Teaching, No Harder Call

I think it's safe to say that teaching is not for me. At least, teaching high school is not for me. Teaching high school in the South Central Jungle is not for me.
I'm not entirely sure how it came about but I have become the assistant Academic Decathlon coach at Tarzan's high school and the whole environment is mind boggling. SO VERY different from what I remember high school to be. I don't know how he does it every day, all those teenagers with the angst and language and disrespect and total lack of understanding of anything. It's amazing that this is what is graduating from high school. I don't see how they can function in real life.
The team is fairly okay; they seem to like me, mostly because I make them treats and take them places. But I might have to pull out the authoritative stuff if they keep goofing off like they were on Wednesday. The 'real' coach goes on maternity leave in a little over a month and I am the continuity between her and the substitute, heaven help me. But that means I will have to help them write and memorize their speeches, grade quizzes and generally keep moral and enthusiasm high for those six weeks.
Oy to the vey.
I went to college for five years and this is not even close to what my degree was for.

This is me and I am exhausted.

Reason #345

Why I love Tarzan can be demonstrated in the following email:

check out the new account interface. Looks nice. Thanks for coming by school. It is always so nice to see you.

love Tarzan.

This is me, married to the king of random.

Weather Me This

I don't understand how it's already 80 degrees at 9:30am and still very overcast.

This is me, who makes this stuff up?

Command Decision

I have made an executive decision about the whole Dancing With The Stars question.
I realized that I haven't watched the show just to enjoy it in so long. Since Season Three or so. I've always got half my body turned to the computer so I don't forget to include the eye roll of Tom Bergeron at Len's antics when Mark Ballas tripped over his high water pants or some such thing.
So, despite the pithily worded comments and soulful pleading I'm only going to post about the show if I see something really memorable happens. Just to see what it's like. We'll see how it goes.

This is me and that's my decision.

USC vs WSU

Why do they have to call the Washington State University Cougars the "Cougs?" I don't find it cute in any way. It sounds dumb. And is it really that hard to add the extra syllable?
I was glad to see a reduction in penalties this week for our team and I'm really excited to our special team unit developing some flair. We have never been the team to fake out our opponents, block punts or extra points, nothing sneaky. But if we can bring something flashy it would be cool.
USC: 50
WSU: 16

This is me and that was not bad.

It's All Up To You

So I wrote a whole post about Dancing With The Stars, and then another one about the results show, but somewhere in the middle it occurred to me my loyal fan base might not want to hear me complain about how some celebrities are judged on popularity not on skill and how that was a lousy song and that guest looked high and the judges are annoying and how that is most definitely NOT a Viennese Waltz, for next ten weeks.
Am I right?
I've dithered long enough that I either have to publish the posts or decide that I won't. It wouldn't do to have the next week come around before this one is up.

This is me and if you don't tell me not to then I will.

USC vs Minnesota

Another Saturday, another round of college football. I love my team but to be the most penalized in the entire division YET AGAIN is a dubious honor.
Trickeration? I am fairly certain that is not a word though the commentators threw it around like it was.
So not amused with the lack of two point conversions going on.
Final score
USC: 32
Minnesota: 21

This is me and I am sure I will be smited for mixing my teams, but Roll Tide!!

I Can Fit You In Sometime Around 2012

I am pretty sure it was only a few days ago when I welcomed the fall, how is that every single Saturday is booked from now until 2011?
Plus an awful lot of weeknights too.

This is me and oh yeah, we have termites.

I Never Lack For Pictures

They may have fleas - on occasion - race frantically through the house, climb the blinds and spill their food all over the floor, but they do amuse me:

This is me with a kitty in a pot.

Welcome The Fall

So long summer; hello fall. The leaves might not get all dramatic here in the Jungle but there are some definite signs of the season changing.
Tarzan started school today, after a really lovely summer wherein he realaxed a lot more than I can usually get him to do. He's on his own this year, budget cuts dictating he can no longer have an aide in the library. This makes him anxious, not about being alone, but about not being able to do all that he wants to because of the paperwork and filing that the aide usually handles. I forsee a need for my services in the near future.
College football, you may have already noticed, has begun.
And the season premieres of all the random programs to feed my television addiction. I am pretty sure I am the target audience of most shows on the boob tube. I laugh in most of the right places and end up caring about the characters even when I vow to not. I don't guess the endings and I wait anxiously for each subsequent episode in the series.
And the invention of the DVR has just made it easier to watch more shows in less time. No longer do I have to choose between Dancing With The Stars and How I Met Your Mother. I can record both and watch them whenever I want. In addition to those, I abashedly add the following to my Fall lineup.
Brothers & Sisters
Glee
Greek
Law & Order: SVU
Parenthood

This is me and apparently I am still mentally about 15 years old.

