Sick.
Rosh Hashanah.
No pictures.
Random thoughts.

No story with this picture. I just thought it was funny. It's Sunday afternoon. The Phillies won the NL East, Penn State beat Illinois, and the Eagles play tonight, again a late night. After Friday, I think we are going to slowly walk our way through the research project so we get it RIGHT! QUIT COUNTING WORDS....

Gary Larsen creates Far Side cartoons. I got this as a card from a friend a few years ago and thought it was pretty funny.

I posted this picture of my mom and dad. I think this was probably taken round the time or before I was born in the 50's. I guess only professionals had color cameras back then. I have a few more I'll have to post over time. The older I get, the more intrigued I am about the history of the family. This picture was taken at a cottage in front of Dewey Beach, Delaware, on one of our family vacations.

Mom and Dad

This is one sweet guitar

I flipped the light switch in the darkened room as I have hundreds of times before, school day after school day. I look around at the off white walls, probably painted that way because some educational expert said this shade was soothing and invoked a positive learning environment among those who enter here. I find it boring and institutional. Cinder block is cinder block; you can’t do much with it; paint only covers the gray. The custodial staff did their job last night. The floor has been swept and the desks are arranged neatly in their tidy linear rows. The floor shines from the recent summer’s waxing. This will fade as the year progresses. It’s quiet now. The only noise is the hum of the ventilator which circulates air in this windowless room. I shouldn’t say it’s windowless. There is one window which looks into a storage area which the staff seems to feel is its own dumping grounds. Various announcements, menus, posters with random information is hung around the room. The chalkboards in the front and back are green, and a third is a charcoal gray. It becomes obvious that over time this room has evolved with the various building and renovation projects the school has known throughout the years. A large white Smart Board faces the class of empty seats. An antiquated and unused television from the old channel one days seems perched from the wall in the front of the room, while wires hand like vine from the ceiling and walls where the new technology has found its way into the life of this room. Piles of books and papers inhabit the flat surfaces while other books line the shelves below the lone gray chalkboard. The glow from the fluorescent lights contributes to the institutional feel. Brackets from past movie sceens protrude from the front wall, reminders of a time of film strips and record players and 16mm movies. Now we are laptops and internet and SmartBoards and wireless routers. Are we smarter? Are we educating better? Looking ten years into the future, what will we see in this room? Students? Or perhaps just a teacher and a computer connected to students who are at home, working through material at their own pace? Who knows.

I wrote this as a rough copy example for Comp 101.

Check out the cake below. Communication. A wonderful thing.

This picture cracks me up. Read it and you'll find the humor in it as well....hopefully.

See you at the pole was thing morning. All good.
Wednesdays. I guess I should mention that the Phils lost last night and the Mets won. Gotta give the bad news with the good. Still, the Phils are in first by a game and a half.
Lots of people are sick with an upper respiratory type illness.
The printer isn't working yet. Paper jams you know.
Izod. That's the name of the shirt I'm wearing. It's a new shirt.
No pictures today yet.
Libraries are interesting places. There are lots of books there. The Lebanon Public Library is an interesting place. If you lived within walking distance of a library, you wouldn't need to have internet or subscribe to a newspaper. You wouldn't need to buy very many books, if any. There is also quite a collection of videos. I say walking because all those things are delivered to your home so driving might somehow cancel out the cost of purchasing those things.
We need hangers.

These are the Marx brothers. Four of them. One is missing but honestly, I didn't know that until now. Memmo Marx is the little known Marx brother. From left to right, Zeppo, Harpo, Groucho and Chico. Harpo never speaks in the movies.

Beth Yingst showed me this booklet and I thought I'd add this to my blog. This is what ours looks like.

The Phillies won last night and the Mets lost. The Phils are now two and a half games in front in the NL East.
I guess long hair is back.
The printer isn't working correctly. That is sad. Teachers are going crazy trying to print things out. It's amazing how things we didn't even have a couple years ago have now become so incredibly important to us, like printers. Things like note taking have become obsolete.
Two teachers in the department are absent. Ms. Clouser and Mr. Shamp.
If you could turn back time, what things would you do differently? I think I'd work harder in come areas. I think I'd try more things.
It's cold in here today.

