New Career Option

A brand new career path opened up for me yesterday when I took my seat for the first time as an official time keeper at a high school girl's basketball game (I was also in charge of the buzzer--the buzzer which is primarily used to buzz the officials to point out something that they have missed or don't know. I can practically hear the envy of some of you at having not just the opportunity but the responsibility of buzzing referees). I was a little nervous, at first, that I would start the clock at the wrong time or forget to stop the clock at the right time (both mistakes I made, but not badly) but as time went I on and I began to get used to pushing the buttons, I really started to enjoy it. Now the reason I say this may be a new career option is that I actually get paid more to push a button at basketball games than I get to supervise college courses--see this is what I have been talking about, public education is so screwed up.

Now, for a semi-related question, How does one go about telling a guy that his fly is open? It is immediately awkward to point out because it immediately becomes apparent to the person with their fly open that you were looking at that section of their body. One of the refs last night had his fly open (the only reason I noticed it is that he walked up to the desk I was sitting at and stood there for a while and his fly just happened to be at my eye level--seriously people!) and I didn't know what to do. In the end I did nothing, but did feel guilty about it. After halftime, though, the fly was up so I felt a bit better.

Hurrah for Wednesdays

I'm so very happy it is Wednesday. Wednesdays are good days. Wednesdays, while not as good as say Saturday or Friday or even Thursday (little Friday), are great because they mean the week is half over. If I wait to celebrate Wednesday until after work it is even better because then the work week is more than half over. Wednesdays are very empowering as they always make me believe that the worst is behind me and that I can make a couple of more days until the freedom of the weekend. Another great reason for loving Wednesdays is that is my favorite night for television watching. It starts off with Pushing Daisies and finishes up with my favorite piece of man candy on CSI: NY. I was just over on Wikipedia looking up the word Wednesday with high hopes of giving you some fascinating little tidbit about this wonderful day, but apparently beloved as it is it is not very interesting. Wikipedia did, though, inform me that it is a very popular tradition in the United States to wear a sweater vest on Wednesdays leading to Wednesdays being called Vestday--popular tradition? I've never heard of that. I really must find a more reliable source for quick information.

In a non-Wednesday related thought, we didn't get snow. Now when we do finally have snow I will probably curse it, but right now I'd kind of like a bit of snow--if for no other reason than that I would really like to wear my so cute boots. When I said that my preparedness was going to stave off the snow, I wasn't really serious.

And finally, for those of you who dying to know: I'm up to 9 cups of water a day and it really hasn't been very hard to drink that much. I feel all sorts of healthy, my kidneys are all flushed out, and I am very justified for smugly looking down on all of you soda drinkers--for shame. For those of you who were wondering, I'm already more than halfway through my bathroom book Bridget Jones's Diary.

Private Education

I hate to say this but the longer I work in public education the more dissatisfied I am with the so-called education that is being offered. Now before teachers everywhere try to hunt me down, I am obviously not trying to say that that all teachers everywhere are bad or that it is impossible to get a good education through the public school system. I'm just saying that I believe there is clearly a problem on several fronts of public education (take your pick from poorly qualified teachers, teachers who merely go through the motions of keeping current on their qualifications, or counselors who haven't a clue or simply couldn't be bothered to do their job properly--my latest pet peeve is teachers that are more interested in being their students best friends than in teaching them). In this system it falls increasingly on parents to be in the know and be thoroughly involved in their children's education--something that should be happening even in an ideal education system, but is all the more important in a system that is failing its students.

