So Much For THAT!

I am an unfit pet owner. Yes, Winger is no longer with us. Me. Any way, he literally went belly up or more accurately, belly sideways. I'm not sure what I want to do as a memorial and I know flushing him is bad. I need to buy some baggies. The funny thing is that I'm more worried that the two kids who helped me get him will think I'm a bad person than I am that I don't have a fish any more. I think that makes me an unfit fish owner. My only consolation is that fish are fragile pets.

So, for now, I shall live alone. I'm okay with that.

Movie of the Day: Finding Nemo. "Fish are friends, not food." I love that line.

Tiny

I just cleaned my back hallway of snow residue (i.e. mud). It's not even 6 AM yet! Yes, this is a little weird for me, but not completely unimaginable. You see, I'm a details person and when I'm busy, I notice things that need doing and move on without doing them. When things calm down a bit, I run around like a loonie trying to put things "in order." That's what last night (and apparently this morning) are all about.

Movie of the Day: A Bug's Life. They lived small.

Colors Off the Top of My Head

Orange Green Red Blue Purple Black Gray White Pink Maroon Periwinkle Yellow Mauve Aqua Peach Salmon Navy Blue Teal Gold Silver Hot Pink Lime Green Tan Brown Beige Khaki Olive

Movie of the Day: Primary Colors (which I never saw).

Weird

So, when I go in to blog, it doesn't allow me to use different fonts/bold/links/ or pictures any more. Has this happened to anyone else? Am I being forced to switch to the new version? The format has added a "Allow New Comments" section and a "Change Time & Date" part. This is weird.

Movie of the Day: Back To the Future. (I want my old format back!)

I Think Too Much

Sometimes I make a list of Things I Worry About (TIWA). Usually I can fill up a whole page. What kinds of things make the list, you might ask? Well, I don't usually focus on world tragedy too much (that could fill up a whole book). Usually it has to do with family, church, school. How am I going to get such and such done or who is ill or whatever.

For the most part, making a list helps to keep those worries from bouncing around in my head over and over again. I keep the lists and look back at them sometimes. It always makes me think of the Christmas song about "Next year all our troubles will be miles away" (replaced with new ones, perhaps, but this year's crop might be gone).

Movie of the Day: Catch & Release. Saw it last night. Very, very good. Excellent acting. Laughing. Crying. People you would want to be friends with.

Foreign Language

So, I was teaching today and was headed towards a "Math is Like a Language" lesson when I asked my new students (15 of them) if they knew any foreign languages. They started telling me words that they knew. One said that she knew her native language but wasn't willing to teach us any words.

We filled up two big columns on the board and the aforementioned young lady offered a word in her native tongue. I was so proud of her! So, even though I didn't get much math language taught, I think I was able to get and keep their attention and form some connections.

Which languages were represented:

Dutch
Ojibwa
Spanish
French
Japanese
German
Indonesian

Cool, huh?

Movie of the Day: Cool Runnings. Jamaica, mon!

Groceries

Do you ever get so low on food that you're scrounging for something to pack in your lunch? Then, you force yourself to buy groceries and the next day you can't decide what to take because you have too many options? My lunch is HUGE today. I have a sandwich, baby carrots, grape tomatoes, an apple, and some crunchy wheat cracker thingies. I'm psyched!

Movie of the Day: Ice Age 2: The Meltdown. Food, Glorious, Food!!!

Bad Day

Okay, so today sucked. Big time. Anyone have some serious career ideas for me? I have a math degree and a Masters' in Education-Instruction.

Ugh.

Roses

Valentine's Day is coming up and roses are on people's minds. Aside from the fact that their prices are jacked up for the holiday, roses are also part of a fair trade concern. Many of them are coming from South and Central America and were processed by exploited workers. They receive low pay and are exposed to dangerous chemicals that are used to fumigate the flowers.

I love flowers, so I'm totally bummed about this. Now, I need to find locally-grown flowers to buy myself and recommend to friends. Anyone know of a place?

Movie of the Day: Maria Full of Grace. She quit her rose factory job to transport drugs and make some real money. Sad.

Big Rings

So, my friend Mary and I went to the mall Friday night to wander and we ended up looking at cheap jewelry at Penneys. They had a buy one get one half off deal so we each found a ring. Mary's was a tasteful layered ring with small cubic zirconium stones. Mine is a large square cz with little ones framing it. It's distracted friends all day. Tee hee.

