Last night I melted a bag of cat treats. Then, I tried to change my shower head only to realize that I myself am not strong enough to get the new part on tight enough so the water doesn't spray out in all directions. Now I have to wait for Mr. Sturm to come visit on Sunday to fix it, so I think I need to go to my parents house earlier than planned today to shower.
Finally, Squeaky has a furball on her back leg that I want to cut off before it gets any worse, so I chased my cat around for a while this morning with a scissors. Goodness only knows what an observer would have thought. Eventually I gave up, because even when I caught her, I couldn't hold her down and cut off the furball in what I felt would be a safe way. Now I have two jobs for Mr. Sturm on Sunday.
In good, less incompetent news, it is Spring Break for me! Monday and Tuesday I get to go to a bed and breakfast in Lanesboro, Minnesota. Then, I'll putz around at the cabin for a while before returning to my folks' home for Easter. Yay!
Showing posts with label spring break. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spring break. Show all posts
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Ramblings of a Crazy Person
Oh how time flies when you are having fun! How can it be that Spring Break is over and I have to return to work tomorrow? I am not prepared! I think we should have the opportunity to ease back into the school day. We could, for example, start with one or two hours of school tomorrow, and build up over the course of the week. Then, next week could be a normal week.
In order to psych myself up for a week of work (and an interview), I have been looking for new songs and games to teach the kiddos. Please enjoy the following.
Princess Pat and her Rikabamboo?
I seem to remember growing up that the girls in Girl Scouts would sing this, but I wasn't allowed to be in Girl Scouts (too girly). This one may be an ok one to teach the kids.
Ladybugs' Picnic:
I LOVED this song on Sesame Street as a child. Maybe if I get creative, I can come up with some gestures and dance moves to accompany this. And if we're going to take this into consideration, another blast-from-the-past childhood song I watched on Sesame Street constantly would be.....
We All Sing in the Same Voice:
It should be pointed out that in English, we don't say "yellow hair" unless it really is dyed yellow - we say "blond". Also, best names ever. They really focused on the little boy with glasses who holds his teddy tight. And one little boy has two daddy's, so that's fairly progressive for the time, although they probably mean his mom re-married and he has a step-dad, but whatever.
"And when it's time for bed, I like my stories read - "Sweet Dreams!" and "Love you!" said - My name is you!"
Really brings me back, guys.
In other news, the Smithsonian Magazine informed me of the following quote: "Although accurate numbers are hard to come by, lore has it that hippos kill more people each year than lions, elephants, leopards, buffaloes and rhinos combined."
And I read on some other websites about incidences where hippos have knocked over boats for no reason, then decapitated the people! And they are herbivores! Why are they so aggressive?
My adult onset ADD is really coming out in this post, as is my reluctance to give up my freedom and return to my life being run by a clock and someone else's agenda. Rather than ramble on further about more things that don't relate to each other, I'll call it quits now and go take a nice shower and have a cup of tea. I can still get some quality sub-par television programming or History Channel in before it is too late!
In order to psych myself up for a week of work (and an interview), I have been looking for new songs and games to teach the kiddos. Please enjoy the following.
Princess Pat and her Rikabamboo?
I seem to remember growing up that the girls in Girl Scouts would sing this, but I wasn't allowed to be in Girl Scouts (too girly). This one may be an ok one to teach the kids.
Ladybugs' Picnic:
I LOVED this song on Sesame Street as a child. Maybe if I get creative, I can come up with some gestures and dance moves to accompany this. And if we're going to take this into consideration, another blast-from-the-past childhood song I watched on Sesame Street constantly would be.....
We All Sing in the Same Voice:
It should be pointed out that in English, we don't say "yellow hair" unless it really is dyed yellow - we say "blond". Also, best names ever. They really focused on the little boy with glasses who holds his teddy tight. And one little boy has two daddy's, so that's fairly progressive for the time, although they probably mean his mom re-married and he has a step-dad, but whatever.
"And when it's time for bed, I like my stories read - "Sweet Dreams!" and "Love you!" said - My name is you!"
Really brings me back, guys.
In other news, the Smithsonian Magazine informed me of the following quote: "Although accurate numbers are hard to come by, lore has it that hippos kill more people each year than lions, elephants, leopards, buffaloes and rhinos combined."
And I read on some other websites about incidences where hippos have knocked over boats for no reason, then decapitated the people! And they are herbivores! Why are they so aggressive?
My adult onset ADD is really coming out in this post, as is my reluctance to give up my freedom and return to my life being run by a clock and someone else's agenda. Rather than ramble on further about more things that don't relate to each other, I'll call it quits now and go take a nice shower and have a cup of tea. I can still get some quality sub-par television programming or History Channel in before it is too late!
