This Guy

Ive been thinking a lot about him lately. I'll never understand why he did what he did. The grown up part of me is getting past it, and just hoping he's happy know. The little part of me is still hurt and sad over it, and hopes he's proud of me. I think thats pretty much how it's going to be.

One thing he once told me, is that I did what I believed was right, even if no one else agreed. I think I've spent all my life since he said that trying to live up to that. I'm glad he saw me for more and better than what I was. I hope I can see my students the same way, and that they will want to live up to my vision the way I want to live up to his, still.

I love you Trif, I'll never forget you. You made me want to be a teacher, I'm sorry I couldn't figure that out for sure when you were still around, and I'm sorry if I dissapointed you. I hope I make you proud, and I hope I do a tiny little bit for even one of my students as what you did for almost all of yours.

FYI

As promised, we are continuing to keep you updated on the Menu Foods recall.

We know the Menu Foods recall has caused concern, frustration and anger among many pet lovers, including many of our own employees and their families. We want you to know that we care deeply, and we continue to take action on your behalf.

We want to comment on the new announcement today (Friday, March 30, 2007) by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) that they have found a substance called melamine in the wheat gluten of recalled products, and not the aminopterin, as earlier suspected by the New York Foods Laboratory.

We can reassure you:

First, there is no melamine or aminopterin in any of our Iams and Eukanuba dry pet foods on store shelves.

In fact, Iams and Eukanuba dry pet foods to DO NOT contain wheat gluten. Our dry dog and cat foods are made exclusively by P&G Pet Care and not by Menu Foods.

Pet owners can feel safe and confident in feeding all Iams and Eukanuba dry foods, as well as any wet foods that are not on the Menu Foods recall list. Click here to see the specific list of recalled wet pouch and canned products.

We want to review the key actions we’ve taken:

• We immediately worked with retailers to remove from store shelves the small number of our wet pouch and canned products affected by the Menu Foods recall.
• We immediately suspended production of all our foods manufactured at the affected Menu Foods Emporia, Kansas plant.
• We have shared all of our data and continue to cooperate fully with FDA, which is leading this important investigation.
• A task force of prominent North American veterinary health care experts, convened by Iams to review the recall, recently agreed: "Veterinarians and pet owners should feel safe recommending and feeding Iams and Eukanuba dry foods".

We want to stress again that you can confidently feed all of your pets any of our dry foods, as well as the wet foods not affected by the Menu Foods recall. If you have any questions about the recalled products, please click here to see the specific list of recalled wet pouch and canned products.

P&G Pet Care is deeply committed to pet well-being and our top priority is to help you care for your dog and cat family members. We will continue to provide you with meaningful updates. If you have additional questions, not answered on our Web site FAQs, please call us at 1-800-882-1591.

Don't say I didn't warn you, Erin!

A worm farm is basically a box of shredded newspaper and dirt that has worms in it, into which you dump your kitchen scraps (no meat, please) which the worms turn into super duper fertilizer for the garden. You do not, however, have to actually touch the worms, or, usually, even see them.

I dont watch American Idol, but . . . .

There have been all these promos for the pre-show and post-show on TV Guide Channel lately, and they keep saying things like "Former Idol Justin Guarini"

Wait.

Don't you have to WIN to be the Idol?

Isnt that the point?

Didnt he LOSE?

I can tell when my intelligence is being insulted.

Speaking intelligence, I got in my pool for the first time today! Even though the water was 55 degrees. It was cold. The dogs wouldn't get in with me.

Mmmm, worm castings.

I have a mild gardening obsession right now. I really want to grow all these vegetables and flowers. I'm trying to pace myself, really. Part of this, though, is that I am going to make my own WORM FARM. I'm very excited.

Jason Ray, the Tarheel mascot, died this morning. His parents are donating his organs. Hopefully some good will come out of his death because of that, I'm thinking another good thing that could come out of it is that NCAA teams could start housing their cheerleaders and mascots somewhere SAFER. Apparently they were kind of out in the middle of nowhere with little or no transportation.

On another note, I was talking to my friend, Josie, at school about it. We were talking about how our instinct is to think how tragically short this kids life was cut, but in reality, none of us really live one day more or one day less than we were intended to. his life wasn't cut short, his life was exactly as long as God intended it to be. He lived a complete life. Thats kind of a comforting idea. Don't get me wrong though, if that was my son, I don't think I could even think that, let alone say it out loud.

The Amazing Race

OMG, those STUPID ACCENTS. They sound Italian in EVERY COUNTRY.

Blogapalooza.

But seriously. I don't know if you guys have heard about this, but the Ramses mascot for UNC was hit by a car before the USC game walking back to his hotel from a convenience store. He is in critical condition, he may be brain dead, although he is, apparently, showing some signs of brain activity and doctors are starting to be hopeful.

