Just about moved in...

Yesterday, Cas and I put my old desk and his old mattress on the front steps.  The desk was mine, and very old.  My uncle Clayton had made it when I was a child and I inherited it when he redecorated at some point.  It was a pretty straightforward piece of furniture- Perfect for a computer.  Cas' mattress and box springs lost in their bid to become our master bedroom set.  I had the TempurPedic, so his Sealy set was relegated to the guest bedroom.  His set also had an unfortunate bend in the middle.  It was fine for him when he was sleeping alone, but when there were two of us trying to sleep, we'd roll to the middle in the night.  

They went to the Salvation Army today.  

We left in the morning with the porch all filled up like that.  I had genuinely hoped that they would take everything.  There was a voicemail I got last week explaining that they would only accept certain kinds of desks, and I wasn't entirely sure they would take mine.  I thought of how aggravating we would be to the entire neighborhood if we had a mattress and a desk out in the front yard for any real length of time.  I mean, a few hours makes us look generous- we're giving to the Salvation Army!  A few days makes us look trashy- Someone call the Homeowner's Association!  Thankfully, both things were hauled away and we got a tax receipt.  

On Wednesday, Dan and Laurie will have their new bed, Cas and I will take their old one and place it in the guest bedroom.  Danny bought a Beauty Rest about four years ago, but Laurie hates it.  It's a good option for our guest room, since it is flat instead of dented in the middle, and as a bonus, it's totally free to us.  When we get that placed, we will probably be just about moved in.  Cas had to displace several boxes to get the old mattress out, and I genuinely hope that those boxes finally get unpacked during spring break, but he has to get all caught up on his school stuff first.  They may be with us until summer...  But hey- we're just about moved in, and in only six months or so!  

The diaper has landed

For the past few weeks, there has been a diaper sitting on the edge of my assigned parking space at work.  I told my mother about it, and she wanted clarification, so let me answer her questions here:  It is a baby diaper, not an adult undergarment.  It is used.  I have no further information, as I did not poke it, touch it or pick it up.

This morning, someone had apparently kicked it.  There was shredded absorbent stuff everywhere.  The diaper has landed.

Here is what greeted me for the past couple of weeks.

Gross, right?  Well, this morning, it was in more pieces and spread out over a larger distance.  

Still gross.  I just wouldn't want to be the one wearing the diaper-kicking shoe.

In other news, I had my formal evaluation yesterday.  As my evaluation wrapped up, I thanked the boss for stopping by.  He thanked me and said my class was fun.  

I guess, if you have to start your day stepping around a diaper, it's at least nice to end it by having your boss say nice things.  There are worse things to hear from your appraiser.  

Happy VD

I just had the best Valentine's Day of my entire life  For starters, it was on a weekend this year, and a long weekend, too.  Since it's leap year (at least that's the current theory as to why), I have today off.  It's President's Day today.  Typically, we have school that day, but I figure it's a day off because of the extra day in February this year.  Maybe...  Maybe not... I am not that concerned with why.  I didn't go to work today, and that was very nice.

On Saturday, Cas and I made a return visit to the Witherspoon Distillery.  They have moved into a new facility since our last visit, and it was very nice.  We spent way too much money on the cocktails, the food and the bottles we took home, but how often are we in a distillery?  (Answer: about once a year).

Here's the requisite selfie:

Of course.

We had a great time.  The next day, we had a breakfast at Cafe De France.  It was very tasty, while remaining relatively casual and low-key.

We had another repeat event for Valentine's Day, too.  We saw Ricki Derek play at the Granada Theater, followed by a showing of Casablanca.  This year, for extra fun, we took Dan and Laurie.  I figured Danny would like it, but I was a little concerned that Laurie may not have the same kind of good time.  I don't have her as figured out as my brother...  Obviously.  But she said she had a blast, and I am happy we all went.

They even had a photo station set up.  Behold:

Yep.  We're dorks.  No shame in my game.  I am a proud dork.

The day off was utterly necessary, because I had to get the newspaper off to the printer this evening, while still getting my classroom website updated and my lesson plans all squared away.  I think I will get to the goofy planning documents when I get to work tomorrow. I am exhausted from staring at this laptop, and frankly, I can't believe I decided to write anything here today.  Glutton for punishment, I guess.  

I'll close with this- When Cas and I stopped by Mom and Dad's house to pick up Dan and Laurie, he went in to say hello to my folks.  As we were leaving, Mom shouted after us, "Happy VD!"  

She's so classy.  

Stoneware from my valentine

I have said this before, but it bears repeating.  Cas is the sweetest, most thoughtful man I know.  Here is the most recent evidence to support that claim.

I had a favorite coffee mug.  It was a strange shape, and it was made by the Red Wing stoneware company.  In my speech classes, I was having the students do a speech that utilized personal artifacts that may fit into a shoebox.  I did a few examples, and so, I used my favorite coffee mug for one of them.  It was important to me because Red Wing, Minnesota was the place I lived when I was little, and I hadn't been back there since my grandfather's funeral.  I have a few Red Wing items, but I hadn't planned on returning.  The person I used to visit is gone.  That's why I was so fond of the stupid mug.  

