Month: October 2012

Wow, October’s nearly over!

Alas, one of my worst months ever as far as updating LJ. And it’s not as if I’m doing nothing. (Sadly, I suspect it’s the doing World of Warcrack which is preventing me from doing things like this, grading papers, cleaning house, etc… MMORPGs are bad, mmm’kay?)

Anyhoo, one of the most recent things that I’ve done (other than play video games) is attend a Halloween party. Friends invited my folks (and I crashed, which was actually OK with the hosts) to this party, with the invitation itself being a blank mask with instructions to decorate. I didn’t know what I was going to make mine into until the day of the party and opted for making it into a puppy dog, with a pair of socks for doggy ears.

doggytreen

I wound up winning the prize for most creative mask. Dad, meanwhile, had cut out his mask and had me print “Generic Mask” on it neatly. He glued it to a stick (ala Renaissance masks) and wound up winning the Funniest mask. Heh. Mom then topped us during the pumpkin carving competition by getting a special award for her puking pumpkin. A family of winners – woo! Tomorrow I’ll post punkin pix.

Oh, and this year will be my first year attempting National Novel Writing Month (AKA NaNoWriMo). Hoping it might jumpstart my blogging and possibly curb my gaming. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see!

Anyone have a novel plot idea????

Hooray for Miami County Foundation!

The Miami County Foundation (MCF) is a local (to me) agency which does everything it can to donate money/scholarships to nonprofits/students. Their nonprofit grants are awarded twice a year with grant deadlines in August and February. I had previously written (and received) two grants from them in the past.

Sadly, the last time I had received a grant, they didn’t have much money to award, so they asked if I’d be able to use even just a portion of what I requested. I said sure! I had written a grant to buy 12 electronic balances for the chemistry lab. They were able to give me funds to buy 2. Believe me, it helped. And when we kitted up the new laboratory a year later, I got 4 more electronic balances, which works rather well for us.

Well, a couple of days before the grant applications were due this time around, MCF informed us that they had had a windfall and would be able to really help nonprofits this time around. So I scurried to write up another proposal, this time for 4 new Vernier LabQuests and some probeware to go with them and to suppliment my existing equipment. Yesterday I got the good news – I got the grant (and all of it this time around)! I had the requisition written and submitted within half an hour of receiving the e-mail. 🙂

The acceptance ceremony will be in November and our superintendent wants those of us who received a grant (we had 4 groups in the school who did, including new band uniforms for the marching band – oooooh!) and I’ll be happy to attend. (And that’s saying something, knowing how much I dislike having a sub in my room. Heh.)

So THANK YOU to Miami County Foundation for looking after the nonprofits in your county! And thank you for supporting chemistry and physics education!