Me Three

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
Philadelphia
Boston
The Northeast
The West
The Inland North
The South
North Central
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Week's End UPdaTe

I had an interesting weekend. On Saturday I got up and decided that this would be the weekend I finally finish, once and for all, my Lego Star War game I got for Christmas. I had finished quite a bit, but had left the "hard bits" for last. Mostly the racing levels. I stink at racing. Well, today, I finished all the levels at "True Jedi" level, which unlocked the extra level and two new characters. I'd amassed so many gold legos playing the epidsodes over and over to get all the "kits" that I could buy the last two characters. Ta Da! Not many of my games do I get to beat like that. All the levels, all the extras, all the unlockables.

In between playing sessions, to give my hands a break, we went to Colstrip to the annual Christmas Bazaar. Didn't find too much, a lot of the stuff isn't handmade any more, but I did find two new pinky rings. Can't have too many pinky rings. And they are handmade. I also managed to work in the usual weekend house chores, so I can't feel guillty about spending so much time with the video game and pinky rings.

Tomorrow after work, I leave for Billings where I'll spend the night before heading out to a workshop that involves my job training. All in all it was a good week end. I just wish that my hobby didn't involve using the same sore hand I have to use so much for work all week. I keep looking for a "gamer's glove" with built in ice packs. If anyone knows how to get my hand in one, let me know.

Have a great week!

Free Rice

No registering, no signing up, no commitment. Just answer some fact-type, study for your ACT type questions and for every answer you get correct, someone donates 20 grains of rice to the UN World Food Program. Come one, you know you like it. Might as well feel virtuous about sitting at the computer a few minutes longer.

Just click on the title of this post.

Grace in Defeat

I 'm listening to John McCain's concession speech. If this John McCain had been visible during the last months of the campaign instead of the John McCain we DID see, it would have been a closer race.

Daylight Saving Time

I've said it before and I'm saying it again. I'd vote for the candidate whose only promise was to end daylight saving time forever or end the electoral college, two concepts whose time is past.

WeEkenD UPdaTe

Well, I had a busy and rewarding weekend. I went into Billings Friday afternoon and had a delicious dinner with my dad at a dinner following a business meeting he attended. It was good food and good company, what else do you need? The next morning I had breakfast with aunt, uncle, cousins and two very friendly dogs. Then some shopping and a late lunch, more shopping and home again. Trips to Billngs tend to have a lot of family meals and shopping. I enjoy the family meals, but the shopping......not so much. It's just that living as far away from stores as we do, shopping in "big cities" is a neccessity, not a pleasure. I have gotten quite good at online shopping, but sometimes you just have to try something on, and as yet, they don't deliver cat food and toothpaste online. Maybe someday soon some one, somewhere will invent one of those replicator thingys like on Star Trek and I won't have to shop in Billings at all, just spend time with family!

Experiments in Telecomuting

This summer when gasoline prices starting spiraling upwards, those of us who commute to work started talking about ways to save gas$$$. One of the ideas was to continue working 4/10 hour days as we did in the summer. I liked the idea of 4/10 but the reality was that I was worn out on Friday and didn't get much done at all. The other idea was to stay home and to my work from there. After all one "data monkey cage" is much like another. It turns out that all I've done this week is data entry and fact checking for our state report called "fall count." All my programs are web-based so that's not an issue. Today was a perfect time to give it a try. It was actually not much difference for me. It was just as tiresome and boring as it was when I drive 25 miles to work. The difference was that I didn't have to shower if I didn't want to, (I didn't) and I could putz around a little before "going to work." When the quitting bell sounded. I could just log off my school program and start blogging. No 25 mile drive home with all the stops in town to get mail or milk. As far as I"m concerned I could stay home a couple of days a month and get as much done as I would at work and gain the above mentioned benefits. With winter approaching, another advantage would be to avoid the nasty, icy, slippery roads and the snow drifts that make my drive up the hill an "adventure in sliding." Of course I don't know if the people at work even noticed that I was gone. If not.....it may not be such a good thing.

Maverick

Did I hear right? A TEAM of Mavericks? What part of Maverick doesn't she understand? A Maverick is a LONE dissenter who takes an independent stand apart from his or her associates. If you are in a group you can't, by definition, be a maverick. Who wants a Maverick in the White House anyway? I should think that we'd want a leader in the White House. Someone who is going to work with others to achieve a common destination, not someone who is going to go off on his own at cost of the rest of the us. Suppose the maverick values his "maverickness" so much that he appoints a lot of "mavericks" to his cabinet. He picked one as his "sidekick." What do we have then? A lot of people going their own way to prove that they are independent and refusing to work with any one, or a stampede to get to the head of the line to prove that he/she is a leader. No, I don't think we need a "maverick" in the Whitehouse. He is not going to convience me with that argument.

Banned Books Week.

It's Banned Books WeeK! Hurry, don't miss it! Read a book that was challenged or banned. Click on the title above for a list of books if you don't have a favorite banned book to read. Or just do a search for banned books, there are, unfortunately hundreds of banned books to choose from.

Can You Guess Where I'm From?

I found this link on the JWalk Blog. It's a game where a bunch of people from all over are speaking English with accents from there own country. Not all of the countries are English speaking countries though. I got 21 measly points. What's your score?


http://www.languagetrainersgroup.com/accent_game.html

Take 2

Meet Trixie

Meet Trixie, a data monkey like me. She was put together this week and accessorized today. She has the requisite two hands for typing and cutting/pasting from one database or spreadsheet to another. Like me she has highlights in her hair and is addicted to costume jewelry. She is going to join me in the office tomorrow to remind me how to have fun at work.

Self Portrait

How many times has this happened to you, ladies? You go to the salon and spend a few hours getting a new hair doo and then the next day, you cannot make it look like it did when you walked out of the salon?

Vacation Day?

I had yesterday off, but I'm not sure it was a vacation day or a medical leave. I guess it was both. I had to go to the dentist yesterday to get an impression made so I can get a removeable appliance to keep me from clenching my teeth together in my sleep. It's gotten so bad my ears buzz and wake me up. Anyway the procedure at the dentist made me gag horribly so I needed the rest of the day to decompress.

I had an early lunch with a good friend of mine and we talked about other old freinds, not gossip, I swear, just catching up. We talked about politics and agreed on just about everything so that wasn't a long conversation. Then I went to my hair appointment to get a "new doo" , but no one has noticed yet, so I could have saved my $$$$, but then it does feel better to me, so I guess it was worth it. Not much of a vacation, but it was a break from the routine.

