Monday was our last official day of school. No students (their last day was Friday), just us teachers doing our checkouts and sending grades and cleaning rooms. Well, I did all of that, sort of. (Clean room? Bah – I don’t know when I last had a clean room. I have four of ’em to clean, you know!) So yesterday was the first day of my summer job. Which is working on computers at the school. I have moments when I think “We’ll finally get everything done before school starts this year,” but usually I think “Oh my god! How are we going to get done before August 17th???????”

Yesterday, my main task was to help load up our old computers from last year, to take off to Access Computers in Trotwood. Finding people to take old computers isn’t as easy as you might think. We had 50 computers, 47 monitors (most 15″ CRTs, but a few 17″ CRTs), loads of printers – including a dot matrix, plus mice, keyboards, and software. Access Computers collects the old hardware and finds buyers, who ship them to places where there are NO computers, fix ’em up, and give them out to people in need. Ours were earmarked for Africa, I believe. We used the janitors and the hired boys to load up the van which the superintendent rented. The remaining monitors fit in dad’s truck bed. Since the Super, dad, and I didn’t think we’d be the best folks for unloading the computers once we got there, we decided to take the boys with us. It was their first day on the job – lucky kids! There were only 2 seats in the van and dad & I just fit in his truck, so they grabbed a chair from my classroom and put it between the two seats in the van. The Super drove the van & the boys, while dad and I took the lead in the truck.

Despite the detour once we got into Trotwood, we found the place. And my, what a place. It’s in an old Lock & Store-type place – there was a dusty Cadillac in one storage area – and there were skids piled high with old computers & monitors. The piles were taller than me. It turns out, they routinely fit 45 15″ monitors on one skid. 9 on the base and 5 high. Once you get to the third row, they start to reinforce with cellophane. It’s amazing. It’s what we ended up doing with our stuff.

The fellow who owned the place was a bit peeved when we arrived at lunch time. (He didn’t tell us not to arrive around noon when I called to confirm earlier that day, however). And because of an overzealous fire marshal, he was very strict about where we put the van. However, once we started to unload our stuff onto the skids, the owner took a liking to us. He was impressed with how we’d packed up the van. (That was all due to our primo maintenance guy, Bryce.) And we took instruction well. I watched as our tower of monitors grew. And our tower of computers was almost as high and didn’t require the Saran Wrap support.

The boys who were helping were in awe of the fellow who owned the place. He had Coke-Bottle-Bottom Glasses, a gut you could use as a shelf, suspenders & pants too big, and some of the scariest sideburns this side of a physics department. Still, he knew what he was doing and his service is an important one. He even suggested a local diner we should try out for lunch. The boys didn’t look to happy about the idea of diner food, so the superintendent suggested a pizza place he used to enjoy.

Used to is probably a good description. We went to Marion’s Pizza in Englewood. It was sort of an old fashioned concept. You ordered the pizza separate from the drinks. And apart from iced tea (and water), no free refills. Still, the super bought us lunch and the pizza was pretty good. The restaurant itself was a bit of a mess. And the men’s room was out of service. (Not that I was interested in the men’s room, but I was working with 4 men that day.) Best of all, FREE FOOD!

The boys will fit right into our summer crew. As they got into the building, one of them called out to the janitor “Man, we had a flat tire on the way back! We haven’t even had lunch yet!” I just had to laugh.

Today, I went into work around 9am and mostly juggled computers. I managed to get the monitors out of several classrooms and down to my chem lab for later disposal. (We’re hoping to go with some place who actually picks up the old computers, rather than us have to deliver.) I worked hard for four hours, and when I got done, was so dusty & dirty I had to have a bath when I got home. After I was clean, I zipped into Troy for Chinese take away, then it was home for relaxation & City of Heroes. Leftover Chinese for supper, and now I’m typing this up. Tomorrow I intend to work a full day, starting at 8am. Haven’t decided on Friday yet. I should work some Friday. Perhaps I will. Perhaps not. 🙂

School’s out! School’s out! Teachers let the monkeys out!

Today is our last day of school. And for the students, it’s only half a day. Me? I’ll be working on inventory & computer things. And Monday is teacher’s last day. So I’ll be working on more computer stuff Monday. And the rest of the summer. Heh. But still, the last day for students is always a nice day. I loved it when I was a student, and I love it now that I’m a teacher. Not because I don’t like the kids – I do like ’em. But they need a break from us and we need a break from them.

In other news, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to jesuishadley!

I took some photographs while we’ve been here at the Lake. I’ve posted them to a new Gallery in my LiveJournal Pics space, which you can view here. (The Lake Gallery is the last one in the list. I’m still playing around with the LiveJournal Galleries and dunno yet if this is the one I like best. I don’t like that I can’t link to a particular gallery.) For a taste of the pics, here’s one of the ducks who wanted to join us for lunch today.

