Late Night Thoughts

Tonight I went to the county fair and I saw an Eagle Owl up close! He flew, strutted around, and hooted at us! He was really cool, and I think his name should be Frank.

Here is an Eagle Owl. This is not the same one I saw.



Also, this is a good song.



Eh? Eh?

But it is nearly 11pm on a school night, and I need to be alive, awake, and enthusiastic for work tomorrow. Because I am crazy, I thought it would be a good idea for our group to tag along with another group to Oxbow Park and Zollman Zoo. It should be a fun day. We're having a picnic.

It's SO Hot That.....

The following statements are modeled after "Yo' Mama!" jokes, except they aren't jokes, they are true, and I can say the following sentences as a little white lady without being beaten up or given weird looks.

It is SO hot that.....

• I have an ice pack shoved down my shirt.
• even sitting in front of the window air conditioner, my clothes are wet with sweat.
• I want cupcakes but refuse to turn on the oven.
• I've gone to the fridge several times just to browse.....but really to feel the cool air.
• the condensation on the linolium at work actually splashed onto my legs as I walked across the floor.
• my glasses fogged up as soon as I left my air conditioned car.The heat literally blinded me.
• I left my lunch dishes in my car while I volunteered this evening, and the remaining eggplant Parmesan baked and crusted onto the sides of the pan and the lid popped off. Now my car smells like burnt eggplant parm.
• I am actually wondering, sanitary issues aside, how long it would take to cook cupcakes in my car in the garage.
• school is canceled tomorrow due to extreme heat and unsafe conditions in our building.

Marvelous Madison

Let it be known that I have now finished two whole semesters of my graduate degree! Yay! And as far as I know, I am doing A-OK. Of course, my testing and evaluation of ELLs course is somewhat up in the air. The course was online, and since I received no feedback from my prof, I had no idea of how I was doing. Then it was time for the final project, which I was grossly underprepared for. I just don't think I got enough from the prof, the readings, and the online "class".

The assignment was to create an entire testing program for English Language Learners in a school. Some people had it easy because it they were already in a school working, they were allowed to write about the system that they work with. Those of use not currently teaching ESL in a school (which, if I were, why would I be taking this class???), had to make up a school, make up a student population, and create an entire program from scratch. It is a good thing that my school and students are fake, because I don't want to screw anyone real up too badly. Anyway, even though that class has been over for a month, I have heard nothing from the prof, nor have I received any grades back. At all. None. Not even from the little reflection I wrote the very first week of class back in June. Anyway, I'm a little freaked out.

So now I am just doing stuff around the house for my family until my next semester starts up again in a few weeks and work starts again at about the same time. I should be beyond busy in just a few weeks. Yay!

I went to visit my boyfriend in Madison this past weekend to see his new place. He moved into a house with two brothers and lucky for me I like them. The house is rather spacious, although they need to give it a good scrub down because it is pretty dirty. Joe and I went to the zoo, which was pretty awesome, especially for a free zoo. They had rhinos, giraffes, seals, tigers, orangutans, penguins, etc. We also went out to the Sundance movie theatre opened by Robert Redford, and that place was neat!

We say "Paper Heart" and it was cute. My favorite was the interviews with the people, and I got a kick out of the puppets. The theatre has assigned seats, which is weird, but kind of nice. Also, it has a rooftop bistro and you can get bottles of wine, cheese plates, spaghetti and meatballs, hummus, fish and chips, etc. to eat on the roof or take into the movie theatre with you. We had popcorn and I had a root beer and Joe had a Spotted Cow, but I am pretty sure next time we are going to go crazy and get a meal or some appetizer that would be ridiculous to eat at a movie.

Next weekend I'll be going out to the cabin with Joe, Dani, Linnea, Kyle, and Andrew. Unfortunately, Derek is unable to make it. It should be a good time with the canoe, crokinole, mad libs, and movies.