Miscellaneous Missives

                                Today I ended each of my classes with, "Be safe, have fun and DON'T steal little kids candy."  I really shouldn't have to say this should I?  Why do middle school boys (and probably girls) think this is OK?  It probably goes for many grownups with children reading this blog too.  Don't steal candy from children!  Happy Halloween!

                                     I'm teaching an ALC (area learning center?) class after school.  When I came up with the idea for this eighth grade program (reading and writing using Blogger and Feedly), I was proud of my idea.  Actually, I'm sure I blogged about it.  This week is the second week of the program, and I think it's going to be successful.  Unfortunately, it's not perfect.  First, I've never taught eighth grade (7th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th... never 8th).  Second, the girls have not been registering for the program although the boys have (I only have one girl).  Finally, I didn't expect eighth grade boys to need at least ten minutes with snacks and conversation before they were ready to concentrate.  It makes sense, but I wasn't prepared.  At least I know what we're doing is interesting.  They've started their Blogger pages and ...

        I like being in the back and in the corner ( at church, in meetings, at the gym, in class...).  Last night at RIPPED class I was talking two a couple of people I've met at the gym.  We all have our own places in the gym during BodyPump.  Of course I'm in the back corner.  A is always in front of me while B is always to the right of me.  Since I haven't been to Tuesday night pump for a couple of weeks, I was joking around asking if they'd been saving my place.  Before class tonight I spent a but if time on the treadmill, so I entered the gym a wee bit later than I normal.  When I entered, two people we in MY spot.  Actually, they were also in B's spot too.  B came in a bit after me, and we exchanged the look that said, 'WTH, why are they in our spots?"  A had his spot, so I told I recommended that next week he saved our spots.  At least I refrained from telling the interlopers to leave.  Next week may...

                                  I'm falling in love with technology in my class.  Actually I'm in love, but I wanted to use the word fall.  Next year every student will have a Chrome Book, so I can virtually go paperless.  Virtual, get it?  I'm glad we're not getting iPads because I seem to write less when I'm using an iPad, like now.   Actually, I'm going to post tomorrow about technology in my after school program.  I just wanted to post something about fall, so I could post this picture.

   Today in church a member shared her pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago.  I talked to her briefly after church.  She walked an average of twenty miles a day and was gone a month.  When I returned from church, I watched the movie The Way and tried to research the Camino de Santiago.  A big part of me really, really, really wants to make the pilgrimage.  I'm going to continue research in and asking questions.  If you know anything about the pilgrimage, I'd love to hear.  Instead of taking a bike ride, I walked around Lake of the Isles, my favorite Minneapolis lake.  From my front door, the round trip I a little over four hours and took a little over an hour.  When one is training for the pilgrimage they walk at least five hours a day.  Maybe I'll need to quit my job to train. BTW- I also took fall pictures for LH.                                ...

                           As I was standing in the hall after school waiting for the eighth graders to enter for the after school program, a student walked by and stated/asked, "Long day?" "Does it show?" I asked. "Yes," the answer came a bit too quick! Sooooo.... Instead of working out, I came home and grabbed three Advil  two cookies and one bowl of popcorn.  I'm calling it the 3,2,1 plan!

                                My new furnace is installed and working!  This makes me oh so happy and comfortable.  Tonight I will sleep in my flannel pjs without the insulated tights.  I will also take the top two blankets off the comforter.  Heck, maybe I won't even need to wear socks.  Outside the temperature was in the 30s today.  Typically this time of year brings 50s.  Perhaps my new furnace will bring warmer temps!

Two weeks ago my furnace went out.  The last two days have been miserable.  I've run the two little space heaters until they've overheated and stopped.  Today a colleague went home quickly over lunch to bring me another.  Tomorrow my dad and his buddy will come to install a new furnace.  My hope is this means goodbye to the old furnace and the space heaters.  I'm looking forward to sitting in my living room without three different layers.  Please!  

