fedex on day-after-release-day Wednesday, a.k.a. today.

Once again, the strict request was issued for me to be here to accept the precious cargo that would be delivered "some time before 3 pm". Nice of them to narrow it down for me.

By 11 am, I was getting desperate to get out. It was a beautiful day. The dog needed her beauty walk, I needed to get cookies for my class later this evening - this is the high schoolers. I've learned that one way to a high schooler's brain is through their stomach, via junk food, but I digress. Nonetheless, I needed to LEAVE THE HOUSE! *music of foreboding*.

Shhhhh.... don't tell Chaco, but.... I left. SHHHHH!!

I went to the grocery store, got a few things, got some cookies. Upon my arrival back home, I had JUST backed into the garage when the fedex truck pulled up. I couldn't have synchronized it better if I'd planned it! I got it! I got the stupid video game!

oh SHEESH!
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there are others

Okay, I have to confess this. I just can't deal with the guilt any longer.

I'm cheating.

I KNOW, I know... It's a wretched thing to do. I tell myself that it's gotta stop. I need to find a different diversion. I wasn't looking for it, believe me. The circumstances just presented themselves, and before I knew it, I was already in the throes of the affair.

This past week, things kind of came to a head. It was enough to make me take a step back and examine just what I was doing. Maybe blogging will help as well.

See, it's not just ONE that I'm cheating with. That would be bad enough. But there are actually SEVERAL. I don't know, I guess it's just that my own home life has gotten to be so routine, and I was feeling taken for granted. Then these young ones started giving me this attention, and I caved.

Yes, I'm cheating on my kids. I'm a cheating mom.

It started around the beginning of the school year actually. I would be at the elementary school, do some sort of innocent volunteering thing, when a little one or two would say something so sweet to me. They're all 3rd grade or younger. My youngest kid is a 5th grader for Cripe's sake! What mom wouldn't be led astray!?!

So this last week, was the Semi-annual book fair. The BOOK FAIR! Such a place of sin! I volunteered on both Monday and Tuesday to help the little ones fill out their wish lists, since they can't yet fill them out themselves. First and second grades and... and... Kindergarten. KINDERGARTEN!!

I could've been home for when Chaco comes home for lunch, but NO, I was at the BOOK FAIR. I could've gone later in the day to book shop with Meego, but NO, I was athe BOOK FAIR with the little ones! Filling out WISH LISTS!

Wish lists with items like Captain Underpants and Oh David and Fly Guy and Skippyjon Jones! SKIPPYJON JONES!!

I was putty in their hands. Their pudgy little not-quite-rid-of-the-babyfat hands.

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spooky

TGI Illustration Friday! This week's prompt is "spooky", so I sketched this brujo.

I think some actual brujos were around nearby when I was growing up, but I don't wanna talk about it because they scare me!
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hola!

For years, I've been thinking that I ought to learn Spanish, and there I sat. Then finally, a few weeks ago, I decided, I'm gonna do this thing. So we ordered that learn-to-speak-Spanish program, which I started this week.

Oooh, it's fun! It's interactive! They never speak a lick of English (or any other non-Spanish language for that matter), and so far, I'm liking it and, I think, making nice progress.

Yo soy maestro.

Yo tengo una bicicleta azul y bicicleta naranja.

Ahora, I'm going to ride mi bicicleta azul to the Post Office. Okay, so I'm still pretty limited in my fluency level...

Yep, won't be long now until I can understand those Telemundo shows with all the good looking people assist local Spanish - speaking people with their various communication barriers!

Hasta luego!
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Silver Liningness Sun(Mon)day

Late again, but better late than never, I say!

Last week was a fast and busy week with much goodness as always. For one thing, the weekend was my first weekend off in a month, so that was nice. We didn't do anything special, it was just nice to have the nothing-to-do's.

Wolfgang achieved another PR at his Cross Country meet last week. He's been making nice steady progress and can probably beat my butt now in a 5k. Must be that haircut.

We have yapples! Lots of yapples. (okay, I know they're really called "apples"). I don't even know what kind they are, the tree was here when we moved in, and I think this is the most productive it's been. Very tasty too.

It's finally starting to look and feel like fall. The summer heat had overstayed its welcome, but it's starting to cool down nicely, and the colors are showing before we hit the winter greys.

...which makes for lovely bicycling and running weather.

ghost writer

It's Saturday, and I'm happy to state that I am not teaching today. At all. No class, no tutees, no nuthin. Most of my recent students are currently toiling away on their respective grueling tests, while I bask in not having to use my brain.

I had a lovely bike ride this morning. It's finally starting to feel like fall around here, and the temperatures were in the 40's. My toes were wonderfully numb upon my return home.

Later, I was on amazon dot com. I wanted to read the reviews of a book that I'm currently reading. The book is okay, but I found the title misleading and wondered what others thought. Once there, I decided to write my own review.

I've never submitted a review on amazon dot com, and once I submitted this one, I was curious to know why the nickname that showed up for me was "her son". I never remembered making any account settings, but just submitted the thing anyway. Then I saw that "I" had a couple of other reviews, so naturally, I had to go see what "I" had reviewed.

One review was for a video game, the other an air soft rifle. I'm pretty sure Chaco wrote them. They're actually quite well written. Since I do assess a good number of essays for work - on topics that I have absolutely no interest in - I was able to get a grasp of his writing skills despite the fact that I had no interest in either of these products whatsoever.

Now, next time he complains about having to complete a writing assignment for school, I will need to remind "her son" that "his mom" knows he can write, so stop the whining.

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transportation

Happy Illustration Friday! This week's prompt is "transportation".

Naturally, I believe that every woman should have a bicycle to go with her little black dress.

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wake me up when September ends

Greetings! AH-CHOOOOO!! Bless me, there's so much dust around here, I've got the sneezes.

I'm glad to say that things are settling down to a gentle roar on the work front. This weekend is a big test weekend, subsequently I predict much alcohol consumption come Saturday evening - either of the revelling-in-success kind or the drowning-in-failure kind.

While I'm glad to be able to get more dimension back in my life, I will miss the current round of students. *sniff*, they grow up so fast.

My grad class features a bit of a love triangle between the characters Music Man, Teacher Girl, and Teacher Man. I'm just going to stay away from that altogether and turn my efforts to pulling for Tea Girl and Camper Guy. Oh, wait, I want them to do well on their tests too, of course. ahem.

Anyway, it's nice to visit the blog again. Expect resumption of regular programming.
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