Whoopee!

We had our Valentine party at school today because the kids have a day off tomorrow (grade recording day).

They played Valentine bingo. Everyone got three prizes a piece (they played until everyone won).

Some of the "prizes" were whoopee cushions. The kids had so much fun with them! Go buy one if you haven't had one in awhile. Nothing says love like a good joke with a whoopee cushion!

Yeah It Wasn't Me!

Computer issues?? Not my fault. Not even my computer!! Yeah! Somehow something broke with our school server and they didn't bother to inform anyone (like no one would notice???)

I'm just glad it wasn't me going crazy!

So on to funny things . . .

I have a new student who is an absolute doll. She has medical issues so she visits the nurse every day. We also eat lunch every day.

She had just finished a paper and needed some copies made. I told her where the copy room was (between the nurse and the cafeteria - its the only other door there). Then she stopped and asked if someone could go with her. I said no, she could find it. And she stepped out the door. One of her classmates who sits right in front of me says in a mysterious stage whisper "What if she never comes back?"

I laughed out loud and the kids asked why and I told them what their classmate had said. They laughed too. Then another student got called to office to pick something up. She met up with the new girl in the hall (and informed her of what the student had said after she left.)

When my new girl got in the room, she walked right up behind the boy who had whispered (he was in his own world working on the computer) and whispered loudly in his ear, "I made it back."

It was so hilarious. We were all laughing for awhile:)

I like it when they can be themselves and have controlled fun!

Mythological Computer Gods

(To the right you will see a picture of the computer god, Vy Russ.)


Today the computer gods are laughing and playing with my life. No, not the big wigs at Microsoft and Mac or anything like that. These are the mythical gods, like Apollo and Zeus. But these are the COMPUTER gods, whom I imagine have names like Web loss, File aria, Connectus, and Help phos.

I am fairly computer literate. I take care of my computer by regularly cleaning it out, defragging, emptying the cache, etc., to make sure it runs efficiently. I also regularly back up my computer to my external hard drive, which I love. It is pink and cute and cuddly. Well, not right now but if I ever lost something, I am sure I would cuddle it.

Anyway, today has been crazy. First I couldn't get to my report cards (all day). The school tech came by to help and she couldn't get them either. Only on HER computer, not mine. And while I could access the students' files, they couldn't because the the "parkway server tree listed as K does not exist" on their computers, but it does on mine????

This wasn't a connection error as they were able to get on the internet. They could also open all programs and create new documents, but that doesn't help much when we are trying to finish old ones. And if we create new ones, we have no place to save them because the server has mysteriously disappeared off the student computers.

So I talk to people. I call people. Everyone just says Hmm. Now how helpful do you think that is???

Then there is this whole issue of "space." I think we should have as much as we want - it's CYBERSPACE people, it isn't real! It's not like I am taking up two seats at the movies!

This comes up because yesterday I tried all day to upload a homework assignment onto a forum. It just sat and sat and sat (must have had Error Uploadius laughing his fool god head off). I never received a message that the file was too big. And I can never remember which is bigger (kb or mb - i got a real nifty lesson in that from my instructor which I might just copy and paste here)

quoted from the instructor: "A byte is a unit that measures information storage. It is made up of smaller units called bits. Essentially a bit is "on-off" and is how the computer takes electricity and arranges it into something meaningful. The byte (arrangement of bits) is equivalent to one letter.A kilobyte (KB) is about 1,000 bytes. To be technical, it is 210 power or 1,024.A megabyte (MB) is about 1,000 kilobytes. To be accurate, it is 220 power. Those old floppy disks we used to use were 1.4 MB.A gigabyte (GB) is about 1,000 megabytes. Most hard drives are now measured in gigs. Other prefixes go up for here: terabyte, petabyte, yottabyte."

Okay, that was a trip to another land in itself. How 'bout byteme?? Is THAT invented yet?

