Month: August 2007

The First Week of School

Well, the first week of school was a good one for me. Yay! We didn’t have kids until Wednesday, so Monday & Tuesday were teacher work days.

Monday was meeting filled, but it was great getting the chance to chat with my coworkers again. Several of us ladies went to Bob Evans for lunch in plenty of time to get back for the afternoon meetings, except that the food never came. With 15 minutes to go before we had to leave, we spurred the waitress on and had her switch things from “here” to “to go.” The manager was nice enough to discount our meals since we had to rush back and not eat them in. Bob Evans is usually pretty good about getting lunches out promptly, but we don’t know what happened that day. Our principal was nice enough to let us eat during the meeting, so I had my (now soggy) fish sandwich while I meetinged. (I swear, I teach for free. They pay me to go to meetings and grade papers.)

Tuesday was a day for us to work in our rooms. However, I found myself helping out in the tech job some still. (Poor G, my replacement, has had quite a learning curve on this job. He’s doing great and I think he’ll be a fine addition to the school, but he’s definitely overwhelmed at the start. Funny, I seem to remember always being overwhelmed at the start of the school year too.) Still, a bit after noon, mom popped in to say that she and dad were there to take me off to lunch. We were meeting up with her brothers (and their wives and my cousin) for lunch. Yay for Applebee’s!

The place was packed at lunch. And interestingly enough, the music department for Troy was there in a group. We knew some of the teachers and chatted with them while we waited for our seats. We finally got a seat and had a nice lunch chatting and catching up on family matters. I wasn’t concerned about getting back from lunch since I was going to stay later than required anyway. Which I did.

I stayed late and then returned early that evening. We’ve taken to doing Open House the day before school starts. When I was a kid, Open House was where you showcased what the kids were doing in school. Now it seems to be a Meet & Greet between parents and teachers. And for once, I had some parents meet & greet me! Yay! During the open house, I got more of my room ready and when the evening was done, I felt pretty confident about how things looked for the first day of school.

The first day went off without a hitch. Looks like, as usual, I’ve got a nice bunch of students. It was nice seeing the seniors again – I think they’ll make a nice physics group. And I might even get some of the chemistry students’ names learned before Christmas! Woohoo!

The second and third days of school, OTOH, had an interesting development. See, on the first day of school, it was hot & shitty out. And thus, in our 80+ year old building, was even hotter & shittier inside. We had a few minor heat issues, but it was decided to avoid them during the next two forecasted even hotter and shittier days by having a 2-hour early dismissal for all students and staff. That was a welcome relief, to be sure. I’m one of the lucky ones with air conditioning (thanks to my computer lab) but even my room was pretty warm by the end of the day. And the folks on the third floor? Sheesh!

I know that judiang thinks we’re wusses for having an early dismissal. I know we never had ’em when I was in school (same building). But I told her that it’s all the fault of the lawyers. They’re so big on suing everyone about anything that schools can’t have kids fainting due to heat anymore. And maybe we can also blame Al Gore for inventing Global Warming. 😉

Anyhoo, tomorrow is the start of the second week of school. And it’s going to be tolerable in temperature, it seems. So hopefully no more early dismissals. And maybe it’ll be cool enough in the chemistry lab for me to do some straightening up in there this week. Here’s hoping the second week of school is as nice as the first was!

Cornhole – the game

In Ohio (and probably other places), Cornhole is a popular game to play at family gatherings and other places. It’s sort of like a cross between a bean-bag toss and shuffleboard. And today, my folks and I went to my Uncle Doug & Aunt Charlene’s for Charlene’s birthday gathering where mom & I got to play Cornhole for the first time.

What we discovered is that neither of us are good Cornhole players. The young ladies we were playing against were 10+ points ahead of us when it was time to sing Happy Birthday to Charlene and thankfully the game was forgotten. It was kind of fun to play, but considering I’ve never seen a game set for sale for under $75, I don’t think I’ll be buying one any time soon.

In other news, I’m spending my final days of summer vacation here at the Lake with my parentals. I left work on Friday at lunchtime and picked up Subway on my way to the Lake. (I drove dad’s truck, not cuz my car is broke again, but because dad wanted his hip boots. Dad’s comment when I arrived was “Oh! It’s my favorite… truck!”) The weather here is brilliant and we’ve been having a very nice time. And mom and I have been playing gin rummy (and I keep winning, to her annoyance).

