Tag: friends

“It’s curtains for you!”

Since I have a final project due on Monday and a final curriculum due on Thursday, I’m doing everything I can to avoid working on them. But at least I’m doing productive things to avoid them!

The first thing we (parents and me) did today was check out garage sales in town – well, visited Aunt Becky at her son’s garage sale. After we went to the post office and library, we picked up pork tenderloin sandwiches and French fries from a vendor on Main street (in place for the town garage sales).

Before we headed off for our grand adventure, I stopped back home for something, only to find that the kitties had pulled the living room curtain down again. They get their claws stuck in the lace and pull it down. And then trying to get the lace back on the curtain rods is a pain in the arse. So I measured the windows and resolved to buy new curtains while we oot & aboot.

We started out at JoAnn fabrics with the thought of mom making curtains (she’s making some gingham ones for her side-door), but then we decided to check if Walmart had something like I could use. And there, we found just what I needed – sheer but not lace (no place for kitties to get claws caught on) and not floor length like the big window had. I also got some grass seed and wrapping paper & cards for Amy & Rachel’s birthday presents.

Back home I got to work taking down the old curtains and putting up the new ones. And before I did that, I cleaned the front window – it had a long row of kitty nose prints from kitty cats walking along the sill and looking outside. Turns out in addition to nose prints there was a nice layer of dirt. Comes with never cleaning my windows. Ugh. Should do my other windows tomorrow.

I also put some of my grass seed in the dead spots in my lawn. And watered it. That took a bit of time. Then it was time to have supper and watch the new DW. And then judiang, elsaf, and hergrace got online so we watched the episode together. Let’s hear it for Instant Messaging! 🙂

Meeting up with friends

My main goal for today was to get course stuff read and, maybe, clean a bit. Then, around noon, I got a phone call from audioboy. He and bex77 were in Ohio and making their way south and then west and wondered if I’d be interested in meeting up for supper when they’d be in the Dayton area. That sounded like a great idea to me, so I said yes and recommended Huber Heights, which is off of I70. They said they’d call back when they were closer so I’d know when to head out.

So I went about my day and was reading a very boring paper on curriculum writing (is there an interesting paper on curriculum writing?) with Linus on my lap when I got another call from them. They were half an hour away or so from the exit, so I headed out to meet them. We agreed to meet at Ruby Tuesday there in Huber. We had a very pleasant supper – it was nice catching up with them again. We wiled away an hour and a half or so while there, but then it was time for them to continue on their road trip. I wished ’em well and headed off to Target looking for something for work. (No luck there, but a second stop at Walmart on the way home was more successful.)

I hope their drive was a smooth one and that things go well for them on this trip. Thanks for the chance to meet up!

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!

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.)

Welcoming Visitors

In addition to yesterday being my day to post my Where I Live Day photos, it was my “welcoming friends to my house” day. audioboy and bex77 have been on a road trip from Mass to Ind and stopped at my place on their way back. So I spent the days beforehand cleaning the place (still only a lick & a promise – that’s all I ever seem to do).

They arrived around 11am as they projected and were looking forward to meeting the kitties. However, my kitties are not used to visitors and decided to hide rather than greet the guests. Silly kitties! Still, Lucy was the braver of the two (her weakness is loud noises, not strangers) and at least allowed N & B to look at her and take her photo. They even got to do a small amount of scritching before she hopped away again.

I had suggested lunch at the new pizza place in town and they thought that would be nice. So we walked to the other end of town for lunch. I tried the turkey sub, they shared pizza and a steak sub. They seemed to like the food. I know I did. 🙂 I told Jeff, the owner, that he’s now passed the Massachusetts test. The next big test will be the Chicago test when I bring judiang there later this week.

We got ice cream for the walk back and returned to Chez trinalin. Lucy was pottering about in the bedroom and Linus was sleeping under the comforter on the bed. I showed the lump to N & B and we decided that was the most we’d see of Linus during their visit.

They returned to their car and figured out the easiest way to get back on their way East. I waved goodbye as they headed off then returned to the house to scold the ungrateful kitties. Sure enough, they poked their heads out soon enough as if to say “OK, we’re ready for visitors now!” Silly kitties!

Thanks for coming, N & B! It was lovely having you!

In other news, tomorrow I shall post the answer to my rather abject riddle. So far, one person’s guessed it correctly and two were impressively close. 🙂