I know that gets said a lot.  Some Fridays I mean it more than others.  

I went a little crazy at Kroger (after school). They had one of their special deals where if you bought 10 of certain items you get $5 off your total at the cash register.  So I stocked up on canned soups and pasta.  Saved 39% on the total bill, and only bought staples that we use on a regular basis.  Probably all the news about Superstorm Sandy put me in the mood to have plenty of food in the house.  I was not the only person there with the sale flyer, trying to figure out the best way to combine items for maximum savings.  

Plans always change around here.  We’re going to Springfield tomorrow to drive by 2 properties for sale in Willard (NW of Springfield) and then hang out with Jax…and Sara, and Matt when he gets home.  If the places look good from the road, we’ll arrange to officially look at them next Saturday.  I was feeling discouraged after the Oldfield place fell through.  I didn’t see anything that looked promising for a couple of weeks.  Of course these may also disappoint in person, but they do look good on the internet. Both have 10 acres, some cleared land and some wooded.  Privacy without being isolated.  

Across the street from the high school, the students turned an old firehouse into The Firehouse–a coffee shop that sometimes offers food.  It is run by students (with supervision of teachers & community people).  Tonight was a special fund raiser, with a Mexican dinner special.  Authentic home cooked Mexican meal. We originally heard a rumor that the history teacher Mr. Mendoza was cooking it, but I think it was his wife. (that is based on the reference to “she” in several conversations amongst the students)  Rice, beans, a tamale, a taquito, and I think an empanada.  It was very very good, and just $5 a plate.  I am going to have to pay better attention to when they offer special meals.  The are open more hours during the week, but just serve coffee drinks and smoothies.

Our garden has been put to bed for the winter…except the lettuce & turnips.  We’ve had nice fall weather the past few days, but it is supposed to rain this weekend thru Monday.  This fits with the Farmer’s Almanac prediction for the first 5 days of November.  

I was expecting a day full of stomach aches from all that Halloween candy…but it was just a normal day.  Brenda and I managed to do vision and hearing screenings on another 6th grade class.  3 down and 9 to go.  All in all, a good day at work.

Dennis dug more sweet potatoes.  I fried some pork chops, made a broccoli/pasta side dish and salvaged enough lettuce from the garden for salad. I got my engraving done and will deliver it tomorrow after school. I have another grocery list and I may be tempted to pick up Papa Murphy’s pizza on the way home…

Hannah finally has a job in her field of fashion design out in Los Angeles…only now she may not get a paycheck for a while because Anne Taylor headquarters in NYC is in shambles.  There are times I wonder if the Brady name doesn’t carry some kind of curse with it…and they say “the luck of the Irish”…only for us it doesn’t seem to be good luck. 

The Farmer’s Almanac says nothing in particular about today.  This is the “poem” for the month of November:

Flurries early, pristine & pearly

Winter’s come calling!

Can we endure so premature a falling?

Some may find this trend distressing–

others bend to say a blessing

over sage and onion dressing.

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. 

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.

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

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.

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.  

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.

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.  

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”.