Miscellaneous Missives

I tend to eat too much during workshop week as I typically eat out each lunch. When we were on our way to Potbelly on Monday, we realized a Mexican taqueria, Andale Taqueria Y Mercado, had opened on Nicollet near 494 (7700 Nicollet Avenue, Richfield). I've been trying all day to pronounce taqueria correctly, but I'm struggling. Anyway, I love going into a place that seems authentic. Only Latinos were eating and working in the restaurant. We were the only Gringa(o)s. The food was fairly inexpensive and tasty. It helped that the hot sauce had a bit of a kick. I had three (yep, three... carnitas, pollo, cerdo (?)... starving) tacos and left completely satisfied. Completely satisfied also could describe my afternoon at school. Many know the long story of my begging for a cork board for the last several years. Instead of a cork board, I had a white board that I used double-sided tape to tape up paper to cover then more double-sided tape to attach posters. It was horr...

Today was the second day of workshop. I forgot how stressful it is to start the school year: getting up early, making sure my room is ready to go, attending meetings, updating web pages, etc. Yesterday I arrived at school at 7:15 am and returned home at 5:00 pm in time to take a shower and leave for dinner with wonderful former colleagues. When I returned home, I took a minute to reflect on my day. Today driving to school I had a realization about school and my colleagues. To be honest I do not consider most of my colleagues to be friends. My realization is not that I don't consider them friends, but that there is a special bond. A colleague, whom I don't necessarily consider a friend, and I were talking yesterday. Although I hadn't talked to her all summer, she felt comfortable sharing some sad news with me. Being a colleague and working closely each day of the school year forms a rare bond. Maybe it's because I work with amazing people. Most of my workshop...

zero hour- (n) the scheduled time for the start of an action (especially a military operation) The American Heritage dic-tion-ar-y Fourth Edition Rocket Man by Elton John "She packed my bags last night pre-flight Zero hour nine a.m. And I’m gonna be high as a kite by then" I don't know how it relates, but I heard this song yesterday. It made me think of today's post, ' Z '. Actually it sorta fits since this summer (view image) is z ooming by, and " z ero hour" comes on Monday when I have to go back to work. Today I "packed my bags" with the school stuff that needs to return on Monday. Although I'm not really prepared to start on Monday, I know that it will be good. The training last week and the meetings over the last couple weeks have helped prepare me for this change. I merely wish "zero hour" was actually nine am because I'm not prepared for an earlier start. 26 days, 26 posts, 26 letters of the alpha...

Last night my brother and I looked through pictures of our youth. We had a blast looking at the photos and deciding which ones we wanted to scan. I asked that two of my favorites be scanned today, so I could put them on my blog. Something did not go as planned, so I hope it can be fixed before the rest are scanned (Someone is scanning them for us.). I have reposted the pictures after some lack of common sense and a helpful e-mail, so all is well with the pictures.

Yesterday, in preparation for today's trip to visit my brother and today's blog of 'X', I sent my brother a text asking if he would be willing to break a bone while I was visiting him in Okoboji. My plan was simple. He breaks a bone. We go to the emergency room. I take a picture and post a blog of our adventures. Brilliant! This morning he called questioning my plan. "Why don't you write about X-Ray Spex?" he asked. "I don't know X-Ray Spex," I answered. "Yes you do. They sang Ballroom Blitz ," he provided. Although it was not a stellar plan like the broken bone and X-ray, I asked him to send me the link. This is what I received. I was wrong. the glam rock band, Sweet, plays Ballroom Blitz . I was thinking of the punk rock band the X-Ray Spex who are also famous and sing the following song which may or may not be appropriate for you blog: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogypBUCb7DA . There isn't necessarily an a...

Today is the second day of MILI. I'm sure I will learn lots. At the bottom of my V is for Valuable post, I made a list of things I accomplished. I did not add making a Wordle of my blog (even though I did accomplish this) because I knew today was W is for Wordle! I'm not quite sure that my Wordle a fair sample of my blog, but I like its looks.

This morning was my first day of MILI (Metronet Information Literacy Initiative). The focus is on the 3 R's (research, reliable resources, responsible use). At first I was a bit frustrated because the beginning of the day wasn't interactive. The presenters were "talking at us". I realize this is important to disseminate information. It wasn't all bad. While I was listening, I used an online dictionary to peruse the 'V' section for today's blog (vegetables/hate broccoli, venus fly trap/ always wanted one, verse/what poem could I post?, vestal virgin/???, vex/challenges of daily blogging, vice president/would love to have a beer with Biden, video/favorite Youtube video, vocabulary/idea for next year's daily journal, vodka/prefer gin, vomit/IDK...follows vodka). Each word was worthy of today's blog since each word has a story (except vestal virgin... what's a vestal virgin?). I digress. As the day continued, I was more excited about ...