On Monday, it’s the teacher’s first day at work (though I’ve been working all through the summer). And Wednesday is the first day for students. So it’s nice to be here at the Lake and relaxing on my final summer days. 🙂

More car woes & Judi learns to shoot!

Yesterday was judiang‘s last day in the area, and she wanted to do something she’d never done before – shoot a gun. My dad, owner of several weapons (funny hobby for a pacifist, eh?) said he’d oblige her if we met him at his sportsman club (which we’ve had to become members of to join him for the day). We agreed at 11am to meet.

My plan was to stop at the gas station where you can join the Newport Sportsmen Club and have Judi and I become members. Then meet dad at the range. My car, alas, had other ideas.

When we were just north of Newport, I once again shifted into 5th only to find the gear shift kept on going. And once again, I couldn’t shift into any other gear. Joy joy, I was stuck in 4th gear and no easy way to contact dad. So while driving, I called Baker’s auto shop to let ’em know it broke again, then drove through Newport – the only stoplight being nice to be green when we went through – and on south to the hairpin turn onto the road where the gun club was.

Once I got to the drive, I once again did a quick turn (well, not fast, just trying not to slow down too much) and headed onto the parking lot. My panic brain was still functioning and it was doing a great job in navigating the car in 4th gear, but wasn’t thinking clearly re: tow trucks. When we passed the alcove where dad was parked, I decided I’d turn around at the parking lot & park by him. And after I’d turned around and got back on the drive, I realized how stupid that was from a tow-truck perspective.

So back down the drive and onto the road in the other direction this time. Thankfully, there was a field ahead with a pull-in spot, so I pulled in, turned around, and back on the road, all with very little slowing. (There was an incline during this where Judi and I were sending forth MANY positive vibes to my little car “I think I can! I think I can!”) Anyhoo, I got back to the driving range parking lot and parked in a spot that was very easily accessible by a tow truck.

That adventure paused, we walked down to the range where dad was setting up. We all signed in as members (the check is in the mail, seriously) and Judi was introduced to pistols and revolvers. Dad had three .22s (a 9-shooter and a 6-shooter, both revolvers, and an 8-shooter pistol – a cute little thing), two .357s, and a 45. He fired the biggies, we stuck to the wimpy 22s. 🙂

My favorite of the lot is the 9-shooter, for concept alone. I mean, if you were in a shoot out at the OK Coral, you’d want that 9-shooter there to throw the others off guard. 😉 But both Judi and I did much better aiming with the 6-shooter (longer barrel). When we fired the little pistol, dad moved us up to about 10 feet from the target. But with the others, we shot from 25 feet away.

You might be surprised to learn that Judi turns out to be a good shot! On her Take Home target (the one with bragging rights) she got 10 out of 12 on the target! (I only got 8 out of 12 on my Take Home Target, but I did get several close to the bullseye.) The targets? Old paper plates that dad colored a big black circle in the center of. No expense spared for us! 😉

Anyhoo, the shooting lesson concluded, we returned to Adventures with Automobiles. Dad drove me further south until I had a cell phone signal, where I proceeded to call AAA again. This time with a AAA card on me! 🙂 Although the area with the gun club has no cell phone service, the AAA lady assured me they’d still come to pick up the car. Dad returned me there and then took Judi back to the Lake so she could get our stuff. I waited with my car.

It wasn’t long of a wait – only 20 minutes or so. This time I got a regular tow truck and he had her hooked up quite quickly. Then on to Baker’s for them to look again. It turns out there are TWO cables that run the shifter. And the second one had broken. Although the car was done yesterday afternoon, I haven’t had a chance to get there & pick it up, but I’m guessing it costs the same as the first one. Ouch!

Dad once again loaned me the use of his truck and so I drove us to Friendly’s for lupper (we’d missed lunch thanks to all of the car chaos). And afterward, to the Columbus airport. Judi got off OK (and home safely) and I returned home to some kitty cats in need of attention. 🙂 And then today I worked an 8 hour shift with no lunch break. But Garry (the new tech) took me out for supper at Indians Pizza, so that works for me!

Evening Geeking – Trina & Judi’s Interesting Adventure

Ah, the joys of geeking in the wild. judiang and I are sitting out by the fire pit enjoying the fire and listening to the evening Cicada Concert. And geeking on our laptops.

So while I’m here, I’ll continue my tale about Saturday. When I last left you faithful readers, we had gone to the Toodleedoo Zoo. We found I-75 quite easily and headed down south. And we got to my house in just over 2 hours.

