Saturday

I am pleased to announce that I am in the process of enjoying an unexpected but much relished four-day weekend.

I took Thursday off as a personal day so that I could have the electricians come and figure out why I wasn't getting electricity upstairs in the bedrooms or in the stairwell.  (The bathroom was fine, which allowed me to run an extension cord across the hall so I could plug in my TV and my alarm clock and phone base.)

I expected there to be a problem in the basement with the breaker box, but it was in the other suspicious place--the attic.  I expected that the attic would be the source of the problem if the breaker box wasn't because the damn squirrels think my attic is the Hotel California...they check in and don't ever want to leave.  And believe me, from the noises I hear coming from up there at all hours, I  think it is probably some form of bdsm squirrel brothel.  I try not to put mental images to the noises I hear.  I'm too young for that sort of knowledge.  Ugh.

It turns out that there were some bare wire splices up there, and that was causing the problem.  They fixed the issue but said that there is a lot more potential problem material up there and that I should really have it taken care of soon.  Ugh.  Fortunately, the issues that they resolved on Thursday, including fixing the three-way switch for the stairwell light, cost me only $166.  I was expecting it to cost an arm and a leg.  I was so relieved when it was such a small amount.  Whew.  Dodged a bullet.

While they were here, one of them told me that the deputy sheriff had pulled up next to their van to tell them that the roads were getting treacherous and that a lot of schools were dismissing early.  I texted one of my homeroom kids and asked her if they were getting out, and she texted back that they had been released at 10:45.  So, not only did I get a day off, but I can continue on, mostly unimpeded, with my curriculum.  It's always a pain to have a sub because they literally cannot go on with what you were doing because (a) it isn't their area of expertise, (b) I have my own unique ways of presenting material to the kids so that they "get it" and I also have my ways of checking in with them to be sure they "got it,"  (c) you have to come up with detailed activities that are educational for the kids, fun enough for the kids to be willing to do them, simple enough for the sub to comprehend and perform without a lot of previous knowledge about the subject area, and extensive enough so that the sub has material to keep them busy for most of the class period.  It's a lot of work to get ready for a sub, and it's a lot of work to pick up afterwards and finish off the activities with the kids, and it takes a big bite of time away from what I *was* doing with them, which requires some revisitation of what we did before before we can move on again.

Sigh.

Only another teacher can really understand the woes of having a sub.

And the subs, God bless them--they have the toughest times of all...

So, anyhow. 

I began Thursday by tossing all my laundry down the stairway.  They came earlier than I expected, so my house was still sort of a wreck.  I had a ton of dirty dishes.  So, while they were here, I did dishes and assembled my new vacuum cleaner.  I still haven't used it yet, but today's the day. 

I was freezing cold all day because of the godawful temperatures, so I turned on the oven and baked chocolate chip cookies and something that Shane Lesley told me about--cornflake macaroons that his grandma makes.  I looked them up on the internet and found a recipe.  It is my plan to gift him with a little baggie of them on Monday.  Assuming we do not have some freaking blizzard and have another snow day!

The recipe did not make a very big batch, and I believe I overbaked one pan as they are like little rocks.  Sigh.

However, the ones that turned out are very chewy and tasty.

In the event that you would like the recipe--here it is:

Cornflake Macaroons

1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
3/4 cup flour
5 cups cornflakes
1 1l/2 cups flaked coconut

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Cream butter and sugars.
Add eggs and vanilla
Mix in flour.
Stir in cornflakes and coconut.

Drop by teaspoonful on parchment lined cookie sheets.  Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes.

You have to watch these carefully as they go from really raw to over baked in seconds.

Next time I make them, I will be using some pecans as well, as I think they would benefit from that.

Brad Paulson came by to plow my driveway while the first pan of chocolate chip cookies was baking, so I hooked him up with a big plate of fresh, warm cookies.  The man had the look of bliss on his face as he was leaving my house.  LOL.

I did not really anticipate a snow day on Friday as the storm was supposed to blow itself out in the night.  I was hoping for a late start so that I could at least see clearly when I drove to school.  However, while I was watching KTTC news, I saw that many area schools were already posting late starts.  And after a bit ROC popped up as closed for Friday.  I didn't cry too hard at the thought of having another day off--but I did miss my kids. 

