So Where Was I?

Well to start today's entry, since you are reading my blog, you must have time to kill, so I will forward a link to a major time killer that I have no doubt you will enjoy. Especially if you have work to avoid. (Perhaps this is not a good idea.) Anyway, here it is:

http://tlc.discovery.com/fansites/whatnottowear/superpuzzles/superpuzzles.html

So I am hoping you have finished with Stacey, Clinton, Carmindy and Nick and are ready to read some blog. I feel some pressure to provide an interesting, informative entry to keep up with the European entries, but so little happens here, I'm at a loss.

Well, of course, our biggest event was the arrival of snow flurries. Not real, sticking snow, but light and fluffy flakes swirling around us in the air. We had sporadic flurries yesterday and more are promised for tomorrow morning. Even if it's not a snowstorm it is pretty neat to have snow before Thanksgiving. Central New York, Deep Creek and parts of Western Pennsylvania got a foot of snow, so David is ticked that the school he picked -- IN VERMONT SKI COUNTRY -- did not get any more than the flurries we also got in G'burg! Poor boy. No doubt the snow will hit Burlington when he's trying to fly out next week!

As usual, I am nowhere near ready for Thanksgiving. Well that's not true, I have My-T-Fine lemon and Jiffy pie crust mix, so barring anything else we will have lemon meringue pie! As it is just four of us (boo hoo) and Kelly doesn't eat most Thanksgiving fare, we are in talks to determine if we should have ribs for Turkey day instead of turkey. Perhaps tofurkey ribs? Ugh. Chicken Stew is also in the running as an alternate dish. Uncle Steve will be spending the day with M&J&Co. I'm guessing they'll serve Turkey.

School has been good this week. I covered several classes over the past few days and have been pulling students to work one-on-one in the other classes and have had some nice little success stories. Today was fun because in the class I covered we were discussing To Kill a Mockingbird and all but four students in the class contributed to the discussion. It started a bit slow, but I told them the discussion would be much more interesting if they talked about the book than if I droned on about it, and they actually responded. I guess I got lucky, but it was a nice change -- and the class was more interesting. We covered almost all the text I was supposed to review, but we hit on all the major points for the syllabus, so I felt pretty good about it. We'll see how the progress looks tomorrow!


Well, not so informative, but if I go on too much more I'll be even more boring! I hope to have a nice snow report to enter tomorrow! (But so you don't feel too sad, I am including a non-snow picture for you to enjoy.)

A bientot,
M

I don't know what day this is...

Ok, so I figured I'd better update a bit before I forget what's been happening in my life. Here are some lovely turkeys to look at before they become someone's dinner next week!

Last Friday I went to Margaret's funeral, and even though it was sad, spending most of the day with her family and friends was nice. I'm getting better at recognizing and matching up brothers and sisters with their spouses and home cities. Now I just have to master who the nieces and nephews belong to!

Anyway, after the day's activities, I returned home, packed, visited with Kelly and then picked up Sheila and drove to West Virginny. In spite of rain and rush hour we made good time and arrived about 6:30 or so. The house is still beautiful -- probably even more beautiful than I remembered. There are many new houses up there now, but the house still feels fairly isolated. Linda and Beth arrived 7:30 or so. Eileen, Sheila and I drank until they arrived. Then we ate and drank. Needless to say, it was a fun evening.

Saturday we sat in the kitchen over breakfast for hours. We watched the rain and talked about all kinds of things. Linda is crazy funny. It was nice to get to know her better. Beth was our grounding force. Everybody meshed really well.

In the afternoon, we went in to Shepardstown. The rain had pretty much stopped. It was cool and overcast, but not nasty so we visited shops for about four hours! I got a blown glass tree frog for daddy's birthday and a ladybug for Patty's! There's a great little shop with all sorts of lovely French gift items. I didn't buy anything, but I did try to imagine you using all this cute provincial stuff over in Grenoble. We had dessert in a small bakery in town, then headed back to the house for dinner. (As in, "Life is short, eat dessert first.")

After dinner we played Upwords and Boggle and talked for a bit more, but finally crashed about 12:30. I don't know if that was because we were relaxed or just old.

Sunday morning we watched birds in the birdfeeder on the porch while we had a leisurely breakfast. (Ok, so I guess we went to bed early because we were old.) Sheila and I left after breakfast. Linda, Beth and Eileen went for a long walk, Eileen told me today; then after Beth and Linda left, Eileen planted some iris bulbs and puttered around before heading home.