Sports Xtrsvaganza is the visually impaired track meet in Dallas at which I volunteer over MEA.  It's a long day of helping get the runners on the track and tearing down.  Today's highlights...  - one female athlete, maybe 8 years old, almost had to run alone in a heat.  Instead we sent 7 high school boys down the track with her.  They were given instructions to let her win... Or else... Adorable!   -at lunch, one of the Lions club members searched out an orange soda for me even though there were none in the coolers -all of the little runners, running the 50 meter These come to mind, but I'm sure there are more.  If I wasn't tired, maybe I could do better with this.  Although it was freezing this morning, 44 degrees, and my layers (two long sleeved shirts, at shirt, and a sweatshirt) we're not enough, the day was successful and a wonderful experience.  

I'm in Dallas helping friends with a track meet and goal ball for the visually impaired.  While others worked in the gyms with goal ball, I walked around the track and enjoyed the warmer weather.  My iPad is back at the house, so I'm attempting to blog from my phone and watch the final goal ball gsmes... Look it up on YouTube... Can't link from my phone!  

When  our flight was give.the opportunity to get bumped to a later flight for a free ticket, I was the first at the counter.  Three seats were broke(?), so they needed volunteers.  Unfortunately, the mechanics fixed the seats, and they rescinded the offer only after reassigning my seat.  Instead of sitting in 11c, I was in 18d.  This did not please me.  It did give me the opportunity to help Kevin Kling (look him up... Don't know how to link on iPad) with his bag and tell him I appreciated his stories.  Anyway, all is well, and I have arrived in Dallas.  Plus, I've made a feline happy since the guest room is typically off limits!

Saturday was the first time I hit the gym since October 1st, and it felt great.  It motivated me to work out more and to change my workout mix.  September's mix was less than motivating.  Tonight I listened to October's mix a bit on the treadmill before my pump class.  I think it's going to be good.  Heck, maybe I'll skip conferences tomorrow night, so I can go to the gym and workout with my new mix. Girl on Fire by Alicia Keys Work B**ch by Britney Spears Safe and Sound by Capital Cities Renegade by Daughtry Santa Monica by Everclear Pretty Vegas by INXS Dark Horse by Katy Perry (feat. Juicy J) Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin My Own Worst Enemy by Lit Absolutely (Story of a Girl) by Nine Days Are We All We Are by P!nk Still into You by Paramore Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard by Paul Simon D'yer Mak'er by Puddle of Mudd Right Now by Rihanna (feat. David Guetta) Push it (Remix) by Salt-n-Pepa I Think We're Alone Now by Tiffany I Know...

After a visit to the farmers' market and a friend's garden, I made kale chips.  I found the recipe via the interweb and made three pans.  Each pan improved... No need to use too much oil and/or salt!

Heartline by Ernest Whiteman Today we wrote about this image using Perceive .  When it came to discussing what the image ,  a couple of students said that it reminded them of Slender Man.  "Who's Slender Man?" I asked.  It seems he's part of a scary video game.  In one class, all but one student knew Slender Man.  Students in three of my five classes mentioned Slender Man.  Most told me that I shouldn't play the video game because it was too scary.  Since I don't play any video games, I think I was safe when I said, "Ok, I won't play it." Slender Man

                                     Which heats my house the most efficiently?  Yep, the $30 heater from Target not the furnace which needs replacing! I'll post more tomorrow after I go to the chiropractor for my back then return home to get the final estimate on the new furnace. 

 I left the house this morning, I put a little over a tablespoon of molasses in the bottom of my coffee mug and headed to Caribou.  I ordered my mocha (dark chocolate, skim, half caff, no whip... Who says I'm high maintanence?) and handed over my mug stating there's molasses in the bottom of my mug.  The barista said he'd wash it out.  'No, I want it in there.  I brought a knife to make sure it gets blended in."  (Where are the quotation marks on the iPad.)  I explained the story and stated that I hoped it was the weirdest thing that he witnessed today.  Instead of saying that it wasnt weird, he agreed with me.  

