Two posts in one night!

One of my husband's students committed suicide over the summer. It's wasnt someone he was super close to, but it was someone in one of his classes, and because of the nature of his school and his department, thats more like having someone in a High School class than a college class. He'll have the same students all four years.

It hasn't been devastating, but it has brought up conversations every now and then, which of course end in conversations, at least partially about Trifaro. That, coupled with the beginning of the school year having me thinking about him a lot.

I dont' think I'll ever stop thinking about him like that: a lot for short period and then not at all for a long time. Suicide is very different than other kinds of death. Theres no sense of it being their time or being mad at someone else, it's just a horrible, horrible waste.

Whats wrong with this picture?

Today was my first day back at school. It wasnt a real day, though, we had "team building" in the morning and then convocation in the afternoon. Convocation is kind of a teacher-only pep rally to start the school year. Its ok.

My "school-mom" from last year that I shared my room with is gone this year :( I am kind of lonely without her, but fortunately I really like the new lady I'm sharing my room with (in this day and age, everyone shares) and I only have to move rooms once, and I am making some more friends my age, and I have great classes, so its shaping up to be a great year!

I've probably griped about this before . . .

I don't think I'm an expert in medecine just because I've stayed in a hospital. I don't think I'm an expert in construction just because I live in a house.

So WHY does everyone seem to think they're an expert on education, just because they went to school?? I realize that parents are the ultimate experts on their child, and their input is always welcome in my classroom, but I'm not just making up the stuff that I do in my class. I actually have training and knowledge and research to back it up. Even more so on the school system level. I promise we're not just educating your child by the seat of our pants. If we're doing something, there's a good reason for it! If we're failing at something, it's not because we're a) stupid or b) lazy.

Really, I promise.

Vent over.

Summer is almost over!

It's that time of year again. Time to start squeezing myself back into dress pants and getting chalk all over my face. Thats right, school's starting back soon! I always find myself a little torn, Im sad to see the end of sleeping in, but excited to get back to school! Usually Im excited about starting a new school, this year Im excited about getting back and seeing all my friends!

On a similar note, as most of you know, I have a facebook and some of my students are my friends on it. I don't think this is a big deal. We don't message much, and its not like I'm on there talking about the rockin party I went to last weekend (mostly because I don't party) and I really like my kids, and I like that they can go and see pictures and my pets and stuff and think of me as a person as well as a teacher. What do you guys think? If your child was facebook friends with their teacher, would you think that was weird? More importantly, would you want to have them fired?

Yup, I'm that nuts.

We have ANOTHER dog. This little sweetheart travelled a long, twisted path on the way to our house. Our neighbor's sister "found" her, all skinny and neglected (I think she may have taken her off a chain in someone's yard, but I can't be sure.) and gave her to her mom. The mom couldn't keep her, so she gave her to my neighbor. My neighbor couldn't keep her, so she SET HER FREE IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD. My neighbors on the other side found her and took her in for awhile, until their landlord said it was them or her. They gave her to us. I was totally jealous and wanted her the whole time. Shes such a sweetie. She will sit in your lap on the ground and lick you face. She LOVES chloe. We have been calling them the wonder twins.

*edit: shes pointer, not dalmation.*

couch potato

I am taking full advantage of my last weekday completely work free this summer, I dont officially start until the 27th, but I'll be going back to move stuff into my room on Monday, by watching lots and lots of television!

I watched Cold Mountain this morning, that movie was GREAT (I had never seen it) but some REALLY messed up things happen in it. I had to change the channel a couple of times. Renee Zellweger is really the best part.

Now I'm watching something on BBC America called "how clean is your house?" it's pretty self explanatory, basically this team of housekeepers comes to your house and shows you how gross you are. It's like watching a trainwreck.

For those of you who have pets, you really must get a furminator. They are as good as they look, even for short haired animals. We got ours on Amazon for a little less than they had it at our vet, we ordered the medium size and it seems to work ok on everyone, including the cats.

Back to school shopping

It's that time of year again! I went and stocked up on 2 dollar socks at target, and Chloe has revamped her ENTIRE WARDROBE with her first grown up collar. isnt' it cute?




These collars have a little slip feature that creates sort of a built in leash/choker. And they come in lots of super cute patterns.

my wife is CRAZY

This is a common phrase in our house. When I say it, it is usually "your wife is crazy." What can I say, I'm nuts.

This came up recently because my numero-uno-seestur is internetless right now and I MISS HER. Since I cant IM her with all my inanity, my husband had to deal with it. Bless is heart. He should be sainted.

Coming up on a year!

We've been in our house for almost a year now (and married almost a year!) and we still havent' found places for all of our stuff. I spent a lot of time cleaning today, mopping, wiping down baseboards and char rails, dusting the mantle, etc. The stuff you only do like 2-3 times a year whether it needs it or not. This, of course, resulted in rearranging the living room. Again. We have this beautiful fireplace, which sadly doesn't work right now, and it complicates the furniture arranging. It was arranged like a chute, with a big passage way down the middle with the couch on one side and he tv on the other and the fireplace and door to the kitchen at the end, but I didn't like that. Now the couch sticks out from the wall and faces the fireplace, and the tv is in the corner next to the fire place. I like it better, but I'm just still not sure.

