Olives and Walnut Shells Anyone?

So I like funny blogs. I couldn't get enough Cake Wrecks for a while there. The reality is though that I am insanely busy these days, and Cake Wrecks takes a long time to read just because the pics take a while to load.

So, my current favorite is Catalog Living. Soooo funny. It takes all those random catalog pictures and makes comments about a made-up family that would live in that house. You should check it out.

Anyway, there is a compilation of several of their funny holiday posts. I seriously laughed out loud as I read them. Check it out.

So what?

I never blog for real any more. But hey. I think this is really funny.



Embarrassed by their premature arrival, Gary & Elaine’s decorative Christmas trees made their way upstairs to hide for another month.

Catalog Living

Friday Funny

My new favorite palindrome:

Dammit I'm Mad!

New Blog Idea

I think I should start a new blog. I could call it "Things I Love to Eat that Make Me the Fatass I Am." I could have a one line post every day.

Today I think I would post something involving pumpkin. Perhaps a Pumpkin Pie Blizzard. Mmmmmmm.

New Toy!

So I understand that there are many things to dislike about AT&T, however, I think there are also MANY things to dislike about Charter. So, in honor of the fact that I really hate Charter, we went ahead and switch to AT&T for our TV and internet. We'll end up saving a little bit of money each month and get more services like voicemail, caller ID, that kind of thing.

But let me comment on the U-verse TV portion. I LOVE IT!!!!! Already I'm loving having a DVR. I feel like I joined the modern world. In fact, I've already got some regular series scheduled. Tonight, I just tried out pausing live TV. I watch shows on HBO, but they don't show commercials. I love that normally, however there are times I just need to go to the bathroom or get a glass of water. Now, no problem!

Tomorrow I get to at least order my iPhone too. Aaaah. Technology really is one of my pleasures.

So Much for That

Remember here when I said this week was going to be a Blogapalooza? Yeah, well, that clearly didn't happen. Why? Well, let's review how this week went.

Monday- Over the weekend, we discovered that a student has Tourrette syndrome. The catch is that the parents don't want anyone to know or talk to the kid about it, so his teacher had been getting on him because of his singing outbursts. Well, as I discovered this weekend, making a big deal out of the situation makes it worse. So Monday was spent talking to other administrators and the teacher about the issue.

Tuesday- Report card update didn't happen as planned, so I spent hours on e-mail and the phone with the database people. Now, we have a full-time database administrator, so why was I the one making these calls? I have no idea but it still irritates me that people can't do their own jobs. The good part of today was that I got to have lunch with my friend.

Wednesday- We finally got report cards printed. Well, I did. My admin still couldn't generate them, so I had to print to PDF and then she physically printed them and took them to the post office. Unfortunately, on my way home I talked to my husband and he said Ginger had been throwing up all day. Oh no! I left a VM on the vet tech line, but by 10:00, they still hadn't called me back. So I called the office again, went through the front desk, and ended up at the office by 10:20. I was there until midnight and Ginger had to spend the night because she had something in her tummy. The x-ray couldn't tell what it was, and all the toys were accounted for. I didn't sleep well that night.

Thursday- I woke up at 6:00 and called the vet right away to check on Ginger. The tech said there had been no vomiting overnight, and that the vet would x-ray her again and call me soon. By 7:30 the vet called and it looked like whatever had been in her tummy had passed. Thursday was actually a normal day! There were some other folks from my department around, so I didn't get as much done as I would have liked, but I did get some work done. I also finally made it to the bank... something I've needed to do for days. I picked Ginger up on my way home, and we had a quiet evening at home. $600 poorer, but at least everyone was ok.

Friday- My day started with getting up at 5:00 to give Ginger her medicine before we started our feeding schedule for the day. When I walked into my office, I immediately got a phone call from a mother who was livid about her daughter's summer school grade. The kid got a B-. Um, hello. That's a good grade in the upper school. She even began threatening to withdraw her kid from school because clearly a bad grade in Ethics means her kid can only get C's in "real" classes. Let's not acknowledge that the course was taught by the head of the Upper School and was this child's first foray into high school classes and expectations. Then my afternoon teacher talked to me and said she thought she had food poisoning and might not be able to teach. I didn't have time to teach her class! I had to take care of a bunch of stuff because I leave for San Antonio and a week-long conference. Thank goodness she was able to keep it together so I could get out of town.