Good morning. It's Monday and what a great day to be alive.
Today is the last day of summer and the first day of fall. I'm not a big fan of cold weather, but as long I live in PA, I guess I'll just have to endure it.
The Eagles won yesterday over the Steelers. Big defensive battle. The Americans won the Ryder Cup. That's good. Penn State won big again over Temple. Phillies are now a game and a half ahead of the Mets with a week to go in the regular season. That's a good thing as well. I was just told I look like I just ate a lemon. Good description.
Choir started up again for the fall. I enjoy the choir.
I think Shane Victorino has a pretty good life. He plays baseball for a living and make a lot of money and then in the off season, he goes home to Hawaii (and the off season is winter). Now I've been to Hawaii and it's a pretty good place to hang your hat (or your spikes as the case may be). One of the best things about Hawaii was touring the Dole Plantation. They actually don't raise all that much pineapple there any more. They do have a nice tour. They also have Dole Whips. A Dole Whip is like a pineapple smoothy and is just delicious. The only other place I know they have Dole Whips is Walt Disney World. Go to Magic Kingdom, head towards the castle, turn left before you get there and you'll find the Dole Whip place over there. It's sort of tucked away from the major traffic areas which is great by me. Last summer, I got a Dole Whip and I picked up my own spoon from the spoons and the cast member scolded me a bit, cuz that was her job. I am using capitals today for those who are actually reading this.

Parents' night last night. I enjoyed meeting some of your parents. The Ryder Cup starts today. It's one of my favorite golf matches to watch. It is so nice out right now. This week has just been beautiful. There is a pep rally this afternoon. The football team plays ELCO tonight and the soccer team plays Donegal tomorrow. Good luck teams.

Wow, I didn't blog yesterday so I better put a good one out there today. I spent a lot of time correcting essays over the past few days. It's amazing the experiences of some of you kids.
Tonight is Parents' Night. Most of the time, I don't get a whole lot of parents. The hummingbirds were back, and I use the plural form because there are a few of them. I am hoping to golf soon. I haven't for a few weeks. The Phillies won last night and are a half game in front of the Mets for the NL East. Go Phils. Fall is pretty but I don't like cold. I guess you can't have everything you want.

testing the internet today. lots of work on the computers to see they work well with the wireless internet connection. it would be perfect if they work perfectly. i am ignoring capital letters right now.
the eagles lost last night but it was a good game. you could say two of the best teams played.

Some people say they like sports, but I don't know if they really do. It sounds like one of those things people say when they think it's the right thing to say. Sometimes when I capitalize with my right hand, I hit the enter button and everything get's all weird. Sometimes I lose my train of thought. When you spell definitely wrong on microsoft, it changes it to defiant. I need to stress compounds again. The football team won Friday night in the rain. The Steelers won yesterday. The Eagle play tonight, though to be honest, I don't remember the last time I saw an entire Monday night game because they get way too late for someone of my advanced age. Penn State throttled Syracuse on Saturday though I saw none of it because I was at a wedding. The wedding was nice. Charlie Weis, the ND coach, was injured when a player came across the sideline and hit his knee. He needs to have his knee reconstructed now.
That's all folks. They say that at the end of bugs bunny cartoons.

We are working on stuff here in class. Sometimes Fridays are fun because it's like the last hundred yards of a long race. There is a sense of accomplishment, knowing that it's over, at least for a couple of days. I wonder what it will be like to retire. You go home for the summer, but come September, you just don't go back. That must be when it really hits home. Words are cool. You can say just about anything using words. The dictionary is a cool book because it has all kinds of cool words in it. In a way, all the books ever written are in the dictionary. The words just aren't in the right order.