*Now vote on the poll! DO IT!*
Saturday, April 2, 2011
The End (of Spring Break) is Near
Today I tried to get as much work done as possible so that tomorrow, Sunday, can truly count as a day of Spring Break. I vacuumed, did dishes, scrubbed the bathroom, bleached the stove-top, and cleaned every floor in the house with lavender scented hardwood floor cleaner. The house smells fairly decent, now.
In addition to all this, I also got through all but one section of the online CPR course and went into school to clean my classroom and set up for my first five classes on Monday. Am I really, honestly prepared for Monday? No, but the objectives are up, the desks are clean, and the folders, pencils, and handouts are ready. The rest is really up in the air. Will the kids even be ready to learn on Monday? Probably not. Any planning will probably have been in vain. Let it be known, however, that I do have some really awesome, interactive, SIOP-y lessons planned for the next two weeks for all grade levels. We'll just see if with coming back from Spring Break and the MCA II's testing schedule if I get to teach them when they are supposed to be taught.
But back to the cleanliness of my household. It is crazy. The floors are all shiny, there is no dust under the couch or chair in the living room any more, and I really scrubbed the bathroom. There is still, despite my best efforts including a lot of elbow grease and some hard-core cleaning chemicals, a layer of something on the glass shower door. However, I am actually more than ok with this because this morning I could kind of see my outline in the mirror as I was taking my shower. It was extremely blurry, and I only know it was me because I happened to be the only person in the shower at the time, but it was disturbing nonetheless. I'm really not sure how I feel about this development.
There are also clean sheets on the bed and the rugs have been shaken outside. Furthermore, I finally bought light bulbs AND I actually used them - replacing the burnt out ones the same day as the new ones were bought. Granted, some of those bulbs have been burnt out for a couple of weeks now, but let's not dwell on that fact.
This evening was a time for celebratory nachos, and boy were they delicious. In fact, I ate too many nachos, and my stomach is complaining just a bit now. It was hard to say no to the cheesy, guacamole covered bean delight. Do I regret it? No. Alright - maybe I regret it a little, but not that much.
Tomorrow I plan on getting up around 8am, reading my book ("First Families") while drinking tea and having a nice breakfast, and putzing around the house for a couple of hours. I then fully intend on taking a walk down to and around Silver Lake. Maybe I will even take the camera and capture some springtime moments in Rochester. More likely, however, I will forget the camera, but that is fine, too. Maybe I will take that stale roll from my purse and feed it to the ducks. I probably like ducks first, then geese, then swans. Although my feelings on geese can change depending on the situation. Sometimes geese are scarier than swans in that they are there, hissing at you, and swans are nowhere to be seen.
Anyway, a leisurely breakfast and a walk are on the agenda for tomorrow. Hopefully I will make it to bed early so that I can get up bright and early for my 6:30AM phone interview, and make it through this week alive! I'll have to plan something fun for next weekend!
In addition to all this, I also got through all but one section of the online CPR course and went into school to clean my classroom and set up for my first five classes on Monday. Am I really, honestly prepared for Monday? No, but the objectives are up, the desks are clean, and the folders, pencils, and handouts are ready. The rest is really up in the air. Will the kids even be ready to learn on Monday? Probably not. Any planning will probably have been in vain. Let it be known, however, that I do have some really awesome, interactive, SIOP-y lessons planned for the next two weeks for all grade levels. We'll just see if with coming back from Spring Break and the MCA II's testing schedule if I get to teach them when they are supposed to be taught.
But back to the cleanliness of my household. It is crazy. The floors are all shiny, there is no dust under the couch or chair in the living room any more, and I really scrubbed the bathroom. There is still, despite my best efforts including a lot of elbow grease and some hard-core cleaning chemicals, a layer of something on the glass shower door. However, I am actually more than ok with this because this morning I could kind of see my outline in the mirror as I was taking my shower. It was extremely blurry, and I only know it was me because I happened to be the only person in the shower at the time, but it was disturbing nonetheless. I'm really not sure how I feel about this development.
There are also clean sheets on the bed and the rugs have been shaken outside. Furthermore, I finally bought light bulbs AND I actually used them - replacing the burnt out ones the same day as the new ones were bought. Granted, some of those bulbs have been burnt out for a couple of weeks now, but let's not dwell on that fact.
This evening was a time for celebratory nachos, and boy were they delicious. In fact, I ate too many nachos, and my stomach is complaining just a bit now. It was hard to say no to the cheesy, guacamole covered bean delight. Do I regret it? No. Alright - maybe I regret it a little, but not that much.