Are You Being Served?

We're EVIDENTLY NOT being served. Let me explain. At our school we have used a database program designed for schools. It lets us store all kinds of data about our staff and students. It also lets us schedule classes and take attendance. It keeps a grade book that does all the calculations and comes out with a grade. It's WONDERFUL... when it works. When it doesn't. . . it's less than NOT wonderful.
Our state has begun implementing a new SIS (Student Information System) for state reports. We could just export our data to them or we could purchase the district verson of their program and the exports would happen "automatically." Since our old system was being phased out at the end of this year, our district decided to go with the same system the state uses so we could "synchronize" with their server and automatically export our data for state reports. It sounds great on paper. But when we finally got converted to the new system, they converted us to a version of the program newer than the version the state uses. Newer is better, right? NO it's not better, it's worse. The newer version won't synchronize with the older version and we had no way to assign state ID numbers to our new students. Bummer!
Well, after a couple of days of panic to get the new students enrolled, scheduled, graded and attendended, we got a "walk around" to fix it temporarily until we could sync. We spent Friday in a marathon work session entering in new data. Whew!!

Then Friday afternoon, somewhere in Minnesota. . . a server crashed. Guess whose server it was? Good guess. It was our server and we're back to where we were a week ago. I hope it's not longer than a week ago. I can't contact anyone until Monday to know for sure. I'm just hoping that we've already had our share of bad luck for the year.

If you're wondering why I should care about any of this it's because as of last spring I'm the head "data monkey."

Lucky, lucky me.

New chairs for old!

I remember blogging a looooooong time ago about wanting a new sofa. Well a few weeks ago, after a delay or two, it finally got delivered. When they delivered this they took away our old sofa and an old recliner chair that was looking a little worse for the wear and tear. Now we have a much less cluttered living room. We don't have a sleeper sofa any more, but we've plenty of room for one of those inflatable beds.



That's my new philosophy, if I'm replacing something then I have to get rid of the old something I'm replacing or I really don't need the new someting after all. That goes for sofas, shoes, books, and tires, but never people. You can't replace old friends or family for new. You can never have enough of either.

DATA MONKEY

From the Urban Dictionary

2.data monkey
22 up, 1 down
An employee whos job it is to take data from one source (eg SQL Server) and stick it in another source. A bit like a DBA (Database Administrator) but without the job prospects.
"Hey Jim, do you have that Excel spreadsheet yet?" "No Ann, the Data Monkey has only had the jobsheet for 6 days, I'll have it for Christmas...I think."

I thought I had invented the name Data Monkey to describe my new job. But when I Googled it to make sure it didn't mean something different, I found my job description. Who knew? I must have seen it somewhere and it just stuck in the back of my head until it leaped out one day when some student asked my what I did if I wasn't the librarian anymore. "I'm a Data Monkey!"

Belle Weather

As I was driving home after work I saw the most beautiful clouds ahead of me. The closer I got to home the more of the lower clouds I could see. About 30 minutes after I got home we had some hail, later measured at approx. 1" in diameter. So of course I had to take some pictures.

Christmas in July

Hubby got a new camera last weekend and has been taking pictures of our local flora and fauna(fauna to follow). This reminds me of Christmas because of the bright red berries. I've never seen so many berries on the bushes, but we've never had such a mild, rainy spring before either. It's called a Skunk Bush, also a Fragrant Sumac, Lemon Sumac, Polecat Bush, Rhus trilobata, take your pick. You'll probably be seeing the picture again in late December along with wishes for a Merry Christmas.

It Works Again

I changed a setting in our browser's security setting and it works now. Not sure if it was something I did or a coincidence. Thanks.

Now I can't think of anything to write.

This coming Friday is the last day of my online summer school class. It's getting harder and harder to complete the assignments. The assignments are harder, my attention is wandering to stuff at my new job and because it's summer and I'm usually doing some heavy duty housecleaning this time of year and it's not getting done and there are video games not being played and books not being read.

Anyhoo, I'm sure glad I aced the easy stuff cause I ain't acing anything now. Just counting down the days 'til "School's OUT for SUMMER!"

Top 100 Books

Stole this right off of Philipa's blog.

What books have you read? Bold the ones you have read, italicize the ones you are planning on reading and underline the ones you loved: Some of the children's books I read over the summer when I worked with the Missoula Library Summer Bookmobile program. The quality of the books is part of why I became a chilren's librarian. Other of the children's books I read to my son when he was little. I think he enjoyed most of them or at least knew that a good book would delay bedtime!

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen –
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling - Read 1 1/2 of the books. Does that count?
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee - Read many, many times.
6. The Bible -Bits and pieces, but not the whole thing.
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell-
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman -Loved the first two of the series. I was reading these when everyone else was reading Harry Potter.
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott - Of course!
12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy –
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller- Don't remember too much. Read it in college.
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare – Most of them anyway.
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier – I think so. Read some of her books, probably read this one.
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien – Read aloud to my young son. Probably to delay bedtime.
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks –
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger –
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot –
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell - Hated the movie!
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald - Read recently to teach to high school students. Yuck, didn't waste their time.
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens- Read in college. Remember that at the end of one chapter the heroine was blinded and the next time we read about her, a few chapters later, she was sighted and no mention was made of her blindness. I figured that it was a serialized novel and he just forgot because he had to make a deadline.
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy- I remember being confused by all the names. Everyone had 4 or 5 names. Yesh!
25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams – LOL
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh -
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky -
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck -
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy-.
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen Probably. I never cared for Austen, but my English teacher assured me the author was great so a read a bunch of them to see if I could figure out why. Never did.
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini-
37. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres –
38. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden-
39. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne-
40. Animal Farm - George Orwell
41. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
42. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
43. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
44. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins - Terrific Victorian Mystery
45. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
46. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
47. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
48. Lord of the Flies - William Golding-
49. Atonement - Ian McEwan
50. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
51. Dune - Frank Herbert
52. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
53. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen-
54. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
55. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
56. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
57. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley-
58. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
59. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez-
60. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck-
61. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
62. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
63. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold -
64. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
65. On The Road - Jack Kerouac -
66. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
67. Bridget Jones’ Diary - Helen Fielding
68. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
69. Moby Dick - Herman Melville - Tried to read several times. Never could.
70. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
71. Dracula - Bram Stoker
72. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
73. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
74. Ulysses - James Joyce
75. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath-
76. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
77. Germinal - Emile Zola
78. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
79. Possession - AS Byatt -
80. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
81. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
82. The Color Purple - Alice Walker-
83. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
84. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
85. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
86. Charlotte’s Web - EB White
87. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
88. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - REad the complete collection while in junior high.
89. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
90. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
91. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery -
92. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
93. Watership Down - Richard Adams
94. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
95. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute-
96. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
97. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
98. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
99. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain - I taught this to 8th graders.

