The air conditioner in my computer lab is on. (The one in the tech office is all for all but 2 weeks or so in winter – the servers warm up the room plenty.) My lesson plans are done from now til the end of the school year. Everyone’s suffering senioritis – juniors & teachers included. I’ve got loads of grading to do, even though I was just caught up last week. The summer tech jobs are looming, however I’ve not written anything on the White Board yet. I’ve done the calligraphy for the Bausch & Lomb Award, Academic Excellence in Science Award, John Philip Sousa Award, and the National Choral Award. (The new band director found out from the old band director that I’m a professional calligrapher – who does school awards gratis.)

You know, I’m beginning to suspect it’s May! And that there’s only a few scant weeks of school left! Hmmmm….

(I really need a teacher icon… My science one is good, but it’s not what I need for a teaching post.)

The weather’s been perfect. Today while walking through town, I thought “if anyone wants to sell a house in Pleasant Hill, all they need to do is have the prospective buyers walk to the post office and they’ll fall in love with this town.” And along one of my walks today, I saw many young people in tuxedos and formal dresses – yup, prom night! They sure clean up nice, our students! 🙂

Yesterday after work, the folks and I went to Sam’s Club (always an adventure). Before we shopped, however, mother and I timed it so that we could go out to eat for supper first. In honor of Mother’s Day, it was my treat. Mom picked Max & Erma’s (a Dayton chain – think TGIFriday’s or Applebee’s), so that’s where we ate. Mom got the featured cocktail (vodka, cranberry juice & grapefruit juice) and I got an amaretto sour (very good). I had cajun shrimp & pasta and we all shared freshly baked chocolate chip cookies for dessert.

At Sam’s Club, dad picked up a Linksys Router for the cottage at the Lake and mom bought herself an MP3/CD portable player (for exercising to audiobooks). And, having earlier cashed in a credit card rewards check for $50+, I bought books 4-8 of A Series of Unfortunate Events. When we were in Dayton two weekends ago, I bought books 1-3 and have completed them. I really enjoyed the books and decided I should get more. So I was delighted to see that Sam’s Club had them for $7.88 a piece. 🙂 Bye-bye $50, hello books! 🙂 We also got stuff for our Mother’s Day gathering at the Lake. Should be good.

This morning, I goofed off and played City of Heroin Heroes. And when mom called, I headed off to meet her at Curves for our Mother’s Day workout together. We then went on to Kroger’s for a few other supplies for the gathering. And afterwards, I was a bad gurl and got some General Tso’s at the Chinese take-away next to Kroger’s. After lunch, I snoozed and played on the computer and Leo & I went out for a bit in the sun. But at 6pm, the folks came around and I drove us all to a Louisiana Boil being held at a co-worker’s house.

The evening had lots of good food – gumbo on rice, crab legs, crawdads, mussels, shrimp, sausage, artichoke, corn on the cob, potatoes, carrots, etc. etc. and plenty of good conversation. Some folks who used to work at our school also arrived and it was great catching up with folks. When mom was nearly asleep and the mosquitoes had bitten my feet up good, we decided to head back. And then I got online to write up about stuff.

Tomorrow’s when we have all the Shorts over for Mother’s Day at the Lake. Should be some good times. I’ll be making ice cream. Gotta remember to make the liquid up tomorrow so that it’ll be cool by freezing time. (And we need to get salt & ice, too…)

To all of you mother’s out there – HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!

To my little sissy – HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

To jblum – HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY!

Gakked from antiwesley.

Cult TV Meme

Bold means I loved it/watched it religiously/etc.
Italic means I liked it but did not watch religiously.
Regular Roman letters means I didn’t see it or was pretty much indifferent to it
Strikeout means I have seen it but disliked it.
* means I added this show to the list (if you gak this from me you have to add one of your own, okay?)