Saturday, Part 2

Friday was my snow day--first, I slept in till about 9:30, which gave me great joy and happiness.

When I went downstairs, I made a huge pot of chili--I have set half of it aside for Jim, DeAnn, and Swayze.

I did a couple of loads of laundry, including bedding.

But I spent the bulk of the day working on curriculum for the new class I am developing--"Research Skills"

I had a  hard time trying to decide where I would start them off--I made the class so that kids would have some exposure to the research process before senior seminar.  The CORRECT research process, that is...where one includes citations and bibliographies.  Finally, I decided the best place to start them off was reviewing the essay process.  I don't intend to make them write enormous papers--at least not during first quarter.  I am going to start them off with five paragraph themes--first themes that require no research at all (drawing from their own personal experiences) and then moving on to some short research projects.  I may even require them to design and conduct some surveys or bring in someone for them to interview so that they can learn about using primary sources. 

It would be cool if I could get three tattoo artists in--then their theme would naturally fall into three sections--one for each artist.  And that is a topic all my kids are fascinated by.

Anyhow--I typed many pages of examples and exercises yesterday.  And to be sure they are not lost, I emailed them to myself.  I've been having issues with my school computer just LOSING massive amounts of information that I have worked on for hours.  That pisses me off.

I know I did some other stuff Friday also, but I cannot remember what it was.

Today I have gotten a lot done.  I have all but one load of laundry washed (I had six this week because of all the bedding I washed).  I will have to make three more trips up and down the horrible steep, narrow basement stairs, risking my life in the process.  I hate that my laundry is in the basement.

Sigh.

I refilled my pill caddies and did the "mouse-milking" task of popping a lot of my loratadine tablets from their blister-pack confines.  I have a little plastic bottle that I was able to buy loratadine in once, but now I can only find it in 30-day supplies in boxes of blister packs.  I had several boxes on hand as I hate to run out of my allergy med.  I punched out all but four cards and put the pills in the plastic bottle.  My fingers are still sore. 

I get caught up in the small tasks that are time eaters.  I don't know why.  It's like when I was working on my craft room.  I bought one of those nuts-n-bolts organizers which are perfect for small craft items like beads and wiggly eyes and stuff like that.  I was just obsessed with sorting all the beads into size and color and texture groups.  It was insane and took at least three days of sporadic sorting to get it done.  There were much more important tasks that would have made a greater difference in the appearance of my craft room, but I couldn't proceed until I had taken care of those stupid beads.  Sigh.

I have folded and put away all my clean laundry except for the basket with two blankets in it.  I am goingt to put at least one of them on the bed when I remake it.  The sheets are already upstairs.  The comforter is in the last basket. 

I used my new vacuum cleaner for the very first time--and it sucked!  REALLY REALLY GOOD!!!!

It is awesome sauce with awesome drizzle on top.   It is a bagless vacuum, so I have to detach and dump the part that holds the gunk that gets vacuumed up.  There was so much powdery dust in it that my asthma started to make me wheeze.  The recepticle was over the full line just from the living room alone.  It was mostly cat hair and green carpet dust.  I will be doing the dining room too, before I go to bed, but I needed to take a break from vacuuming so I could work on  the laundry some more.  And before I did that, I had  to pop on here and report that my new Bissel vacuum cleaner that I got super cheap at Walmart works GREAT!

Who knew I could get almost orgasmic over a damned vacuum cleaner!  But it is so good to see my living room CLEAN for a change.  Sigh.

I am signing off again now, but I may be back for a Saturday Part 3 if I achieve a few more accomplishments.

Saturday Part 3

The comforter is in the washer.  I am not going back down into the basement again.  I am too tired.  I barely made it back up again on the last trip.  If all goes well and the comforter has not gotten off balance in the spin cycle, I should have to make only two more trips up and down  those horrid stairs tomorrow.

I have almost the whole dining room vacuumed.  I had to stop because the cord pulled out of the outlet, and I could hear my tomato soup buzzer going off.  I decided to make my all time favorite comfort food for supper tonight--tomato soup.  If it were a perfect world, I'd have a crispy on the outside, gooshy on the inside grilled cheese sandwich to dip in it, but I just didn't have  the wherewithal to dig up the energy to make it.