Sailing in a sea of grass

So at the beginning of spring, late Friday afternoon, a guy drives down our road towing a boat. He parks it in the field across from our house and leaves it. The next weekend it's the same thing and the following weekend it's an old truck. It seems a guy who lives in Billings owns the lot and just figured it would be a good place to park his junk. I'm guessing it's junk because he's never been out to get the boats to take them to a lake or resevoir. Of course he's not allowed to park junk on the streets of Billings. They have laws against doing things like that. But those of us out here in the country don't mind at all, do we? Just bring your old dogs, cats, kids , trucks, anything that doesn't fit in a city will look better and act better in the country, right? Of course if he'd take care of his property and mow the grass to keep it from drying out and becoming a fire hazard, it wouldn't look like they were floating in a sea of grass. Isn't that nice?

Week End Visit

I had a great visit in Billings this weekend. I arrived just in time to get to visit with cousins who were also visiting dad and bro and then spent a relaxing day that ended in a father / daughter dinner. Sunday morning I got the pleasure of going to church with dad and bro and getting to hear a sermon delivered by said dad. I remember being a little kid and seeing my dad in the pulpit. It made me feel kinda special. It still does. After church I finished up some shopping and enjoyed a grilled salmon steak and some homemade pasta salad and yummy salsa.


The Wimbleton tennis finals were on TV and was called to a halt because of rain. I jokingly said I'd better hit the road before I ran into a storm myself. I shoulda left sooner. I drove into a horrible storm complete with hail and blinding sheets of rain. The hill on the way home was a stream of red water as it poured down and washed the dirt away. I made it home safely and it continued to rain for 2 more hours. 2 inches of rain in less than 3 hours. Anywhere else and we'd have a flood, but in SE Montana, where 2 inches of rain in a season is a lot, it just soaked up the water and the next day was bright and green again.

If it means anything to you at all, you know who won the tennis match. If it doesn't, why should I tell you?

Happy 4th of July

Click on the title and answer some of the questions from the new "Citizenship Test."

Rise & Shine!

It has been a weird weather spring. It has rained almost every day since May. Not all day and not buckets and buckets, but rain in SE Montana used to be rare. So it wasn't a big surprise when we had a thunder & lightning storm at bedtime last night. It rained and we went to sleep to the steady sound of rain on our tin roof. The surprise was this morning when we woke to the unmistakable sound of hail on our roof at 5:00 in the morning. What next? Raining toads?

To All You Fathers Out There

. . . and fathers to be. . .
Be Careful What You Preach.

The Power of the Greystache

So we stopped at Pizza Hut on the way home since we figure it will be a long while before we get to go anywhere what with work, price of gas and price of everything and I go to pay the bill of $17.35. I give the guy a $20.00 and he gives me $6.00 +change back. What????? I'm not any good at math but I realize the guy is givng me back too much change. "I think you've given me too much change back," I say. "I gave you the senior citizen discount," he said. I was almost insulted by being taken for a senior citizen until I realized he must have been taking into account my husband's grey beard and mustache. I know I would NEVER be mistaken for a senior citizen:)

Get out and VOTE!

Ooops! I guess it's not election day for everyone. Those of us in Montana are in the spotlight today with our primaries making the news since they are the end of a very long, much too long primary season. Voting was a pleasant endeavor. After handing my driver's license to my neighbor down the road to identify myself so I could sign in, I voted on a paper ballot and listened to all the other neighbors catching up on news they haven't heard until the last election, wedding or funeral that put them all in the same room together. Then home to cook a fast dinner and join my first online chatroom for my online class.

Spring's Back

I realize it has been a while since my last post, but I still can't think of much to write about. Spring appears to have returned as I sit here beside the open window watching the neighbors out in the yard whilst I sit inside tied to the computer. I'm actually taking a study break or you'd probably never hear from me again.

School's out and I'm almost finished being a librarian for a while. I just have to run off an inventory and I'll be through. I got moved into my new office on Saturday morning and got my email set up; my first email was from our new program vendor sending be a bunch of spread sheets which I'm suppose to use to export our student / school data so they can do what they need to do to import it into our new program. By a startling coincidence, my assignment this week is "How to import data from a spreadsheet into a database." Couldn't have come a moment too soon. Maybe I can get extra credit from my teacher for doing my job?? I feel like I'm surrounded by databases, maybe drowning in spreadsheets.

My new motto: WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS, MANIPULATE THE DATA

TAG I'M IT!

Got tagged by dad on this one.

4 Jobs I've Held:
Dishwasher
Laundress at Motel
Librarian
Stage Manager

4 Places I've lived:
Davenport, Iowa
Woodville, MA
Jersey City, NJ
Bilings, MT

4 Movies I've Watched Over and Over Again:
5th Element
Stardust
Star Trek
Groundhog's Day

4 Places I've Been:
Chicago
Los Altos,CA
Newport, OR

4 TV Shows I watch regularly:
Bones
Burn Notice
Keen Eddie
Blackadder

4 Radio Shows I Listen to:
NPR MOrning Edition
Car Talk

4 Things to look forward to:
Being a Great Aunt
A New JOb
Fridays
End of Summer School
One more family reunion

4 People I email regularly:
Dad
Son
Family
Friends from Colstrip/Medicine Lake (HINT)

Weakend

It's been a busy yet somehow serene week. We've had several events planned for the students and not one of them went off as planned. Not unusual at all, yet the main topic in the teachers' lounge is about how things should be planned better. They were planned just fine, it's just that everyone wasn't given the same plan. Somedays I feel as if I'm living out a novel by Vonengut, was he part Native American? It was a beautiful day, we were outside walking around, the kids were happy, we all got back to school in time for lunch and only had two schedule changes when we got back. Where's the problem?

I had a lot of "lasts" this week since I'll be moving out of the classroom next month and into the nether regions of "administration." One of my colleagues jokingly called me a defector, and he wasn't entirely joking. I had my last "clean up the rez day," my last "march against meth day," last class of graduating seniors, and last time to start my inventory and nine days to finish. I'm not nostalgic or gloomy about any of it so I guess I made the right decision. Just think of all the "firsts" I'll be experiencing.

