Month: October 2012

  • Happy Halloween!

    I’m not doing much for Halloween this year.  I participated in the big food carry in for the teachers & staff.  I brought 2 bags of corn tortilla chips and 2 jars of peach salsa.  One person brought a much too realistic “kitty litter cake”.  I did have some of the jello brain.  I think we all “grazed” on the goodies most of the morning.  Then kids brought me candy and cupcakes and cookies in the afternoon.  It was a good day.

     Dennis is at the church helping with “trunk or treat”.  I’m boiling (after peeling and chopping) the last of last falls sweet potatoes.  I’ll then smash them.  Time to start experimenting with sweet potato pie recipes. Maybe bake some sweet potato biscuits. MMMM.  Dennis plans to dig this years sweet potatoes Friday. He dug a few already and it looks like it will be a good crop.

    Tomorrow is November 1, the beginning of the 2013 Old Farmer’s Almanac.  Almanac means calendar of the heavens. November starts with a waning moon, and then a full moon on the 28th. The first 5 days are predicted to be mild with showers. In general the winter for the midwest will be above average temperatures and above average precipitation, with normal snowfall. Snowfall is predicted mid to late November.  I’m looking forward to seeing how this all plays out. 

  • A day from hell

    I knew the day wasn’t going as planned when my co-worker was subbing for a sick nurse at another school…I was flying solo with the flu clinic at the middle school.  Even with back up, I don’t think the day would have had a happy ending. 

    I had a volunteer show up 30 min. before clinic starting time.  She sat in my office making comments on how she never thought she’d be a volunteer for Public Health (as in slumming it) because she was as ER nurse.  She had no idea that a school nurse would be busy…like I lounge around eating bonbons and doing what? So I deliver her to the cafeteria at 1:30 (she walked SO SLOW I wondered how in the heck was she an ER nurse).  I found out later the health dept nurse was snotty to the secretaries and flounced back to the cafeteria without bothering to tell me they were there.  Who dares to be snotty to the RMS secretaries…that really chaps my hide.   Then the health dept nurse gets all snotty about how I was supposed to have the students divided by grade and room to be called to the cafeteria, which is exactly what I just finished telling her I had done.  The 2 volunteers who were supposed to get the students and bring them to the cafeteria shuffled  SO SLOWLY you could hardly tell they were moving.  I had 63 signed permission forms and 1.5 hours to get the shots/mist administered.  I’d spent hours colating the 3 pieces of information (940 in each of the 3 piles), counting them into classes and putting them in teachers boxes, collected the signed sheets, and had a list of students by grade and classroom waiting for the health department. And this person was being snotty to me?  It went downhill from there.  In the end I had the wonderful secretaries do an “all call” the last half hour for the students they hadn’t gotten to (after one of the volunteers told me I was lying and had the students in the wrong classes when she couldn’t find them).  At 3 PM when I went down to see how things were going and get a list of who didn’t (or did) get the flu shot/mist…they were GONE.  The clinic was supposed to last until 4 PM.  So I have no list of who didn’t get shots/mist.  I have a list of permissions forms that I made.  Sheesh. Tomorrow when parents call, I plan to deny any accountablilty and give the parent the health dept. number.  It is their problem. They did not follow the procedure they laid out.  Just shoot me. No good deed goes unpunished.

     

  • Deer Camp: The Musical

    this should have been posted Monday night but I think the xanga site was down…

     

    It was in the 20′s this morning when I headed to work. Who’d have thought we’d really have winter after or drought and record setting heat this summer?  The furnace is on, the winter coat is out.

    After the total escape of the 3 day weekend, I was ready to get back to work.  I was busy but it was a good day. I think I even got my ducks in a row for the flu shot/mist clinic at the school tomorrow afternoon. We’ll have to wait and see how it all it plays out, since so much of it will be in the hands of the Health Department. Of course the disgruntled parents will call me, not the Health Department.

    After work I picked up a few groceries and picked up Lucas at Groom & Room. He’s had a shampoo & trim and smells good…for a dog. He was glad to see me and I was glad to see him.  I missed that rascal!

    We went to see “Deer Camp: the Musical” at the Leach Theater in Rolla.  It was ok.  Part of the problem was that the sound system didn’t seem like it was turned up enough…or maybe I’m getting deaf. The stars were Tony Papenfuss & John Voldstad, who were  ”My brother Darryl” and “My other brother Darryl” on the Newhart Show. Do I need to mention that it was a comedy?  I noticed there was a PAGE of “rules” (what used to be known as etiquette or common curtesy) in the Playbill.  Turn off your cell phone, don’t text during the performance, arrive on time, sit in your assigned seat, no talking or singing along during the show. I guess common sense ain’t so common any more

     

  • End of the 3 day weekend

    I don’t even know where to begin…

    Hannah sent me a photo of her as Honey Boo Boo (she made the outfit for Halloween).  Will the real Honey Boo Boo please take a bow.