Saturday(today)- I have not really gone outside yet. It's way too hot. I think I heard the news say it was almost 90 a few minutes before 7:00! At home I've been doing 1000 loads of laundry, starting to pack for tomorrow, and just getting a little more quality time with all my furbabies. DH should be home soon too. I'm thinking about getting takeout from the Shaved Duck for dinner. He's been craving pulled pork and coleslaw. I've heard their mac'n'cheese is really good too. I also need to grab a few things from Target. While I've been working at home today, I've had Cake Boss on in the background. I've never watched that show before, but it is pretty entertaining. In one episode this crazy bride comes to the bakery the day before her wedding to see her cake. She HATES it, so what does she do? Grabs icing and starts putting random icing blobs all over it! OMG. I couldn't believe he didn't scream at this girl AND made her a new cake. When he dropped off the new cake, the bride wouldn't even talk to him. What a bitch. I'm amazed by how much they all fight though. It makes Charm City Cakes look sooooo calm. :)

Don't know how much I'll post this week, but hopefully I learn a lot.

Dreams

Randall posted this little glimpse into her desires today, and it looked like fun! Doesn't everyone have that list of things they would most like to have? So here we go.

Car
An Audi A4


Truck
Let's be clear. I've always wanted a truck, but it just has never been practical.


Furniture
For this dream to be true we would need a new house AND the TV, but it's still what I want. Something like this would be nice, though that plant is scary. (BTW, have you read Catalog Living? If not, I highly recommend it.)


Vacation
Greece. I was lucky enough to go to Italy and would love to go back. Greece is next on my list though.


Jewelery
Diamond studs.


House
I love big historic homes. This isn't my favorite of all time, but it's the best I could do based on what listed under current real estate. I would want an updated kitchen though. :)

PSA

I am co-teaching/TAing a class during this session of summer school. Basically I'm around to help with lab prep and classroom management. Well, that means I spend most of the 3-hour period goofing around on my computer.

BE WARNED!
This means there will be lots of FB wall posts, random blog entries, and many comments on your own blogs. Lucky for you, there are only six more days of this since I have a Professional Development conference during the last week of the session.

A Fantabulous Weekend- Part 2

Saturday was a big day for me! I got to go to Soulard Farmer's Market for the first time ever. I know I've lived here for like 8 years, but I was always busy on Saturday mornings. That's just kind of sacred horse time. Anyway, I went with my friend Joline and her husband. Her exact words were, "DH will be psyched because I hate to go there." I have to say I was a little disappointed. Lots of the produce did not look home grown. However, I did get some great tomatoes, a couple lovely yellow bell peppers, two kinds of delicious pasta, some yummy apple pie jam stuff, and this incredible Amish goat cheese from Baetje Farms. I cannot express how fabulous this stuff is. I got the Three Peppercorn and Herb de Provence. Mmmmmm. Looking at their brochure, I see that they will be at both the Maplewood and Webster Groves markets this summer too. That's dangerous!

Also on Saturday, my favorite local pet store, Treats Unleashed, was having an ice cream social for the dogs. I should have taken a picture of the ice cream cups before we started. They were dog cookies in the shape of a cup, filled with yogurt, and then frozen for their delight. The edges were also dipped in carob and they were topped with peanut butter chips and crumbled dog treats. What do you think? Were they a hit?


Finally, that evening I went to the grocery store. Now, let's be clear that I DO NOT like bugs. My general rule of thumb is that if an organism has fewer than two legs (i.e. snakes) or more than four (here is where bugs fit in,) I am not ok. However, there are some amazing things in nature that always make me pause and wonder at the amazing things evolution has given us. One example of this is the leaf bug. Isn't that cool?

Yes, there is a third part to this weekend that will be coming along shortly.

Seen in the Airport

I saw a girl wearing this shirt in the airport today. I looked it up online so I could see the the image more closely. Very cute. I think I am especially drawn to it because I'm a chemist by trade. What can I say, I'm a geek!

Story Time

When I was growing up in Texas you couldn't shop on Sundays. I think maybe the grocery store was open, but certainly the mall was not. Well, when I was in middle elementary school (maybe third or fourth grade?), the blue laws were lifted and the mall was open on Sunday. So, that first Sunday, I went shopping. What did I buy? This funny little family of toy rabbits. There was a story that went with them, and there were many accessories to be purchased as well.

What brings up this story? I was at the teacher store buying paper for a bulletin board (more on that later,) and what did I see? Those same rabbits! Ah, memories.