I started a new online class on Access databases. It looks to be a lot more comprehensive(harder) than the class on Excel but so far I think I'm holding my own. My strategy is to work hard on the easy stuff and get a high grade so when the hard stuff comes at the end of the quarter I won't flunk. Hey it's worked for one of my seniors who got a B 3rd quarter and an F 4th quarter, he squeaked by with a passing grade, so can I.

To all the other students out there, I have a new respect for you! Just be sure to Ace the easy stuff.

Happy Mother's Day

Aftermath

So after being called at 4:30 to be told that school was called off for the day the sun came out and it was a beautiful day to stay home and nap, read, play FFX, do a few household chores and read blogs. Now I'm ready for the weekend.

Dos de Mayo

At 4:30 this morning the telephone rang. A telephone ringing at 4:30 in the morning usually doesn't bode well. It probably didn't bode well for someone, but for me it was good news. SChool was called OFF due to a storm system hitting us last night. I'd much rather be awakened at 4:30 in the morning than head out to work and then find out that the roads are closed. Anyway, I intend to be a sloth today and just read, nap, play video games, and catch up on my blog reading until the power goes off and then snack on Vanilla Wafers and milk.

Finals Week !

I just finished my final test for my online Excel class. I only got a 90% on it, but there was one question that I think wasn't fairly written..... whatever. I have all my assignments handed in, but they aren't all graded yet, so I don't know what my final grade is, but at least I passed and I'm finished. I'm taking an online course on databases during summer session. I expect it to be a little easier because I was anxious about spreadsheets and formulas and whatnot, but maybe the databases will be harder since it's a 300 level course and the Excel course was a 100 level.

School's Out !

New Job!

I finally got an actual contract and not just the promise of one. So for the first time in 28 years I won't be a librarian or a classroom teacher. It will make the last few weeks of this year a lot easier to put up with. I start on July 1st so I'll get June off. What shall I do?

Fishcake Anyone?

Happy Birthday to ME!

JOb NeWs

Incredibly, I'm still waiting to decide which job I'll have next year. The school board voted to renew my teaching contract and also voted to offer me a contract with the tech dept and Student Information Systems coordinator. I've yet to see either one and the superintendant won't be back in the office until next Tuesday, so I guess I'll just have to wait a little longer. I'm not complaining, mind you. Some people didn't get offered even one contract and I've got two!

Caption Contest

Create a caption for this picture.

The Taxman Cometh

Ask not for whom the taxman cometh, he comes for thee!! I know you're out there, you lazy slacker, someone out there hasn't filed his/her tax return yet. HaH! I mailed my today! That's right, in the mailbox, not efiled ! Call me a luddite if you will, but that's the way I do it.

Actually, I had a productive, yet relaxing 4 day weekend. I went to Billings and visted family, finished a difficult Excel chapter, started a great book called "The Thirteeth Tale," watched some movies, and worked on the taxes.

Job Apps.

Well, I submitted an application for the job I've been "fillng in " for since October. Someone more qualified may yet apply, more power to them. The job would mean a cut in pay and longer work year, but I'm ready for something new. Just sort of coasting the past couple of years. I won't know for at least a month and then the school board is very slow about some decisions. I hope this isn't one of them.

March ON

March is here at last! What is more, there are only 9 days left in 3rd quarter, which means to anyone who is counting, there is one quarter left until the end of the school year. I have lived my whole life thus far by an academic calendar. I think I always will. Time is marked by quarters, semesters, graduations and vacations. Right now I am both a teacher and a student as I come home from work and hit the comptuer to study Excel 2007, in which class I am now showing a 97% thank you very much. I suspect that even when I retire, I will tell time, not by the calendar that starts in January, but the calendar that starts in August.

Bloomin' Tulips

Happy Birthday to YOU!

Happy Birthday Big Brother !

School Assemblies

I was expecting an assembly this afternoon because our Lady Stars are going to Red Lodge tomorrow to play in the regional basketball tournement. So when the announcement came down at 2:30 for everyone to go to the gym, I thought, "That's way too long for a pep assembly. "( We're dismissed at 3:45) But we had a surprise guest. Matt Light, the aforementioned football player had come back on his way home to stop by and speak to the kids about a football camp his foundation is sponsoring in June. The listened well until he started his stay in school and off drugs and out of trouble speach. How was he to know we've already heard that speach about 10 times this year. Well, he cut his loses when they got restless and went to a Q & A. One of the kids asked how far he could throw a football. "Oh, I can't throw a football at all. I never go near the football," he said. Another kid asked if he cried when they lost the SuperBowl. "No, I didn't, " he said. "I didn't cry. I bawled." He seemed like a genuinly nice guy and it was a nice break from classes. He may even have inspired our basketball crazy guys to try out for football next year.

But the real fun started after he left and we got our promised pep assembly complete with skits that embarrass the teachers. I got wrapped up in toilet paper which wasn't bad compared to the teachers who got their faces covered in peanut butter and then had popcorn thrown at them. Somehow the coach made it all tie into the big game, but it was really about humiliating the teachers.

GO LADY STARS!!!

I almost forgot.

OK? By the time I got home I had almost forgotten what had happened this morning. Not that it was a bad day; it was rather ordinary. But this morning started with the coach asking me if he could use the library, 3rd period, for a meeting of local coaches. OK. He neglected to tell me that the meeting was about a football camp this summer. OK. He also neglected to tell me that a celebrity would be there. Anybody ever heard of Matt Light? Well, I never did before today. I googled him when I got home. He's football player for the New England Patriots. OK. He wasn't the only one who showed up. There was a video cameraman, a microphone carrier, and a still shot camera woman. There were a few other people standing around, a couple of vans worth of people at least. They were all VERY polite and friendly. At one point a guy returned a pen he had borrowed from my desk and said, "I hope you don't mind?" I pretended like it was a big deal and then said, " No problem." So he walked away and came back with a Tshirt and said I could have the Tshirt since I'd let him use my pen. OK. So I now have a white Tshirt that says New England Patriots and has a signature scribbled under it. It looks like it says BEN? But who can tell? I'll ask coach tomorrow who BEN is.

Any PAT fans out there?

Semester Wrap Up! Maybe this time?