Movie of the Day: Lord of the Rings. Ha.

Day of Freshmen

Oh, dear reader, if you are of any religious inclination whatsoever, please send a little thought up or out or in or whatever for me today. I have 9th graders taking (or not taking) finals. That's it. No calm classes. Just Squirmy Ones. Two bright spots: I have a first block prep hour and we're ordering out lunch. I guess the shear fact that it's Friday could make it three bright spots.

Oy. Wish me luck.

Movie of the Day: Mission to Mars. Their mission might have been easier than mine today. Ha ha. Just kidding. I don't need billion-dollar equipment.

Travel Advice

Do any of you have overseas travel advice? Or suggestions of where to go in Paris and London?

Movie of the Day: What a Girl Wants. She took off to London.

Babble

So, I'm sitting here thinking that I should blog tonight so I don't have to rush tomorrow morning after walking two miles on my treadmill. I try to think of a topic while walking, but I end up rushed when I sit down to write.

The trouble is I just can't think of anything thrilling to write about tonight. I'm writing a final. I'm drinking diet Coke with grenadine. I'm listening to KT Tunstall, the Walk the Line soundtrack, and Fat Boy Slim on my stereo. I had some yummy organic bread for dinner. I discovered a stupid mistake at work which will cost me about $130. I dried my hair flipped upside-down and everyone thought I got a haircut or highlights. I dropped a 12-pack of pop in my garage yesterday and two cans split open. The puddle started freezing before I could wipe it all up. I had a piece of mail today that belongs to the son of the woman I bought my house from 5 years ago.

Yep. That's my day.

Movie of the Day: The Remains of the Day.

Finals

It's finals week in Duluth (for the public school kiddies, at least). I'm not physically ready to give the finals, but I'm ready for some closure on this psycho semester! I'll be happy to start fresh next week.

Movie of the Day: Final Fantasy. Interesting animation.

Fur Soup

Last night, right before we were kicked out of Beaners (for having too much (sober) fun), Sarah told us a funny tale (tail?) about her dog. Well, parts of her dog. You see, she's a regular Martha Stewart in the kitchen (just kidding). Any way, she said that one night she was really craving rice for dinner, but only had a little left. So, after putting the rice in the pan, she accidentally dropped it on the floor, spilling the precious rice. Well, you know how cravings are, so she decided to scoop up the rice and cook it any way (maybe the 10 second rule was in play). As she was about to put it back in the pan, she realized the rice had mixed in with Bjorn (her yellow lab)'s fur off the floor. Sarah figured the boiling process would make everything okay. (Quit gagging, dear reader). Any way, it turns out that dog hair rises to the top of boiling water. By this time in the story, the rest of the table is wide-eyed and grossed out. She then tells us that you can just take a paper towel and wipe off the hair that is sticking to the sides of the pan and eat your rice.


Ew.

Movie of the Day: The Truth About Cats and Dogs. The truth: be careful eating at Sarah's.

Leaning Tree of Becca

Here's what you missed if you weren't driving around Duluth this past December!

Movie of the Day: Lean On Me.

Resorting to Candy

I need to bribe some of my kids to do their work. In my eyes, it would take a big bribe because some of them know they have to repeat my class next semester and what they do now will not make a difference. However, I think Jolly Ranchers will actually work for some of them. So, I'm gonna give it a try.

Movie of the Day: Brokeback Mountain. They were jolly ranchers (at least for a while).

Fix It

Well, the higher ups at school have decided to pay for the math department to have a half-day of substitutes so we can fix our 9th grade failure rate. Since this is such a simple task, we should be able to add world peace, homelessness, Iraq, abuse, and cancer to the list. Expect results by 1 PM.

I'm gonna need some caffeine.

Movie of the Day: Great Expectations.

Mittens

We're now at the point in winter where the temperatures are starting to dip down to normal. El Nino is taking a nap or something. So, I've been grabbing my mittens and scarves and when really weak, a hat. I'm not a big hat person. My sister makes me cute hats that I wear on occasion and while shovelling (one of these days, knock on wood).

Movie of the Day: The Scarlet Letter. Nothing to do with mittens, but scarlet sounds like scarf to me.

Survey

A wee little survey for ya:

1) Favorite junk food:

2) Most interesting scar:

3) Favorite vacation activity (keep it clean):

Movie of the Day: Billy Madison.