Did someone ask about our weekend?

So last week was a lazy week. It is vacation after all. I played my video game, A Bard's Tale; read my book, The Yiddish Policeman's Union; exercised, not enough; did a few spring cleaning chores, weeded my bookcase; and took a few naps that I really needed since our cat is on sidereal time, he wakes us up at sunrise no matter the season.

On Sunday night I got ready to make some sugar free Jello for desert. We're both trying to lose weight this summer by changing what, how and when we eat. Jello isn't ice cream, but we can pretend it's desert. Anyway, to get to the point, I was getting some ice out of the freezer to speed up the jelling process and I noticed that the ice was melting! Then I noticed that all the meat in the freezer was thawed out! I turned up the thermostat for the freezer, made sure the door was closed all the way and hoped for the best. The food was still cold, but not frozen, and the food in the fridge side didn't seem as cold as usual. We dusted under fridge and hoped, not really, the we would wake up to frozen food in the freezer.

We have a dentist appointment in Billings tomorrow that can't be rescheduled, so today we drove to Miles City and bought a new refrigerator/freezer. We've gotten appliances there before and know that they deliver and it's cheaper than delivery charges from Billings. I'd read that replacing a fridge made before 1990 is a real energy saver, so we're not as upset by that as we are by the timing. The salesman said, " You're in luck. We can deliver it tomorrow."

Since we won't be home tomorrow, dentist appointment, it will be at least a week before it will be delivered, and next week is the week of July 4th, so who knows?

Right now, we've got the meat in coolers and packed with plenty of ice. The fridge is still cool, not cold, just cool so we'll keep an eye and a nose out to be careful of spoilage. The meat is packed in the coolers with plenty of ice.

Could be worse.

That was our weekend; aren't you glad you asked?

What Punctuation Mark I Am

I am a SEMICOLON

You scored 15% Sociability and 76% Sophistication!
Congratulations! You are the semicolon! You are the highest expression of punctuation; no one has more of a right to be proud. In the hands of a master, you will purr, sneering at commas, dismissing periods as beneath your contempt. You separate and connect at the same time, and no one does it better. The novice will find you difficult to come to terms with, but you need no one. You are secure in your elegance, knowing that you, and only you, have the power to mark the skill or incompetence of the craftsman. You have no natural enemies; all fear you. And never, NEVER let anyone tell you that you cannot appear in dialogue!

It's called Yucca

Kitchen Fini !

Last summer I finished painting the kitchen and yesterday I finished painting the hallway where the washer/dryer are, so now it's FINI !

Happy Father's Day

Oyate

I just returned from a trip to Billings to visit family and attend a conference hosted by our Montana Office of Public Instruction and OYATE. The Office of Public Instruction has finally received funding to implement the Constitutional mandate to educate every student in Montana about the history and culture of its first residents, the Native Americans. Hopefully we can educate a generation of children away from the prejudice and ignorance that many residents have about Native Americans.

The conference I attended was for school librarians and was directed towards criteria for selecting quality children's literature that will accurately portray the past and present lives of Native Americans. In the process, we learned of many things we ourselves were ignorant of and at times it was intense as our favorite books were exposed as frauds and the actions of our country against the Native Nations was exposed. As an example, use Google to find out about the Osage Reign of Terror.

http://www.aspalta.cbc.ca/deaddog_asp/aininfo.asp One of the things we were cautioned against was any use of make believe Indian names or Indians getting names in phony ways. This website is so blatantly random and goofy that everyone was laughing and having more fun with each name. I think the winner of bad "Indian Names" was Evangeline Exotic Biscuit. Mine's Eileen Crinkly Aracnid.

You can link to the title of this post to see their website if you're interested in more info. If you look on the left hand side, click on RESOURCES and read about the Myth of Thanksgiving.

After the Rain

Soggy Drought

The forecast called for rain yesterday so Bill went out early and mowed the yard. It hasn't mowed for several weeks now but it has been too wet out to mow until yesterday. So about an hour or so after he finished it started raining. If he hadn't mowed yesterday it would be another couple of weeks before he could because it rain 3 inches in less than 12 hours. A few weeks ago, when it was warm and dry, we took the storm door off leaving just the

screen. That way when we leave the door open we get a beautiful breeze and lots of fresh air. But because the storm door is not there, the rain beats against closed door and leaks under the door puddles and soaks the carpet. So I stick heavey towels under the door to prevent flooding the entire hallway. I've had to replace the towels and dry them out to reuse.

The sun is starting to come out now, but the forecast is for more rain. We may be in a drought, but it is the muddiest, soggiest, puddliest drought I can remember. This field below our house is flooded this morning, after the rain stopped. The two pictures were taken less than 2 hours apart and it still hasn't started raining again. This is just water that is flowing down from the surrounding hills.


PS I've looked over my previous posts and realize how many times I've posted about weather. I need to get a good hobby.

High School Graduates

When I got Larry's graduation picture, I remembered a project I had planned. I was going to try the "Scrapblog" program I had seen a few months ago and create a scrapbook of all the graduation pictures I've recieved from nephews and nieces. After several frustrating hours I gave up and went back to Picassa. So here they all are, with plenty of room for future graduates.

I realize that it doesn't seem like a big deal that we have all graduated from high school, but I work in a school where it is a big deal. Some of the graduates are first generation graduates and some have taken a lot of trouble to make it to graduation when it would have been easier to just quit, so I know that it is a big deal. Parents who get you to school and encourage you are the most important thing of all, so thanks to all you parents, including mine, for "making" us go to school.

SCHOOL'S OUT!

. . . but not forever.