Last week we had a 2 hour long poweroutage. We were 15 minutes from sending the kids home for the day when they power was restored to the elementary school, the admin building, the tech building and hopfully the rest of the town, but we still had no power out at our jr/sr high school. But the other school didn't know we were without power and they turned on the servers for our SIS(student information system). When the rest of the power was restored, the server got zapped and we lost 2 weeks worth of data. It took an entire day to get it straightened out with our tech support. We got the end of the semester grades restored, but I still have to re enter all the corrections I'd already done. I'm hoping to get it fixed by the end of Q3 in the middle of March so I can then concentrate on whatever mistakes I'll be making then.

In another note, I fell a nasty fall on my left knee yesterday when some ice appeared out of no where. It was a beautiful sunny day; it felt like spring in fact. I was thinking I'd wake up this morning to a stiff, painful knee but it wasn't any worse than yesterday. No better, but not worse.

Montana. . . it's not for wimps.

The day started out to be a real bad day. Not 100 yards from home I got stuck in a liliputian snow drift. Really, it was barely a curbsized drift, but my Honda is a wimpy car. After my husband pulled me out of the drift, I made it to work just as the first bell for class was sounding. Then I was trying to get caught up from the crash last week which resulted in us losing the last 13 days of data. It was an "early out day" so the students left at 1:45 and we had a guest speaker who talked about suicide prevention. Not quite the most cheerful topic on a good day, and it wasn't a good day. In between classes I had been dismantling the hallway bulletin board which was still decorated for Valentine's Day. For some reason I find holiday decorations left up past the holiday really depressing, so I felt that if I could get it changed for spring I would feel a little better, and it worked a bit.

Then I made it home without getting stuck and the day was looking up. After dinner I crammed for my online course test. It was the first test of the semester and I didn't know what to expect. I took the test and it was automatically graded and I got a 95%. I'll take it. And now I'm going to post this and take a look at the end of the lunar eclipse. It has actually been a clear sky so we could enjoy it. HOpe you all got at least a glimpse.

Welcome to the Family

I just looked at some of the pictures of the wedding. I don't think I've ever seen a happier groom or a more radiant bride. One of the great things about my great brothers is the wonderful new sisters they've brought into the family. Another great thing is all the great nephews and nieces they've delivered, and another great thing is what fathers and uncles they all are.

So welcome to the family, Suzanne.

Semester Wrap Up! (I hope)

So our first semester ended on Jan. 17, 2008. Today is February 8, 2008. I may have just finished wrapping up all the problems I caused when I wrapped up the end of the semester. The software program we use at our school (Student Information System) is a mine field in hell. One wrong step and the whole thing blows up in your face and you spend the next two weeks wondering why you thought you had figured out how it works.

Of course I though I had it all fixed two days ago when the school counselor who brought a transcript into me and showed me a student who had been dropped at the beginning of the second quarter and was still showing a credit for English class, and an A to boot. Ooooops!

On the plus side, the Excel 2007 class I'm taking online, makes the job infintesimally easier.

Winter Blahs

I was going to write that not much has been happening to write about so I have ignored my blog for a while. Then I got to thinking and there's been a lot of little things. Our first semester ended and the second began. That's ordinarily a busy time, but now that I'm involved with the the Student Information System and have to help with report cards and course changes, it's been even busier. And to add to the stress, we had a snowfall just at the transition between semesters. It really wasn't a bad snow, but the wind made the drifts bad, so I missed a day of work. My little Honda is a great road car and I put 250-300 miles on it a week, so I need good mileage and it delivers. But it just doesn't handle the snow the way the old Subaru with AWD. We talked briefly about trading in the Honda for a Subaru. The Impreza looks good, but I don't know if I'm ready to sacrifice the outstanding mileage of my Honda.

I've started taking an online course on Excel 2007 from MSU-Billings and so far it's pretty easy, but I'm thinking it will get complicated real soon. I'm not as comfortable working with numbers and formulas as I am around letters and words.

World Wide Words

Woot! I've seen a couple of family bloggers use this term so when I saw it on one of the nonfamily blogs I read from time to time, it caught my eye. If you click on the title of the post, it will lead you to that site, if you like to read about words.


W00t is spelled with a couple of zeroes in the middle but it’s said as “woot”. It’s a small cry of joy, perhaps after completing a task, after besting an opponent, or for no reason at all. Merriam-Webster says, “It became popular in online gaming as part of what is known as l33t (‘leet’, or ‘elite’) speak, an esoteric computer hacker language in which numbers and symbols are put together to look like letters.”

Its origins are disputed. Some say it’s a blend from the cry Wow! Loot!, one that might be uttered when a Dungeons & Dragons player came across treasure; Merriam-Webster notes that it has been said to be an acronym for we owned the other team (meaning that our team bested them utterly); others argue that it derives from the Scots hoot!, which really is a bit of a hoot, since the Oxford English Dictionary describes that as an “ejaculation expressing dissatisfaction with, or impatient and somewhat contemptuous dismissal of, a statement or notion”, which hardly fits the context.

Weather UPdate

I read the weather report for today and it said "80% chance of winter precipitation." What???? Not snow, not sleet, not rain or hail, just WINTER PRECIPITATION?" I found out what that meant today. It started raining, then turned to pouring slush, then snow, hail and sleet and ending up with snow again. That about covers it for precip as far as I can tell. What's missing?

What are the Odds?

So this week has been something of a challenge. Maybe a better word would be my worst nightmare come true. I have an English class for high school seniors called Fundamentals of English. I'm suppose to teach reading and writing for practical, day to day uses. Someone, not me, decided that the students need to learn how to balance a checkbook. "So do I," I thought. "But I've got the teacher's manual, so I can struggle through, maybe, if I really have to, and I guess if the students need it; I really have to." So we do the first entry together and I tell them to do the rest on their own. How hard can it be?

"Mark writes check 101 to Lacey's Department store $39.56 for sheets. Write the check and put it in the outgoing mailbox. Write the amount in the check register and calculate the balance. Get form 202 from the back of the documents and forms section of the work book and find Mark's paycheck from Antwan's Car Parts and endorse the check and fill out the deposit slip and put it in the outgoing mailbox; be sure to record the transaction in the check register. Mark needs dishes and writes check 102 to . . .. . . "

I was busy helping one of the students and didn't realized that none of them really knew what do to until they had already messed up their check registers until they looked like mine. Time for part deux of the nightmare. I haul out the whiteboard so that I can demonstrate for the whole class as we try to make sense of the checkbook register. I hate writing on the board in front of the class, the memory of a brave sixth grader's voice saying, "Ms. Taylor, we can't read your writing," is always in my ear when I write on the board, even though I have made a conscious effort to improve my handwriting. Chalkboards were bad enough. The dust was everywhere and your hands and clothes got covered with it. But whiteboards are worse. The markers have an odor that leaves me literaly speechless. It causes my throat to close up and if I have to write too long, I lose my voice altogether. Today wasn't too long so I had enough voice to say, "Good Job, Guys."