I wanted to stop home (which is further south than the cottage at the Lake) because (a) I wanted to check on the kitties and (b) I wanted to pick up the beer bread mix that I had from Tastefully Simple. Judi had tried the beer bread at the Vendors hall at the Fair and actually liked it. (She who poo poos anything beery.)

The kitties were just fine when I checked and I got the mix and some truffles (Russell Stover, not the really good ones from Trader Joe’s that I’ve been hoarding – I like these people, but not THAT much!) and we headed back north. And soon after we passed through Covington, I went to shift into 5th gear and the stick just keep going. And I didn’t go into 5th. Yikes!

My first thought was “This isn’t happening – I’m actually just dreaming” and the second thought was “Oh shit! I need to pull over safely!” and the third was “Crap, I just paid my college tuition and now my clutch has gone out!” We were very close to Ebbert’s grains, which has a big grain elevator, and I started to pull over. I was in panic mode and missed the driveway, but thankfully also missed the ditch. I pulled up near the house next to the grain elevator and stopped the car.

So, what’s a girl to do when her car has gone kaput? Call AAA? No, call her dad and he’ll tell her to call AAA. Heh. Of course, as I was packed light for the outting, I didn’t have both of my wallets with me. And my secondary wallet had my AAA card in it. Thankfully, dad gave me the number to call and the lady was able to look me up on the computer.

The AAA lady wasn’t sure I’d be all that easy to find and kept trying to get more information about my location, but a big ass grain elevator is a very noticeable landmark, so I wasn’t all that concerned. Eventually a dispatcher called to say that a tow truck would be by in 45 minutes, so Judi and I sat & waited.

After 45 minutes, an SUV showed up and the fellow inside asked if we were OK. Said that his parents were concerned (they lived in the house we were parked near) and called him to check on us. We assured him that AAA had sent us a tow truck, and just then, the truck arrived. It was a flatbed and the fellow running it was a master at flatbed tow trucks. He had the car up on it in 5 minutes, and that’s even with it resisting the pull since he couldn’t get it into neutral.

I get 5 free miles of towing and every mile beyond that is $2.50. So I had him tow it into Pleasant Hill to my auto shop and that was only $10. We rode in the truck as he zipped through Covington and then through P. Hill. It was an amazing ride.

I used the night drop off box to inform Baker’s about what happened to my car (and Judi was amazed – had never seen anything like it before) and then we gathered up our stuff and walked home.

Dad was waiting on me at his house and he gave me the key to his truck. Then Judi and I headed north again. And this time successfully. Yay!

The car, as it turned out, needed a new shifting cable. The boys worked on it today and it was done in time for me to come back & get it. So now I have my car back. And it wasn’t the $900 I feared it would be (they say the clutch is still good) but rather half of that.

Sunday was relatively uneventful. We had a Girls Day Out here at the Lake. Aunt Becky, Deanna, Cheryl and mom (with dad as an unofficial girl for the day – hey, he owns all this shit) came round for steaks and card playing. Becky beat us all at Shanghai Rum, but Deanna came in second, which we think is the best she’s done yet. And today was also uneventful and relaxing.

But now the fire is getting low and the mosquitoes are getting vicious, so I think I’ll wind this down.

Zoo Vids

The following are short 15 second videos of critters from our Toledo Zoo visit. (My camera can do 15 second shots with no sound recording. So far, that’s been quite sufficient for my needs.)


Meerkats at play. I love the one that falls over while leaning back.


A glow-in-the-dark jellyfish. (The conversion to YouTube means that it gets darker faster for some reason.)


Finding Nemo: a clown fish plays with an anemone.

Alas, I keep getting errors on my processing for the Butterflies video, so you folks are spared won’t get to see that one.

(It’s nearly 11am and judiang is still asleep! Just cuz we stayed up til after 2am to watch some shooting stars…)

We’re going to the Zoo Zoo Zoo!

Yesterday morning, I got up at 6:30 and then got judiang up at 7am. We were on the road by 7:30 am. Pretty good for a couple of girls on vacation at the Lake!

We had breakfast at a Bob Evans in Lima and managed to get to the Toledo Zoo by 10am (or so). The zoo opens then, so we were able to park close to the gate, which was nice. And we headed into the gift shop/bakery to wait for elsaf‘s arrival. Turns out she was waiting outside to meet us and we were waiting inside. Thank goodness for cell phones. Heh.

