My birthday and my kitten....

Hello All! Today is my birthday and I am now 23 years old. I feel the same... Just like I do every year. Although, I'm tired from teaching. My family all mailed me cards and sent me a bouquet of flowers to school which was a nice surprise.

I was going to make avocado feta salsa tonight for dinner, but I forgot to buy feta and the grocery store in Sumner does not carry it. :-( Oh, well, I'll have to save it for another time. I bought some ice cream and rented some movies and I'm going to cook up some chicken and make a salad and just chill. :-)

It's also fairly cold in Sumner. I just turned on my heat. My thermometer says it's 64 degrees inside and 52 degrees OUTSIDE. I slept with sock on last night.

I haven't decided on a name for my cat yet. Daniel suggested Hobbes, but my cat isn't orange, which would have been cool. Mary suggested Sylvester. Dad suggested Lawn Dart. BUT I stole a picture of my kitteh (and it's litter mates) from Facebook. Geri had posted one. Unfortunately, my cat is on the bottom of the pile... So you can't see it very well... But, it's better than nothing! Enjoy!

Three short stories...

These are the short tales of 1. The Correction I Made to the Sumner Library, 2. The Amazing Gender-Changing Kitten, and 3. The Cricket in My Ceiling.

Story 1:

Today I further cemented the fact that I am a nerd. I went to the library today, and while browsing the animal section, locating books about cats I came across a book that was all about cheese, and was mostly cheese recipes. At first I thought maybe it had something to do with mice, but that was before I saw all the cheese recipes. Then I thought it was placed on the wrong shelf. (After all, the 636s--animals, were very close to the 637s--cook books.) but no. The catalog number was a 636. So what did I do? I took it to the front counter and explained to the librarian that this cheese cookbook has been assigned the wrong catalog number by some mistake and did not belong in the 636s with the other books about animals. (I also re-shelved 4 books that were out of place, but I didn't tell her that.)

So that was my good deed for the day.

Ooooooh, Vogel Library... The things that I never had to do [shelf-reading] that are yet instilled in me...

Story 2:

I found out that my kitten is a boy. So I have to nix all the girl names I was thinking of and switch gears. (I was pretty set on Calliope too!) So far I like:

Watson
Holmes
Samwise
Merry
Prospero
Laertes

Feel free to add in your own suggestions or discuss what you think of my list so far.

I also found out, through extensive internet research, that my kitten is what they call a Lynx Point (or Tabby Point.) I mean, it's not a full bred Siamese, but still, that's kind of cool :-)

Story 3:

Last night there was a cricket IN MY CEILING! (I have a drop ceiling in my dining room.) And at first I thought it was the fridge whirring or something. But no. It was stupid cricket. It also took me a second to actually figure out where it was coming from.

I didn't have any bug-killer spray, other than this wasp/bee killer stuff, but I didn't want to spray that in the house for a cricket. So I used hairspray. And for an hour I would spray hairspray into the space between the real ceiling and the drop ceiling in hopes that I got the stupid bug. After each time I did this the bug would be quiet for about 10 minutes... Just long enough for me to think I got it. Finally, as I was drowning in aerosol fumes, and after talking apart almost half of my drop ceiling, looking for this thing, I FOUND IT. I managed to move the right ceiling panel and it dropped to the floor, where I proceeded to stomp the living daylights out of it.

I don't like bugs.
______________

And those are the stories of my library nerdiness, my boy kitten that I thought was a girl, and the cricket that taught me how to take apart and put back together a drop ceiling.

Birthday List... Updated a little.

Okay, my grandparents where wondering what I wanted for my birthday, so here's a list:

A kitchen utensil rest. (You know, those plate-like things that you set spatulas and spoons on... And no. I don't want to use a plate.)

A desk.

Any kind of shelving unit.

A water filter, that you attach to your faucet.

A big stirring spoon and another spatula.

An electric hand mixer.

A carpet sweeper.

A couch slip cover.

Floor lamps, hanging lamps, pretty much any sort of lighting fixture.

A subscription to the magazine Mental_Floss.

A cookbook... Like one from Better Homes and Gardens or Betty Crocker.

A coffee maker.

A small teflon-lined frying pan.


You can also view my Amazon.com wish list HERE, to get an idea of what other things I would like.

This whole thing is subject to change, but not until after my birthday.

Fireflies...

Check out this video on YouTube. Mary just Facebooked it to me, and it is super cool!

Also, I was sick yesterday and I couldn't go to school. I managed to take care of myself. My stomach didn't hate me as long as I didn't move and stayed laying down.

So I watched Gone with the Wind. Although that didn't solve the problem 100%, it did make it better. That is a looooooong movie!

Today I was well enough to go back to school and teach, although I was tired. After school I went shopping with the chorus teacher at Tripoli for costumes for Suessical and we ate at Perkins for dinner, and it was my first real meal since Monday night. Yay food!

Now I'm back home and ready to go to bed.

Time Lord Rock revisited...

I forgot about this....

Shoot. I should get to writing some of these songs... Allonsy is already finished... But that's the only one....

Kids say funny stuff...

I should mention here, for the sake of being preserved in this blog, and the bowels of the internet, and for the entertainment of all who read this blog...

On Wednesday, one of my kindergartners was trying to get my attention... And was having trouble remembering what it actually was... So he came up with the closest thing he could think of... In terms of long words that begin with the letter S....

And suddenly, my name changed to: "Mrs. Sandwich."

