Month: October 2006

trinalin, party animal extraordinaire

Usually my most social time of the year is December, near the holidays. But things transpired that this weekend was also a big social weekend for me. Two nights in a row going to parties and tonight having Dinner & a Movie with my folks.

Friday night, our teacher’s association had a party to celebrate our first quarter. We were encouraged to bring games for play, so of course I brought Dutch Blitz. However, once folks got there, everyone just got into conversation groups and talked & ate the evening away. I was shocked when I finally looked at my watch to find it was nearly 11pm. It was quite nice, just chatting with folks I don’t get to see much during the school week. And yes, when teachers gather, they do talk about teaching. I noticed that we rarely discuss kids in particular, but we do talk about general trends that we notice. (For example, far too many parents these days are too busy being “best friends” with their kids rather than being parents. That makes working with some students difficult.) Thankfully, there are many other conversation topics that pop up too. So I didn’t get to teach anyone to play Dutch Blitz, but I still had a great time decompressing after the first quarter.

Saturday night was another teacher-filled night. Each year the Fisher’s have a Steak Grill party, and it happened to be the same weekend as our association party. The folks and I headed off to Gary & Marcia’s for good eats. Mom and I sat with Tammy, the art teacher, and my retired 2nd grade teacher, Jo. We had a lovely supper (great steaks – HUGE! Plus French Onion soup, salad, loads of wonderful bread, and baked potatoes). Mom brought a pumpkin cobbler, which was very popular (and tasty too). She’d had it before, but it was her first time making it. Dad was sitting with Gary and the Hoyings (my former government teacher who’s now at another school, and his wife) and having a lovely evening. It was nice seeing folks I don’t normally get to (like my former principal, Steve, the aforementioned Jo, and the Hoyings).

After two nights of being entertained at other people’s houses, I did my own entertaining here. When my folks and I shopped at Trader Joe’s two weeks ago, I bought some pesto, frozen artichoke hearts, and mozarella. I promised mom that I would make them pizza sometime and today was the day. I had purchased some Boboli crusts (one whole wheat, one regular) and Roma tomatoes last weekend. So I spread the pesto on the crusts, sliced the tomatoes thin and spread over the pesto, then sliced the artichoke hearts thinner and put them on top. Sliced mozzarella and shredded Asiago cheese went on top. When I opened the pesto, I knew we were in for a treat – it smelled just like fresh basil. Once again, Trader Joe’s wins the Internets!

When I have the folks over, I usually share one of my many DVD purchases with them. Tonight we watched Over the Hedge (which I hadn’t seen, but bought the day it came out). The folks brought salad around and I had several types of 100 calorie packs of snacks to choose from. The first pizza was done as soon as they arrived – yay me! We watched the movie and ate supper and were pleased with both. Best of all, I’ve got leftover pizza for two more meals. 🙂 Lucy let mom hold her when she came in, so she wins the Internets too! They were really interested in us when we first started eating, but then lost interest and fell asleep in various places.

So I survived a people-filled weekend. And I’ve got another one next weekend when the parental units and I head for a Jesus Seminar on the Road in Fort Wayne, IN. Hope it’s as fun as this weekend was!

Ducman to the Rescue!

I’ve lived in my house since Feb 1998. In all that time, I never actually had my ducts cleaned. I have central air (heating & air conditioning using same system), so I’ve got ducts. And they were filthy. Who you gonna call? Ducman!

I must admit, when I saw Ducman in my phone book (BBB registered) I couldn’t resist. The price he quoted me was reasonable (well, as far as I know – $325 was certainly what I’d be willing to pay someone to clean my ducts). So I hired ’em. They came today and did a thorough job, cleaning all my ducts and vents. The kitties were nervous, but towards the end, they no longer hid in the bedroom and just hung out with me in the den.

One of the fellows on the job said it looked like they’d never been cleaned. Heh – so it wasn’t just me who was lax on duct cleaning. Still, it’ll be nice to not smell dirty ducts whenever my heater comes on. 🙂

Music

From time to time, I see friends on my flist recommend songs and/or groups that are currently their most played. Normally, I just play whatever and don’t have any that are sticking or that are especially “true” to me at the time. But lately, I’ve been on a real kick for Kirsty MacColl and Neil Innes.

Neil Innes (whom you may know through his association with the Monty Python troupe – he’s Robin’s chief musician in Holy Grail, for instance) has been my favorite musician since forever. (Well, since I was a teenager at least.) Back when Amy and I used to go to record collectors conventions, she was buying up all the Heart that an 11/12 year old could afford and I was buying up all the Bonzo Dog Band and other Neil Innes related stuff that a 15/16 year old could afford. Needless to say, we both ended up with a lot of swag. 🙂

It was recent purchases of the Re-cycled Vinyl Blues and Sleeper (by GRIMMS) CDs which has re-awakened my love for all things Innes. My favorite solo album of Neil’s is How Sweet to be an Idiot, which is contained in the Re-cycled Vinyl Blues CD (in addition to some other tunes). And Sleeper, as I mentioned in an earlier post, had been my own holy grail since I was a teen. I was so pleased to discover it was a wonderful album. Some key GRIMMS songs for replay include “Backbreaker” and “Where Am I Now?”

