Last night, as I was headed for bed, I decided to check out the current school cancellations on channel 2. I managed to get there at the start of the alphabet, so I saw Covington (the school to the direct north of us) early on, and a bit later Milton Union (the school just south of us). Sure enough, when the N’s showed, Newton was there. So I headed back online to chat with the girls. And minutes after that, I got the phone call letting me know that school was canceled. How nice. 🙂

Actually, in just looking outside but not actually going outside (yet), it looks like we may have missed out on the freezing rain. That would be nice if that were the case. Either mom or dad (I’m thinking dad, myself) had to shovel a little to help mom get her car out of my garage. (Their garage door is broken again, so mom uses my garage when she needs to go to work in the morning that bad weather’s been promised.) Once I get a move on, I’ll shovel my walk (and maybe dad’s, if his isn’t done yet).

Since I’ve got some time, I’ll answer two more questions which have been asked of me. You can still ask me a question, any question. Just click here. So far, none have been of the variety that I’d prefer not to answer (except Judi’s, but I handled that one pretty well).

kalibex: There are many things, actually. For one thing, I can speak English and he can’t. The whole opposable thumb thing seems to allude him, but I’ve mastered it since I before my first birthday. I can turn the bathroom faucet on and off – he can only turn it off (but he rarely tries). Ditto the bathroom lights. He betters me in few areas – the whole hiding under the bed and running quickly from room to room, plus the fact that he can jump more than twice his height would seem to be it.

drake57: Well, I went to google and here was the first entry: http://www.io.com/~arcangel/. So I guess she would be it!

bob01: Who do you think you are? Mr Morden????

After complaining to friends that I’d only gotten one question so far, I managed to get 2 more. So, here we go:

capriuni: Well, what sort of answer are you looking for?

elsaf: Well, they’re good for telling different components apart, even when said components have the same IP address. Watch out for components manufactured by fly-by-night companies because sometimes they reuse the same ones over and over. Not good.

Oh, and in the weather department, we’ve got snow – woohoo! Supposed to turn icy & shitty by the morning, which might mean a snow day. That would be nice. 🙂 (Well, the ice isn’t nice, but snow days are!)

Oh, be sure to ask your questions here!

judiang: Well, only at Monopoly. Then again, we don’t compete against each other a lot. He beats the hell out of me at “go fetch” because I’m just too lazy to chase after toys.

Be sure to ask your own questions here. I’ll answer as I get ’em! Oh, and if you think you can figure out what the original question is, reply to the LJ post and I may let you know if you were right or not. 🙂

Now that the hubbub has died down on the “ask me a question, any question” poll that was going around in LJ, I decided I’d try one myself. Since my first poll was a success (heh), I’ll do this one. So, as the thing says below, ask me a question, any question. I intend to answer them. (Whether my answer will actually answer the question asked is another matter….) What’s the interesting thing to do when reading the answers, I think, is to try and figure out just what was the original question. (Being a teacher, I try to get my students to answer questions using complete sentences, so that the reader knows what the question originally was. I am not going to do that here, however.)

Actually, no, the Queen didn’t make it to my dream (don’t think she ever has and, hell, I’ve even dreamed G.I. Joe cartoons), but I like that Pet Shop Boys song.

Yesterday (when I was mad… Oh wait, shush about PSB, trina!) morning, I was going to write about the dream I’d had the night before, but I don’t have a lot of time in the morning, especially when I hit the snooze button 4 times. So all I could do was read my e-mail and Friends’ LJ entries and then get ready for work. So I’ll try to remember some of the odder bits.

The dream takes place at Newton (as so many of my dreams seem to) but this one wasn’t a teaching anxiety dream. It turns out Newton was playing host to a convention. Not a sci-fi convention. Indeed, I’m not entirely sure what the people who were there had in common. I remember watching Emeril Lagasse on stage in our auditorium. Of course, in the dream, there’s no gym floor in the auditorium and the room itself is about 10 times bigger. So Emeril was just a spec on the stage from where I was sitting.

The girls (elsaf and judiang) were staying with me in order to participate in the convention, and we had a room in the school which was across from my classroom. (There is no room across from my classroom in real life, unless you want to count the girl’s restroom.) One of the PMEBers (don’t remember who, only that she was a PMEBer), who I guess was also at the convention, brought us a giant “M”, McDonald’s style, that she’d made out of paper. We were to hang it over our room door because, in honor of Emeril being there, we were going to be serving food out of our room.

The second night of the convention was supposed to have Bill Bailey performing (woohoo!) and I had intended to show the girls Black Books (one of my favorite modern British TV comedies — it has Bill Bailey as a regular). The trouble was, in addition to staying at the school, I was also staying at my parents’ house (as you do in dreams) and my multi-region DVD player was at my house. So I needed to get the girls next door in order to show them the series. Things were complicated, however, by Granny staying over at my parents’ house (in their bedroom, no less). Can’t remember exactly *how* she complicated things, however.

Well, alas, I woke up before we could watch Black Books or see Bill Bailey. That’s a real shame because given the two performers, I’d much rather see Bill Bailey on stage than Emeril. (Can’t stand his shows – give me Alton Brown or Kathleen Daelemans any day!)

Now, I can see the reasons behind a number of the dream elements. The convention has to do with Gallifrey One which is coming up. The girls were there cuz I often dream of the girls and we love going to conventions and other things together. We’re FoodTV regulars, so that sort of explains Emeril (but not completely, as we never watch him together. Iron Chef, yes. Alton Brown, yes.) The McDonald’s sign came from an article that gregmce posted in his LJ the other day. Newton School appeared because, as I mentioned earlier, it often stars in my dreams. Granny was there – well, probably just me being guilty that I haven’t gone to see Granny lately. Maybe I can rectify that this weekend. Bill Bailey & Black Books? Well, I like ’em both, but haven’t really thought about them much lately. So not sure why they showed up.