So my instructor gives directions on how to shrink it. I had to shrink it twice. How ridiculous is this?? It's one page with four pictures on it. I think I should be allowed that space. I think I am entitled to that space. I WANT that space. I shouldn't have to shrink. They should have to grow. The god causing all this havoc of shrinking and growing space must be Alice ophrodite.

Please tell them to go away and pick on someone else! Like my sister, who can handle them!

While I Was Gone

Sorry I have been absent. I have been super busy.

Crunch time is coming for the National Board stuff. I am also in a 6 week online course. Morguefile (a photo site where I am a contributor) just got their new site going and I have been uploading hundreds of photos (and putting in keywords, categories, etc.) Plus I found a new game online at King.com that I am totally addicted to - Marble Matchup.

Add to that I just found a super spectacular new kid's book I am reading (The Mysterious Benedict Society) and report card time is now (grade day is Friday).

All this means I am surrounded by mounds of papers and books and have two laptops going most often. (hubby says I am such a geeky nerd, but two is even faster than one and it saves from switching screens, accidentally deleting something, file something wrong, or clicking the wrong "play" button)

Despite all this thought (or maybe because of it :)) I was able to try a new wine on Friday night. Oh no - big mistake. I spent an hour in the bathroom hacking my brains out. On Saturday morning I couldn't taste anything and my throat was so sore I felt like I had eaten glass.

I am reminiscent of the time I tried sangria. It had the same effect on me. The red wines just don't agree with me. Someday I will learn. Maybe I should sign up for a wine class. I wonder how that would work online. Receive delivery. Taste. Post. ?

The Lesson that Worked

For the first time ever, lesson number 8 in the electricity unit (which is an experiment) worked! Well I'll be dog gone.

This is the third year I have taught electricity. I was bound and determined this year that it would work. To make the lesson participatory, I had the students tell ME the steps I had to do in order to conduct the experiment. (I don't think that is why it worked this year, but it was funny that this is the ONLY time it HAS worked.)

The lesson is on making a filament light up.

We use two D batteries and hook them up to 2 wires, which are bent at a 90* angle through a lump of clay. Then nichrome wire is wrapped around the two open ends. This wire becomes the "filament" and gets hot and glows.

The kids read through the experiment so they knew it should glow. I also informed them it would get hot and smoke, which is why I was the only one doing the experiment.

We were all set. I was getting ready to plug the last wire into the clip and I paused. Then I said, "Right now would be a good time to review the fire drill procedures."

One girl caught it right away and let out a "HA." About 30 seconds later, another girl yells out, "Oh, I get it," and started laughing. Then the others started to get it and we were all just rolling laughing.

And as great as that was, it wasn't near as good as seeing that filament get hot and glow! The kids were absolutely amazed! At that moment I could have given them 5 pages of homework and they still would have thought I was a genius and they loved me :) hehe

So we all oohed and aahhed and took turns walking by it.

It was so absolutely terrific. Way better than the other years when we dim the lights in anticipation and nothing. And then I say, "Well, it was supposed to work." And we all go back to doing boring things like vocabulary. Talk about a major let down. It's like going to see the guy get shot out of a cannon and he has to crawl out 20 minutes later cause it won't fire.

It was a pretty eventful day in the classroom today. (see my photo blog for other interesting sights)

I love my job and wouldn't trade it for anything - well, maybe teaching scuba in the islands but that's about it. Remind me I said that when report card time comes.

Strange Day Off

I had my stress test today. I smoked it! I went to the eighth level and they still couldn't get my heart to the target rate of 160! I was sweating like a pig when I was done and sure didn't look too attractive but I was happy.
That made me feel so good! Plus everything else looked great on the ekg. YEAH for me :)

So we had time in between that test and the dr. We drove around and ended up going down to Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery. My family isn't really big on going to grave sites. It just isn't something we do. But I found my grandpa today.

The last time I had been was so muddy I ruined a pair of shoes and they didn't have his headstone up yet.

There is something so peaceful about that cemetery. It is so neat and orderly.