Kirsty MacColl was introduced to me by a friend in England. He’d sent me the song “Here Comes that Man Again” which is about Internet chatting of the adult nature. Quite funny song. So I ordered her CDs and enjoy her music a lot. Kirsty’s songs are usually about a woman being wronged by some bastard – and always with a bit of humor and probably a Latin beat. My current favorite song of hers is “England 2 Columbia Nil.” I usually play it twice in a row when I hear it. Heh.

Another tune which I’ve been fixated on lately include “Just Desserts” by Chumbawamba. It’s about a group of protesters who use cream pies in their protests (slapstick anarchists, as the song says). Actually, there’s still a number of songs from Chumabawamba that I fixate on. Tis why I enjoy them so much. 🙂

To Market to Market to buy a Fat Pig…

Yesterday, due to WOEA Day (a union day off – we get that rather than Columbus day), we had the day off. So, the parental units and I headed doon south to the 2nd Street Market in Dayton for a look around. Mom & dad had heard of the place – in fact, a friend of ours works there. Sure enough, when we arrived, he was there selling his spices, bulk foods, and cheeses (the Spice Rack). We asked him for advice on which place to go for lunch, but he recommended them all. 🙂 He did advise going to check out the bread lady nearby, so we sampled here wares and I bought a loaf of Tuscan crusty bread. (Having some toast from that right now – yummy!)

We wound up all ordering from the Diva’s Gourmet. I got a Fresh Mozarella Sandwich which was very tasty. We looked around the market and then returned to the Spice Rack where I bought several types of rice and some vanilla beans. It’s a very nice indoor market and I hope we’ll be able to visit again. (They’re open the week between Christmas & New Years, so we might take Amy & Rachel there when they’re visiting.)

Our next destination was even further south – Trader Joe’s. I really enjoy shopping at Trader Joe’s and wish it were closer. I got quite a few things from there, including more bread and more rice (hmmm, Carbohydrate Girl, I guess). I got several cheeses (I’ve tried the cheddar already and it’s good) and some sushi (had the shrimp sushi this evening). Fun store and not as expensive as you’d think.

We’d brought a cooler with ice for the perishables during the long journey home, so we figured we could shop in Books & Co. while we were there. As soon as I entered, I saw the display for The End, the last book in A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. At 30% off, I had to get it. Yay, only 7 books to go til I hit the 1200 mark in my inventory! 🙂

After we finished in the bookstore, we headed home where I vegged by playing my addiction (aka City of Heroes). Supper was cheddar cheese, toast (from Tuscan crusty bread) – some with margarine, some with marg & preserves (peach & hot pepper). Good eats. 🙂

Today, I traveled south on my own. It had been a month since I last ventured for Indian Fud and Doctor Who Magazine. So I went to the Bookery (DWM, Dreamwatch, Astonishing X-Men, and vol 4 of The Devil’s Panties were waiting in my folder). Then to Jeet India for Indian Fud. Yummy food – including a paneer dish – I love paneer! (Paneer is Indian cheese.)

I shopped some after lunch, but only found something to buy in Waldenbooks. They had some paperbacks in a buy 2 get a 3rd free sale. They had Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman, which I was interested in getting. So of course, I looked at the other choices in the selection. I also got Thank You for Smoking by Christopher Buckley and An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore. Anansi wound up being the freebie. 🙂 So now I’m just 4 books away from 1200 in my collection! 🙂

Well, hopefully I’ll spend some time reading tomorrow rather than just playing City of Heroes. 🙂

Fall Fair ’06

Last year, I wrote a pretty good description of Fall Fair and the Farm Olympics, so if anyone isn’t sure what I’m talking about, go ahead and read last year’s post.

I decided to watch the band perform this year, so I headed out earlier than I did last year. I like the band show. I know some of the students were complaining because the music was written for them, rather than being a compilation of popular tunes. The trouble with popular tunes is the cost for licensing. I think the music was quite good and the band did a very nice job. They do Senior Night for marching band during Fall Fair as well, so I got to see my seniors and their parents get honored.

I visited all of the stalls and bought a few things from the clubs selling. I got some apples with caramel sauce (yum) and later a piece of cherry pie (also yum). Since we’d had our county tech meeting today, I was still full from lunch (El Sombrero) so I didn’t get the pork dinner that they serve.