Gmade and Grade is over, at least for the majority of the students. I really know how the potato chip was invented. I know the Wongs have moved from the airport. I'm happy for them. I also know the Phillies lost again. Last year is nothing but a fond memory. The weather has turned a bit cooler. It must be an extended homeroom this morning for a variety of meetings. I have been following the case of a missing child in Orlando. It is sad. In some ways it is quite frustrating.
For fun:
EVER WONDER .... Why the sun lightens our hair, but darkens our skin ? Why women can't put on mascara with their mouth closed?
Why don't you ever see the headline 'Psychic Wins Lottery'? Why is 'abbreviated' such a long word? Why is it that doctors call what they do 'practice'? Why is lemon juice made with artificial flavor, and dishwashing liquid made with real lemons? Why is the man who invests all your money called a broker?Why is the time of day with the slowest traffic called rush hour? Why isn't there mouse-flavored cat food? Why didn't Noah swat those two mosquitoes? Why do they sterilize the needle for lethal injections? You know that indestructible black box that is used on airplanes? Why don't they make the whole plane out of that stuff? Why don't sheep shrink when it rains? Why are they called apartments when they are all stuck together? If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress? If flying is so safe, why do they call the airport the terminal? My sister sent me those....

We had an assembly this morning about internet safety. I have always been aware of how you can't be too careful what you post. I know of people who just put dumb stuff out there for people to see. I have always felt that posting pictures is pretty dangerous, but now I have posted a picture of myself. The horse is the one at the bottom. Once, I was able to figure out a person's identity simply from stuff she had posted on a discussion board. I don't think I'd ever post pictures of my young kids. My kids aren't young any more, but still.....

Looks like rain today. I guess that's good. No sign of the hummingbird last night or this morning. I am supposed to give Gmade and Grade tests. I will do that today with my juniors. I am hoping that my lovely and hardworking students embrace fully the research topics that I have planned for them. We were supposed to be finishing up the entire paper by Monday, but with testing and the internet interruptions, I think that deadline will come and go. I am looking forward to my seniors finishing their first essays. The correction is time consuming. Oh, and I have another wedding this weekend. That makes six this year.

The football game Friday was really enjoyable. Very impressive. The rain on Saturday was sorely needed. The hummingbird just kind of hung around because the feeder is under the porch and he didn't get wet there. He has since found some flowers closer to the kitchen window, so we get a much closer view of him. This week we are doing gmade and grade testing with the classes. This will be the first five day week of the school year.

I just clicked on next blog at the top of my page by accident and suddenly I was on a blog of strangers. Weird. I watched a bit of the convention last night. Seems like a big peprally. Lots of balloons and confetti.
Today is AR day for the juniors. STAR reading test. Fun and games. It may rain tomorrow as the remnant of hurricane Hanna come up the coast. We actually could use the rain. It's quite dry.

Extended homeroom this morning. It gives me a chance to blog. In August the temperature was fairly cool, but now it's hot. There are a number of storms brewing in the Atlantic, one quite dangerous it would appear. Next Friday is picture day and tomorrow is dress down day for the American Cancer Society. I like dress down days. I'm hoping to get the works cited pages done and I'm hoping to get a good bit of the intext citation samples done as well.

I'm waiting for one of my classes to finish reading. The Republicans are conventioning now. I've heard bits and pieces of a speech or two. Interesting. Not much else is going on. The soccer team played last night but I didn't hear a score. People keep calling the house about the election but I don't pick up. If you sneeze, let it out. Don't do that whimpy little 'chew. Let it go. I don't see how people who hold in their sneezes eventually explode.
I don't know what will happen if I change fonts. Perhaps more people will read my posts but perhaps no one will even notice.

Back

Why do they call it Labor Day if everyone has off work? That doesn't make a lot of sense. I golfed yesterday with my son. It's was fun but the golf was lousy. We had a picnic Saturday and a picnic Sunday. Not much else really happened. The hummingbirds are good. I fished another two dead animals out of the pool. They really get gross after a day or two.
Penn State won big on Saturday. A pretty big hurricane hit NO again, though it doesn't appear the damage is nearly what Katrina was. Gustav...that's this hurricane's name but apparently there is a Hanna and an Iris or Ivy or some other I name in the offing. They just keep coming.