Thankfully, we all got our checkbook registers straighted out, looking nothing like the teacher's manual, but miraculously all balanced.

One of the students spoke the truth when she said, " I hate this. Debit cards are so much easier!"

Braided Rug

I went to the Christmas crafts fair in Colstrip yesterday and got to spend some time with a few friends while starting my Christmas shopping. To tell the truth, the main reason for making the trip was to see my friends. I didn't find too many Christams gifts, and if I did I could hardly mention it here, could I? I did find a new braided rug for the kitchen. I want to make it clear that I'm not replacing an old rug, it's just that I finally found a rug I like at a time when I remembered that I wanted a rug to put in front of the kitchen sink to stand on when washing the dishes. It's got the right colors for the kitchen and it really is cushy to stand on.

It was a nice winter day to drive somewhere. It was snowing just enough to look wintry but not enough to make the roads slick. Today is clear again and with a dusting of snow it is starting to get me in the holiday spirit. Putting up the Christmas tree helped a little too. Things will start getting hectic at work, not because of the holiday season, but because of the basketball season. Basketball is taken very seriously where I work and students who normally don't care about their grades will suddenly care about little else, except for the aforementioned basketball of course.

The Truth of "Old Sayings"

Remember the old saying that doctors make the worst patients? Or how about a lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client? A car repairman who fixes his own car gets it right the first time? A psychiatrist who analyzes himself is always schizophrenic? I don't know how much truth there is in these old sayings, but I can say unequivocally after having spent the whole day in a classroom with a bunch of teachers in a training session that TEACHERS MAKE LOUSY STUDENTS! or maybe THOSE WHO CAN DO, DO and THOSE WHO CAN'T DO, TEACH!

Stress Reliever??

Click on the words "Stress Reliever" above and see if it works for you. Be sure to have the sound turned way up.

Autumn Cactus

I repotted this cactus earlier this fall and it's bloomed for the first time in years. I'm not even sure if they are supposed to bloom every year so I don't know if it's a coincidence or because I repotted it, but it is pretty.

Movies

39% Movie Freak? Must be a movie geek. I thought I was more of a movie freak than this. I guess I'm either watching the wrong movies or just not paying attention.


39% Movie Freak

Lucy in the Sky. . . . with diamonds

I've just had the most surreal day. I had an appointment to see an optometrist in Billings at 1:00. I had the day off work and I could have slept in, but knowing that I wouldn't be able to, I left the house at the usual time of 7:00 am. I had Morning Edition on the radio, my usual morning routine, and they were talking about a transportation strike in France and then about fact that there are members of the black race who aren't black anymore? It seems that members of the poor black race are disowning the rich members of the black race? Anyway, at 9:00 the news ended and classic music came on. Now I like classic music well enough, but not when I'm driving so I started pushing buttons on the radio to see what programs were on. I had one hand on the wheel and both eyes on the road, just pushing buttons. A talk radio show came on. It was Sean Hannity. Talk about surreal. He has no facts at all on his show, just his loud mouthed opinions. And when people call in to talk, he cuts them off and rants. One guy who was disagreeing with him started "breaking up.", but "thanks for calling." He ranted about how all media is controlled by the liberals. He doesn't seem to realize that he's media as well. He said over and over how slanted and bias the media is. If he's not media, is he smallia? Around noon I met my dad and brother for a delightful lunch and the only non surreal part of the day.

Anyway I got into see the eye doc and he wrote me a prescription for a new pair of "computer" glasses so I can sit at the computer and not have to either tilt my head up to see through the bottom of my bifocals or take my glasses of all together and squint like I am now. The very last thing he did was dilate my pupils for a look at the back of my eyeball. After the exam, I picked out a new pair of "outrageous" frames and finished my shopping. I figured that I would walk around the store and let my pupils get back to normal. But when I finally left the store and stepped out into the bright, sunny afternoon, I could hardly see my way to the car and my lovely, wraparound sunglasses. The sunglasses did the trick though and I felt confident that I could drive safely. I stopped in Hardin to fill up for gas, it is $.34 cheaper in Hardin than in Ashland. By that time it was dusky and people were turning on their headlights and surreality took on another dimension. All the headlights, reflectors and traffic signs looked as if they had been special effected by a Disney cartoonist on LSD. Huge, spiky halos surrounded every light. The halos were so broad that they covered both lanes of traffic and so bright that I couldn't figure out how many cars were lined up in the other lane. I eventually figured out that if I squinted really hard, I could focus much better. I made it home OK, but I will never do that again.
Moral:
Always take someone with you when you go to the eye doc. Or don't let him dilate your eyes.

Famous Last Words

Add to the famous last words, "The check is in the mail, " Everything is set up for the rest of the year. " I started taking over the duties of the Powerschool coordinator last week, just when report cards had to be printed. It felt like jumping into the pot of boiling water to get away from the flames. But it really wasn't that bad, it just felt like it because I realized that I know next to nothing compared to the people who've been working with the program for so many years. I had to set up some classes for grades and attendance for a new teacher and the report card template was misplaced for a few minutes, and then there was the honor roll panic, but actually, after some reflection, I didn't do that much. I emailed and called the lady who resigned and talked to the various other people in the district who work with the program and things ultimatly got done.

Maybe this week will feel a little more relaxing, at least after my formal job evaluation is done on Monday! Monday!!! What a perfect day for a job eval! What could go wrong on a Monday???

Check in Tuesday to find out.

Remember the 5th of November!

Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin van-guarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous.

Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it's my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V."

Family Trees

We found this picture of one of my husband's ancestors. It appeared in the local newspaper and the captions was, "Local Scientist discovers comet."

Storytime Chair

Here is the original storytime chair that I used at Ashland Elementary School. They were getting rid of them and replacing them with plastic stacking chairs. I got this one and refinished it. Perfect height for reading stories. Even with kids sitting on the floor they could easily see the pictures, and since my feet were flat on the floor, I could read for hours.