Absolutely Fabulous
Alien Nation
A-Team
Angel
The Avengers
Babylon 5
Battlestar Galactica
Blake’s Seven
Beauty and the Beast
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
The Bionic Woman
Danger Man/Secret Agent Man
Dark Shadows
The Daily Show
Doctor Who
Farscape
Firefly
Freaks and Geeks
Forever Knight
Knight Rider
Kung-fu
The Legend of Hercules
My So-Called Life
Mystery Science Theatre 3000
Monty Python’s Flying Circus
Nowhere Man
The Outer Limits (the black and white series)
The Prisoner
Quantum Leap
The Twilight Zone
The Six Million Dollar Man
The Simpsons
Space:1999
Star Trek: TOS
Star Trek: TNG
Star Trek: DS9
Star Trek: Enterprise
The Tomorrow People*
Twin Peaks
V
Vampire: The Masquerade
Wonderfalls
Xena: Warrior Princess
The X-Files

Good grief, I watch a lot of Cult TV. Thought about added The Flash, too. I really want that on DVD so I can see it again. 🙂

We’re talking about electric fields in physics right now. As we were going over the chapter objectives (the test is soon), I read off one which says the student should know how electric field lines are determined. So I said, “you have to ask yourself ‘What would a small positive particle do?'” And thus WWASPPD was born! Yes, get your own bracelet folks with WWASPPD emblazoned on it. Be the first on YOUR block to ask that important question…. When stumped with life’s quandries, just look at your bracelet and ask “What would a small postive particle do?” (Well, of course, it depends on if the situation is a positive or negative one, really…)

Today’s been a busy day. First off, I went to bed around 3:30am after playing City of Heroes. Then Leo wanted me to get up at 7:30am. But I didn’t get up until an hour later. Then I was off to the Newton Alumni Executive Committee meeting where we finalized much of the upcoming banquet (2 weeks from today!) We worked on the programs (folding, stapling, the like) until noon. Back home for quicky lunch and then it was time for a Grand Day Out.

The folks and I headed for Piqua around noon-thirty – the goal: Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. I paid for everyone’s ticket ($3.75 each – eep! The price keeps going up!) and we sat down to watch several trailers about children’s movies on sports. Soccer, basketball – you name it, there’s a kids movie coming out with it. The short trailer for Chicken Little is hysterical – if you know Hitchhiker’s Guide, that is. 🙂

I enjoyed the movie. Laughed often (dad and I were chuckling about the sighing doors long after the rest of the audience stopped) and loved the casting. Dad laughed a lot too, and I even heard mom chuckle from time to time. Dad and I enjoyed the movie, as did mom, who thought the movie was “weird.” Well, yeah, it is. 🙂 Stephen Fry as the Book and Alan Rickman as Marvin – perfect casting. And Bill Bailey as the whale – heh. The cameos from some “original” Hitchhiker’s luminaries were fun too.

After the movie, we did some shopping – mostly looking for things for Amy & Rachel’s upcoming birthdays. We headed for Troy, too, in search of things. And when we finished shopping, by golly, it was supper time! (Mom and I know how to time things well.) So off to Applebee’s for supper! I had the WeightWatchers shrimp & steak teryaki skewers and an amaretto sour. Good eats. 🙂

When we got home, I decided to spend it downloaded the latest Doctor Who and playing City of Heroes, so that’s what I’ve been doing. Yay me! (I’ve created two new heroes in the last two days. Basically recreating heroes that I have on other servers.) I just had some freshly baked chocolate chip cookies and am talking with elsaf and judiang online. Life is good. 🙂

My first results from the Photo Challenge (still open – get your requests in!) can be found in this entry. I admitted then that mossymosquito had temporarily stumped me with his request. But no matter, I have now prevailed. I present, for your edification, a grasshopper!

A grasshopper! What do you mean it looks funny?

It is, after all, a fly for fly fishing! I bought it at an Orvis store this weekend while with dad. He figured he probably had one already, but knowing all of the places he stores his flies, I figured it was better to buy one for myself. And it’s cool!

The next challenge was a true challenge. akadriver suggested the following: “I want you to take a picture of your favorite knicknack or toy in an outdoor location. But not just /any/ outdoor location. It has to be one where someone would have to look twice to notice said object. The exact location is up to you. Be creative. :)”

There is a treasure hidden here – and I don’t mean Leo. He’s hardly hiding. That’s a bit far away to look. Perhaps a closeup will be better…

A bit closer now – can you see it?

Surely you can see my treasure now!

It’s Teeny Tiny Teddy, hiding in the tree!

warinbabylon wanted a photo of the front of my house. Whew! A challenge that isn’t so hard! 🙂

The front of my house.

