Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Leavin' on a Jet Plane....

(but I do know when I'll be back again!) Today's Wednesday...and tomorrow I'm bound for Florida. The past few days have been generally uneventful and somewhat productive asI've been trying to do all of those little things that need to be taken care of before I leave....

I'll be in Florida for the next week; it's something of a working vacation. (It'll be more work than vacation I'm sure.) I'll be reading high school AP exams for about 8 hours a day, so I'm guessing my eyes and my brain will both be a little fried. However, I'll also be staying at a nice hotel on the beach. Hopefully I'll have the time and energy to go out and play.

I don't know if I'll have regular e-mail access this next week, so this could be another 'so long for not so long' e-mail. Happy week....

Sunday, May 28, 2006

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch....

Happy Long Weekend!! (And an early Happy Memorial Day!!) I'm back at home after my little weekend excursion. I decided to sneak away for a while, but I couldn't justify taking a long weekend given all of the things that I need to get done during the next few days. I went up to my sister Janet's ranch in Kansas for a little get-together there. The ranch is in south-eastern Kansas, nestled back among tall trees and little ponds. The working ranch was the site of a supper on Saturday evening (they bar-b-qued a lamb) and a lot of visiting today. Some of the guys went fishing at a ridiculously early hour this morning, and they sorted and worked sheep after they returned from their little fishing trip. I spent a bit of time wandering around with Janet and taking pictures of all the pretty scenery there--the lily pads were in bloom on the pond, the geese were swimming today, and some of the wildflower were beautiful. (I might post some pictures whenever I get the roll of film finished and developed.)

I enjoyed the trip up north, but now I need to get back to work here. I have lots of paperwork and lesson plans that need to be finished, and there's always cleaning to do and errands to run. Maybe I'll manage to get caught up on things tomorrow....

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Totus Tuus (And Frogs!)

Today was the start of the Totus Tuus training session in Tulsa. I'm not teaching with the program this year, but Jimmy and I are helping with some of the behind-the-scenes work over the next few days. We're packing up supplies and preparing meals, and we also get to meet all of the people who will be teaching throughout the summer. The teaching crew will be going up to Kansas for a week-long training session beginning on Saturday, but they're doing some introductory and team-building activities before they meet up with the Wichita groups. I think most of the shopping and packing is finished, now it's just cooking and doing a little playing.

Jimmy and I prepared little gifts for the returning teachers. We gave Blaise (our stuffed frog, the team mascot from last year) to BK, and Erica got the remains of the Green Baron, the frog mascot of her team (which amounted to a bag full of stuffing, a few black-cats, and other random remaining parts from a frog that met tragic ends). While we had expected a few laughs and giggles in reaction to the little gifts, the reactions were much more dynamic and amusing....

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Cell Phones and Ice Cream Trucks

3: The number of times that cell phones rang during my class today.

There's an ice cream truck that goes through my neighborhood in the afternoons. Sometimes I confuse the ice cream truck tunes with my cell phone rings....

Sunday, May 21, 2006

Hmmm.

Wow, it's amazing how quickly time passes when you're not doing much of anything.... Other than my summer course, I don't really have anything to keep me busy yet. (I'm still looking for another part-time job, but I haven't landed anything yet.)

I'm currently doing a little work with the Totus Tuus program--just behind the scenes stuff. (I taught with the program here in the Tulsa diocese last year. I also taught in other places a few other years too.) My living room looks like half a dozen supply tubs erupted, spewing their contents over nearly everything in sight. I was hoping to have the tubs all put together by Friday, but that just didn't quite happen. Now I'm hoping to finish them by tomorrow. Jimmy and I will be doing some other stuff with and for the Totus Tuus groups this coming week, so that will probably keep me busy....

Jimmy and I went up to Manhattan (Kansas) for a wedding this weekend. One of his friends from school married one of my friends from school. (It was a Totus Tuus wedding too.) We went up on Friday, so we got to spend a little time wandering through Aggieville and just hanging out, which was nice. I also got to see quite a few people over the weekend, some of whom I hadn't seen in a while. Overall we had a nice trip, though I still haven't managed to finish my East of Eden audiobook (only 2 1/2 disks left). The only big not-so-nice thing about the trip was that my car decided not to cooperate on the way home. We stopped in Independence, and when it was time to get back on the road again the car decided it didn't want to go. Some very nice people with jumper cables helped us, and we got back safely. However, my car won't start again. I'm thinking (hoping) that it's just the battery, and I'll be taking it in to the car doctor sometime today or tomorrow.

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Plagiarism


My students and I just talked about plagiarism and ethics yesterday. Somehow this comic seemed appropriate....

Condensing Class (Again...)

Ahhh, my summer class started yesterday. I had 6 students in class, and I think I might be adding another 1 or 2 before tomorrow. While it's a small class, it's pretty average as summer writing classes go, or so I've heard....

Anyway, I was very proud of myself because I managed to condense a full 16 week course into a mere 12 class periods without cutting too many assignments and compromising the integrity of the course and without overburdening my students and causing them undue stress. While I was reveling in my accomplishment, I looked at the calendar and realized that one of the Mondays is Memorial Day; thus I now need to revisit my schedule and attempt to squeeze everything into 11 days instead of 12. I guess that's my task for tonight....

Sunday, May 14, 2006

I'm Back...and Back to School

Hello. I'm back!! (Did you miss me?) I had a wonderful time at homehome with Mom and Dad, and now I'm back to the city and the normal routine, if such a thing exists. I'm teaching a section of Technical Writing during the first block of the summer session, so it's back to school tomorrow (already). I think I'll spend a little time this evening rambling about homehome; however, I'll divide things into sections (complete with headings) so nobody has to wander through massive paragraphs of wandering ramblings. (Thus the headings will be of benefit to both the reader and the writer.)