Now, I don't have children of my own to worry about, but I do have nieces and I am worried. So, in an attempt to do my part in my nieces education I have decided to begin supplementing their education--mommy and daddy will have to do the worrying about their classroom learning. My first attempt at this took place last Wednesday with my four-year-old niece Tess. We went up to the Museum of Fine Arts to view that Andy Warhol exhibit. I thought this was a very good introduction to the Arts for a four year old since Warhol is very colorful--my niece very much appreciated his use of pink. Her favorites were the Marilyns and the Maos. I really fancied the works on Jackie and John F. Kennedy, but the highlight for me was when my niece took a hold of my hand and told me she loved me so much because I'm perfect. I think it is safe to say that we had some fun together and are both looking forward to doing something together again. Unfortunately, Tess doesn't live near me so our supplemental activities won't be entirely regular (the other nieces are only 1 so I am going to give them a couple more years before inflicting the arts on them), but it is a start that I'm rather pleased with. Sorry no pictures. I had a temporary brain freeze over Thanksgiving and hardly took any photos at all.

**small note on the museum: it was surprisingly nice and had a decent collection--I am a fan of dutch artists and was pleased to find several in the regular collection. My one real complaint is that the shop was complete rubbish. We went in hoping to find a nice Warhol postcard to remember our outing by, but there were no post cards of the exhibit at all and only 2 or 3 of the regular exhibit. Very disappointing.

I am a prolific journal/diary starter. I have started so many journals/diaries that they are really not to be counted. I guess you could say that I am very good at starting a journal/diary. The part I struggle with is the whole regular writing thing that is expected of journal/diary writers. The only time I have ever been very good was when I was in Northern Ireland--even then I don't think I wrote an entry the last 2 or 3 months of my stay there. But since returning, I have been having a hard time convincing myself that there is something to write about--which is horrible because I haven't stopped thinking, doing, saying, etc. all the things that I did in Ireland it is just that the locale doesn't seem quite so cool. But I have recently decided to once again make the attempt and have gone so far as to purchase a wonderful, new journal that I am determined to finish so as to be able to proudly display it next to my Ireland journal.


It's gorgeous, isn't it? In case you can't tell, it is a lovely red leather. I absolutely love it and must finish it because it really must be displayed. As a means of inspiring me to write I have decided to re-read Bridget Jones' Diary. This is actually a great book for me to start reading right now since I was just saying in my last post that I need a good bathroom read (I drank 8 cups of water yesterday and I'm up to 5 cups of water today). One side effect that you may need to brace yourselves for is a temporary penchant to drop the subject from my sentences, an over use of the phrase "in the manner of," and possibly a preoccupation with being eaten by Alsatians.


I was just thinking about another book I just finished titled Book of a Thousand Days which, like Bridget Jones' Diary, is a diary. Interestingly, both these books books could be said to be loosely about how an ordinary (but to those who really know them obviously wonderful) girl makes her way in the world and through all the ups and downs of life ends up with a most amazing man. Is this how journals/diaries work? Could it be then that the reason I, an ordinary (yet possibly wonderful) girl, am still single is because I have yet to finish a journal? Food for thought? or horrible way to set wonderful girls up for disappointment? Ask me again in a year.

Randomness

So, I haven't anything really interesting to post about, but I thought I should at least attempt to put a post up as there probably won't be many more posts this Thanksgiving week (not that there were many last week).

The last few days I have been trying to be really good about my water intake. I did a search on CNN about how much water I should be drinking everyday and they provided a couple of different theories. One of the theories was called the replacement theory and it basically states that just to replace the water that is used by your body each day a female adult should be drinking 9 cups of water (adult males should be drinking 13 cups). This, I understand, takes into account that about 20% of the food that we intake is made of water. Now up until recently, I was lucky to get in 2 cups of water (or water related substance) a day. Not very good. So, like I said, I have been trying to be good--or at least better--about my water intake. So far I have only reached a high of 7 glasses of water in a single day. The most noticeable benefit is that my skin actually does look lots better and I'm not using as much lip balm. The most noticeable downside is all my extra bathroom time. I could possibly turn this into another high if I obtain a good bathroom read.

I've titled my post randomness and so let's now randomly continue. Last night I dreamed that I was married to Prince William.

Now if you were paying attention to my man-candy post you will have noticed that Prince William doesn't at all fit into my tall, dark, and handsome scheme. Sure he is tall and a bit handsome (if a bit young), but he doesn't have the dark thing going on at all. So where did my little dream about him come from? Last night before going to bed I watched a PBS show about Windsor castle. The show was actually mostly about Prince Philip so I suppose I should be happy that I didn't dream I was married to Prince Philip instead.

