Nuns Get Up Too Early....

I'm helping to plan a retreat for our church women's group, and I'm working with a couple of Sisters from a nearby monastery. I called to speak with one of the Sisters yesterday, and she said she would call me back with more information today. She did, at 7:36am. Though I answered the phone and carried on a generally coherent conversation (I think), I'm not really sure that I remember all of what was said. I don't think I function well enough to conduct any type of business before at least 9 or 10 am....

One Last 'Achoo!'

Jimmy came over and we finished cleaning out the garage today. I threw all of the remaining stuff down from the top story, and Jimmy and Brad cleaned out the bottom part of the garage and built a workbench. We stirred up a lot of dust today while we were working, and it was a windy, dusty day in general. My front porch view of the downtown skyline was clouded by a fog-like dust that was hanging in the air all day. Though I'm fairly certain that my allergies aren't gone and my sneezing isn't over, I'm quite glad that the garage is clean and won't be the cause of any more sneezing and wheezing.

226

Wow, according to the blogger homepage, this is my 226th blog post. That's a lot of words....

I don't have much to write about today. I feel like I have a lot of adjectives today, but not many nouns or verbs. A lack of nouns and verbs makes writing difficult....

The Garage

Jimmy and I worked on cleaning out the garage today. The garage is detached from the house, and it's a mess. We're trying to get it cleaned up so the space is usable for more than simply storing junk. Judging by the state of things, I don't think the garage has been cleaned out in years, many years. Jimmy mostly worked on the bottom floor, and I spent my time sifting through stuff in the attic. While most of what we found was old Christmas decorations and boxes full of random stuff (everything from fabric scraps to paint cans), we did find some interesting things too. We found some books, some Christmas card catalogues, and a box with some old cards and letters. We threw out over a dozen trash bags full of trash and junk, but we did save a few interesting things to sort through and look at later. Though I'm glad we made progress in the garage, I'm now wondering how long it will be before I'm breathing normally again....

Dear John,

I thought I would share the 'Happy Valentine's Day' activity that I force upon my students with the world at large. (I didn't create this one on my own. It was given to me by someone somewhere.) Anyway, the task is to punctuate the letter to make it understandable. Ready, set, go....

dear john I want a man who knows what love is all about you are generous kind thoughtful people who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior you have ruined me for other men I yearn for you I have no feelings whatsoever when we’re apart I can be happy forever will you let me be yours Gloria

(I posted the answers as comments connected to this post.) Happy Valentine's Day!!

Making Babies

One of my sisters sent an e-mail forward to me yesterday. It was called 'Kids' Explanations." I liked this one....

A second grader came home from school and said to her grandmother,
"Grandma, guess what? We learned how to make babies today."
The grandmother, more than a little surprised, tried to keep her cool.
"That's interesting," she said, "How do you make babies?"
"It's simple," replied the girl. "You just change "y" to "i" and add 'es.'"

About Me....

(Okay, this is all Krysten's fault....)

There's a set of websites that are something of a personality perception analysis. The websites asked me to pick out the adjectives that I feel best describe me, and then it asks my friends to pick, from the same list, the adjectives that they feel best describe me. It sounds like fun, so here are the links if you'd like to contribute to my perception map or create your own. One assesses positive characteristics whereas the other assesses the more negative characteristics. (Don't feel bad about picking out my weaknesses; I can take it, I promise. Also, you can leave feedback anonymously....)

Bridal Shower

The girls at the office threw a bridal shower for me yesterday. We met, ate pizza and cake, and then I opened gifts. There were quite a few of the girls from the office there, some of Jimmy's family and some of his mom's friends, my sister Janet, and Kristy, one of my friends from SC, surprised me by showing up in the middle of the event. (Well, not quite the middle, but I didn't know she was planning on coming. Apparently, 2 other SC friends had planned on coming along with her, but they were unable to do so because of babies.) The shower was fun, and then afterwards I got to spend some time just hanging out with Janet, Anna, and Kristy. It was a pretty laid-back event and a relaxing day, which was nice for a change....

Sometimes My Bike Needs a Horn

I ride my bicycle to campus and the office everyday (yes, I ride my bike in teacher clothes), and some days I want a horn for my bicycle. I don't want a little bell or one of those little funny sounding horns like I had on my banana-seat bicycle when I was 9; I want a real horn that drivers will notice (and not laugh at)....

I cross one relatively busy street on my way to campus. (Well, it's not really a very busy street, but it's busy enough to have a traffic light with buttons for pedestrians to push when they want to cross the street.) As I was preparing to cross said relatively busy street, a pickup (which I think was exceeding the speed limit) made a sharp right turn, completely disregarding the 'walk' sign (well, the picture of the man walking that has replaced the 'walk' sign) and the whole 'pedestrians have the right of way' rule. (Granted, I'm not exactly a 'pedestrian' when I'm on my bicycle, but the person starting to cross the street from the other side was certainly a pedestrian.) Anyway, I wanted my horn. It's not all that often that I use my horn when I'm driving my car, but I do like my horn on those instances when I need it. Sometimes I wish my bike had a horn too....

It's the Weekend, but....

The weekend's here and half over, but I don't feel like I've had a chance to really rest yet. Janet came through town yesterday and took Jimmy and I out for supper, and then Jimmy and I went to see a movie. (We went to see The Pursuit of Happyness; it was a good movie, though it was a bit slow throughout.) I got home relatively late last night, and then I was up fairly early this morning. Jimmy and I went to a daylong retreat/workshop for engaged couples. It was generally informative and interesting, but the day felt long. We went out for supper afterwards, and then we spent some time running errands around town. We did a little shopping and worked on wedding registry stuff (we're registered at Target and Dillards if you're interested). Now I'm home for the night, and I'm planning on getting a very long, restful night of sleep; hopefully tomorrow will feel more like a 'weekend' day....