Friday Funny

Do you watch RHoNY? Oh yeah, I do. Really though, this says it all.

In the words of Andy Cohen, while money can't buy you class, it can buy you auto-tune (and a weave.)

::sigh::

I feel like crap. My throat has been hurting for days. I went to bed at 8:00 last night, and I'm still tired. (And my throat still hurts.) Today is our Day of Caring at work. I never mind doing community service, but honestly, I just want to sleep. There is supposed to be a BBQ this afternoon, but I have serious doubts about making it that long.

My e-mail account also got hacked over night and was disabled when I woke up this morning. This day really is not shaping up to be amazing.

A Serious Moment

**Warning, long rant relating to current events ahead.**
Is anyone else angry about the disaster in the gulf? Every time I watch the news, I get mad. How can we have allowed this to happen? When these companies drill outside other countries, they are required to have secondary wells just in case something like this happened.

What about the fact that the workers on that drilling platform told BP that their plan to cap the well was crap, but BP insisted. Now 11 people are dead because BP was greedy. I normally think people are too quick to sue in the country, but I hope the families of those workers bring a huge wrongful death suit against BP.

Are we really so dependent on oil that we are sacrificing our environment, human lives, and people's livelihoods? Clearly we are, but it just makes me sick. This dependence has been around so long, and we've allowed our politicians to be bought by the oil companies, that no money has been dedicated to researching alternative fuels or greater fuel efficiency using the fossil fuels we have now. It's irresponsible and wrong. Many people are trying to blame the current administration for this particular disaster. However, the blame has to be shared between all the administrations in the past 30 years. These types of irresponsible decisions based on the never ending need for more oil have been around for a long, long time.

Our culture needs to change. That's all there is to it. But we're way more interested in American Idol, Jesse James, and the new Sex and the City movie to be bothered by the important things. Don't get me wrong, I listen to the entertainment report in the morning rather than changing to a news station while driving to work. I'm not perfect. The reality is though that we all need to change. We are not doing our jobs as stewards of the planet. Something's gotta give.

Random Musings

* Last day of classes was today! Now I just have SO much grading to do. :(

* Henry has started going to day camp. He loves it and is nice and tired when he comes home.

* I found out I get a nice bonus next month for my work with the summer academy. I have a shiny, sparkly plan for part of it.

* Hopefully I can blog a little more often once school is over. I kind of miss it.

I LOL'd

Do you read Craftastrophe? It's a funny blog about crafts, especially on Etsy, that go wrong. Often their humor is a little, um, graphic for me, but today they were making fun of these hats made out of dog fur. Gross. Anyway, the author is talking about required items and says, "Got a dog? Then all you need is a brush and someone who knows how to work a loom…unless you’re like me, and live with two terriers. Then all you’ll need is a box of wine, lots of valium and a tranquilizer gun."

HAHAHAHA! As the mom of a Jack Russell, I can totally identify with that statement. Today is Cinco de Bow Wow at Treats Unleashed, so Henry and I are going to check it out this evening. I love taking him out to see the world, and I love having today off to enjoy the weather and just regroup so I can finish the year strong. One more week of classes and a week of exams! Then we have mini-term, but that shouldn't be a big deal.

You know what I just realized?

Last week I posted about how beautiful the weather was going to be in the coming days. I linked to the image that Chanel 5 posts of the forecast. Well, the link is static and the forecast just updates. I only noticed because I wondered why there was a clock on the picture. Well dummy, it's because this weekend is the time change!

I guess today really is random Thursday.

Earthquakes and the Devil

I guess the original link no longer works. Here the the Huffington post article which includes the original clip.


No.

That is all.

Random Musing

After high school, I worked at Burger King. I was a manager,and the pay was pretty good for that point in my life. After college, I waited tables at Bennigan's. Again, not exactly upscale, but I made good money.

Well, I took some time off after grad school and before I started teaching. I looked for jobs waiting tables, and my first criterion was that I refused to wear a name tag.

Why was I thinking about this today? Well, the school I'm teaching at now requires all adults to wear a nametag. So basically I have totally backslid in my job requirements. Ironic I think. Happy Monday!

Pathetic Really

The current time is 7:38 p.m. on FRIDAY, October 2, 2009. I am making mac and cheese for dinner, and I might have a beer. Realistically though? I could go to bed right now. Seriously.