Ah Thursday

Am having a lovely week at school. Really enjoy my kids. Being the first 2 weeks we are still shifting classes so some kids come and go but all is okay in the end. I have a lot of kids from many different countries and I do like that. I put all of their hometowns on my iPhone so we check their weather daily. Today, Harriet (from Scotland) told me that in her town "they" shoot off a cannon every day at 1pm. I was astounded!!! A live cannon to mark 1 pm!!! Then I remembered Mary Poppins--and that old Admiral? who shot off the cannon. Isn't that cool!

My Kenyan student was homesick this week so we've been trying to bolster his spirits. Good chance I'll be at a hockey game tomorrow night. One of my USA hockey kids (from MN) is playing his first home game and asked me to come. I'll certainly try.

Last night Jan called and we went out for a GREAT country walk. We ended up bushwacking a bit across a farmer's field (whoops) but made it back in sight of town. What fun! It was great weather for such an adventure (and it was an adventure). (Currently listening to the Sandhill Cranes in the next field)

Heard from my sis, Emily. She had a good time at Larrainey's shower. Hope Larraine got a lot of gifts she can use. It is too bad we aren't out near her so we could have thrown her a shower as well. Emily said about 45 people were there. Very nice of Mike's Mom to host.

I have to escape and go water the tomatoes. I still am picking about 30 a day. I"m a little tired of tomatoes. I also have a big bag of jalapenos from a friend's garden. I thought I'd take a few to my Dad and give a few to Doug down the road.

Well off to the garden.

{}{}

Where to begin?

So much has and is happening:

Highlights--Hunter came to stay with Gma overnight while his parents went to Chicago to a wedding. We had a WONDERFUL time! He never fussed or cried. He was wonderful about taking naps and going to sleep (slept 10 hours overnight). I rocked him in the rocker my Great Grandfather built and realized, Hunter was rocking in his Great Great Great Grandfather's chair....thanks Mom for saving it for us. Hunter's sweet little voice and patter of his feet just warmed my heart so. It seems like only yesterday Jeanine and Jean were playing in the halls, in the rooms, running and laughing about. This is a wonderful home to raise kids! I think having Hunter for the weekend was the bestest of ways to end my summer vacation!!! Thank you for sharing him, Jeanine and Brad!!!

I have a lot of pics so I'll post for a while then pull--copy what you want, or if that doesn't work, tell me which ones you would like and I'll send.

Hunter played a long time with his cars, took a break to read some books, we did a big fire truck puzzle, listened to the choo choo, chipmunks, fire engines, and sandhill cranes--all from the window, played piano, video conferenced with Jean (now that was fun as I got to hold Hunter and watch him interact with Uncle Juniper AND remember how Jean liked to play (the gorilla on the car was my favorite)!!!), and sat and had meals together! Hunter played hard and happy. I realized I had planned well for his visit such that I didn't have to do laundry, cleaning, or run any errands, which made Hunter the center of the universe. Far from spoiled, he is just a happy boy! I loved it when he took my hand and directed me to what he wanted next. I love being Hunter's Gma.

School is good. I much prefer this schedule. In the winter semester it will be crazy because they stuck a MT&T class in the middle of my piano classes and MT&T is at least a half mile away in the building (at passing time) and at my bathroom break time ;-) I have to lock up the 10 practice rooms and then scoot down the hall. I'd like to sneak out and go around outside to cut off some of the hall traffic (still have 2500 in a building built for 1600) but they lock the outside doors. Will figure it out. In the meantime, I sometimes come home with a little energy (remarkable for the beginning of the year). Monday will be a wipe out as we have capsule night until near 10 (home near 10:30) to get up again at 5am to start all over again. In the time between close of school and capsule night--I have to go get fingerprinted at the Sheriff's office (Hogback) to continue the process for changing my name. Only the Sheriff's office will do it. My electronic fingerprints already on file with the state (required to teach) are not allowed to be "shared"--so I get to do it all over again and pay for it twice. Oh well. Other highlights of the week--I will go in and see my Dad next Sunday. (I told him I couldn't come today--with working last night and Capsule night tomorrow I needed some time to do laundry, walk and think.

The harp sounded lovely last night. The Art Museum is a beautiful place to play and the accoustics--ahhhhhhh. I think I'd like to cut a CD in there. I wonder if that's allowed. I know the head facilities manager. It is a destination museum now. They had to cut down several trees for the expansion so they saved the wood, gave it to local artists who made various wooden art pieces--beautiful bowls, sculpture like things, yo yos, plates, etc--and sell those in the gift shop. The caterers were particularly good and kind. Several took time to help me shove the harp up the stairs (yeah) and carry my briefcase out to the triple parked car on State Street (in the middle of the ND win celebration). Actually the M fans seemed pretty tamed though very very happy. It was fun to be on campus. I also noted that the representing reunion attorneys (AGAIN) were primarily white males. In the crowd of 400, I saw two faces of color, no one you'd call of Arabic descent ? and maybe 14 Asians (primarily Japanese). I always find this fascinating. Perhaps only old school attorneys return for their reunions? The law school staff always has a strong supportive presence. From the food pictures (main event to follow) you can see they go all out....but then it was the 150th Anniversary.