My favorite storytime story is about telling a story at Halloween. The library was darkened with blackout curtains and paper over the windows. The lights were out and the only light was a candle glowing from a ceramic jackolantern. The kids were in second grade and as contentious a group as I've ever had. They were whining and loud and obnoxious as usual but I wanted to tell a scary story. So I kept talking slower and softer until they finally had to shut up to hear me. They were creeping closer and closer to hear the words and some of them were resting their hands on my lap. I could see their eyes shinning by candle light and I was finally in control of this class for the first and only time that year. The story was "The Golden Arm." When I reached the final "Who has my golden arm?' I was in full scary voice and slowly building to a crescendo with the repetition of "Who has my golden arm?" Barely able to contain my laughter, I reached out and grabbed the nearest kid and shouted "You've got it!" They all screamed and jumped up. One of them ran out of the room and all the way down the hall. Some of them wanted to cry but didn't. One of them said, "You didn't scare me, Ms. Taylor. " Of course not!

The only other triumph of story telling was getting one kid to tear up during "Sylvester and the Magic Pebble." I hurried up and finished before he actually cried. He was a sweet little kid and I felt bad.

The glory days.

Weekend Update

Not too much new going on actually. I had my first day on the "new job" Friday. The previous Powerschool worker had her last day on Thursday. Friday was the end of the quarter, but she had almost everything set up before she left. I did have to add one new teacher to the roster and add his courses. We'll see how it works next week. I've also got to keep the school's website updated and I've alread found a broken link. We'll see if I can fix it tomorrow.

Saturday we went to Miles City to look at sofas. The one in our living room is looking a little shabby. Still comfortable and functional, but shabby. It's a handmedown from mom and dad and I had put a slipcover on it. Now the slip cover is getting ripped, so maybe sometime in the next year or so, we could update. Not in any hurry, mind you, just looking. I did find a chair that fit me perfectly though. It's hard to find one that fits my stubby legs and lets me reach the back of the chair and my feet reach the floor at the same time. I spent most of high school either slumped down in my chair so my feet would reach the floor or sitting up straight and letting my feet dangle. Maybe that's why I miss the elementary school so much. I always sat in one of the kids' chairs for story time. A chair that fits is truly rare. Now to search for a bowl of porridge that is neither too hot nor too cold and a bed that is neither too hard nor too soft.

PowerSchool Geek

Well, it's been an interesting week. I talked to a friend in the tech department on Monday and she told me that she'd resigned her position to take a job that had better benefits and was closer to home. I've worked with her over the past 8 years and she's taught me a lot about using our school's grade book/attendance program, PowerSchool. I've also learned a lot about how our computer network runs since I have a dozen computers in the library.

Anyway, a little later in the day, the head of the tech dept. is in the building and I say, "I hear that you are losing your sidekick." "Yeah," he says. "I'd think I'd like her job, " I say. Before the end of the day, he and his sidekick decide that I'm going to take over. She does a lot of other things, but her main job is setting up the grade book/attendance for each year and trouble shooting through out the year. I figured if I could do that from my computer in the library, I could at least do that part of her job. After all, she's got the whole year already set up. I'd be able to do some on the job training before I'd have to do anything next year. And she's just an email away if I start to get in over my head.

So to make a long story short (I can give you the long version in person if you really want to hear it) I started training to use the PowerSchool program on Friday and will continue to train until she leaves on Oct. 26.

Wish me luck. It is a beast of a program and if I make mistakes, it affects the whole district!

Is this a GOOD thing?

255 WATTS Body Battery Calculator - Find Out How Much Electricity Your Body is Producing - Dating

JustSayHi - A Free Dating Website

Some Blogger

I must have exaggerated on my addiction to blogging quiz because it's been at least a week since my last blog. I do read them a lot though. Anyway, I had a beautiful weekend. It was a perfect autumn day.... if you like drizzly rain. We drove to Billings and met our son's girlfriend and her mother for a couple of pizzas before the big football game. His girlfriend and her mother went to the game (they lost :( , we went up to my dad's house and visited him and my youngest brother for a little while until the game was over. Family and friends, like I said a beautiful weekend.

Ouch!

65%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

Fog

I had taken my camera to school one morning so that I could take pictures of the fall colors on my way. That morning there was heavy fog on the "flats." I stopped and took this picture. Then I edited it in Adobe Photo Shop which I had purchased to use for the photography class I signed up for. I never have liked the software that came with the camera so I'd been using Paint Shop Pro7 but it wasn't letting me download pictures from my camera, a Kodak EZ Share. I bought the new software and I like it so far.

The irony is that I dropped the photography class. I didn't have any time this week to take pictures and I realized that I really wasn't looking forward to taking any regardless of class assignments. Then I thought about it some more and I realized that I have an EZ camera for a

reason. I like setting the auto feature and just pushing the button and getting a picture out of it.

Only Slightly Dorky???

I'm willing to be that there is at least one person out there who can out NERD me !

Computers #@!%^*# - Part II

I just finished the worst afternoon I've had for years. All thanks to computers. Mind you I wouldn' t go back to cataloging and checking out books on 3x5 inch cards, but it was bad enough to make me wish I had the day off. Either that or I could cuss out loud without being over heard by me students. It's much better now. I fixed it before I left so I could enjoy the weekend without worrying about it.

It is a beautiful autumn day. Clear blue skies and trees showing traces of yellow in the leaves. I'm going to have to close the window before too long, the breeze is just a tad chilly.

Me TOO!

You Scored an A

You got 10/10 questions correct. It's pretty obvious that you don't make basic grammatical errors. If anything, you're annoyed when people make simple mistakes on their blogs. As far as people with bad grammar go, you know they're only human. And it's humanity and its current condition that truly disturb you sometimes.

The It's Its There Their They're Quiz

Ready for Your Closeup?

I signed up for Intro to Photography today. It's being offered by a local tribal college but being taught in Ashland. The course description says we will be using digital cameras so I've already got my equipment. More than likely I'll be posting some of my successes to this blog, so be prepared!

We're Having a Heat Wave!

After a cool spell, we're back to 100 degree afternoons, tempered by 60 degree nights. I wasn't aware of the heat wave until I stepped out of my school Friday afternoon. My building is air conditioned and the library is generally cold enough to "hang meat." After hunting season starts I tell the maintence guy that if he gets his deer he can bring it into my library. This usually accompanies a request to adjust the thermostat, a request that usually results in either a laugh or a comment that "so and so's room is like a sauna and I shouldn't complain. " After this weekend I think I'll just bring a sweater.

The first week is over and I need to spend the holiday weekend planning lessons because, as they say in our business, "The honeymoon is over." Now we get to start the hard stuff. We ususally get a good number of students after Labor Day, but they won't get the honeymoon, just the hard stuff.