     

    Thursday was a rather quiet day at work.  It was mostly a 1st quarter rewards day, with movies and special treats. I dashed home after work and helped Dennis with the last minute trip preparations.  Lucas was at Groom & Room, the van packed, and we were on the road by 5 PM.  It was raining and 42 degrees.  Killing freeze predicted for our area Friday & Saturday nights. 

    It was 9:30 when we arrived at Patty & Bob’s house.  They’d waited on  us to eat.  Patty had a wonderful Mexican chicken type soup & cornbread. We ate and chatted til after 11 PM. 

    Friday we went to Crystal Bridge, the art museum in Benton Arkansas. It was amazing. It has American artwork from the 1700′s to present.  I was amazed at the quality and depth of the collection.  It takes several hours to go through the museum, so they conveniently located a cafeteria in the middle of it.  It served very good food. We all had hamburgers.

    Saturday we checked out the Fayetteville Farmer’s Market which was still going strong. Patty and I also did some shopping at “the Attic”–a resale shop.  For $1.25 I got a nice knit Halloween vest with the tags still on it (never worn).  I plan to wear it tomorrow and then again on Halloween.  We also went to Hancock Fabrics where I got a Simplicity “vintage 40′s” pattern that had a 6 gore skirt, pants, blouse & jacket for $1.95, and the brown twill I got for the skirt was 40% off.  Zipper, thread and button included, the total was less than $20.  Unfortunately after the Halloween vest, the skirt seemed rather “pricey”, plus I have to make it.  

    Saturday night we went to West Fork and attended the “Little O Opry”   It was going on when we lived there 20 years ago and is still going strong.  The musicians were good and the atmosphere fun.  There was frost on the ground when we left.  

    We stopped by to see Sara & Jax on our way home. Sara shared a photo of Jax with his first pumpkin.He now has one top tooth barely poking thru the gums and was a bit suspicious of Mimi & Pepe.  We played with him for a while but he always kept an eye on his mom (who was trying to get a bit of laundry done, and some cleaning).  

    It was dark when we got home so I’m not sure how much damage the freezes did while we were gone.  The cold seems to have settled in for the next several days.  It looks like Sandy is living up to all the dire predictions of a powerful storm.  I hope things don’t get too bad for the New Jersey cousins.

  • Boring is good

    A boring day (for me) at RMS.  Boring is good.  The usual drama kings and queens. A few sick kids.  A few playground injuries.  Most humorous complaint of the day:  ”My friends have been feeling my tonsils and say they are swollen.”  Personally, I’m more worried about lack of gag reflex than swollen tonsils.

    Got my hair trimmed after school. Next time I’ll have to “color” as well as trim.  Fortunately there is just a fine line between blond and gray hair. Once I have enough gray not to just be “drab”, I will stop coloring it.  

    Left-over beef stew for supper. The last of the homemade bread.  Getting ready for a 3 day weekend. Planning a trip to Arkansas to spend some time with Patty & Bob.  We plan to see Crystal Bridges while we are there.  I’m packing both the camera and “big lens”…hope the views are worth the weight I’ll be packing.  

  • Tuesday

    Today I wore a red sweater…and got to wear jeans because it was a “spirit day”…wearing Red to celebrate “Red Ribbon Week” which is to encourage students to be drug free.  Must dress extra nice Wednesday and Thursday because of Parent/Teacher conferences.  No school on Friday–Three Day Weekend! WooHoo!  Today wasn’t as busy and I was able to play “catch up” on some paperwork. That’s always a good thing.

    Last night, at 8:17, our power went out.  No warning.  It seemed as though the entire area was blacked out.  I called a friend who has REA electricity and they had power.  Dennis and I consider ourselves prepared for such “emergencies” but this one caught us flat-footed.  The first flashlight Dennis found didn’t have any batteries in it.  I couldn’t find the matches to light the candles.  We finally got it together and had candles lit and batteries in the radio… Rolla had electricity.  Armageddon had not arrived.  It was a little after 9 when the power came back on.  Seems like since we’re paying more to have our “grid” improved, we get more outages.  

    Keurig.  Do I want one?  I have friends who have them and love them.  I like the idea of one cup of coffee (since Dennis doesn’t drink coffee). Unfortunately they are pricey to buy plus the little cups…more expensive than regular coffee (although fancier blends, flavors, etc).  It took me a long time to come around to owning a Kindle, but e-books don’t use paper and I don’t have to find space for more books.  On the down side, I can’t share my E-books.  But I think the biggest negative about the Keurig is the plastic cups that each cup off coffee comes in.  Not easy to recycle around here.  Yes, there is a re-useable cup that you can put regular coffee in, but what is the real advantage of that?  Might as well brew a pot of coffee.  Or get a little single cup coffee pot.  Ok, the jury is still out, but I think they are getting close to a verdict.

  • A Monday Indeed

    There were the usual “Monday-itis” students.  It was a nice, sunny fall day so that meant more than usual playground injuries. Then there were the truly sick students.  One of the Monday-itis students with a stomach ache about 30 minutes after class started:  Me:  Did you eat breakfast?  (rule on the possibility student is HUNGRY and that is why stomach hurts)  Student:  No. But I did have a bowl of cereal at home.    Me: You need to be in class.  