I wonder how long it will take me to get this house just the way I like it? It will probably happen right before we move!

Home sweet home.

It's been a looong couple of weeks. I spent a week in Williamsburg, VA for an AP Institute, and then the following week in Rochester, NY for a Statistics workshop. All of this travelling has meant a lot of hotel stays, and as we get closer to the school year, I feel the overwhelming urge to grade something, so here is a rundown of my recent acommodations.

1. Williamsburg Hospitality House, Williamsburg, VA room base rate: 200 a night, Grade: D+.

This was SUPPOSED to be a nice hotel. It's right across the street from William and Mary University, and was walking distance from my workshop. That was the only good thing about it. When I checked in at 10 pm on Sunday, the desk workers were to busy talking to help me. My room had blackout curtains that didnt' work right, and a really loud air conditioner (the first night, I thought the exhaust fan in the bathroom might be running.) There was a real blanket on the bed, but the sheets fell off every night. The shower had crappy water pressure, and the water was way too hot no matter what. The TV channels were good, but the wireless internet they said would be a "nominal fee" was instead TEN DOLLARS A NIGHT, and it wasnt even for 24 hours. booooooo.

2. Hyatt Regency, Rochester, NY Base Rate: 265 a night (I wasnt paying.) Grade: A

This really WAS a nice hotel. We checked in at 1am, but the staff was still friendly and helpful. The room was BEAUTIFUL, the bed was comfortable and had nice linens. The TV Channels were sorely lacking, but the internet was T-mobile hotspot, so while I had to pay for it, I got it pretty cheap through Todd's voice account. The best restaraunt EVER was also just a couple blocks away, the Dinosaur BBQ, but there were really no other restaurants open for dinner. The shower was faboo. I could've lived here.

3. Holiday Inn Express, Hagerstown, MD Base Rate: 100 a night Grade: A

I cant say enough nice things about Holiday Inn Express. We had to leave Rochester at like 4pm on friday, so we stopped for the night in Hagerstown. HIE is now my hotel of choice. The room was great, the air conditioning was fierce, the sheets were of passable quality and did not fall off, the shower was nice, and it was reasonably priced! Free internet, good TV, and most of them are pet friendly!

4. Martha and Trevors, The Q, NC Base Rate: Free Grade: B

Moving sucks, nuff said. But my doggies were there, so no complaints.

5. Home! The ville, VA Base Rate: 1600/month Grade: A+++++!

Im so glad to be home, I cant even tell you. I'm even looking forward to cleaning and doing laundry.

Is it September, yet?

So I'm off AGAIN tomorrow. Last week was AP camp, this week is Statistics camp. I'm going to a workshop in Rochester, NY called "navigating the first course in statistics" or something. It should be good, but I am NOT looking forward to going out of town again!!

Trying to eat dinner at these things, if your'e broke like me, is a real pain, for starters. Last week there was a Wawa right next door, which, in spite of my complaining, was a really good source for some cheap eats like very excellent sandwiches and soup. Who knows what this one is going to be like. Not to mention, they always want to charge like ten dollars a day for internet, sheesh.

Its also hard to be gone this much with the dogs. Todd is going to make the 9 hour drive with me and then go play with his buddy in Ithaca, so Martha and Trevor have been so kind to come watch the dog for most of the week. (thanks martha!) But it's just hard on us and the dogs.

With all this stuff going on, I can't believe I'm going to say it, but I'm really looking forward to the routine of getting back to school!!

(Speaking of Martha, at least I'm not moving!!)

Long time no post.

Things around here have been nuts. We are in the middle of remodeling our bathroom, and it looks better already (even though about half the drywall is missing) but it is taking a lot longer than we expected. I've also been in Williamsburg for a week for an AP Institute, which was great, but my hotel was kind of crummy (even though it was like 200 a night) and wanted to charge me 10 dollars a day for internet, so I skipped that! Now I'm back, but I have to go to Rochester on Sunday for ANOTHER stat conference!

In the meantime I got a hair cut! I got one right before marthas wedding, but I *hated* it, I like this one much better! It's a little shorter than I expected, but I like it, and my hair grows really fast, so the stylist said she was cutting it shorter so I wouldn't have to come back as often. She actually kind of reminded me of Meg. She had that same mad scientist hair thing going on. I really liked her, and I will definitely be going back! Heres the cut:




try to ignore the pimple. My face EXPLODED because all I ate all week was sandwiches from Wawa.

In other delicious news, we went to busch gardens on wednesday (there's this really cool thing for VA residents where you can buy a one day ticket and it's good all year!) and went to the beer tasting (of course.) I discovered this deliciousness:


Its fruit infuzed beer, and it sounds gross, but it's really delicious! It tastes kind of like mild ginger ale, and barely tastes like beer at all.