Around 3:00am I awoke to a freezing room.  Instead of turning on the heat, I added a blanket.  About an hour later, I was still cold, so I decided to turn on the heat.   Not too long after turning on the heat, weird noises started coming from the vents, so I turned off the heat and added another blanket plus socks.  I stayed under the covers until I thought I could call me dad for advice.  He told me I'd have to call a heating specialist which I did immediately.  Of course the heating guy can't come until Tuesday.  After calming down, I called my dad back to apologize for freaking out.  When the temperature in my living space gets below 65º, I panic.  I explained to my dad that I knew most people keep their heat at that temperature, but that I was cold.  He understands that I'm an absolute baby when it comes to cold. I went to Target, bought a mini heater, and returned home to spend the day in front of the tv and mini heater. ...

I'm at my dad's farm in Okoboji enjoying the scenery and my new electronics.  It's beautiful and peaceful.  While I use my iPhone as a hotspot, I am working on schoolwork without worrying about the mundane tasks that often occupy my mind in my own living space.  Plus, there's no popcorn in the cupboards for me to munch.  The hotspot allows me to work on my school computer, although I'm saving grading for tomorrow (can't spend all day with work), while it also allows me to geek on social media with my iPad.  Best yet, music from my iPad blocks the gunshots of hunters in the distance.  My only sadness is that after the latest sharing of words between Sinead O'Connor and Myley Cyrus, I didn't upload/download songs of either artist to my iPad.  

  For a little over a month, I have been adding molasses to my smoothie almost every morning to enhance my iron levels.  Today I was excited to quite excited to give blood to see if it was making a difference.  To give blood the hematocrit level must be 12.5 to 19.?.  Even when I take iron for a week or two before giving blood, the highest my level has ever been is 12.7.  Throughout the day I was kinda hoping that the molasses wasn't working because I could quit making and drinking the smoothies every morning and change to a mocha or hot cocoa.  Alas, the molasses is working.  My level was 13.3 today.  Crazy!  It works!  Since I know it works, I'm going for the compromise.  At least twice a week I'll make a smoothie and the other times I'll have something else (English muffin, a mocha, or a hot cocoa).  It seems like a win-win.  Besides, I'm running out of frozen fruit.

Iowa State may have already won the only game they may win this year.  When I realized they were playing on ESPN tonight against Texas, I was afraid it was going to be a blowout, but I also knew I was sure to quite sure I wanted to watch the game.  Since conferences are next week and my list of what needs graded is out of control, I decided to use the game as a chance to get some of the planning for next week completed (Notebook file (like Power Point), student timeline, teacher timeline with objectives, etc.).  With only a couple minutes before half, I was finished with these tasks.  At that time, Texas through a Hail Mary into the endzone and scored.  My excitement for completing my tasks was dampened by the touchdown.  At least I have completed a significant amount of work and the game isn't a blowout.

This afternoon I went in for an iPad mini and walked out with an iPad Mini and an iPhone 5C.  I wasn't going to get a new phone, but the sales associate was super helpful as we discussed the mini.  First of all, I didn't know my iPhone could be used as a personal hotspot.  Instead of hooking up to Verizon, I was able to get the wiFi only although I spent that savings on the Apple Care.  Anyway, as we were talking about the new OS, he asked about my phone.  It's a 4 without Siri.  He told me it was worth $65 on a trade-in.  Even though I thought about it was a good deal, I left the store with the iPad and no phone.  Halfway home I called a friend to get her opinion.  Basically, it was a great deal since I was getting a new phone foe $25.  Woot! Woot!  I walked back in and found the same sales rep and asked if he wanted to sell me a phone!  Soooooo.... This is my first blog post and photo from my IPad mini.  I've also been ...

I know it's only October 1st, but it feels like Halloween.  John Boehner reminds me of Halloween... orange and evil.  Mitch McConnell, well he looks and sounds like death.  Perhaps he's really a ghost.  Anyway, I have nothing intelligent to say about the government shutdown, but others do!  John Stewart provided comedy, and Anne Lamott said this: Wow, they did it. They shut down the U.S. government, like we are such cute fancy banana republic. Of course, the first response is stunned silence. Something is happening that can't actually be happening, yet here we are. It's okay that you can't figure out what to do yet--it just happened. Stunned, scared amazement is appropriate. Mouths hanging open? Right in target. I myself look like one of the Little Rascals I can't help but remember family holidays, where the alcoholic uncle, who has been threatening to do something rash every time he gets in his cups--and NOT his tea cups--finally goes and does it. He finall...