Although, all those medal are pretty cool looking. The funny part of the dream was that in the dream I had convinced William to convert, which would be tricky since I believe he is in line to be the leader of the Church of England, commit to changing diapers, making beds, and doing laundry--I guess to make us more normal. But the thing is, if I marry royalty it would seem that not having to make my bed and do laundry would be one of the reasons behind the marriage in the first place. I mean really, if I want to be all normal I'll marry someone normal; if I don't ever want to clean another bathroom I'll marry royalty. We also had two sons named Aiden and Patrick--I'm pretty sure choosing Irish names would not go over very well in the British public. So pretty much I destroyed British royalty in my dream last night by ruining their church leadership, getting rid of all the royal perks, and naming my children after the Irish. I'm not really sure where all this hostility toward the British is coming from since I really do like them and their chocolate a lot. All I can really say to the Brits is that I'm sure you'll agree with me that Kate is a much better option than me.

Oh, I need another bathroom break.

It Was Murder!

I was going to do another copout post on account that I am still a little woozy on my feet, but I didn't get around to taking a picture that must go with my copout post for it to be of any worth so instead you get to hear a little story about my family genealogy.

Family genealogy is something that I have been interested in for some time now and recently I have had the time, my desire, and a little success all correspond together. My mother is also really getting into doing the research and this little story actually comes from some research my mother did.

One bright sunny day my mother called me and declared (in a rather excited voice) that my great-great grandfather had been murdered. (Not that she was happy that he had been murdered, but it is a bit uncommon and a bit interesting.) She gave me the date of his death and I took the research from there by doing an article search in the Boston Globe's archives. Sure enough there were like 5 or 6 articles all about it. Unfortunately, since the Globe is a money-making newspaper they would not let me read the articles before forking over some of my money. So I relayed the information back to my mom and let her pay for the articles (don't judge--it was her research anyway. I was just helping out.). Then I had to wait for her to finish work and come home with the articles before I could learn all the details of my great-great grandfather's murder. In the ensuing hours I worried that he was killed in a drunken bar fight--it is an unfair stereotype to assume that being Irish his murder would automatically revolve around being drunk especially since I have lived in Ireland and know the character of a good may Irishpersons...or maybe that is why I jumped to the unfair stereotype (I'm kidding, I'm kidding).

Anyway, she eventually did come home and read through the articles only to find that the murder did in fact revolve around a drunken brawl. The good news was that my great-great grandfather was likely not drunk and was completely innocent. Apparently my great-great grandfather was at the local bar having a friendly drink when a couple of adult bullies began to beat up an old man who they claimed owed them money (as the court record would later show the bullies actually owed the old man money). Well regardless of who owed the money my great-great grandfather didn't think it was right that two men in their 30s should be beating up an old man and stepped in and broke up the fight. The two bullies didn't take too kindly to this and stole a large knife from the bar and followed my great-great grandfather home. Shortly before he actually reached home the two men attacked him from behind in the street and slit his throat. There was a policeman nearby who was able to sort out what had happened, but my great-great grandfather died almost immediately on the scene. I was further pleased to read in one of the articles that my great-great grandfather was considered by his neighbors to be a good father and husband and a hard worker. Now, just in case you were wondering what happened to the bullies…they were both locked up for a very long time and were both reported in the newspapers to be ne’er-do-wells.

So that is my interesting little story about my family as discovered in researching our family history. Now, obviously I wish that he hadn't been murdered especially in the manner that he did die cause it just sounds horrible, but also because it was about 1895 and he left his wife with something like 8 young children and it must have been truly hard for them to even survive. Still, it makes for a good story and finding interesting things like this is good incentive to keep on looking through all the records--hopefully for a few more happily-ever-after stories.

Who Are You Going to Vote For?