We are going to start a "rotating" schedule. Each week we will start the day with a different class period. Next week our first class will be the one labeled 2nd period and we will end with the one labeled 1st period. It should be interesting. I'm very insecure the first weeks of a new semester because I don't know the schedule very well. Now I will never know what's going on schedulewise without looking. It's either going to be fun or nervewracking. I'll let you know which in a few weeks.

Kelpie Core! Baltimore!

Wood type: apple Length: 13½ inches Core: Kelpie Hair get your own wand!

Back to School

We had our first day of school today and it was a great day. I have a good feeling that this year will be the year we finally get the school going in the right direction. I had been dreading the first day, but it turned out OK.

Blogger's Prayer?

I read this in a blog I regulary check out. He said it could (should) be the blogger's prayer. I agree. It's perfect. He said he found it at a blog that credited it to a 17th Century Nun. I guess people really haven't changed much.

Secular Franciscan Life. http://www.sfolife.net/

Lord, Thou knowest better than I know myself that I am growing older and will some day be old. Keep me from the fatal habit of thinking I must say something on every subject & on every occasion. Release me from craving to straighten out every-body’s affairs.

Make me thoughtful but not moody; helpful but not bossy. With my vast store of wisdom, it seems a pity not to use it all, but Thou knowest Lord that I want a few friends at the end. Keep my mind free from the recital of endless details; give me wings to get to the point.

Seal my lips on my aches & pains. They are increasing, and love of rehearsing them is becoming sweeter as the years go by. I dare not ask for grace enough to enjoy the tales of other’s pains, but help me to endure them with patience.

I dare not ask for improved memory, but for a growing humility & a lessening cocksureness when my memory seems to clash with the memories of others. Teach me the glorious lesson that occasionally I may be mistaken.

Keep me reasonably sweet; I do not want to be a Saint-some of them are so hard to live with-but a sour old person is one of the crowning works of the devil. Give me the ability to see good things in unexpected places, & talents in unexpected people. And, Give me, O Lord, the grace to tell them so.
Amen

First Day?

Yesterday felt like the first day of autumn. I know we're technically a month away from the "real" first day, but at the end of the day I found myself thinking, "This is what autumn feels like."

After clearing out his closet of clothes that no longer fit, my husband found that he needed a few items for "back to school clothes" and since our freezer was finally empty from all the food that sheltered in ice chests during the "great broken fridge" episode this summer, we took off for Miles City to do some selective shopping, the last payday having been in May and the next payday a week off. On our way to town we passed great sections of blackened grasslands that recent fires had left. The western part of our state is still burning, but here the fires have died down. I fear it may be the first day of winter before all the state's fires are gone.

We found all the necessities and in addition to what we needed, we found a new pencil box, a new lunch box and a "stapleless stapler," back to school shopping at its best. After filling up with gas, which BTW was $.32 less than in our town, and washing the car, we headed home. Since we'd been in air conditioned places all day, it was a bit of a shock to step out of the car at home and realize how hot it was. But by the time we got the car unpacked and everything put away, it was cooling down. The day ended with a slight thunderstorm accompanied by enough rain to wet everything down, but not enough to register. For the first time all summer, we fell asleep without the sound of the fan in the window and had to pull the blanket up over the sheet. The first sign of autumn's approach. Mind you, the second day of autumn may be in October, but I'm calling yesterday the first.

Where There's Smoke

Believe it or not that small dot over the trees is the sun coming up this morning. The smoke is so thick that you can't even see Cook Mountain between the trees in the topmost picture. Not complaining mind you, I'm not close enough to the fire to post pictures of flames. Many people in Montana aren't as lucky.

Let the Sunshine In

Who would think that such a little window would make such a big difference? It does.

Windows Are Your Eyes to the World

New Window
Old Window

In Loving Memory

Look Pa, no cavities. . .

just necrosis. .. Well, I had my yearly checkup at the dentist today (more than once a year is just pretentious, unless you have genetically rotten teeth, don't you think?) Anyway, he said things were just fine and asked me if I had any concerns. I told him about a dreadful toothache I had last winter. I mentioned that the same tooth had given me grief a few years ago and my former dentist hadn't found the cause so I didn't bother calling this dentist. He poked around and asked a few questions and said it might be "necrotic." Whatever, as long as it doesn't hurt more than every couple of years,I won't loose any sleep.


Before the dentist visit I had luch with some friends who live in the area. We keep in touch via email, but nothing can beat a lunch and a gab with your friends. I sure do value their friendship and miss the daily lunches we had together when we all worked together at the same school. That daily contact kept me grounded and sane. Thanks!

Google the Earth

We were planning on taking a trip up to Bozeman to visit our son some time this summer and this weekend turned out to be the time. He recently moved,however, and we needed to find his new address before we left home. It wouldn't be a problem he assured us, as he could find it easily on Google Earth, a free downloadable program which displays maps of the entire earth with a wealth of information, more than some of us actually want displayed; our house shows up quite clearly on the maps! Anyway, in preparation to go to Bozeman, I tried to find his address and failed miserably. I checked Google Maps, Google Earth, Microsoft Streets & Tips, Mapquest and even an old-fashioned fold up and stick in your glovebox map we picked up on our last trip to Bozeman. NO LUCK! My husband went into search mode and checked out realors on the Internet and finally found a lead on the location. Later, our son called and he and his dad both got on the Google Earth map and zeroed in on the location using longitude and latitude. After taking road construction projects into consideration, they mapped out a route and we got to his house with no problems at all. It turns out that he lives in a brand new subdivision that shows up on the Google map, but only as building foundations. None of the street names were in the database so we couldn't search the names, but our son could find it because he knew right where to look, now we do too.

Later, my husband was able to locate the ship he served on while in the Navy. It has been turned into a Museum at the Naval Museum in Buffalo, NY.

Google On!

Sorted - Hufflepuff

Loyal. Dependable. True. Just.
What an honor to be sorted into Hufflepuff! The house based on values and virtues over simply deeds. Not that the Hufflepuffs don't do anything worthwhile, it's just that here importance is based more on who you are, not what you do. Hufflepuff is all about acceptance. Since when is that a bad thing?

Could Be Worse.

In case that's too blurry for you, it was 91.2 degrees in the house and 113.7 degrees outside today. But it really could be worse. Last time we were in Billings we got lucky and picked up one of the few remaining air conditioners in town. It's just a small one, but we put it in the bedroom's east window and when the temp inside gets close to 90, we turn it on, grab our books and camp out in there until it cools down some. The cat finds it comfortable too.