Tomorrow I plan on getting up around 8am, reading my book ("First Families") while drinking tea and having a nice breakfast, and putzing around the house for a couple of hours. I then fully intend on taking a walk down to and around Silver Lake. Maybe I will even take the camera and capture some springtime moments in Rochester. More likely, however, I will forget the camera, but that is fine, too. Maybe I will take that stale roll from my purse and feed it to the ducks. I probably like ducks first, then geese, then swans. Although my feelings on geese can change depending on the situation. Sometimes geese are scarier than swans in that they are there, hissing at you, and swans are nowhere to be seen.
Anyway, a leisurely breakfast and a walk are on the agenda for tomorrow. Hopefully I will make it to bed early so that I can get up bright and early for my 6:30AM phone interview, and make it through this week alive! I'll have to plan something fun for next weekend!
*Now vote on the new poll! The Protagitron and I had a marvelous time in Seattle. Where should we go next? Vote on the poll, but if you have a better idea, let me know in a comment, or send me a message. GO VOTE NOW!*
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Spring Break So Far
It is my personal and scientifically supported belief that time goes by so much faster either when a deadline is closing in or it is some wonderful time of year, such as Spring Break. Currently, I am experiencing the faster-than-light passing of my one week Spring Break. Naturally, because I am me, I have kept insanely busy thus far, sleeping little and walking approximately 1.32 bazillion miles (estimation may be slightly exaggerated).
The Spring Break started off magnificently with a wonderful trip to Seattle, WA with the much loved Protagitron. To be in the same city as the other half of my brain was, to say the very least, fantastic. We managed to scour the city of Seattle in very little time. There were classy events such as the Seattle Art Museum, the Conservatory, Pike Place Market, and the Observation Water Tower in what seemed to be an extremely hoity-toity neighborhood.
And of course since it was me and the Protagitron, there were some of the "less historically accurate", shall we say? Sketchy? Questionable? activities as well. The Seattle Underground was recommended to me by a colleague who actually used to live in the city. Now, because sometimes I like to live it up, we took the Underground Underworld tour which was rife with colorful, can't-possibly-be-true historical stories involving opium, prostitutes, government corruption, the Bubonic plague, and the selling of cadavers.
We also went to Ye Old Curiosity Shop, which was overwhelmingly wonderful. It was basically a knick-knack store crammed full of odd (and I'm sure accurately labeled and scientifically researched) artifacts. In one small corner of the shop alone you could view a player piano, a taxidermied two-headed calf, an optometry sign from turn of the century England, a preserved baby shark in a jar, shrunken heads, and a candle making mold. Clearly there was no rhyme or reason to this place, and it was dusty and cramped, but well worth the visit. I sent a postcard of the mummy "Sylvia" to my sister and "Sylvester" to my brother. Luckily, the caption on the postcard read exactly what the sign next to the mummies said. My siblings can judge the legitimacy of the claims themselves. While my other friends got postcards of Pike Place Market, Martin also got a postcard of Ye Old Curiosity Shop, so hopefully he isn't too concerned about my sanity when he receives it.
I also went on the ghost tour of Pike Place Market, which was awesome, as usual. Anytime there is a ghost tour, one should take it, ESPECIALLY if it is a ghost trolley. My brother will back me up on this.
Once back in Minnesota, I still did not stop to sleep. On Tuesday, Dani and I took Matthew and Lee to the Children's Museum, and it was truly as overstimulating and in-your-face as I remember it. Having not been there in several years, I thought perhaps my memories were a bit skewed since I was a child, and sometimes children remember things or perceive things differently. But let it be known that it is really an overwhelming place! Lee had a little melt down once or twice when he tried to move from one room to the next, but mean old cousin Ivy wouldn't let him just run around the entire museum. I was afraid I was going to have a hard time getting him to leave the museum, but he got turned around in the ant hill and panicked a bit. That meant that when I crawled in there to get him, he let me carry him right out of the museum without a peep. The ant hill, by the way, is not built for adults. It isn't like I am 6'4" or anything, and it was still a bit cramped.
Linnea and I watched "The Neverending Story", and there may or may not be some major plot holes, there.
Tuesday, I went out for the afternoon with Dani and Linnea to Grand Avenue, where we lunched at Cafe Latte, browsed through the boutiques and stores, including The Red Balloon, one of my childhood favorites, and returned to Cafe Latte for "dessert" before packing up and heading back to the suburbs.