And while I was going through my e-mail notices on these challenges, I realized I forgot to do timjr‘s request! Whoops! I’ll rectify that with my next post on photo challenges. So you can still send me challenges – these have been fun!

It’s April. After Earth Day. And it’s SNOWING!!! Good grief! Last weekend was the Ideal Spring Weather. This weekend, it’s cold, rainy, and frickin’ snowing! *shakes head* Ohio weather – I tell ya!

In the celebratory state of things, Happy Birthday to addictsgirl! And tomorrow sees the birthday of araymond424! Happy birthday to you too! Hope it’s not snowing where you are! (Actually, it may be snowing on araymond424…)

It’s cold and rainy out, but yesterday was as beautiful a spring day as one could ask for. Much of my foliage was abloom, so I took photos (since I already had my camera out for my photo challenge – still taking requests!) Leo was playing around outside (on his leash) and so I got a couple of shots of him as well. You can see all of the flower photos in my Livejournal Photo Gallery, though I’ll show a few under LJ cuts below, along with the Leo pix. (See, new icon!)

Here is Leo, wandering around my chaise lounge. The purple thing is his leash. He thinks I’m strange to require a leash, but if it gets him outside, he’s all for it.

Leo giving me his usual “I own all this shit” look.

I’ve no idea what kind of tree these are from, but they’re awfully purty red flowers! And they’re in my backyard.

With weeds like these, who needs flowers? I never planted tulips, but I have a small patch of them that show up every spring. Works for me!

The tree in front of my house has very pretty white flowers in the spring. And then decides to drop its leaves after the first snow… Damn tree…

Please look at the other photos in my Flower Gallery (if you want) cuz they’re all pretty too! They’re especially nice to look at on drizzly, cold days like today.

A few days ago, I invited one and all to challenge me to take photos with my rinky dinky camera. I’m still willing to do more (there weren’t a lot of requests – alas!) so get your requests in! I have 2 of the requests completed and am posting them here. The third request, from mossymosquito, of a grasshopper, I’ll need a little more time on. But by golly, I’ll get it! 🙂 So please, send me photo requests. I’ll do my best to fulfill them. If nothing else, it got me to download my Chicago trip pix. (Hopefully I’ll get some of those posted soon enough.)

drake57 asked me to photograph my DVDs. Quite the undertaking…

My movie series and Region 2/PAL DVDs. (The Monkees DVDs are only there because they don’t fit on the TV series DVD case.)

My movie DVDs. The first two DVD cases sit on either side of the television.

My TV series DVDs. The Vicar of Dibley Divine Collection is currently on loan to mom & dad (who have been enjoying the series).

Yes, all of my DVDs are in alphabetical order. (Or in chronological order for series.)

miz_em suggested that I take a photo of where I work. Well, as I work in many rooms in the building, one wouldn’t suffice. I took six, so you can see my doors & classroom at the Photo Challenge Gallery, but I’ve got the rooms here.

Here’s my desk in the tech office.

Here are my servers, all nicely labeled and everything.

This is the chemistry/physics lab. Yeah, yeah, it needs straightened up.

I’m sitting at the table in the 3 season room at mom & dad’s cottage at the Lake. In honor of their 37th anniversary, I came up to join them for supper. Mom and I went to Wagner’s grocery and picked out the eats for shish kebabs (marinated pork, pineapple, red pepper, red onion, ‘shrooms, and tomatoes) and a Pepperidge Farm carrot cake for dessert. I paid for the eats as my gift and then made supper when we got back.

I did a really good job grilling. Mom started the fire & dad tended to it, so the flames were perfect for grilled kebabs. Mom had made rice, so we ate our eats with rice. Yum! And there were enough for left overs, too. Always a plus in mom’s book.

Mom actually did the dishes, and then we had the carrot cake. Pepperidge Farms frozen cakes always make me think of the last day (or rather the day after the last day) of school. When I was a kid, I would always go in with dad the day after the last day of school to help him with the Audio/Visual equipment. (We would remove it all from other rooms and store it in dad’s classroom.) Dad’s contribution to the teacher carry-in was always one of these frozen cakes (which we’d buy at the local grocery before we’d get in, and then let sit until lunch).

So anyhoo, tonight was a nice evening spent with the parental units. They’ve had a great 37 years together and here’s hoping they have 37 more!