Dreams are strange, eh? But they can be very entertaining. “But that’s OK because I’ve got my spatula!” (Wonder if anyone gets the quote? Amy will, of course…)

Today’s Friday – woohoo! And it was a good day. After work, I met up with several co-workers at BW3s (Buffalo Wild Wings and Weck – an Ohio-originated chain). It’s become a Friday tradition – usually BeeDubs (as we call it) but sometimes Applebee’s or High Marks (a local restaurant/bar). We go, we chat, many drink (not I – I’m there for the conversation & the food), and we all have a blast.

Tonight was no exception. I really enjoy my co-workers. I think our school is lucky to have such a fabulous staff of hard workers who also know how to have fun. Heck, we’re such a lovable bunch that folks who’ve since left our staff still join us on Fridays from time to time. Tonight, for example, the principal who hired me was there, as was his former secretary. Spouses and S/Os are allowed as well, since 2 of the regulars have both spouses as members of the Newton staff. The discussion is always lively and the food isn’t half bad either.

On the way to BW’s I had to drive through the first real snow of the season (leaving out that early one from November – it doesn’t count). There was just a dusting on the ground when I parked in the lot, but by the time I left my friends, the car (and everything else) had half an inch of snow on it. And cuz there’s a few nice curvy roads on the way home, plus lots of drifting areas, I drove back at an average speed of about 30mph. (I took Washington, the curviest of the roads, at less than 20mph, and noticed the other few cars on it were going as slow.) But I got home safe & sound and got to wear my snow boots in actual snow. Woohoo!

In other news, I did my preliminary tax review (I’m sorry, but I love doing my taxes on TurboTax and get them in as soon as I can) since we got our W-2s today. Looks like I’m getting a boatload of money back from the feds this year. Yay! (Well, boo! They’ve had my money all this time and never gave me any interest, the cads!) Will get some back from the state as well. Ought to help pay off my roof debt – yay!

Tomorrow I have a fellow coming over to give me an estimate on painting the exterior of my house & garage. That’s a job that needs doing this summer. Actually, it’s more of a stain than a paint (or it should be). The group that’s doing the estimate is a group of college students who paint houses to help pay for school. Sounds like a good deal to me. Hopefully I can afford their prices.

And also tomorrow, at 10:30am, is my appointment at Curves. Mom and I shall be braving the snow covered roads to attend. It’ll be interesting to hear what my measurements are. If you wondering how the Project is going, I can tell you that, thus far, I haven’t lost anything. BUT, and this is important, I haven’t gained anything yet either. 🙂

Mom called tonight to see if I wanted to join her at Curves for a session, and I said yes. It was Wacky Wednesday, where they go around the room in the counterclockwise instead of clockwise, which helped little ol’ Trina and her left-deafness. Mom was able to show me how to do the exercise machines and I could hear her. What I couldn’t hear well was the recording telling us when to switch devices. Thankfully, mom and the other ladies present moved, which indicated to me to move.

On the one time (of 3) I was able to count my pulse, I found out that I was at the 80% heart-rate thingy (not entirely sure what that means, but I’ll find out Saturday, I’ll bet). Mom’s pulse was less, but as she’s older, she was also at her 80% rate.

I decided that I liked it enough. I especially like the machines. The walking in place bits was my least favorite but only cuz it wasn’t as fun as playing with the machines. Actually, now that I think about it, the stretching bit at the end was my least favorite cuz it was more like the exercises I remember as a kid. But it doesn’t take long to do.

I’m going to join Curves on Saturday morning. They take measurements and all that jazz, apparently. So I’ll get to know what all of my measurements are (and no, I shan’t be sharing them here). And it looks like I’ll need to get a pair of gym shoes cuz they prefer non-street gymmies on their nice clean machines. (Don’t blame ’em – they’re all brand-spankin’ new or look like they are.)

When I was growing up, I knew many people who dieted. And I learned that when people dieted, they became cranky and when the diet was over, they gained it all back (and sometimes more). So I never wanted to go on a diet.

But last year, my mother joined Weight Watchers Online and during the year she got down to her goal weight. What’s more, she’s changed her lifestyle, she’s exercising regularly at Curves, and is having a blast trying out new and different recipes. That has encouraged me where fad diets never could.

Lifestyle change – that’s what I need. My biggest problem is that I love food. And will eat it. Usually too much of it. I need to work on portion control. So I’ve decided to do that. And rather than think of it as a diet, it’s a project. (Hey, anything to avoid the earlier thoughts I have about dieting.) I made up an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of my weight, my water intake, my lunches & dinners, snacks, deserts, and any (currently rare) incidents of exercise. I’m going to join Curves (and go in with mom when we can go together) and if I like it, I’ll get some exercise. (I think you can do it once for free.) If my Portion Control Project does work and I can change my lifestyle to include smaller portions (and hopefully lose some weight), that’ll be great. If it doesn’t, I might spend some money on Weight Watchers Online.

So, why am I going to try to do this? I’m still young (not yet to 33 1/3) but I am overweight (obese is the word). In order to cut down on future health problems, I’d like to change my lifestyle NOW rather than later. Who knows, maybe in a year’s time, I might be down to my goal weight. But if not, I’m not going to get all depressed and binge eat until I gain everything back and then some! (At least, I *hope* not!) Wish me luck!