I'm not feeling great today so I thought I would just give you a link and let you go have some fun somewhere else.

If you are still unsure who you are going to support in the 2008 Presidential election, you can go here and take an online quiz that will match you up with the candidate that you have the most in common with regarding the issues (obviously not a comprehensive list and so should not be taken as the end all as far as who you choose to vote for--just a bit of fun). I scored a 25 with Mitt Romney (even though I feel very strongly about a couple issues that I disagree with Mitt on). Barack Obama, John Edwards, and Hillary Clinton all came in second with 20 points. Interesting result for me, huh?

What were your results?

Preparedness

So recently I spotted these fun rain boots (or galoshes or wellies or whatever else you would like to call them) and decided that I had to have them. I bought them a half a size too big so that I could wear thermal socks with them and turn them into my winter boots—much cuter than the faux-fur lined options I’ve been spotting around town. Another great thing about these really cute boots is that they actually stand-in as functional sculpture in my bedroom where they stand beside a black bookcase and in front of a red-brick colored wall. Of course, one of the most important things to consider (and something I expect every single one of you to begin sending in your thanks for) is that now that I am prepared for rain, slush, hail, or snow, we will most certainly have the warmest, driest winter on record. (Not that I’m trying to discount global warming)

It is the First Tuesday of November

What are you doing reading this? Go Vote!

Man-Candy Monday: My Five

Cause sometimes you just need a little something more to get you through a Monday.

For any of you who are wondering how to blog well, may I suggest a visit to my friend Nemesis' site. One of my favorite label's that she uses is Men I Love which she often also refers to as Man Candy. So as a way to pay homage to her genius, I present to you my own Man Candy.

In the manner of Friends I am open to having 5 men on my freebie list (that I wouldn't actually sleep with given the chance, until of course one of them comes to his senses, drops the perfectly beautiful girl that they are with, and after dropping to one knee marries me. But until then I can still think nice things about them), but can only think of 4 for now so I'll have to keep you updated on that elusive no. 5. Now without any further ado:

Viggo Mortensen but only when he is Aragon and is dripping wet.

Derek Jeter had to make the list both for his good looks and his overall stand-up guyness.

Iaon Gruffudd really do I have to explain why? I hope Nemesis will forgive me for trespassing on her list of future husbands, but really I think I might have seen him first.

Eddie Cahill who was actually on Friends, but I didn't fancy him at all until he cut his hair and was allowed to take on his natural New York accent in his role on CSI: NY. In fact, I've got to say that I do think that at least half of his attractiveness stems from his very nice accent and his funny comments on the show. The pic doesn't really do him justice but I couldn't really find one that did. I guess you'll just have to go watch the show.



Any ideas on a no. 5?

Halloween 2

Don't get too excited about multiple posts in one day--or maybe you should because it almost certainly will never happen again. I saw this over at Another Shade of Grey's site and thought it needed to be shared.

Tick or Treat

Happy Day-After Halloween

I had a wonderful Halloween and hope you did as well. The weather was so great! This year one of my sisters took over the cooking responsibilities and made a fabulous (and very hot) chili. She has a great recipe for veggie chili with a twist that adds things like potatoes. It really made it a fun new flavor for all of us (did I say it was hot? cause it was hot). We also had some lovely crusty bread to go along with it. I was in charge of the drinks and went with the classic standby of milk which I then turned into ghosts. Then two of the nieces took the neighborhood by storm with their oh, so cute costumes. They were ready to hit the road far before their parents were. We didn't have too many trick or treaters so we have a ton of candy--still trying to decide if that is a good thing or not. Below you'll find a few pictures of the fun.

Now, on a completely different point that I had promised not to bring up again until after Thanksgiving--A certain local radio station is playing Christmas music. And they are not just playing a few Christmas songs scattered in their mix; It is all Christmas music. I made the discovery this morning while I was driving to work and my first response was one of great indignation: It is not Christmas! I like Thanksging! It is a perfectly good holiday to celebrate! But, then I didn't change the channel.