Isn't It Kinda Fun?

We went to the county fair yesterday, which was pretty monumental I discovered, as neither Tarzan nor ATL had ever been to a county, state or other type of fair. The last one I visited was in The Frozen North when I was nine. So we were really excited to ride some rides, see the exhibits and eat deep fried stuff. Of which there was plenty to choose from: First we had "real food" from the Chuckwagon; Tarzan going for the complete brisket plate: That meat was really very good. I was far more impressed with his than my own. ATL had the 'big' doggie:
And she ate it all:I paced myself with the BBQ sandwich:Because the deep fried Snickers bar was on the way:Tarzan got his anxiously sought after funnel cake:And there were smoothies had by all:I'm not sure how I felt about the farm exhibits being sponsored by McDonald's but the animals were cute:Impressive:And funny:All at the same time. This goat had some horn issues going on:Everyone we saw laughed and told the same joke outside the miniature piglet pen:(So miniature we can't see them.)

When we needed to sit down we wandered over to the racetrack and watched a couple of horse races:Interspersed with dachshund races because watching those little short legs churn in the deep dirt is amusing. The horses were so much more exciting to watch live than on television. I even called the winner in the last race.

The garden house was gorgeous:We rode the Ferris Wheel naturally:And took this photo just for BHB:My favorite part of the day was the Lumberjack Show in which two guys - clearly college students earning money for school - dressed like the Brawny paper towel man, competed in lumberjack sports for our applause and amusement. There was Mike - our teams's lumberjack:And Sam, the other guy:And despite the dialogue being, well, scripted, I was greatly amused at the log rolling:

The tree climbing:

Pretty much all of it:

This is me and that was a good outing.

USC vs Virginia

Once the game got going - near the end of the second quarter - it was pretty good. Except for the penalties. And the missed passes. And the quarterback pooping out in the fourth quarter.
USC: 17
Virginia: 14

This is me and a win is a win. I guess.

Missing

Does anyone know where I might look to find the plastic piece that goes between the blade and the holder on my Zyliss hand chopper?:
It's a great kitchen gadget but I can't use it right now. I've looked in the cupboard where it lives, the one next to that, all my utensil drawers and it's nowhere. ATL wants to blame the kittens but that seems too random.

This is me and it's possible my dishwasher ate it.

Static Free

And we're back.
My new hard drive came today and I am so proud to tell you that I installed it and the new operating system all by myself. This may not be big news to the young things reading this but I belong to the generation who did not touch a piece going into a computer without a haz-mat suit with an anti-static coating, do the anti-static dance, make the anti-static sacrifice and even then it might not work right so the best thing is to let a professional do it. It's quite a leap in my skill set that I was able to remove the old hard drive, take off the plastic handle thingy that lets it slide in and out of my laptop, attach the handle to the new drive and put that back in my machine.
I was awesome.
Then I installed Windows 7 and I have got to tell you, I don't see that great a difference. Yet. I did get a new security program - McAfee is SO last season - and I'm hoping I won't have to reinstall anything in six months. We'll revisit that in time for Easter.

This me and I'm back for now.

USC vs Hawai'i

Most dramatic move of the night by far; the unintentional wallop laid on the Warriors' quarterback.
Final Score:
USC - 49
Hawai'i - 36

This is me and given everything it's not a bad start to the season.

Ode To My Laptop

I think my computer hates me.
For the second time this year I was puttering along with my Internet pages when out of no where comes the dreaded Blue Screen of Death.
What have I ever done to deserve this from you, lovely, shiny, blue, machine? I have loved and cared fro you for two years. I bought you an air conditioning system - something *I* don't even have. I wash your screen and keyboard everyday so you are nice and clean. I run the update thingy on a regular basis and I don't dawdle when online so the viruses can't sneak in. I haven't installed any software since the last BCoD. Why are you having convulsions?
Apparently this time I need to replace the hard drive AND ALSO upgrade to Windows 7. You may have heard that Vista has flaws and is irritating and, well...it's true. Hopefully those upgrades will end of all this silliness. If not there will be words had with Dell, Microsoft and Samsung. (They make the hard drive.)
Many thanks to ATL for the lend of her laptop so's I could keep you updated.
We are out of town for the long weekend so...with spotty Internet coverage AND a laptop that hates me it might be a while before I get anything up here.


This is me with my not-a-happy-camper face.