Chasing Children
Mom and I spent a couple of days going to some of the school activities that my nieces and nephews were involved in. We went to Krysten's senior tea one evening, and that was a lot of fun. (To all family members: If you see Krysten any time soon, be sure to ask her to tell you about the things that were in her box.) We got to spend a little time visiting with everyone, which was good since I won't be able to make it back to Kansas for her graduation later this month. On the next day, Mom and I went chasing musicians. We first went to the league music contest where Eric was playing his trombone. He played a solo and played in an ensemble as well. (BTW, does anyone know what rating he got on his solo? He did a nice job on the solo, but Mom and I didn't stick around long enough for ratings to be posted.) After music festival, Mom and I went to Megan's band concert. The concert included the regular bands and the jazz band, and it was a good concert too. We all went out for a quick supper after the concert, and we got to spend some time visiting....

Books on Tape
As everyone probably knows, I like to read. I also enjoy listening to books on tape (actually it's CDs for me now, but 'books on CD' doesn't quite have the same ring as 'books on tape'). While I don't typically take the time to locate and listen to audiobooks, I do check them out from the library when I'm going on car trips. I checked out Steinbeck's East of Eden for this trip. It's a 25 hour (22 disk) set, so I only managed to get through part of it on the trip. I'd planned just to return the audio to the library and read the rest of the book, but I'm enjoying the audio so much I think I'll actually bring it in the house and finish it. The story's great (though not quite like the James Dean movie) and the reader is excellent as well.

Flatlanders
Though I'm currently stuck in the city, I'm figuring out that I will always be a farm girl at heart. When I go homehome, I always remember how much I like the open spaces and the beautiful skies of Kansas. (I took some pictures this past week. If they come out well, I'll post some up here whenever I get the film developed.) I like being able to see for miles during the day and see a sky filled with stars at night. There's a certain tranquil beauty in the stillness and openness of the Kansas prairie....

Saturday, May 06, 2006

Summer Vacation!!

YAY!! I'm on my week for 'real vacation' before the busy stuff of summer starts. I feel like I've spent the past few days recuperating from the semester. I finally caught up on sleep and housecleaning and other random stuff. We had our end-of-the-year department party on Thursday night. It was fun, and it was the last party that I'll be organizing as I have moved up from the social secretary position. (I'll be the real secretary next year!!) I turned in grades on Friday, and that was my last official teacher task for the semester. I spent most of today cleaning house; my house was a complete disaster as it hadn't been cleaned in the past few weeks. I'm headed homehome tomorrow and will be there for most of next week. I'm looking forward to the trip homehome, as I haven't been there since Spring Break.

I don't know that I have any other interesting tidbits or anything like that. However, I'll say 'so-long' for the week as I won't be blogging while at homehome. (I like spending time in a world sans computers.)

Thursday, May 04, 2006

On Writing Autobiography


I don't need to say anything else about this one....

Celebrating with Blast!

I finished my classes for the semester, took my last exam yesterday afternoon. (YAY!!) Now all I have left to do is turn in grades for my students. Since the semester's over, I get to read 'just-for-fun' books for a while. I think I'll start with Bill's latest book and then maybe move on to some chicklit something-rather. I'll probably spend my time on a few 'beach reading' books before I return to working on my readling lists for my qualifying exams.

Anyway, Jimmy and I celebrated my being finished with a trip to the Performing Arts Center for a Blast! performance. (I think Jimmy's rejoicing that I'm finished with the semester too. I've heard the phrases 'Have you seen my girlfriend?' and 'When can I have my girlfriend back?' way to much during the past week.) Anyway, Blast! was my reward for surviving the semester. I'd seen them before a few years ago, so I was excited to see the performance again. The music was amazing, as I remembered, and the whole thing was very aesthetically pleasing. I think they had a few technically difficulties last night, as a few things didn't seem timed quite right, but the performance was still wonderful. I'm pretty certain Jimmy enjoyed it too (or at least he enjoyed it more than the opera).

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Exams, Partys, and a Honda

Well, I'm almost finished for the semester. The pages remaining count is at 0 (YAY!) and I have one exam left, which is tomorrow afternoon. (I had a paper due yesterday and an exam last night. It was not a pleasant day.) I have a little bit of grading left, so I'm hoping to have everything finished up by Thursday--certainly by Friday. I'll be going homehome for a week or so after everything's finished, but I'm not sure what the travel dates will be. I need to call Mom....

In addition to the crazy school schedule this time of the semester, somehow I've ended up with a crazy social schedule as well. (Wow, me with a social schedule, that doesn't happen very often.) Anyway, Jimmy and I went to the opera--the last one of the season--on Sunday. We saw _The Marriage of Figaro_. Though I'm not a big fan of Mozart (I think he's repetitive to the point where it's almost an insult to the audience), I did enjoy the opera (despite the repetitive elements). I think it was my favorite of the season.... Yesterday was brutal, so there was nothing social that occurred at all beyond an improv study group, which doesn't really count as social interaction.... Some of the professors had a party at their house tonight, so Jimmy and I went to that. It was fun...and people actually talked about stuff other than school!! While I like hanging out with people from the office, the problem is that the only things we really have in common are our teaching and our studies, which sometimes makes for pretty dull party conversation....

And a random cool link to close out my post today. One of my sisters sent me this one in an e-mail. It's actually a car commercial, but it's just pretty awesome....