All in all it was a wonderful weekend. Oh, and trivial factoids...in the lunchroom scene of "When Harry Met Sally" the ladies at the next table are apparently Billy Crystal's and Rob Reiner's mothers. Killing deer with a crossbow is more humane than killing then with a shotgun, (Yeah, that one won't be on Jeopardy!) Geese are not migrating back North after the summer and they are overwhelming the ecosystems of Maryland and Virginia. And there was another one that was really good, but I forgot it. I forgot a lot of stuff this weekend. Like the name of John Steinbeck, as well as any of the books he had written. Actually, I was forgetting books and authors left and right.

I got home early enough to help Kelly finish off daddy's b-day cake and wrap the gifts we had for him. He got a slow cooker cookbook, an italian cookbook, cocktail napkins that quote Ben Franklin's adage "Beer is God's way of saying he loves us and wants us to be happy," and the aforementioned tree frog. We had Famous Daves (salads for all of us!?!) for dinner and watched the 'skins disappoint him on his birthday by losing to Dallas 14/10. (I can still hear Davo's sobs from Vermont.)

So now I will look for a random photo and post this blog so you will have something to do when you are attempting to avoid other responsibilities. Pretty thoughtful of me, don't you think?

Here are some turkeys not in danger of being served on Thanksgiving! L, M.

Wednesday

OK, so there were these two hot guys standing on the beach, and one guy says to the other guy,

Hey wait, wrong joke...that's daddy and Steve.

Well, Steve and MK are at the beach this week and will be closing it up next week. Tant pis. The weather is nice, but could get colder at any time. We've already had a few frosts in the northern reaches of Gaithersburg. Can winter be far behind?

This weekend I'm going to the West Virginia house with Eileen and few friends; Sheila, Vicki, Beth and Linda. It should be fun once we get there, but in the meantime there's much to do. I need to come up with a dessert or appetizer. I had a really good one in mind, but I forgot what it was and it's not coming back! Ugh. I also have to get stuff for Kelly to make a b-day cake for daddy, and I need to think of something for Patty's b-day. Such challenges! Not to mention that November 16 starts the one-month celebration of Annette's b-day! The holiday season will be officially begun!

I have more to write, but am too tired. (Je suis tres fatigue.) I think I will arise and go now, and go to Inisfree, or bed; probably bed.

Sorry for the brevity of the entry. Talk to you soon.

Tuesday

Oh, Snap, where did this picture come from? A flash from the not too distant past? I'm liking this add a random picture to your blog thing...


Anyway, today is Tuesday. As it was Veteran's Day (or Armistice Day as it was called before WWII), we had school and a loud, unrelated to Veteran's Day announcement over the PA system about 11:05 and no mention of the holiday. Ah, that's what I like about MCPS.

I, of course, self-righteously had my own little moment of silence at 11.

No mention was made, either, I might add, of the passing of Miriam Makeba. I remember liking her not just for her music -- "Pata Pata" -- but also for her husband Hugh Masekela. Together, they had the coolest names I had ever heard.

What else? One of my students coined a new word "prejudicism." It might catch on if it wasn't so difficult to pronounce. One of my teachers, Jerry, brought in Lindt chocolates wrapped to look like little pumpkins. (Ah, so now you are jealous, non?) And, totally unrelated, but fabulous nonetheless, I love the name of Christine's niece, Manon! Comme Manon de Source! C'est un film fantastique. Have you seen any Yves Montand films yet? He is wonderful. (Diane is also a lovely name, but I guess she knows that.)

So, that's my rambling for today. I have the feeling I've forgotten something major, but no matter, perhaps I will think of it by tomorrow.

Until then, au revoir,

M

Somethin' about Nuthin'

Well, I haven't been updating my blog because my life is, how you say, BORING! However, sometimes it's fun just to read signs of life, so I am going to try to report tidbits on a more consistent basis. (i.e., not wait for momentous crane sightings and such -- even though I saw four on one worksite on 355 this weekend!)

So, Friday the Patriots beat Churchill, so they will face QO this coming Friday under the lights at the Cougardome! Should be fraught with excitement.

And so, Friday I went to Balmer with "the ladies" (wwog) and saw Celtic Thunder. Even though Marta thought he was too young for me, I decided I was going to start dating the Irish surfer dude. What? He's not the youngest! For that matter, they are all younger than I am! We sat behind three guys who were state police trainees. They were enjoying the show a great deal. Almost as much as they were enjoying their beverages. I hope they weren't driving.

And finally so, Saturday I set up a little excel file with contact information for Patty's church volunteers. They're having a thank-you brunch, and all the lists were discombobulated, so I put all the data into excel and now the church can be sure they didn't miss anybody to thank. Just the kind of crazy typing project I love to do. From disorder; order. (Insert smiley here.)

So. That's it for today. Just a bit to read and move on. I will try to find stuff to take pictures of...oh, no, I think I will just grab a random picture and post it. Hold on. Well, there it is, up top. Everyone needs a picture of a llama once in a while. I believe that is Kelly, feeding the llama. So like I said, boring life here!