    The book club was interesting.  We discussed All Nature Sings.  Everyone enjoyed the book and there was quite a bit of sharing.  Next month is Out Live Your Life.  

    Ever since we got Charter cable in 1993, our “connection” has not been good.  When the duplex was built next door (about 1995 or 96) they cut our underground cable and an above ground cable was run “temporarily”.  Over the years we’ve had mulitple complaints about poor reception, no reception, and they just kept adding more and more bandaides, and never really addresssing the problem.  It was also never grounded and a month or so ago, the connection got so bad that we had extremely intermittent cable because it was shorting out whenever the wind or squirrel moved it.  So we got a nice cable person come out and replace our outdated box and promise to fix our problem. The utility people marked the gas line and eventually they marked the path of our underground cable…and actually buried a cable. 

    I could see where they put the cable in the ground and a cable came up and ran to the electric box, where you would expect it went inside our house…  Except they never took down the above ground cable. One is cable, the other phone.    So, curiosity got the better of me and I opened the electric box.We may have a buried cable but it isn’t  connected.  We still have the same cable. It’s a little more secure and there have only been a few times I’ve heard the “pop” and the picture flashed, but came right back.  Yep, Charter has improved.  NOT.  On the other hand, I’m not sure if the options available here would be any better.  

     

     

  • Peaceful Sunday

    It has been a nice Sunday.  It started out chilly but warmed up to the 70′s.  Laundry is done.  Clothes are ironed. I fixed a roast with potatoes, carrots & onions for supper. Lettuce salad from the garden. I got the dark blue solid fabric cut into pieces: 82 3 7/8″ x 3 7/8″; 22   3 1/2″ x 6 1/2″; 44  3 1/2″ x 3 1/2″.  Then figured out the sets for cutting the printed blue & cream fabric. Must be sure to get it done before I forget…I talked to my mom today. She has the solid cream pieces I cut last year.  whew.  I’d hate to think I’d lost them. 

    Paul is at the baseball game in San Francisco.  Right now the Cards are behind.  It would be exciting for him to be there when the Cards won the series…but I’m not sure that’s going to happen.

    Hard to believe but in less than 10 hours I’ll be on my way back to work.  Fortunately we are off on Friday because of parent/teacher conferences.  We’ll be headed for Arkansas to enjoy a 3 day weekend “down south”.  happy

     

  • Little Pine Brewery

    Back in May, at Sip n Savor, we discovered a “local” microbrewery—Piney River.  It is in Bucyrus MO, which is near Houston MO.  It is 64 miles from our house, according to our GPS unit.  It’s not a place you accidentally stumble across…unless you are really really lost.  This is the low water bridge we crossed It’s been a wet fall so water was running across it.  This is the barn where they brew the beer. That is the deck where you can sit and sample their beer.  It was an old barn, originally.  The oak siding is now on the inside, along with the original tin roof.  They’ve done an excellent job of recycle and reusing old materials. This is the sink in the bathroom.  I was impressed by how many people showed up while we were there.  They do not serve food but allow you to bring you own and eat on their deck, which had a great view of the pastures, some woods, and lots of cows. It was a fun afternoon.  Local restaurants, Colton’s and Sybil’s serve their beer, as well as 2 bars in Rolla, The Speak Easy and The Locker Room.  They also “can”  a few of their beers, which they sell at Ed’s Package store in St. James.  Good to know. 

    After goofing off most of today, I must keep my nose to the grindstone tomorrow and get things organized for next week. On Thursday Lucas goes to Groom & Room, and we head to Fayetteville AR for a 3 day weekend. Parent/Teacher conferences are Wed & Thurs after school and evenings, so there won’t be school on Friday.  Works for me. 

  • Finally Friday

    Today was Pajama Day.  I wore my coffee cup print pj’s and robe to work. I stayed nice and warm too.  Brenda was back at work, although not feeling 100%.  We managed to do the hearing, vision, height & weight for 2 of the 13 6th grade classes.  Our 3 principals provided lunch for the teachers and staff.  Even though it was drizzly (and it usually is at the end of 1st quarter) they grilled brats outside. There was also lots of chips and ro-tel cheese dip and taco soup.  Proving once again the people who work at RMS make it a great place to be.  THEN, when I was leaving today, I discovered I’d left my lights on and my battery was dead.  3 teachers saw me in distress and immediately offered to jump my VW.  How sweet is that?  Zach, the shop teacher’s car was closest and he got his pulled around first.  I had my own jumper cables, but so did all 3 volunteers.  I decided not to risk stopping at the grocery store on the way home. It was nice to park in front of the house and start the weekend.

    Hannah finally got her foot in the fashion world door.  Anne Taylor is opening a new store and she’s been hired to help set it up and work there full time.  Not a part time “sales associate” but a real employee with above minimum wage salary and a chance for advancement.  WOOHOO!  

    It looks like Paul is going to see Game 6 of Giants vs Cardinals in SF on Sunday.  I’m happy for him but it would have been nice if the Cardinals had won tonight.