The deer run rampant there and I had to watch out for their "piles" so I wouldn't ruin another pair of shoes.

We had lots of time to spare so I took a lot of pictures (see my photo blog). Then we headed back to the dr.'s office to just sit in the parking lot and wait for the appointment. That was when it happened.

I had laid back in the car seat to take a smidge of a nap. Hubby pulled his book out and started reading. The next thing I know, this crazy guy is driving in front of us real slow, flipping us off! Hubby started to get out of the car and he stood with the door open and said, "What's the problem?"

The guy started screaming, "I got a hurt leg and I gotta get in. Are you going to sit there all day?" And he started getting out of the car like he was going to come kick hubby's ass.

I told hubby he needed to get back in the car and he did. He immediately went back to reading while I stared at the guy making sure he didn't come bash my car in or something. Then he yells to me, "F U, Bit--" And I'm thinking what on earth did I do??? He finally got back in the car and drove away.

I like these little scenarios. (ha) But they always get me to thinking, well, what would I do if he just went nuts?

1. If you are wanting to fight someone, don't announce that your leg is injured. That would have been my very first target. (stupid idiot!)

2. call 911 and say someone is attacking us

3. throw my humongous coat over the guy's head so he can't see and then proceed to beat him up (if I could even get close cause hubby might hog the fight)

4. if he pulled a gun, start the car and run him over.

It was obvious he was there because he had ran out of pain medication. I hope he got sedated for his journey home. And hopefully they gave him a handicapped parking permit so he doesn't accost anyone else for sitting in a parking space he wants.

A Pain in the Neck

I can't decide what to write about today. I could comment on it being Super Bowl day, but I know I won't watch it as I am not into that sport. I could write about Ground Hog Day and its sexy origins (I researched it one year. It really isn't a holiday for children. Maybe that's why my hubby loves the movie so much, but it is a nice clean movie.) I could write about all the holidays coming in February (Valentine's Day and I think Mardi Gras is falling in Feb - need to go check that one).

But I think I am just going to stick with what I know today. This is a post about getting old.

I woke up yesterday morning around 7:30, which is pretty early for me on a weekend. I laid there enjoying the bright sun streaming through the window. And then I stretched. I felt something, well, different. Maybe like a watch feels when it finally goes "Ping" and starts screaming at you - "You stupid idiot! You wound me too tight! That's it, I'm done with this job."

Yesterday that is what my body did. It paid me back all day.

So I didn't notice much just laying there in my stretched out position on the bed. But then I tried to move. It seemed like everything wanted to move but my head. My neck was refusing to work. I rolled over to get out of the bed. It was extremely painful as I tried to stand erect. My neck was like a broken bobble head. I couldn't put my head up!

I couldn't look side to side. I used my hands to actually lift my chin! And then boy oh boy, did my body yell at me.

Now I have had cricks or kinks in my neck from time to time from sleeping funny. But you are still able to move somewhat. This was absolutely insane!

It ended up being one of the most wasted days ever. And here it was, gorgeous out, 50 degrees, sun, and I had trouble just standing up because I had to support my erect.

I took ibuprofen, flexeril, ibuprofen, wine, tylenol pm. (Of course not all together! - through the course of the day) Nothing helped. So needless to say, I was hoping that a good night's sleep would loosen things up a bit and help me feel better. And a crick in your neck always feels better the next day after you sleep (just incase that was what it was).

Today I can say I am better, but not fine. I have extremely sore muscles in my back and neck. I still have to turn slowly but it all feels much more loosened up. So who knows what it was/is. Gee, I am so lucky. It looks like I will be well just in time to go back to work. Not that I dislike work. I just hate wasting a weekend being sick or in bed. We should get "do over" weekends when you don't get to do anything you had wanted because of stuff like this.

This morning as I felt around my neck and rubbed it, my neck felt littler. So maybe it was swollen yesterday, which leads me to believe I pulled something. I told hubby this so today my name is "Shorty with the Little Neck." (see older post about Name Calling)

I think I am just getting old.