When it was nearly time for the Farm Olympics (aka Class Challenge), I was asked to be a judge (to make sure the student judge didn’t cheat – each team had a student judge from their class, but also one staff member as a judge). So I got to judge the Freshmen. They had some new events this evening. My favorite was Musical Chairs. 32 high schoolers trying to sit in 31 chairs is a funny sight. And it only got better after that. Especially cuz the person running the music was slightly sadistic. I think they only broke 2 folding chairs during the event. Not too bad. 🙂

The juniors, who were the reigning champions, and the seniors were extremely competitive in tonight’s competition. I was pleased to see the Freshman not always come last. Indeed, during the bit where they had to make baskets (basketball), they came in first. The final score had the Sophomores last (by only 1 point), then Freshmen third, Juniors second, and Seniors first. I was tired from laughing so much.

My goal is to have a nice relaxing fall weekend. The weather is going to cooperate nicely with that plan. 🙂

2 Word Meme

Decided to be sheepish (baaaaa) and do the meme which I saw on rach74‘s, hergrace‘s, 1_big_grizz‘s and other’s blogs.

Answer each question with only 2 words.

1. When was the last time you shaved?
The weekend

2. Explain what ended your last relationship.
Last relationship?

3. What were you doing this morning at 8 a.m.?
Teaching chemistry

4. What were you doing 15 minutes ago?
Watching X3

5. Are you any good at math?
Hell yeah

6. Your prom night?
So what?

7. Do you have any famous ancestors?
Not one

8. Have you had to take a loan out for school?
Scholarships, me

9. Do you know the words to the song on your MySpace profile?
No MySpace

10. Last thing received in the mail?
Junk mail

11. How many different beverages have you had today?
Milk, water

12. Do you ever leave messages on people’s answering machine?
Ugh, yeah

13. Who did you lose your CONCERT virginity to?
Um, Heart

14. Do you draw your name in the sand when you go to the beach?
Not really

15. What’s the most painful dental procedure you’ve had?
No pain

16. What is out your back door?
My backyard

17. Any plans for Friday night?
Fall Fair

18. Do you like what the ocean does to your hair?
No ocean

19. Have you ever received one of those big tins of 3 different popcorns?
Alas yes.

20. Have you ever been to a planetarium?
Hell yeah

21. Do you re-use towels after you shower?
Most usually

22. Some things you are excited about?
Kitties, family

23. What is your favorite flavor of JELLO?
Peach Jell-O

24. Describe your keychain(s)?
Just keys

25. Where do you keep your change?
Wallet pouch

26. When was the last time you spoke in front of a large group of people?
Almost daily

27. What kind of winter coat do you own?
Land’s End

28. What was the weather like on your graduation day?
Don’t remember

29. Do you sleep with the door to your room open or closed?
Always open

Boy, it’s warm tonight! Autumn’s allowed to come back.

Oktoberfest

Happy October, everyone!

Yesterday, dad and I received permission from mom (who had to work) to go have fun at Oktoberfest in Minster. Minster is near mom & dad’s cottage at the Lake, so we first headed there to drop off my old TV for use in the cottage. It was practically lunchtime then, so we headed to Minster for good eats.

The weather had claimed 80% chance of showers that day, but it only spat on us a little as we walked towards the park where the festival was held. We both knew what we wanted – brats with kraut. Yum! I added some onion & spicy mustard to mine. I had a Pepsi for drink and shared some spiral-cut fried potatoes with dad. We sat across from two ladies who had to youngin’s with ’em. I imagined they were a lesbian couple. And you know, they could have been. (OK, so probably less likely in Minster than in some other places.)

We wandered around the craft booths there, but neither of us found anything that we wanted. The lady who always has nice sweatshirts didn’t have any my size this time. (Her selection was down from previous years – maybe she’d had a productive sale at another festival.) The beer stein guy was there again. I looked (as always) but still didn’t buy any. They sure are pretty!

As we continued walking around the festival site, we passed through the gambling tent. That’s just so foreign to me. There was, at the dice rolling table, a bunch of high school aged boys with handfuls of dollar bills in their hands cheering and shouting as the game progressed. Just not something you see much in my home county.

For dessert, I got a funnel cake with powered sugar on it and dad went with the apple strudel and a coffee. Both desserts were yummy! And just before we left the site, I bought my Oktoberfest mug. I’ve got quite a collection now from the other times I’ve gone to the festival. And I don’t think they’ve changed the price in ages. Still $8 for a mug.

Oh, turns out it was good that I brought our note from mom telling us to have a good time. At one booth was the lady who works at our post office. She wondered where mom was and dad told her working. “Are you allowed to be here?” she asked, jokingly. So I showed her the note and she just laughed. Yup, we had permission! 🙂