Surprise! Fog + freezing drizzle + temperature of 30°F = school is closed! The 2-hour delay call arrived a little after 5am today, so I happily (OK, groggily) turned off alarm A and turned on alarm B to get another hour of sleep. But then the closure call came at 8am, which is a bit later than usual for a close. I suspect the superintendent was hoping it would clear up in time, but the “freezing rain” warning lasts till 10am and the sun isn’t up enough yet to start undoing the damage.

So happily, the power is still on, I’m up and hair is washed, and I now have a day off ahead of me. Calamity Days are often the best days off since you don’t already have it full of plans like weekend days or vacation days. (And we poor teachers didn’t get a day off on Monday. Still, the work day was pretty productive.)

I’ll probably play some World of Warcrack (it’s been taking over my life again. I should probably stop playing when my current 60-day card expires later this month) but I also hope to get a few other things done. Book inventory? Photo organization? I’m sure I’ll think of something. 🙂 And when the weather clears up some, I need to get ’round to the folks’ to help papa with a Pinnacle Studios question (no idea if I’ll know the answer).

… to her life she clings. Matrimonial devotion doesn’t seem to suit her notion, burial it brings, here’s the state… Oh wait, that’s the lyrics from a Mikado song. (Unfortunately the song is now stuck in my head. Here’s a how-dee-do!)

Anyhoo, I’ve actually had some productivity of late. Probably not enough (catapult reports still languishing in my bag, being brought to & from work daily), but more than had been. I even got one of my crafts done (though it’s actually a belated birthday present, not a Christmas present). That, in particular, was due to our day off of school yesterday.

Oh, you say, a day off of school? How was that accomplished? Well, see, winter’s going pretty strong here, even though it doesn’t start until next Tuesday. We got a fair bit (OK, under 4 inches) of snow between Sunday and Monday morning and with the blowing snow & lack of snow fences (why on earth don’t they put those up anymore around here?!?!) the road conditions yesterday morning were horrible. Despite only getting 3 calamity days for the year, our superintendent had to call off school yesterday. (Only 2 schools in Miami county were open, and they weren’t hit as bad, apparently.)

So yesterday I was able to continue with Sunday’s productivity. And then head over to Troy to celebrate mom’s birthday with her and dad. She’d already received her birthday gift from dad about 2 weeks early (a new wifi Kindle) and so I complemented it with a nice cover/light. And it’s red, which really impressed mom. (She’d only seen the black ones online.) Then we went out to Outback for steak and lobster and drinks. I tried their strawberry peach sangria which was pretty tasty. Yummy dinner and great company.

I’ve even tried being somewhat productive today. I’m hanging up pictures using lovely Command picture strips and needed to clean my walls first. Break out the Bissell Steam Shot and clean dem walls! Woot! (Well, actually, newegg.com.) And then for grins I tried out the squeegee attachment and cleaned the kitchen window. And then tried unwrinkling some curtains.

Anyhoo, the house is somewhat straightened out and sort of clean and definitely decorated for the holidays. New blinds are installed throughout the house and I’m trying a new curtain in the library to see if I like it. (So far, eh.) I still have many crafts to make before Christmas, but I’m a procrastinator so there’s plenty of time. Ha! And of course those darn catapult reports…

The holidays are coming and I’m excited! Not quite ready yet, but I think I will be! Yay!

It came as no surprise to me that we wound up getting yesterday and today off due to the weather. And we’ve been called for tomorrow that we’re on a 2-hour delay. But hey, maybe we’ll actually get in to school tomorrow!

The thing I’m amazed at is how I actually get anything done when I work during the day. I mean, on these days off, I feel like I haven’t gotten a lot extra accomplished than I would have done had I worked. Heh. I think I must have – for one thing, I’m down to my last book to evaluate for my thesis. But I only just finished grading the physics tests today, and haven’t even started on the chemistry tests. Heh. Lazy butt, look it up in the dictionary and you’ll see me.

It’s a good thing that I’m almost done with the book evaluations – and not just cuz the Olympics start on Friday. I’m down to the last few pink post-it notes. Those are the ones I was using for the chemistry related benchmarks. Blue, green, and orange for the physics ones (they split physics into three sections). When I go to re-evaluate one of my first books (to check for internal consistency), I’ll have to use fluorescent green or something. 😉

Anyhoo, Linus is stretched out on my lap, ready for me to get back to work, so I guess I’d better. Hopefully I’ll get to work tomorrow and become productive or something. 🙂

Yesterday, the original plan was to have parent/teacher conferences and all of us poor teachers at work from 7:30am til 7:30pm. But then, it began to snow. It started snowing before 1st period was over and just kept going.

Before lunch, the superintendent came and asked me to post on our website that we’d be dismissing early and that parent/teacher conferences would be rescheduled for next Thursday. Yay, early dismissal!

I walked home (I like walking in the snow, even though it was blowing in my face quite a bit) and enjoyed my afternoon off. Then last night, we got a phone call that we’d be on a 2-hour delay today. So I stayed up a bit later and set my secondary alarm (which is for an hour later than usual – I always go in a bit early on 2-hour delays).

But then around 6am this morning, we got the call that school was closed. So I (and the cats) slept in until 9:30am. I love a snow day. It’s a day you don’t have any specific plans for (other than teaching), so you can get things done you might not usually get done.

So today I took down the Christmas tree and many of my decorations. (I’ll finish tomorrow.) I shoveled my steps and walkway (someone nice on our block snow-blowed the entire sidewalk) and walked to the post office. I played Beatles Rock Band and exercised on the Wii. I watched the entire disc of Mawdryn Undead while I ate supper and then put together the dragon puzzle that elsaf gave me for Christmas. And now I’m writing this and will soon be finishing up another book for my thesis.

Snow days are a wonderful luxury. 🙂

Received the phone call about an hour ago – school is closed tomorrow (our last “calamity day” of the year – any more and we have to make them up in June). Ohio’s getting a pretty decent snow storm right now. I’ve heard as little as 3″ but as much as 10″. It’s nice to be all bundled & warm in my house. (Well, I’m not bundled at the moment, but I will be when I finish being on the PC and get to bed, heh.)

Today after work, I sent off my application for a grant for electronic balances for the school. Here’s hoping we get the grant!

Earlier tonight I finished my first quarter grading (finished chemistry exams) and posted the info to our online gradebook. So I’m set there. (Grades are due Thursday, regardless of what the weather brings us, but as I’m done, that deadline means NOTHING to me. Bwa ha ha ha!)

Since I’m done with grades and the grant application, I’ll work on college coursework tomorrow. And I think I’ll read some. Should be a nice day. (Here’s hoping the power stays on!)

In a lovely bit of irony, I’ve been watching Sahara with Michael Palin. It was a bit warmer there than it is here. 🙂