Dude

It snowed today, briefly.

Wacky Stuff

I'm wearing a skirt, tights, mary janes, and MAKE-UP today.

It's dress-up day, sponsored by our student council.

I had fun digging through my closet, looking for those not-so-oft-used skirts and dress pants. Then I put on sweat pants, hiked my skirt up, and set out to walk to school the 30 degree weather. Then a coworker picked me up and drove me to school, making the sweatpants totally unnecessary.

But yeah, I'm wearing a skirt. Now I have to spend a few minutes at the beginning of each class letting students ooh and ahh at the skirt and explaining the difference between "skirt" and "dress" (they all call it a dress).

Please Tell Me

Why is it 55 degrees in my classroom?

My hands, always a little colder than the average hand (OK, a LOT colder), are fleshy icicles.

New Toy

Finally broke down and bought a really nice digital camera. My old one would not turn on sometimes. I would move the little switch over and it would just stare at me, off. Then, when I finally got it on, it in a similar fashion would not turn off. AND it ate batteries like I eat cinnamon Altoids.

So... I bought a nice new camera. And I took a picture with it. A few actually, but I'm only going to share this one. It still doesn't have a very big memory card (why do nice cameras STILL come with crappy memory cards? What a scam to get you to have to buy new crap...), so I'm limited in number...

BUT I HAVE A NEW TOY!

Well...

I have a picture to post today, but Blogger is not cooperating.

I'll try again later.

Decisions, Decisions

So I haul my butt out of bed this morning, eat some breakfast, and think, Hmm, I really should work out. Or... OR... I could go back to bed for a bit.

I decided to go back to bed.

I get up again (after reading in bed, rather than sleeping), and think, OK, I'm really going to work out now.

On go the workout clothes. In the ears go the headphones attached to friendly Mr. iPod. Down goes my slightly-too-ample bottom upon the seat of the secondhand exercise bike that graces a corner of my living room.

The phone rings.

Like a good little fattie who has to be wearing a swimsuit in Hawaii at Christmas, I let it ring.

The answering machine picks up... "Sara, there's a feast at my house. You should come eat."

It wasn't a decision, really. Again, the exercise bike is abandoned. I pull on clothing more appropriate for the weather (48 degrees, windy, and rainy) and am happily walking down the street to the house where two grandchildren of our kindergarten teacher are celebrating birthdays.

Said teacher/grandmother to birthday-ers lives right by school, so of course I HAD to stop and check e-mail and news and type a useless blog entry.

NOW I'm going to go home and work out.

Windy

'Tis a wee bit windy today.

Actually, it's a lot windy.

I know this picture doesn't look all that impressive, but let me assure you that as soon as I walked past the protective hulk of the school, was pelted with what felt like knifedrops. Couldn't have been raindrops. Wacky stuff, this wind.

So anyway, I don't have any waving trees or anything to take pictures of, so here's the grass. I have no way of estimating wind speed, so I classify it by grass angle: Vertical (nothing), Waving slightly diagonal (a comfortable breeze), waving seriously diagonal (wind), and nearly horizontal.

Today was rainy with wind speeds of nearly horizontal miles per hour.

No flooding, thus far. YAY!

Yippee Ki-Yi-Yay, M#$*er F*$%er

Well, then, isn't this just special.

"...COASTAL FLOOD WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 2 PM THURSDAY AFTERNOON TO 2 AM ADT FRIDAY MORNING FOR DALL POINT TO JACKSMITH BAY..."

Could be worse, 65 MPH winds sounds like nothing compared to what's about to hit Texas...

Sorry, You Missed Out

I had a nice post typed up about our current coastal flood watch, but blogger decided it'd be fun to do some maintenance, so I lost it.

So instead you get this crappy piece of crappy crap.

Yes, I look like crap. And yes, I took the picture myself. And no, I don't care what you think. ;-)

Enjoy.

Home Sweet Home

My House
Originally uploaded by smacca.

I took this picture last night, having finally received my camera cord. The weather was crazy... Sun and rain at the same time.

There was a great rainbow, but all attempts to photograph it failed because it was so bright out.

So yeah, there's my house, for those of you who wanted to see it. Prefab sweet prefab.

Why the Federal Government Needs to Buy me a Dogsled or a Snow Machine

So, apparently, a lot of stuff is now "Unable to be shipped by air due to federal shipping regulations. Please choose a ground shipping option."

Well, kiss my shiny and ample white behind, there AIN'T NO GROUND SHIPPING OPTION. Unless they're going Pony-Express it from Anchorage to Bethel (look at a map, see those mountains in between the two cities?), then Bethel to the village, it's GOING TO HAVE TO GO ON A PLANE.

Things that are apparently off-limits to me and my ilk include that no-water-needed hand sanitizer and certain electronics.

So...

I ordered a cord for my camera. Soon I will be able to resume posting pictures.

So tell me.

What do you want to see pictures of?

Keep it clean, boys and girls... this is a family program ;-)

Vocabulary Lesson

So while back, I had the following conversation with a coworker:

Coworker: I learned a new word, from a movie.

Me: Oh? What word?

Coworker: Peckerwood.

Me: Um...