What I REALLY want to blog about are some of the sickening comments on the ESPN article listed above. People have the overwhelming gall to say it's his own fault for walking along the highway. They're not just thinking it, THEY'RE ACTUALLY SAYING IT OUT LOUD ON THE INTERNET. As someone's who's been HIT by a car, while walking in the GRASS, walking along the side of the road, any road, isn't asking to be hit. That doesnt' mean it was the drivers fault, either, but dont' blame it on the poor kid in critical condition.

The article also called Jayson a member of the "carolina athletic community." Some asshole commented that that was wrong because cheerleaders arent' athletes. I feel really sorry for that guy. I dont know where he went to school, but at UNC the athletes, the fans, the mascots, the cheerleaders and even the band are part of the CAROLINA FAMILY.

Sorry, in order to restrain myself from posting a comment telling those people they sucked, I needed to vent.

I know he's a stranger, but he's also a poor, broken kid, and if you guys would do whatever you do for him, I'm sure it would help.

The trials of being a home owner.

It's been one of those weekends. The ones where everything in your house keeps breaking. Or, rather, you discover that things are broken.

First of all, my isight isnt working. Its strange, because the little green light on it lights up, but it's not getting a picture. I think maybe when the puppy stepped on my laptop she knocked something lose? I dont know, but I see a trip to the mac store in my future.

Second, our fence is leaking. We have a six foot privacy fence, and about half of it has seen better days. Our shed is kind of built in to the fence, and the shed is raised off the ground. The dogs have discovered how to get under the shed and belly crawl all the way to freedom. We keep puppy proofing it, they keep finding a new way out. It is the circle of life.

Third, and most of all, our pool pump cracked. Apparently, over the winter, we didn't *quite* get all of the water out of the reservoir for the pump. It cracked. Tiny tiny little cracks all the way around the bottom. When it finally came time to turn it on, and water started gushing out of the bottom, I can't even tell you the dissapointment. Fortunately my hubbles, who is also my personal hero, knows how to do things like use fiberglass resin. I think he's fixed it. Today will tell for sure.

*Update* The pool is still broken, but I fixed the isight! Ever since mac switched to intel chips it's picky about things. I apparently needed to actually *shut down* after my last update, not just restart. Go figure.

I'm a heel.

No, not that kind of Heel, the other kind. the bad kind. the jerky kind.

I was supposed to go home to see my sisters play this weekend, but due to many factors, primarily my husbands work schedule, I decided not to. This is not so bad on it's own. BUT, I forgot to tell anybody. Until today. When I was supposed to go home. Hence the heel comment. Add this to my list of reasons why I don't like living so far away from home.

Today is Todd's last day off four about 2.5 weeks. He has one of those jobs that involve long periods of very very business, followed by periods of relative idleness, and then moderate business. In other words, he has to work for about 2 weeks straight, and then he goes back to a normal schedule, and then, even better, he has summer vacation! Everytime I start to really hate his job, I remind myself how much he loves it and how much time we get together at the holidays and (at least this year, his first that he's not spending in NY) we'll have in the summer.

I thought of something REALLY interesting to post on the way to work this morning

But I forgot it by the time I got home.

So instead, I'll tell you about my new exercise regime. I call it "digging in the yard." Its highly effective, especially at working the "pain in the lower back" muscles and the "sweat in my eyes" reflex.

I recently discovered what the mysterious plant in my yard was. They're Hostas! Lots and lots of Hostas! Which haven't been divided in forever! So today, I dug them up and divided them, and planted a bunch in other parts of the yard, I still have more to do later. As with all home improvement/gardening things, it left me with a vague feeling of "I hope I didn't screw that up."

That little rat!

Well, shes definitely gotten bigger. Chloe got a chicken carcass of fthe counter tonight! It still had a lot of chicken on it, too. It made me a little sad. She also licked all the icing off the side of the leftover carrot cake from Todds Mom's birthday this weekend, and it was towards the back of the counter! That made me a lot sad. I wish I'd taken a picture, but I didn't. Oh well.

She's still getting bigger, but shes not chewing on less stuff!!

Would somebody please tell me

How THIS


Turned into THIS

More censorship outrage

Some girls in New York state got suspended from school after using the word "vagina" during a performance of some of the "vagina monologues." The principal apparently thought they were going to do the performance WITHOUT using the word vagina. Go figure.

Hubbles throws in "Vagina's not even a vulgar word! What did they think they were going to call it, who-ha?"

See "starred items" for a link.

Go click on the fund free mammograms link.

now. RIGHT NOW
http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/CTDSites

TMNT

aaahhh!!! They're making a teenage mutant ninja turtles movie!! Im so excited. yes, its animated. They're calling it TMNT, which reminds me of how NKOTB tried to reinvent themselves by going by their initials. It didn't work for them, either.

It opens March 23, who wants to go???