It is delicious.

I made it with milk and put just a small dibble of half and half in it, so it is very creamy and delcious.

The vacuum cleaner has terrorized my poor little kitties, but I think they will get used to it.  It is absolutely the quietest vacuum cleaner I have ever used.

I feel very good about the amount of work I have accomplished today.  I will finish the dining room before I go upstairs.  I'll have to make my bed when I get up there, since I washed everything.  And of  course, I will have to take a bath before I go to bed, because I am not going to put a body all grungy and gross from cleaning all day into freshly washed bedding.

I'm looking forward to going to sleep tonight.

I hope I don't dream the weird dreams I was dreaming last night. 

I was back in my old school--it had a cafeteria that was shared by the elementary and the high school.  I dreamed I was eating in the cafeteria.  They had served mashed potatoes and chicken.  I had a huge glob of mashed potatoes on my plate, but no chicken.  I was trying to get extra butter for my potatoes, but they thought I was asking for more chicken.  The potatoes were cold and not very appealing.  So, I gave them to someone else who was also eating in there. 

I believe I was subbing there in the dream. 

That school is no more as it was torn down to be rebuilt in a butt ugly new modern style.  When I was a kid, the school looked like a castle, complete with turrets.

Sigh.

Anyhow--I was about to go to my classroom (always Mr. Glen's old classroom), I realized I had no clothes on.  I had a moment of confusion, because I knew I wouldn't go out in horrendous weather like that we have been having starkers....but, there I was, all fat and flabby, bare-ass naked, walking down the hall from the cafeteria.

I was horrified and humiliated and thinking how I could get through the hall without anyone seeing me--which of course would have been impossible.  There wasn't even a handy tablecloth to wrap around myself.

Suddenly I realized, "Hey!  This is a dream!  I'm dreaming!  It doesn't matter if I am naked!"

So, I started yelling, "HEY LOOK!  LOOK AT ME!!  I'M NAKED!  BARE ASS NAKED!!"

And the funny thing was that no one paid any attention to me at all.  They just kept milling around aimlessly in the hallway by the library.

Then, I had to climb up the stairs to the upper level--and for some reason, the stairs were very rickety and spaced really far apart.  Also, there were all sorts of old appliances in really bad shape lined up on the stairs so that there was only about two or three inches of step to walk on.  Of course, there was no hand rail, either.  I was able to reach up and grab the back of each step and pull myself up, until the very last one which was just a bit higher than the others.  I could get my hands on the ledge to pull myself up, but I couldn't get my leg lifted up high enough to crawl over it.  I tried to use an old beat up green stove as a hand hold, but it was not anchored down and instantly threatened to fall off, talking me into the abyss with it.

Somehow, I got up there, and I saw the office section where the principal's office was.  Now, this school is in Ellendale, a place where the evil B_rett J_oyce has, I hope, never fouled the air with his vile presence.  However, in the dream, I saw the principal's office and thought, "Cool.  This is a dream.  I can go in and tell that oily little bastard EXACTLY what I think of him.  But, alas, he wasn't in his office.  (Nothing unusual there.)

There was some kind of meeting in there, a board meeting, I presume, and I went in and made an ass of myself, stomping around and swearing, and asking where the "evil little troll boy " was.

For some reason they had a display of vintage and antique bridal veils hanging along the wall of the office, and I was about to rip them off  the wall and shred them, when I thought, "No, these are very beautiful.  Why should they suffer because Butt Joyless is an asswipe?"

Obviously I still have unresolved issues about that nasty prick.  However, if it hadn't been for him, I would have stayed in the cesspool which is Triton until I retired, overworked, underpaid, and completely unappreciated and disrespected.  Not by the kids, I might add.

Every time I drive by that hideous anal cavity masquerading as a school, I flip it off and hope it burns to the ground. 

So, that was my odd dream.  There have been many recently, including one where I dreamt of "wereskunks."  First they were skunks, and then they turned into gothic looking people wearing all black and white clothing.

That was also a trippy dream, but I didn't write it down soon enough and have forgotten most of the details.  A shame.  It was one of my finest.