Off to breakfast with Jan and Marshall this morning. We are going to the hospital brunch. Jan and I have become a lot closer than we've ever been in these 30 years of living next door to one another. She is headed to hear Perlman later--I would have bought a ticket but I figured I'd be at Dad's--now I wish I had a ticket. We went to a concert together at the Methodist church on Friday night--jazz. Very nice. Max Plank was one of the soloists--he was the best!

Well, off and running

{}{}

My Twit

as opposed to my tweet ;-)

"just visiting my anthropologie wish list and drooling. Darn those summer taxes!!!"

made it home safely yesterday

Reason I mention:

I was traveling at a clip on 94 and could see a very fast moving pick up truck in my rear view mirror. He was going about 85 maybe faster. The reason I noticed him was the trash that was spewing out of his very full truck. Papers, cardboard the size of large appliance boxes, strips of packing tape ripping off of the cardboard he had over stuffed in his bed. I was trying to think--is it better to be ahead of him? in the lane behind him? next to him? It was piled as high as anyone could imagine--and then he flew past me just before 275--when BOUNCE--something bounced up and out of the bed--seconds to think, maneuver--was it cardboard? was it...???--I swerved into the left lane--and ran over the corner of a wooden drawer--He had lost a complete chest of drawers. !!! The people behind me slammed on brakes and skidded and.......the truck driver slammed on his brakes and pulled over to the left median a bit down the road. I didn't wait to see who bumped into whom at 70 + miles an hour. It was a wonder I didn't make the choice to go "over" what I thought was a big cardboard box laying in the road. The drawer crunch was bad enough. I'll keep a watch on that front tire.

arghhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I was just lucky!!!

Still here and kicking.

ps Jean--hope you weren't involved in that small plane landing on the highway outside Santa Barbara yesterday morning.

{}{}

itchy itchy

I finished my taxes! Yeah! 10 hours of tedious checking bank ledgers, credit card billings, adding misc deductions. The CD stuff took a junk of that time. I checked all the digital distributions, had to hand count streaming vs download (I pay royalties on downloads not streaming) tally, write checks etc. Well, at least it is done until December when I finish the chore.

Picked gobs of tomatoes and beans in the garden. Got a beautiful purple pepper yesterday. Came in with more mosquito bites but eh! Some of the cherry tomatoes were so ripe that when I went to pick them they jumped off the vine and did a hairy kari dive down to the ground below. I said goodbye to each one ;-)

Stayed up late watching for A Emily and her sign at the baseball game in Oakland. No luck. Hope Gpa had a better time of it--especially since the Tigers lost in the 9th inning. ugh

Headed in to see Gpa.

Later gators

{}{}

The realtor

came today. I like her. She seems honest and straightforward. She said it would be best if I replaced the flooring in your old bedrooms (though the other realtor had said it wouldn't be worth it). This one said it was the first thing she noticed when she walked in the rooms. ah

Also, there are some "stains" on the ceiling in the bedrooms--I thought they had been treated SINCE the new roof and painting--but there they were. I'll have to price it out.

Unless some really GREAT new place comes on the market--I won't push this to happen until Spring now.

Spending a lot of online anthropologie dreaming. Nice clothes!

{}{}

It's a jungle out there!

A tomato jungle. I picked 34 cherry tomatoes yesterday and 4 big tomatoes. The deck is full of flowers, fruit and greenery.

Today the realtor comes over to check out the house. I could be rushing around picking things up but then--eh, it looks "good" enough. I will take out the trash though.

Muffin has decided to soil the carpeting of late. I'd like to bean her! I have been very attentive to her clean litter box but she has found a corner she prefers. I read online that if you have "other" cats or neighbor cats and are showing them attention sometimes cats will do this. ??? Well, Jan and Marshall's cats have been stopping in for breakfast all summer. Perhaps I"ll have to ignore them but really now............

Had a great time at the dentist yesterday (thanks, Jean-Pierre) I like my dentist and his staff. We played with our iPhones for a long time. I had convinced the dentist he MUST have an iPhone, he got one (loves it) then his staff started branching out and getting them. I spent doing an iPhone tutorial in the lobby for the staff. ;-) Unfortunately they did find dire work to be done on a tooth--so those 4 crowns I was putting off for a rainy day--just moved to 5 with the 5th a must do. Will revisit the dentist tomorrow. hmm.....about saving for those summer taxes due in September.

I read online that A2 teachers have a tentative contract and will meet on Monday to hear the terms. Well.....I never received the emails the article referred to--so I called the union and they are on "summer break". I emailed a few friends and they were as clueless as me. Gosh--where did all those union dues money go?

While online I also looked around the anthropolgie site. I like that shop!!!

Screech owl was zippin' around the woods last night. They are the ones who sound like a lady screaming/sighing--descending from so to do. Pretty cool. Such a distinct sound you can hear them fly throughout the woods.

Well off to play

Enjoy your day

{}{}