Ah, what a lovely day we had, today! judiang and I slept in until 9:30am and then I played some City of Heroes while she got ready. I bought donut holes & mini chocolate donuts for breakfast, which we munched on. Then Judi played with Evah Green, my Mind/Forcefield Controller on CoH while I went off to Wagners for ice & booze (for making ice cream). It was noon when I returned, so I started on the fire. Clouds were threatening rain (thunder too) but it never did rain on us. And I got a very nice fire going by the time elsaf arrived.

Elsa had brought some marinated pork for grilling and then pulling to make jerk pork sammiches. Shortly after she arrived, we put ’em on the grill (along with some pineapple spears) and Elsa grilled ’em. I made up some Bailey’s ice cream and put it in the Old Fashioned ice cream maker. Judi sliced onions and gerkins for the sammiches. Lunch, as you might suspect, was wonderful. And we topped it off with the chocolate cake that Elsa made and the homemade ice cream. Yum!

After lunch, it was time to download the new Doctor Who and veg. I tested the cheapo DVD player to see if it could play MPEGs saved onto CD-ROM, and it could. So we knew once we got the new Doctor Who, we could watch. Woohoo! Judi was sawing logs – with a powersaw, apparently, and soon Elsa and I dozed off as well. (Yes, that was an expression meaning she was sleeping – I can’t imagine Judi actually sawing logs…) When the download was done, however, we burned it onto a CD and sat and watched. A good conclusion to the previous ep, The Empty Child. I think I have my new favorite eps. 🙂

It was around 6pm when we decided to go off to see Revenge of the Sith. We knew that was a plan for the weekend, we just didn’t know when we’d go. There was a 7pm showing. And we arrived right at 7pm. There were enough commercials and trailers that I forgot what I was waiting to see.

So, the movie? It was an enjoyable 2 hours. Yeah, sucky dialog. Yeah, Anakin can’t act his way out of a bag. But the effects were cool and Yoda’s a mean muthafucka. So I got enjoyment from the flick. When it comes out on DVD, I’ll probably pick the “first 3” flicks up (hopefully in a special package and at a very reasonable price.)

After the movie, we wanted pizza. So I took the girls to Cassano’s (a local chain). I think the Cassano’s in Piqua is the best Cassano’s around, and tonight, their deluxe pizza was what I remembered. The cream soda wasn’t terribly good (syrup troubles) but it was OK. The girls picked on the “cracker pizza” but I think they liked it well enough – for cracker pizza.

On the way back, I took ’em up Rt 66 (heh, not THAT Rt 66), which was a longer way, but gave Judi more ammo against small towns. 🙂 And now we’re all sitting around the table in the 3-season room. Geeking on our laptops. Ah, life is GOOD. 🙂

Today was the last day for seniors – yay! (*sniff*) I was doing well until one of the senior girls gave me a hug as she headed out the door. There are quite a few that I shall miss. They all have a bright future ahead and I wish them well!

After work, I drove off to Troy to pick up groceries for this evening, and then onto the airport to pick up judiang. The plane was only 15 minutes late (which isn’t bad for O’Hare), and I drove us up to the Lake.

The parents were here, as was the cable guy, and I got the fire started. (Despite a bit of rain, the weather was nice today.) Becky & Deanna arrived around 7pm and I put the burgers and dogs on. We had a nice supper and brownies as dessert. And then it was time to get SERIOUS.

Judi was talking trash, like always, while we started our latest & greatest game of Shanghai Rum. Aunt Becky’s heard it all before. But Becky was having alergy problems, and thus was on Benadryll. So what happened? Judi kicked butt & took names. Afterwards, we played two rounds of bull shit. My sister might be surprised to learn that mother is the biggest bullshitter of us all… She won both rounds.

It was midnight when folks left and Judi and I got out our laptops. And surprise, surprise! I was online before Judi – woot! We’re talking with elsaf right now as we’re barely conscious. Tomorrow, Elsa will join us and we’ll have a blast.

Kinda weird really… I used to be quite regular at posting to LiveJournal. But lately I’ve been all “eh.” I still read friends posts, but haven’t thought of anything to write about. And you know why I’m writing now? Cuz stupid City of Heroes won’t let me on.

Yes, I’m addicted to that game – perhaps it’s the reason why I don’t feel like posting – I’d rather play than post. But it’s a fun escape and I enjoy myself when I’m playing. I finally switched over to paying for the game tonight. (I’d been using the 60 day cards that I got at Christmas until now.) Unfortunately, things got goobered up while I was doing this, so the website says I’ve paid, but the game says that I haven’t. Put a phone call into the not-toll-free support number and am now awaiting the escalated support e-mail which says it’ll all work.