We had a pleasant time wandering around the zoo and looking at the critters. One of the first things we saw were the polar bears. We only got to see one mama & son playing, but that was enough to satisfy our polar bear curiosity.

We had lunch at the Carnivore Cafe – cheeseburgers all around. Judi didn’t get us a seat in the cages, but quite a few folks ate in the cages where the various carnivores were housed until 1992 when Toledo reformatted their zoo to the current design which gives the carnivores lots of space to roam.

We spent almost 7 hours at the zoo, wandering around, sitting when tired, eating when hungry. It was quite pleasant. They had a special on dragons (like the komodo dragon) and another special on butterflies (which cost $2, but got you up close & personal to butterflies). I’ll be posting a few little vids on YouTube from the zoo one of these days.

Before we left the zoo, we purchased some cute meerkat stuffed toys and I got a tagua nut carving of a heffalump (which looks like ivory, but is a nut).

Then Elsa followed my car to Packo’s at the Park, a second Tony Packo’s restaurant that’s pretty close to the zoo. We all had the traditional Tony Packo’s hot dog, and I had their chili mac as well. It was all good (but the famous pickles are far too salty for me). And best of all, when we gave Elsa her birthday present, the waitress asked whose birthday it was. We pointed to Elsa, so she gave her a $10 discount on her bill. Woot!

It turns out Elsa enjoyed the silk embroidered picture that we gave her. Which is good, cuz otherwise we were going to take it back and share it between the two of us. 😉 I think it would look good in my house! So happy pre-Birthday, Elsa!

And now some zoopix!

Giraffes & wildebeests and more
Giraffes & wildebeests and more
Little polar bear
Little polar bear
Bald eagle recovering from injuries
Bald eagle recovering from injuries
Birdies at my feet
Birdies at my feet
Hippo on the lookout
Hippo on the lookout
Heffalumps (but no woozles)
Heffalumps (but no woozles)
Why are rhinos grumpy? Smelling rhino butts while sleeping...
Why are rhinos grumpy? Smelling rhino butts while sleeping…
Scratch my meerkat belly!
Scratch my meerkat belly!
Fishy!
Fishy!
Turtles having sex?
Turtles having sex?
Pretty butterfly
Pretty butterfly
Butterfly from underneath
Butterfly from underneath
Elsa & Judi at the Toledo Zoo
Elsa & Judi at the Toledo Zoo
Gorillas in the midst
Gorillas in the midst
Elsa receives her birthday present early
Elsa receives her birthday present early
Packo's at the Park
Packo’s at the Park


All’s Fair in Love and Whatever…

judiang, as some of my friends list knows, is a City Gurl through & through. Her first time at the Lake, she wouldn’t get within 6 feet of the campfire. (Now she builds ’em.) She couldn’t tell horses from cows. (Well, OK, so we were driving by quickly and she just saw critters.) She couldn’t distinguish between types of manure. (Well, we’re still working on that – she now can identify skunk, at least.) So what was next on the “countrification” of Judi? The County Fair, of course.

I was delighted when I discovered that Judi’s latest visit would coincide with the Miami County Fair. I’ve attended the county fair since I was a kid, and I must admit, it hasn’t aged well. (It’s probably the same as when I was a kid, but as I was a kid then, my expectations were low already.) I went a couple of years ago and enjoyed the Fair food (my weakness), so it was time to go again.

The flag raising ceremony didn’t start until noon, so Judi and I had a leisure morning. I made us egg, ham & bagel sandwiches, as I mentioned in my last post, and eventually, we headed off to Troy for the fair. One of the first folks we met was a fellow running for sheriff who was dressed in some outlandish outfit to draw attention to himself. Judi, of course, had to get a photo. (Which I hope she’ll post in her entry.) She now thinks that politicians in Ohio dress up in period costume to get elected. I don’t wish to disavow her of that image, but, well, that just ain’t so. 😉

We checked out the horticulture building to see the ginormous (now a dictionary word, folks!) vegetables that folks in the county had grown. I have a couple of the biggies to show in my photos later. I then had to have a Fair taco and a lemon shake up to start off my experience. We then checked out other buildings – vendors, critters, etc. I won some canes (3 – and only wasted $4 doing it.) And I had to have some Fair fries. And then we checked out the art building where I discovered my little cousins got first place on the ceramics they’d painted for the Fair. Well done girls! (They’re young – one’s going into 2nd grade, the other into 6th!) Finally, I finished the food fest with an Elephant Ear and some sugar waffles (the waffles to go). And we had to return to the Vendors booth. Why? Well…