Afterwards, I went up to Minneapolis to visit Martin, and we walked and walked some more. People seem to be figuring out that I could walk around for hours and be perfectly content. It has been a while since I have been on the U of M campus, so it was nice to see it with a fresh prospective. Plus, the weather was gorgeous. After hearing about and seeing some of his very impressive and complicated work, we proceeded to dinner where the most important part was the Wild Blueberry Wild Cherry milkshake. You really need to say the "wild" twice, otherwise you are selling the shake short. After dinner, we watched "The Fifth Element" which has Bruce Willis, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I was a little skeptical at the beginning of the movie, but it was definitely entertaining, and the weird fashion things going on almost are interesting enough on their own.
Unfortunately, I had a meeting with some colleagues this morning, so I had to get up bright and early and drive back to Rochester and drop Squeaky off at home. Since I ended up working from 9am until about 2pm, I don't think Squeaky would have enjoyed her time cooped up in the car. That would have been one angry cat.
The Spring Break started off magnificently with a wonderful trip to Seattle, WA with the much loved Protagitron. To be in the same city as the other half of my brain was, to say the very least, fantastic. We managed to scour the city of Seattle in very little time. There were classy events such as the Seattle Art Museum, the Conservatory, Pike Place Market, and the Observation Water Tower in what seemed to be an extremely hoity-toity neighborhood.
And of course since it was me and the Protagitron, there were some of the "less historically accurate", shall we say? Sketchy? Questionable? activities as well. The Seattle Underground was recommended to me by a colleague who actually used to live in the city. Now, because sometimes I like to live it up, we took the Underground Underworld tour which was rife with colorful, can't-possibly-be-true historical stories involving opium, prostitutes, government corruption, the Bubonic plague, and the selling of cadavers.
We also went to Ye Old Curiosity Shop, which was overwhelmingly wonderful. It was basically a knick-knack store crammed full of odd (and I'm sure accurately labeled and scientifically researched) artifacts. In one small corner of the shop alone you could view a player piano, a taxidermied two-headed calf, an optometry sign from turn of the century England, a preserved baby shark in a jar, shrunken heads, and a candle making mold. Clearly there was no rhyme or reason to this place, and it was dusty and cramped, but well worth the visit. I sent a postcard of the mummy "Sylvia" to my sister and "Sylvester" to my brother. Luckily, the caption on the postcard read exactly what the sign next to the mummies said. My siblings can judge the legitimacy of the claims themselves. While my other friends got postcards of Pike Place Market, Martin also got a postcard of Ye Old Curiosity Shop, so hopefully he isn't too concerned about my sanity when he receives it.
I also went on the ghost tour of Pike Place Market, which was awesome, as usual. Anytime there is a ghost tour, one should take it, ESPECIALLY if it is a ghost trolley. My brother will back me up on this.
Once back in Minnesota, I still did not stop to sleep. On Tuesday, Dani and I took Matthew and Lee to the Children's Museum, and it was truly as overstimulating and in-your-face as I remember it. Having not been there in several years, I thought perhaps my memories were a bit skewed since I was a child, and sometimes children remember things or perceive things differently. But let it be known that it is really an overwhelming place! Lee had a little melt down once or twice when he tried to move from one room to the next, but mean old cousin Ivy wouldn't let him just run around the entire museum. I was afraid I was going to have a hard time getting him to leave the museum, but he got turned around in the ant hill and panicked a bit. That meant that when I crawled in there to get him, he let me carry him right out of the museum without a peep. The ant hill, by the way, is not built for adults. It isn't like I am 6'4" or anything, and it was still a bit cramped.
Linnea and I watched "The Neverending Story", and there may or may not be some major plot holes, there.
Tuesday, I went out for the afternoon with Dani and Linnea to Grand Avenue, where we lunched at Cafe Latte, browsed through the boutiques and stores, including The Red Balloon, one of my childhood favorites, and returned to Cafe Latte for "dessert" before packing up and heading back to the suburbs.
Afterwards, I went up to Minneapolis to visit Martin, and we walked and walked some more. People seem to be figuring out that I could walk around for hours and be perfectly content. It has been a while since I have been on the U of M campus, so it was nice to see it with a fresh prospective. Plus, the weather was gorgeous. After hearing about and seeing some of his very impressive and complicated work, we proceeded to dinner where the most important part was the Wild Blueberry Wild Cherry milkshake. You really need to say the "wild" twice, otherwise you are selling the shake short. After dinner, we watched "The Fifth Element" which has Bruce Willis, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I was a little skeptical at the beginning of the movie, but it was definitely entertaining, and the weird fashion things going on almost are interesting enough on their own.
Unfortunately, I had a meeting with some colleagues this morning, so I had to get up bright and early and drive back to Rochester and drop Squeaky off at home. Since I ended up working from 9am until about 2pm, I don't think Squeaky would have enjoyed her time cooped up in the car. That would have been one angry cat.
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