Love the Google

Google is publishing various works of art in the form of its logo this week. I don't know the occasion, but today in particular it's apparently Mary Cassatt's birthday. Happy Birthday, Mary.

Skunked

As Josh and I were driving home yesterday evening we saw a skunk traversing across a neighbor's yard. At about the same time, the neighbor pulled into his driveway, and the skunk proceeded to waltz right on over to the passenger door. I wanted to stay and see how long it took for it to go away but didn't want to frighten the skunk and inadvertently create a horrible Thursday for a neighborhood friend. I hope he wasn't still sitting in his car this morning...forgot to look.

Moulin Rouge - El Tango De Roxanne

Quite different from the Police version, and a thousand times better, IMHO.

Everclear - Santa Monica

Husband and I downloaded tons of rockin' 90's music when he was home last...so many were the theme songs of our teen years! Everclear...one of our favs! L-O-V-E it.

Somewhere in Time

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was the theme of DHS Prom 2009.

Cheers: to the parents and head sponsors for planning a beautiful, elegant evening for the juniors and seniors (and teachers:) It was held at the Ashton Depot, and the venue, food, and music were truly enchanting!

Cheers: to the several students who showed off their musical talents via saxaphone, piano, and voice...quite impressive!

Cheers: to the cool chef guy that got the kids so pumped while talking of potatoes and creme brulee; he was a rock star for that brief moment...still not sure why.

Jeers: the drama that developed after I'd already gone home...and that's all I'm gonna say about that.

Gavin DeGraw - Glass

To any who suffered through my below pity-party-pessimistic-post...enjoy some Gavin.

I'm Tressed...

And I speak nothing of hair. I'm tired+stressed.

-There are 17 days of school left, but I feel like I'm cramming 5 weeks of knowledge, grading, activities, and frenzy into those 17 days.
-It makes me uber jealous to hear that someone else could be a professional writer...BG
-My husband won't be home for another looong week.
-I just graded "research" papers, and I use that term loosely; I think I suck at teaching the research paper.
-Only 4 of 25 students in 1st period turned in yesterday's assignment...seriously?...really?
-I'm so tired I can't make myself get out of this chair and go to bed.
-I still have to wash face and brush teeth.
-The moon is my enemy right now.
-Emerson is turning out to be less cool than originally thought.

Such is Life...Tomorrow is, thankfully, another day.

Office Space-Out

My husband sees to it that our home office can double as either of our "real" workplaces if need be. He's set it all up so beautifully, and it runs like a well oiled machine, but mine are the greasy hands as of late.

With him traveling I'm in charge of the online banking, which, okay, that's fine. But he, in all his genius, set up a scanning system with a, get this, Fujitsu ScanSnap S510 and a tera drive; tera=lotsa space. Soooo, I am to scan all incoming mail into the ScanSnap, and it is immediately converted to PDF format and stored, wowser. Then, I must shred aforementioned scanned mail, and therein lies my night's frustration. I scanned, I shredded, and the industrial shredder that Josh bought with a Best Buy Christmas Gift Card...no lie...wouldn't scan the 20 or so pages I had before screaming that it was full. I spent the past 15 minutes emptying a humungo shredder. Little bitty pieces of shredded paper make me very uneasy, and I had to sweep them all up before I was able to concentrate on more important tasks at hand.

All this, and I had to borrow a white-out pen from Suzette today at school.

I Should Be Studying Right About Now...

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but I'm blogging and reading other's blogs (not sure if that apostrophe is in the right place). Anyway, I started a unit on transcendentalism with my juniors today, and I'm loving it...nature, creativity, imagination, and truth; such an uplifting study compared to Of Mice and Men and The Crucible (both magnificent in their own ways, but depressing nonetheless). Below are some quotes from the philosophying father of American transcendentalism, Ralph Waldo Emerson. I dare you not to ponder, smile, and be uplifted:)

"What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say."

"The ancestor of every action is a thought."

"Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better."

"Sometimes a scream is better than a thesis."

"Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air…"

"None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone."

"Trust your instinct to the end, though you can render no reason."

"The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons."

[more Emerson quotes]

The Cranberries- Zombie

I posted this earlier, and it wouldn't play; sorry about that. It's an oldie, but when does denouncing war and hypocrisy get old?
90's. Political. Rockin'.

Seamus Heaney

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is an Irish poet. His poetry touches me and speaks to me in a way that, to this day, no other poetry has. Listening to the Cranberries made me think of the IRA and Ireland's "Troubles", which then led me to think of Heaney. If you're ever bored and wanna browse some poetry, check him out!

Below is one of his more well known poems, "Digging". I love the fact that Heaney places so much emphasis on the power of words, likening the pen to both a weapon and a tool, protecting and providing; great stuff.

Digging

Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests; as snug as a gun.

Under my window a clean rasping sound
When the spade sinks into gravelly ground:
My father, digging. I look down

Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds
Bends low, comes up twenty years away
Stooping in rhythm through potato drills
Where he was digging.

The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft
Against the inside knee was levered firmly.
He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep
To scatter new potatoes that we picked
Loving their cool hardness in our hands.

By God, the old man could handle a spade,
Just like his old man.

My grandfather could cut more turf in a day
Than any other man on Toner's bog.
Once I carried him milk in a bottle
Corked sloppily with paper. He straightened up
To drink it, then fell to right away
Nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods
Over his shoulder, digging down and down
For the good turf. Digging.

The cold smell of potato mold, the squelch and slap
Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge
Through living roots awaken in my head.
But I've no spade to follow men like them.

Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests.
I'll dig with it.

Seamus Heaney

Jack is Whack

The new Jack in the Box commercial is kinda oogie; dwarfs, strange campfire music, over the top, fake happiness. What is it with fast food joints and their uber creepy commericals? And don't get me started on Burger King...

B&B vs. Hotel

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Josh is staying at a B&B while working an outage at the Monticello power plant in Mt. Pleasant. It is much more affordable than even the Holiday Inn, which is pretty much all East Texas has to offer, and it's way cute. He was so proud of his find:)

We love Bed and Breakfasts. They're more inviting and relaxing than hotels. The Yelton Manor (pictured above) is a beautiful one in South Haven, Michigan that Josh and I have stayed at a couple of times, honeymoon included. It's located on Lake Michigan, and the town of South Haven is straight out of a Norman Rockwell. The owners are kinda the New Age hippy type, who would probably vehemently oppose Josh's work at one of the most polluting plants in our state, but, nevertheless, are part of the place's charm:) Ahhh, two days out of school and a 4 hour drive to Mt. Pleasant...hmmmm:)

School's Out For...Swine Flu

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Precautionary, folks, only precautionary, according to the Decatur ISD website. However, if there was ever a time that I'd benefit from a couple of extra days of chill, it's now. Thank you CDC, TDH, DISD, and any other acronym I forgot.

Murphy reared his convenient head as my husband left for Mt. Pleasant at 3:00 today and will be gone for a couple of weeks. He's been home for 2 1/2 weeks as I worked. BUT, that's okay. I'll enjoy the time with baby girl:)