Coworker: Yeah, a guy in this movie called this other guy a peckerwood.

Me: Um... it's kind of a bad word meaning "white person." Like saying they're a redneck or something.

Coworker: Oh. I thought it had something to do with woodpeckers.

Always Knew I was Destined for Sainthood

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

And on a Happier Note...

My cousin got married last weekend! Yay Laura! I wish I could have made it, but knowing now how the weather was yesterday... it's a good thing I didn't go anywhere... I couldn't have gotten back.

CONGRATS LAURA!

My Classroom is my Castle, Dammit

So, last week and weekend, we had some electrician-type dudes here to upgrade our internet and phone systems. Good, great, fine. They seemed cool and all.

Last friday, I was very, very productive. So productive, I didn't have to come in to school AT ALL on the weekend. Go me.

I arrive this morning, ready to start my week with a planner full of lesson plans and a classroom ready to go.

But.

(There's always a but)

So, apparently, wiring a school does NOT include putting stuff back where it belongs. Have to move a doll house out of a closet into the center of the classroom? That's fine! Just leave it there! I'm sure the teacher will enjoy putting it away when she's supposed to be calmly starting her day. Have to move a desk to put in a new outlet? No big deal, just leave it sprawled out at an awkward angle. The teacher doesn't have anything better to do, really. Her morning OUGHT to be devoted to cleaning up the mess you made. Really, honestly. Because teachers really have nothing better to do with their time. It's not like we're supposed to be educating anyone or anything. Because, honestly, you're only paid to do wiring and computer work. You can't be bothered to lower yourself to the drudgery of cleaning.

I promise I'll stop being a sarcastic byotch now.

From Shameless to Shameful

Last post of the day, I PROMISE.

And it's not exactly shameful. In fact, it's not shameful at all.

But I did something today. Something I haven't done in months.

Get your collective minds out of the gutter. I put on make-up. Not just a little pimple-coverage action. Real make-up. Just now, while sitting here waiting for my computer upgrades to finish downloading (UGH).

For me, at least, make-up and dressing-up fall into the same category... they're only fun when you have to do them all the time. When it's optional and just for kicks, it can be darn fun.

So anyway, yeah. I'm sitting here, in my empty classroom in our empty school, not having gone to Goodnews Bay because the weather sucked too much... wearing make-up. Lipstick, even.

Shameless Plug

OK, donate to the Red Cross if you can and/or want to. They're going to use a lot of their money on hurricane relief... there will be other disasters to attend to, and they'll need the dough.

You'll feel good, at least.

Random Updates

1. Girl In Hospital is supposedly doing a little better, but is not out of the woods yet. Keep up the praying, hoping, finger crossing, telepathic vibe sending, or whatever your thing is.

2. Wind is blowin' like a mofo this morning. Hopefully we get out to our scheduled Cross Country meet in Goodnews Bay this afternoon. I guess various knowledgable folks about the village are predicting an early winter. Greeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaat.

3. Non-alcoholic beer tastes pretty good after a day of work. If only it weren't non-alcoholic Beck's. *pukes* Anyone know of any good non-alcoholic dark beers?

4. Got my digital camera working again (had to find M.I.A. rechargable battery and charge said battery)... but the cord a friend donated to me didn't work because the camera end was smooshed, so I STILL can't hook it up to my 'puter to upload pics. Bonus points and maybe some dried salmon strips if I ever get my grubby mitts on some to anyone who can find me a USB cord for a HP PhotoSmart M305. NOT the expensive fancy docking thing... I don't need another gadget cluttering up my desk. Just a freakin' USB cord.

5. I'm kinda hungry right now.

That's about it.

Ugh

15 year-old with meningitis. Failed kidneys.

Ugh.

Here's hopin' (raises non-alcoholic beer).

Old Curricula Never Dies...

It just gets put in a closet or storage room or warehouse (depending on the size of your school/district) to be slowly eaten away by whatever varieties of pestilence enjoy feasting on textbooks, consumables, reproducibles, manipulatives, teachers' manuals, and other assorded funnitudes.

Seriously, no profession is as fickle as the education field. Every year, it seems, there's a "New Best Way To Teach _______," and corresponding STUFF that goes along with it.

As part of our federally mandated "Site Improvement Plan," we have purchased all these fancy new programs and book sets and whathaveyou. Our principals ACTUAL STATEMENT (and I have a good memory for stuff like this, so trust me) was, "Well, we can try them out, and if they don't work, they'll just go upstairs."

Now wait a gosh darn minute.

We don't need new programs. Well, maybe in a few areas, but really, most "programs" are just general good teaching practice regurgitated in a new way. We need another three classrooms added onto our building and the certfied staff to fill them. What we need are students who come to school with full bellies and a good night sleep. Zoo Phonics (or whatever program) doesn't do jack squat unless the rest of the "package" is there (school, family, etc...).

/bitch mode

Let's Hear it for the Little Things

Ya gotta appreciate the little things in life, otherwise the big ones get you way too far down. Like when the dentist is in town and one of your classes just magically happens to be at the dentist when they normally come to your classroom... so you get a free half hour that would normally be work time!

*Looks around empty classroom and takes a deep breath...*

Aaaaaaah.