You see, elsaf‘s birthday is just around the corner. And Judi and I have been chatting about what to get her. And at the Vendor’s building, there was a very nice lady selling paintings. Only they weren’t paintings. They were embroidery. Really, really neat embroidery. We hemmed & hawed the first time there, but we really liked what we’d seen. And as we discussed it, we decided we wanted to buy one of the framed pieces for Elsa. After we were done at the fair, we returned to do just that. We found one that we thought would be perfect for her house, then managed to gather enough cash for the job. The lady remembered us and was thrilled that we’d returned. Her business is World Threads and is from New Carlisle, OH.

On our way home from the Lake, we stopped at Walmart for some Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, then returned to the lake. Supper was leftover pizza for me and hot dogs for Judi (who’d eaten her leftover pizza the night before). A very pleasant day for both of us.

So here are some photos from Judi’s first county fair.


It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!


Judi’s standing next to the third place entry. I couldn’t get the first place entry and her in the same shot.


The best of the best produce in Miami County.


Awwww, sheeps in love!

I still have today’s adventures (well, now yesterday’s adventures) to post about, but after today’s adventures, I’m too exhausted to post about them. So I’ll do it tomorrow.

Westing at da Wake

(For those of you who don’t speak faux baby-speak successfully, the title is Resting at the Lake.)

So yesterday I went to work for one hour to get the new account passwords printed off and update some announcements on the school website. And then I headed off to Columbus to pick judiang up from the airport. My timing was pretty good, I only had to go through the arrival loop 5 times before she popped up outside. (It’s a very small loop at Columbus.)

I drove towards home with a slight detour to the Ex-Evil Puppy Mall. It’s no longer the Evil Puppy Mall because the last time we were there, we discovered the pet store was no longer there. No more cute & evil Pomeranian puppies to tempt Judi. We shopped around the mall & had a snack at the Starbucks there to tide us over before supper. A stop at Best Buy and then the Bookery yielded some purchases, but then it was time to head back home.

As I turned onto my street, I saw mom sitting on her porch reading. She looked like someone ready for a pizza supper. Judi and I dropped some things off in the house, then met the parental units outside my door. We walked to the other side of town (surprising Judi that there was something of a walk) to Indians Pizza (named after our school mascot). Every ordered 10″ pizzas, so we all left with leftovers. And Judi and I got waffle cones with Buckeye Ice Cream (not made of poisonous buckeye seeds, but instead modeled after the candy buckeye – peanut butter ice cream, fudge swirls, and little candy buckeyes).

The walk home was a long one, because I wanted to convince Judi that Pleasant Hill *does* have a hill. And it’s a pleasant incline. Thus Pleasant Hill. But I decided to take her on the steepest part of the hill, just so she can tell there’s a hill. Trouble is, we’d had a powerful frog-strangler while eating in the restaurant and the humidity, we estimated, was 176%. So here we were, walking in 90+°F with loads of humidity, down a nice slope to the river, then up a not as nice slope into town. She’s only half-grudgingly admitted to there being a hill, but at least *I* know I’m not a liar even if she & elsaf suspect otherwise.

Once home, we cooled off in the central air while I finished packing (had underwear drying while I was going to the airport). Judi read Uncle Shelby’s ABZ Book (highly recommended) while I got ready. Then we loaded up the car & finally headed off to the Lake.

We stayed up geeking & talking for hours after arriving (staying in the air conditioned part because the 3-season room was miserably hot & humid). Then finally went to bed.

This morning I got up and made us egg, ham & cheese bagel sandwiches for breakfast. And now Judi is FINALLY out of the bed and tearing it down so she can’t go back to sleep in it. And it’s only quarter til 11! Wow! (Ha ha ha! she says.)

Riddle Answered

On August 3rd, I posted a riddle for folks to guess the answer to. And some folks got it right & others came close. So now I present the answer.

Q: How is a fallen angel like my little girl kitty’s fluffy coat?

A: They’re both Lucy fur (Lucifer)!

I never said it was a *good* riddle. 🙂

Congrats to samantha2074 & redstarrobot for guessing correctly and to redeem147 & drox for getting very close with “loose o’ fur.” 🙂 Nice try, drake57, with your guess. 🙂