And before all of that was going on, I was trying to help one of my former teachers with a printer problem of hers. USB printers still aren’t ready for folks with a little knowledge of computers. They’re best for experts or for complete n00bs. Folks with a little knowledge think “I’ll just use Add Printer.” Complete n00bs and folks who’ve dealt with lots of USB printers think “I’d better follow the damn directions.” Her hubby, I think, tried using add printer. I’ve got her now going through and following their own instructions. Hopefully it’ll work.

Hmmm, was that an e-mail I just heard? Nope, false alarm. Damn…

drox arrived here around 7pm and we’ve been having a great time playing Chrononauts and her Doctor Who version of Apples to Apples. We watched some Daria and ate Sun Chips and watched the new Doctor Who – spooky! And a cliff hanger! Woot!

It’s now time for us to get some sleep, because we’re off to listen to dad’s sermon in the morning.

drox says “Hi!” 🙂

Wehey! Dad and I were finally able to set up the Linksys wireless router at the Lake. I’m sitting in the 3-season room with my laptop and its pathetic D-Link 802.11g wireless card and am typing this up! Sweet!

The weather today is gorgeous. Probably wasting it all so that next weekend when elsaf and judiang come, it’ll be lousy. Ah well. We’ve had good weather for Memorial Day weekend and we’ve had bad. We deal. We have a great time. 🙂

In other cool news, drox will be dropping by this evening. She’s going to spend the night with me and even come to the UU church where dad will be preaching tomorrow. Funny that – Judi & Elsa have known me for ages and yet Drox will be the first of my friends to hear dad preach! 🙂

OK, time to get working on the school website. I’ve got a couple of hours here before I head home to await Drox’s arrival. (Judi, this means I won’t be playing CoH tonight. Probably…)

The weather was gorgeous. The students were bearable (and this time of year, that’s special). Leo & I had quality outside time where I worked and he played. I got to play some City of Heroes with judiang. And now it’s time for a bath & bed. Life is good, yeah. 🙂

I’m at home taking a break (and downloading the latest ep of You Know What (and if you don’t know What, then that’s OK)) from my busy day. I got up early today (and not just cuz Leo wanted me up) to get to the school by 8am. Tonight is the Alumni Banquet for Newton High School, and I’m on the Alumni Executive Committee. So, how did someone as lazy as me get on the committee? Easy – I’m the only one who knows how the database of addresses works…

Last year was the first year the database moved from the retired teacher (who’d been keeping it up to date)’s computer to the school. The old database was Works, but we don’t have Works at school. So I managed to make a half-decent Access Database with it and was able to print out that list of addresses for the Alumni. The 10-year class last year decided they didn’t want to put the banquet on (it’s tradition at Newton for the 10 year class to run the banquet and the 25, 50 and 75 year classes are honored), so several grads (mostly from the class of ’57) created the Alumni Executive Committee and put the thing on. This year, as they were preparing, they asked if we could create an account on our network for members to access the database for data-entry. No problemo, I said. And I set it up. And the committee asked me to join them in their monthly meetings, so I did. And suddenly I realized that I was on the committee.

Well, actually, I’ve had a lot of fun with the Alumni Executive Committee. The ladies and gentlemen on it are funny, laid back, and really support Newton School. They’ve been working hard – we’ve been working hard – on getting things ready for this evening. So this morning at 8, everyone was at the school, loading in tables from every church & business in the county, bringing in chairs, decorating, etc. I made posters & signs and name-tags yesterday and they were displayed where need be today. (I had a rather severe typo in one sign that I made. For the 50/50 Raffle, the sign said “$1 each. $6 for 5. $15 for 10.” Whoops! Put the dollar signs on the wrong numbers! Still, I figured we’d make more money that way. (It was an easy fix – just printed off new ones with the corrections and voila, that task was done.)

I worked there until 11am, then I had to drive off to New Bremen (judiang & elsaf – that’s the town just north of Minster, where the Pizza Hut is) for our annual B-WISER meeting. Not a lot of teachers were able to make it, but it was a very productive meeting. And thankfully, we’ll be going in on Sunday instead of Saturday this year. And we won’t have to teach on the Friday. Alas, same dorm as always, but, hey, Carolyn and I are used to our room by now.) Denise, the lady who owns the house where we met, provided pizza and drinks (she and her hubby have a FABULOUS antique bar from a hotel in Ft. Loramie – so I got an amaretto sour) and we got to business. Both Denise and Susan (co-administrators for the camp) made goodies for dessert, too. Mmmmm! Brownies & chocolate chip cookies!

We were done there at 2:30, so I headed home. I’ll probably head back to the school in 20 minutes or so. The dinner’s not until 6pm, but we get folks arriving at 4:30, so we need to be ready. I’ll be introducing the MC and speaking on behalf of someone donating books to the school, as well as explaining why the Mr&Mrs didn’t make it onto the invites. So, wish me luck!