Friday, August 31, 2007

Friday (Dark) Knight

Here is a beautiful piece by one of our favorite artists, Andy Lee. There is a print of it available for sale here.

Monkey-Girl and I would get a new original sketch by Andy Lee each year while attending Wizard World Chicago. He describes himself as a zen artist. I love his work for its minimalism. Just look at this! There's only a few lines and yet the subject is obvious. Watching him work is thrilling, and (I think) connects the viewer to the piece on a deeper level.

During my mother's visit last year, we hung our six original pieces in the dining room. We've got: Morpheus (Sandman), Ogami Itto (Lone Wolf and Cub), Gandolf the Grey (The Lord of the Rings), Trinity (The Matrix), Hellboy (uh . . .), and the arch-angel Michael casting Satan out of Heaven.

Because it happens so late in the summer and Tennessee schools start so early, I've missed the last two Wizard World Chicago conventions. It's just one of the little sacrifices we've made to come to seminary.

In 2008, the show will be in June. I'll be on break. I think I know what I'll be having Mr. Lee sketch.

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Free Dinner!

Welcome to the McClurg: The University of the South's answer to Hogwart's Great Hall.

A couple of times a year the seminary gets the students, spouses, faculty, etc. into McClurg for free. When that happens, you'd better drop what you're doing. It's grub time.

They've got everything! I had chicken tetrazzini, cheese fries, and a chocolate shake. Monkey-Girl had a shrimp bisque and a lovely spinach salad. Our friend Wil had pizza and Fruit Loops. Crazy!

So the reason for this culinary Bacchanalia? Matriculation. It's grad school speech for, "You're officially here." Here at the U of S that means breaking out all the pageantry of the Episcopal church. It's very nice.

I could go on, but I've already done so much tonight and I've got to teach tomorrow.

Goodnight!

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

I'm So Impressed With Myself

I'm actually ahead of schedule on all my paperwork for school. Yay!

That means I can get to work on some other things. (I'm always looking for ways to take up every minute of my day.)

1) I'm applying for an on-line Masters of Education program. This is good. It'll cost us some money, yes, but the pay raise that comes with a masters will pay for itself within a couple of years. If I start now, I'll be done with the program at the same time Monkey-Girl is done with her masters. Double trouble!

2) I'm converting my web comic from its Geocities existence to a shiny new Blogspot account. Along with the address change comes a title change. I'm easing my way into it by just converting the existing comics. New stuff will happen.

3) I'm going to try to make lists longer than two items.

For now, I'm off to look at an application.

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Gah! (What's Up With This!)

Now that I'm back near an internet connection, one would logically assume I could more regularly update my blog. Once more logic has failed.

So, it's been hot. Florida was hot and humid, but this is HOT. We had 12 of 14 consecutive days in the triple digits. The mountain is cooler than the valley, but I work (long pants and all) in the valley. Happily, the heat did break on Friday.

I'm back to work. Algebra 1 is the same as always. The students present the same issues as always. I'm actually in the same classroom I was last year. (I've been a bit of a vagabond the last few years.) The current challenge is my (until-recently) ever changing roster. The hi lite of which was the day my class physically changed places with another teacher's class. I'm starting to hit my stride now.

Welcome back parties are abounding. The Friday picnic was the last of its type for the year, but just last night we had a Middler specific welcome back party. (Middler: so many crazy new words I've learned.) On our way to the party, Monkey-Girl remembered that we were supposed to bring our own drinks. Fortunately, we were passing a Piggly Wiggly at the time and the Volkswagen was just tuned-up. Our find is pictured above.

Nehi (pronounced just like the old lady leg wear) has a very limited distribution. I was able to find a six pack for sale on-line for $12 plus shipping. Our personal 12-pack of Peach Nehi artificially flavored soda (TM) came to just over $5 with tax. Let me tell you, it is every bit of that name. Think peach Jolly Rancher.

Back to my sob story. Even though the weather turned Friday night, my comfort was very short lived. My allergies landed early this year. They landed right on my face. Thank goodness for modern medication.

Well, stuff is getting better in general and I've renewed my commitment to these updates. I'll check in soon.

Promise.

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Twice the Surprise


First, I'm back in Tennessee. Yay! (Weird to type that.) The 11-hour ride with Mercutio was fun. I was able to down-load about 15 hours worth of podcasts and the time flew by. Try it!

Second, Kitty and I are settling back into our house. Yay! (Really.) I went to the mail room to pick up letters that didn't get forwarded and some packages. I received two packages I wasn't expecting.

Backing up a bit, PepsiCo ran several sweepstakes this summer. To enter the sweepstakes one had to buy a 20 oz. PepsiCo product. (The were pushing Mountain Dew hard.) Under the cap of said product there was a 10ish digit code. One then entered the code and received a virtual raffle ticket of sorts. One then selected the sweepstakes one wanted to enter.

I, predictably, entered the Pepsi Prime contest. With 100 winners ever day, it was one of the easier contests to win, odds-wise. It was also a lesser entered contest due to the other fabulous prises being offered. There were X-Box 360s, 360 games, DVD collections, and even cash. Piddly Prime would seem like the poor cousin by comparison. Never-the-less, I received no notice regarding my 25 entries over the summer.

Well, the notice arrived while I was gone. The two mystery packages were two Pepsi Primes! Now the inner boxes with all the cool designs and logos were beat up, but the figures are kitchy-awesome. Just look at that cool trailer hauling the 20 oz. Pepsi that brought him to me!

Now what to do with two . . .