profiler

Okay, so I got this e-mail. It was highly personal. I know that because it started out:

"Dear Colleague:"

It's from a group at the national level of the place I work. Apparently they are revamping the website and "online center"and want to include biographies of us teachers on there. The e-mail was asking me to click a link to fill out the survey for my info to be included in this sleek new "online center". The results of the survey are for "professionally-crafted profiles for perusal by prospective and current students"

Okay fine.

So I clicked the link, filled in a couple of rudimentary questions and then scanned some of the other questions. There were forward and backward buttons so I figured I could move around before submitting my survey.

Well, turns out I couldn't.

I clicked the forward button and got that "THANKS FOR COMPLETING OUR SURVEY. YOUR ANSWERS HAVE BEEN RECORDED" page. No going back, no reset button, just pretty much "thanks, goodbye, dear colleague".

Perhaps it will elicit my coming across as one of the more mysterious teachers. The intrigue my sparse profile will bring about will have prospective students signing up for classes left and right! What a great marketing ploy!

Or not.
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thanx

Oh poor poor blog! I've neglected you so this week!

*fluffs the bedding* *freshens water* *removes droppings*

It's been a busy and productive week, and the Friday arrived in a hurry. You do realize that Thanksgiving is now less than 3 weeks away for us United Statesians? So... who are you spending it with?

Or better yet, who you LIKE to spend it with? I started thinking about this when I visited Beej (who has been neglecting her blog even worse than I have) over at facebook (the "blog affair"?) and decided I'd like Christopher Walken to come on over. Shall we brainstorm a few others? Others who I've never spent any time with IRL, but am willing to give a whirl?

Maybe Drowning Pool? That might liven things up a bit. Then again, they'd probably really trash the place...

How about Eric Balfour? I mean, since we're just harmlessly brainstorming and stuff... heh... *ahem*

How about that Progressive Insurance girl?

She's so friendly. I bet she'd help to clean up too.

This guy, since Chaco seems to have taken an interest in Parkour, of all things. But mainly because he's French. We should have someone French over for Thanksgiving.

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Silver Liningness, part XI

Happy November everyone! We've survived Halloween, and I am thankful for that extra hour - as silly as I think this whole thing of flipping clocks is, I'll take it.

Quite the tempestuous week it was! Had a minor snowstorm come through Sunday, delaying school on Monday. Then had an adult snowstorm come through on Tuesday which closed school on Wednesday and Thursday and delayed Friday. Kids in our district had just one real day - and even that is questionable - of school last week.

This made me thankful for the new furnace we got last fall.

It also made me thankful for those Live Online classes - not one missed class on account of weather.

And the party must still go on! Friday was Meego's school party. Good thing school was open. And speaking of Halloween...

Here we have an out-of-luck NASCAR driver; a Nearly Dead - it's apparently from a video game, so I'm told...; an Edward Cullen. [They get bigger if you click the pic].

The Nearly Dead took the crashed NASCAR driver out to trick-or-treat, along with a large M&M friend. The M&M friend was actually quite frightening because said friend is positiviely allergic to M&M's.

Edward Cullen went to a party and has yet to return.

As for me, I had to work in the morning. I thought I would dress up as a geeky professor type, but then worried that my students might not realize that I was in costume, so...

And the afternoon was absolutely beautiful, weather-wise. We went to a local popular park and play play PLAYED!

Oh, and those tracks in the snow? Remember? I think I have a positive identification. The M&M kid, before he transformed into the allergen, was wearing an animal tracks t-shirt. I found Red Fox prints near the kid's spleen.

Sly thing... probably after my eggs.
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and the clouds parted...

*GASP!* Pardon me, just coming up for air here. Sheesh, after two days of thinking that we'd somehow been beamed to Antarctica, the sun has decided to return and it actually feels downright balmy at 40 degrees.

Yeah, okay, so it snowed in Colorado. Not big news. It just doesn't usually leave us stranded for two days in October. I remember the last time that happened. It was a banner year for snow and kind of a love / hate relationship for school kids. Yes, they got a bunch of snowdays, but then they had to make them up at the end of the school year. HA!

But it did force me to get a few things done around the house that I might not otherwise have done. For one thing, I changed the wallpaper on the computer to this:


It's the view from a girl jumping off of a very tall building onto a crane, I believe. As I've mentioned here before, I rationally know that I have an irrational paralyzing fear of heights, so I thought putting this as my wallpaper would help me to "GET OVER IT ALREADY!"

It's not working. Just sayin'.

But hey, told you I was getting some important things done anyways.

And then this morning, when I ventured out into the thawing outdoors, I noticed these prints on the front porch, dangerously close to the front door, dangerously close:



I've included my own foot there for scale. Any trackers out there who know what these prints belong to? I'm thinking too big for squirrel. Raccoon maybe? Did I mention that they were dangerously close? Dangerously close to my milkman bounty??
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what's in a name?