Of course, you know where this is all leading...  It was in a shoebox in my classroom.  The box flew open when a kid wanted to borrow it for his speech, and the mug fell to the ground.  Why hadn't he chosen the box with the Dave and Buster's mug in it?  There's one of those about 15 minutes away...  

I was a little sad.  I mean, at the end of the day, it was just a mug.  I went on the Red Wing Stoneware website and looked, but they didn't show that particular mug anymore.  It was a tulip shaped mug with the classic logo.  They had tulip mugs and classic logo mugs, but not a mug with both of those features.  Bummer.  I mentioned this misfortune to Cas and thought very little of it after that.  

He apparently got on the phone with a nice, Midwestern lady in Red Wing.  Anyhow, here is what was on our porch on Thursday:

What a nice guy, right?  We had our coffee this morning from the Red Wing Stoneware mugs. Hooray!  Win!  

Fuego en me escuela

By law, we are supposed to do a fire drill every month.  That's the thing.  The kids need to practice an orderly evacuation process every month in case there is an actual fire.  Yesterday, we had a fire alarm go off, and it was quite a surprise, because we had already practiced evacuating in February.

So, we stood outside, waiting for news of why we were there.  It really wasn't a problem.  It was a beautiful afternoon, and there wasn't anything dramatic that the kids were missing inside the building.  It was about like this:

Except that when I tried to take that photo, I ended up with this one first.  Oh, Mr. Lee!  You are the funniest tall, nerdy, bilingual Mormon I know...

Excellent work on the photobomb.  

Anyhow, there was no fire, but it was not a simple case of a kid pulling an alarm.  It was, in fact, a kid who broke a fire sprinkler head in a boy's restroom on the third floor of the building.  Evidently, the sprinklers aren't filled with water, either,  I have learned (just this morning) that they are filled with a sticky, smelly, black substance meant to thwart fire.  It's a fire retardant.  That may be the only time you can say there is some retardant in the building without upsetting someone.  On second thought, somebody out there would still be pissed.  

No matter.  It's Ash Wednesday, so today, I get to see which kids (and which teachers) are the very most Catholic among us.  It's always odd to me when this day rolls around and so many people walk around all day with ashes on their foreheads.  I would go nuts and wipe it off.  I can't deal with a smudge on my face, even if Jesus wants it there.  It's also the first day of Lent, so if there was anything I was supposed to give up, I failed to think of it.  I usually tell people I am giving up loaning money.  That's a good one.  This year, I actually want to give up photography club, but I don't see that happening until we have at least one more meeting to determine our course.  I'm pretty over it, though.  We had four kids yesterday, three the week before and five the week before that.  No knock on those three to five kids, but I am tired of spending an hour of my life every week on a poorly attended club.  It kind of sounds like I am in need of spring break or something.  Hmm.  At least I got to stand in the sunshine for a moment yesterday.  Because there was a fuego in me escuela.  Or something.  

Haven't you always wanted a monkey?

It's the Chinese new year.  Today marks the beginning of the year of the monkey.  Cas and I were sure that the holiday was today, but we had to Google which animal this year would usher in.  When we found that it was a monkey, we were pretty happy.  Who doesn't like a monkey?

We had Chinese food to celebrate:

We have been out quite a bit lately.  On Friday, we went out with my parents to celebrate their 44th wedding anniversary.  Mom wanted to head to Rockfish.  Cas and I showed up a little early so we could have a bottle of champagne out at the table for them.  It was probably a cheap bottle they had leftover from a new year's toast, but whatever.  I just wanted a glass of sparkly to toast my folks with.  It worked.

On Saturday, Cas and I went to Hopdoddy for a big hamburger.  We hit up Sherlock's after that for a few cocktails.

Today is a Monday, and we were out to dinner tonight, as well.  I should probably get off my butt and cook something tomorrow.

It's shaping up to be a pretty long week.  I have no interest in working particularly hard this week, either.  I have photography club tomorrow and probably a trip to the gym after that.  Maybe I can follow that with a nap.

Greeting cards against humanity

Jeff is inspired lately. He has plenty of snark and venom to share, but at the same time, he tries to express himself with a measure of comedy.

He said something mean and snarky on the phone the other day, and I remarked that it sounded like the world's worst greeting card. Man, we were off to the races. I got a pocket-sized notebook and started writing this stuff down. Jeff has been on the phone a lot with me and mom lately, and we've come up with some doozies. 

I named our company, too. Ranger Cuddles. Behold, our logo: 

Pure class. 

Other than dreaming up new Ranger Cuddles cards, it's been pretty calm. The weather was unseasonably gorgeous over the weekend, so I spent a little time in mom and dad's backyard. Cas even came along. 

Wouldn't it be funny if Jeff's kids got through college on the money their dad makes on snarky, mean cards?