I checked out and picked up my final check for the year. Our union is still in negotiations for next year's contract and I hope they settle soon. There's no reason not to settle soon, no big issues or anything.

Addictionary

In case you haven't seen this website yet I thought I'd post the link here. It's called the Addictionary, for people who are addicted to words. Here's a couple of examples. Just click on the title of this post to find more of the same.

Carcophony
the din of arguing or playing children in the back of the car
Flapjackulous
Of or related to the sensual deliciosity of the pancake eating experience

bAnAnAs Anyone?

So a few of us staff members were sitting around the teachers'
"lounge" this afternoon. I had a rare break from my library since the library was full of juniors having a "skip day." They were in there playing video games or watching movies. I called it the official skip day, sanctioned and in the library, since most days they just hang out in the hall when skipping class. "It's a tradition," they told me when they asked if they could use the library. I was wary about it since I didn't want to clean up after them, but I thought I'd better give them a chance so I could refuse next year's juniors when this year's left a mess. But they surprised me. When they left, it looked exactly like it had when I walked in the door this morning, so I guess it's a go for next year too.

Anyway, we were sitting around yakking about what went wrong this year and who was coming back next year and the little 7th grade girl who sneaked into the office of the suspended jr. high principal and used a phone to call her mother in South Dakota to come and get her and "take her home because she hated it here with her dad and step sisters, and the principal who was suspended and the new superintendent who was already demanding more in benefits than the CEO of Microsoft; when the cook walked into the lounge and left a small bunch of bananas on the table and said, "Help yourselves." A little while later the counselor walked into the room and asked, " Whose bananas?" I couldn't help myself, it's been a long, rough year. So I said, " Who's NOT?"

We all chuckled and went back to work.

Lame Deer/Ashland Divide

If you live in Ashland you call it the Lame Deer Divide. If you live in Lame Deer you call it the Ashland Divide, but where ever you live, there was snow this morning, May 23, 2007, the latest I've ever personally seen snow without being in the mountains.

Do I Hear $4.00 ?

This is what we're paying for gas on May 23, 2007. I'm betting the price will go up this weekend as it always goes up on Memorial Day. Anyway I'd thought I'd post it so you all could say, "At least we don't have to pay what she pays." Consider it a public service. If anyone is paying more, let me know so I can say, "At least I don't have to pay THAT much!" . . . yet.

Graduation Time

Well we've got one graduation down and one to go when the 8th graders graduate next week. 8th grade graduation used to be quite a big event in Lame Deer before a public high school was built. It was the last time the kids would be in a Lame Deer school since they would have to be bussed to a nearby high school. Now that they have their own high school, the 8th grade graduation has been scaled back a bit, but I think it serves a useful purpose to mark the end of childhood and the beginning of "young" adulthood.

The high school ceremony had just started when the thunderstorm that had been building outside finally broke loose. We were in the gym, which was quite full, when all the lights went out. The emergency lights went on immediatly and we watched the seniors get their scholarships in the soft glow of what could have been candle light. The main lights came on again eventully and the rest of the ceremony went off just fine, except for the valedictorian's speech. The valedictorian was the shyest girl in the school. We were all waiting to see if she would be able to give her speech, actually we were wondering if she would be able to make it to the stage to recieve her diploma. She did get her diploma, but the crowd just overwhelmed her and they just skipped over her speech. Really, she is so shy that it was painful to watch her answer the roll call when attendance was taken. She was a library assistant 1st semester and it would have taken me another couple of months to reorganize the library without her.

The ceremony began and ended with a short prayer in Cheyenne, offered to the creator. I think I've mentioned it before, but it bears repeating. Cheyenne prayers are so quiet that only the Creator can hear them. They are not the loud prayers spoken so loudly that the person in last row can hear. As long as the Creator can hear them, what does it matter who else does? And they are offered in Cheyenne, a language that few Cheyenne speak anymore, but what does that matter if the Creator can speak Cheyenne?

New Blog

Well we finally got our Internet back just in time for me to get an email from Andrew and the address for his new blog. I've added the link to my family blog list. He's in the same blogsphere as Russ, so if you signed up to read Russ's blog you can just use the same signin for Andrew's.

Internet Upset

Our internet connection has been very unreliable lately. I'm trying to read all the emails, blogs, etc, but if I don't respond right away, it's not you . . . really. Just the Internet Upset.

Happy Mother's Day

According to the back of the photo, this was taken in 1964, back when the world was analog B&W.

Win/Lose?

Well, my opponent got 4 more votes than I did ! So I don't have to sit on the school board this year. Maybe next time!

Montana Monsoon?

It's been a gray, dreary weekend. It started raining yesterday around noon and today, around noon, it's finally stopped. The wind is gusting now and will help dry things out, so hopefully, going to work tomorrow won't be like jet-skiing down the road. The yard is looking as green as I've ever seen it and I'm not sure, but I think I saw some moss growing in some spots. I guess a dreary weekend is the price we pay for a green spring.

This has been one of the longest school years I can remember. I was thinking about last fall when I was reorganizing the library and it seems like it happened a decade ago instead of a year ago. All the crisises at work, big and little have just sort of blurred together and we just get through one day at a time. We do have a new superintendent and probably 2 new principals next year and I know that it will make a difference; I just hope it is for the better, because if it's not better, I may be looking for a new job next spring.

Rereading this makes me think the dreary weather is getting me more morose than I thought, so I checked the weather forecast for tomorrow: Sunny. Now would be the time for everyone to break out into a rousing chourus of "Tomorrow." I know that you all know the words, don't be shy. "The sun'll come out tomorrow...."