I have heard many variations of my last name... But I must say that "Sandwich" is a first. It was all I could do to keep myself from falling over the floor laughing. It was very very very funny, and very cute!

I did remind him of what my name *was* and he was like "Oh, yeah..." and then asked his question using my correct last name.

LOL, now I kind of want to use it as perhaps my alter-ego.... Mrs. Sandwich.... (Anyone remember this book?)

Numbers...

Happy 09-09-09!

That is all.

Weekend well spent...

... I guess.

Overall, I would say yes.

Rachel V. came Friday night and that was really cool to see her! :-) I cooked up some Chinese and we watched No Reservations and had brownies for dessert. Then we watched YouTube videos for another 3 hours. :-) It was awesome!

Saturday, Rachel V. left about 8am, so that left me the whole day to get stuff done. So after Rachel left, I went back to bed for another hour or so. Then I got up, had breakfast, unpacked while watching Pan's Labyrinth (weeeeird movie...) and then went drove around to see if any of the local banks were open. Negatory. So I only had enough money to do two loads of laundry, but I made it work. Then I went to church and after that I got a call from Rachel D. who told me that some good-for-nothing turd-face stole 2 loads of her laundry from the washers in the laundry room. LAME!

Not cool whomever you are. Not cool.

Saturday night I cleaned and then unpacked while watching Phantom of the Oprea.

Oh, yeah. I've resolved that I will not allow myself to get a Netflix account until I have watched all the movies that I own. Except for Peter Pan. I lent it to someone freshman year of college and it's never had a disk since. This is mostly a ploy to extend the time before I actually DO get a Netflix account... Mainly, after payday. I should rent some DVDs from the library too...

Anyway! Sunday I unpacked some more and then went to school to do some lesson planning. I got most of it done and came back and kind of took a break. Mainly, ate dinner and watched The Mentalist. :-)

Today I also spent most of the day at school finishing up my lesson planning and getting all the supplies and materials ready that I need for my lessons this week... And I did a new bulletin board, which is pretty sweet, if I do say so myself. :-)

Next week is going to be all about pirates, since next Saturday is International Talk Like a Pirate Day! (And Rachel D.'s birthday, AND Hermione Granger's birthday too...) It will be fun! I can't waaaaaaaiiiit! :-D

While I was unpacking tonight, I came across two of the three movements to the composition my class did for our 20th Century Music Class. Called "Ed i colpi del portello ma abbastanza non duro" (And the door slams, but not hard enough.) We called ourselves the "Serialist Killers" because it was a composition that used serialism. Ha! Puns! :-) Good Memories!

OH!! And I have found EVERYTHING that I have been missing. My Bible and devotional books were in some plastic drawers, where I had packed them... And my 3rd Harry Potter book was where I left it.... Underneath my open copy of the 2nd Harry Potter book.... Derrrrr. :-P Oh, well. At least those aren't lost anymore. Now if I could only find the fixture for my medusa lamp...

Also, do you know what is annoying??? Buying a 2-pack of 9 volt batteries for your two smoke-detectors... So you can be safe and all. Installing them. And then unpacking and finding an unopened pack of...... 9 volt batteries. Gah. :-P Oh well. My TV remote takes 9 volt. I'll just have to save them for that.

Okay, tomorrow I have school again. Let's hope this week goes better than the last. *crosses fingers*

Halfway found...

Okay, so I found another box of books that I had been missing... I forgot that I had moved some of them around because they were too heavy to lift when they where all in one box. Oops.

BUT!

I'm still missing my Bible and my 3rd Harry Potter book. And some daily devotion books. WHERE ARE THEY???

Sometimes I wonder if I'm making any progress unpacking... And then I look at the growing pile of boxes on my porch and garbage bag full of paper-junk and conclude that, maybe I am just a little bit...

Tomorrow Rachel V. is coming to spend the night on her way home. It will be fun! Now... To clean up the house a little... Hmmmm....

Two nights ago, Geri texted me a picture of my little kitten! IT WAS SO CUTE! :-D I can't wait to see it when I go home the weekend of the 11th. (For Jessica's BIRTHDAY!) It's small and fluffy and has light markings like a Siamese (called seal point) but not the body structure of an oriental cat. Mom told me, that Geri told her that sometimes it purrs really loudly and really random times, like it can't control itself yet. Evidently my kitten is the biggest of the litter and was the first to open its eyes. The picture was soooo cuuuuuute..... Ahh! I can't wait to see it!

Mary said I should name it Boombox. But I said no. I will have a better name for it. Geri is pretty sure it's a girl. So far I like:

Rosalind
Rosamund
Calliope
Sylvia


Thoughts?

Nerdfighter video of dorkiness...

I know, I know, I'm really silly and dorky and all that. But it was a lot of fun... And it all makes me smile, no matter what. :-)

And, I have an ugly couch, no?

Punk Music is a joke, it's really just Baroque...

Happy 356th Birthday to Johann Pachelbel! A composer we all know and loooooooove! The "original one hit wonder" famous for composing Canon in D.



Remember this??? (with THIS?)


Aw, good memories... :-)


In other news, there was a DEAD MOUSE on the floor in my classroom today!!!! :-O I went and got the secretary because I didn't know what to do... There is nothing in the staff handbook that talks about dealing with dead animals.... So the secretary got a plastic bag and I picked it up and tied the bag and threw it away. (The secretary was totally creeped out... I was just like... Um, what do I do??? lol... Yay for camp!)

Yeah. It was an exciting day...