Halloween is nigh. I just realized, we have no candy. I need fruit for Meego's party. I need to assemble Meego's costume...

Meego wants to be a racecar driver - specifically a crashed-and-burned racecar driver. His school, however, doesn't allow make up for the parties, so unless he acquires some real-life wounds before then, he'll just be a plain old racecar driver for the class party. He can crash and burn later.

Chaco and Wolfgang are on their own. They no longer trick-or-treat, but Chaco will sometimes, almost with disturbingly abundant glee, lay in wait, in some sort of getup, outside our front door and freak out the poor unsuspecting trick-or-treaters.

Wolfgang may dress up for school. There are no parties in high school, but costumes are allowed. Just the usual rules against weapons and masks. Make up? Could you imagine if a high school banned make up?!?

Wolf is thinking he'll be Edward Cullen - that hotty irresistible heartthrob vampire from the Twilight series.


See, a few weeks ago, he came home with a project he'd made in shop class. It's a small tasteful wooden pen holder. The wood has been laser-cut to form the name "Edward".

"Edward"? I asked. "Why does it say 'Edward'?"

"Well, some people call me Edward at school, so...", he explained.

Okay.

I have sinced learned that "some people" are mostly "some girls".

He wants tips on how to look pale and sparkly.

I think I'm better at crash and burn.
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Silver Liningness part X

Good morning to all and Sundry on this Sunday!

Another wonderful week providing much to be thankful for has passed. Roll 'em!

The week started with a lovely hike last Sunday. Magnum found a trail we've never stepped on before, so we went and stepped on it.

Magnum and Wolfgang on Spruce Mountain.

Thirty Eight Point Seven. THIRTY EIGHT POINT SEVEN. 38.7. Thirty eight and seven tenths. <---that's the miles per gallon that new-to-us little Honda is getting. Told you I love her.

Remember how I said we've started to teach classes online at work? Remember how I said I've been training? Welp, I completed the training and started doing it this week. Here's the inspiring view - taken with my webcam - that the students see of me:

What do you think? Makes you want to go move mountains doesn't it!

Okay, so I actually just snapped that picture a couple of minutes ago. And I haven't done much today rather than slog out of bed, eat some breakfast type stuff and sip half a cup of coffee. Serious bed head going on.

And in real life, I use a backdrop to cover the lovely room behind me. It's so cool! Teaching right here from the Man Cave. And I get to kick all of the men folk out!

Meego's class did a music program this week. It was the typical elementary-kids-on-the-stage-for-about-a-half-hour kind of music program. It was cute though, I suppose, if you had a kid up there. Meego seems to be sloughing off some of his shyness and getting into things now that he's a big time fourth grader.

Yesterday, we drove up to Denver to visit the much hyped 8-acre corn maze. I recall a smaller corn maze we visited years ago and got thoroughly lost in. Looking forward to another survival adventure, we found the much hyped 8-acre corn maze to not be much *COUGH* of a challenge. Okay, so like the cornstalks were about 4 ft. tall or shorter! Oh well, it was still kind of fun, making fun of it and all...
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like mother

I was recently having a phone conversation with my mother.

These are actually quite rare because we have this thing. This thing about writing letters to each other. Ever since I moved out of the house over 24 years ago.

We have the internet and e-mail now. I have an income better than that of a homeless person now, so can actually afford phone calls. And yet... still.. we write the letters, put them in envelopes, put stamps on them, drop them in the mail, and wait for several days to get a reply.

So when she or my dad calls, naturally I panic. Omigosh, what's happened?!

Turns out, it was pretty bad/sad news, about a friend of mine, though. Not about Mom or Dad.

But anyway, since we were on the phone and actually speaking live with each other, we talked of other things than the bad/sad news. Somewhere in the midst of the conversation, she adds, "you're a lot like Dad, y'know".

Fact is, I do know this. I am more like my dad than my mom. I don't think it's anything I chose to be. I just am. Like we're just wired the same in many ways.

I says, "Yeah, I know."

And she says, "You really are."

And I says, "Yeah, I know."

Truth be told, my dad can be a bit strange. We don't share ALL of the same values and/or "quirks", but we share many. I'm certain that my mom is not disappointed that I'm more like my dad than I am of her. But I do wonder sometimes if she had different hopes for me in my formative years.

So I thought of this conversation yesterday. I thought of it because I had mail ordered some shoes, and they arrived yesterday. They were too small. I quickly boxed them back up for return and then went out and bought some shoes locally. Because I was all set to have new shoes that day, and when the mail-order didn't work out, I had to do SOMETHING about it.

That was definitely Mom's genetics at work.

She'd be happy. I should call and tell her.
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