Miscellaneous Missives

I'm back in the saddle.  Starting tomorrow (well actually today) I will ride #30daysofbiking.  This morning started with a chilly windy ride.  At one point I looked over the river drinking my water trying to eliminate the little coughing spell.  Late this afternoon, I made my way to the river once again.  A friend from college and I met for happy hour.  My guess is that we haven't seen each other in over twenty years.  It had the potential of being awkward, but it was quite enjoyable. Today I give thanks for... 1) bodies of water 2) "old friends" and local breweries 3) ready for #30daysofbiking

I tend to leave things until I "can get to them."  Spring break has allowed me time to clean the closets.  Today I cleaned out two closets and a kitchen cupboard.  Unfortunately, I only saved a little room in the kitchen by eliminating a juicer, two bread pans, and a pizza stone.  Two years ago I asked for a pizza stone for Christmas and only used it once.  Since I already made my trip to Steeple People with the contents of one closet before I cleaned out the other and the kitchen cupboard, I will need to make another trip soon.  If anyone wants a pizza stone, let me know, but my guess is you won't use it either.  Anyway, I feel good about completing these tasks, and although it's only Monday, I'm worried about when I'm going to find time to grade the damn five paragraph essays. Today I give thanks for... 1) dinner with a dear friend 2) being productive 3) my dental hygienist... they do more than the dentist and should make more money...  ...

In preparation for this outdoor biking season, I put together my Bike '15 playlist.  Bike '14 was 5 hours and 47 minutes long; it had 93 songs.  Bike '15 is 6 hours and 9 minutes long; it has 98 songs.  Fifty-five songs were recycled from the Bike '14 playlist.  Until I get on my bike and start listening, I'm happy with my new eclectic playlist.  I even have a song in Spanish.    The list would be too long to type, so I'm going to share playlists.  Let me know if I left off something that needs to be added.  I still have two spaces. Actually, looking at the list, I think I need to add more P!nk.  What's your favorite P!nk song? Maybe I should also add another Pat Benatar song? I'm also wondering if I have enough Prince?  What are your thoughts?  What would you add and/or remove?  Life is a Highway may be the first to come off! Today I give thanks for... 1) modern technologies and playlists 2) kind, ...

I didn't get a lot accomplished today because I'm a bit "under the weather," but I did get my dresser cleaned out.  Spring break will bring a little spring cleaning, and the dresser is finished.  Tomorrow it'll be the closet.  Anyway, as I cleaned out the sock drawer, I kept putting socks that I don't wear in a pile.  At the end I had 32 pairs of socks to donate.  One would think this means I have no socks, left, but I still have a full drawer.  Weird!! Today I give thanks for... 1) Steeple People (a nonprofit "thrift store" run by our church) 2) children laughing outside my window 3) a day to do nothing

Today is March 27th.  It marks the last day of school for another week.  I'm not really sure if spring break starts tonight or tomorrow, but spring break is basically here.  Although I have no big vacation plans for spring break, I'm ready to take biking a bit more seriously, so get ready for some (a lot, too many) biking posts.  Since the plan is to ride the Fulton Grand Fondo on May 9th, some riding needs to happen.  At my sabbath group meeting, I had a Sweet Child of Vine to get the Fulton attitude.  Now I need to put some mileage on my bike.  I'm going to start out by planning it on my calendar.  My friend J and I have decided to take an eight week training calendar and cut off the first two weeks since we only have 6 weeks.  It'll work... right?!  What's the worst that can happen? Today I give thanks for... 1) local breweries 2) sabbath group 3) a last minute change to today's class that probably made grading essays more e...

Today we had a field trip to Richardson Nature Center .  Since there wasn't enough snow for snow shoeing, we did two outdoor activities (a nature hike and fire and shelter building).  This alternated with the inside activity of looking at the raptors .  One would wonder if teaching middle school boys the basics of fire starting is a good idea, but they enjoyed it.  The most zealous groups I observed were those made up of solely boys.  Since we had time before and after the field trip, we watched the movie Eight Below .  At the end of the day, we still had thirty minutes remaining.  I probably don't need to tell anyone I've never seen the movie since I rarely watch movies, but I've never watched the movie.  It would be impossible to count the number of times I had tears in my eyes, although I can count the times (one) when I jumped out of my seat, put my hands up to my mouth, and yelled, "Oh my God."  A colleague and I were discussing our d...

I was observed today by a peer coach.  Tomorrow will be my post observation.  The peer coach is really nice, really nice.  I've mentioned a bit in jest that I could say FU in class, and she would tell me I did a great job getting everyone's attention.  Of course I did not say FU in class today, but as class ended I did play some songs with figurative language.  I used tubechop.com, so I could play an appropriate segment of each song. Here's a list: Fancy by Iggy Azalea Dark Horse by Kelly Clarkson La La La by Naughty Boy feat Sam Smith Happy by Pharrell Wiliams Girl on Fire by Alecia Keys Counting Stars by One Republic Stereo Hearts by Gym Class Heroes Fire Flies by Owl City I also added two songs from Frozen . I think it's a good list, but it will be out of date next year.  Actually, I have a list from last year, but I don't know if the students will recognize a lot of the songs.  Besides today's observation, I've been deliberat...