An Offer I Can't Refuse

For the next year (2008-2009) my school needs a lot more Algebra 1 teachers. There so desperate that they've offered to pay the current teachers a bonus to take on an additional class. That would mean teaching four classes instead of three and not having a scheduled professional period for planning and grading.

On the one hand, I have a baby coming this summer and would love to be able to help out and play with him or her as much as possible. On the other hand, I have a baby coming this summer and would love to be able to clothe and shelter him or her.

Add in that Monkey-Girl will be in her senior year and she and I will both be traveling to interview for new jobs. Now factor in the added costs of childcare.

We've got some thinking and praying to do. (Help!)

All Clear

That's what the friendly river guide is telling us.

I'm writing this now as not to worry anyone. The student body and extended community were fairly wound up this week as a rumor was circulating that there would be lethal violence at my school on Friday. For the record: NOTHING BAD HAPPENED.

A text message rapidly made the rounds stating something suspiciously vague about a shooting scheduled for the lunch room. "No one knows who and no one knows what (sic.) lunch." The conclusion of the message urged people to forward it to, "everyone you care about."

An investigation was launched. A cause was found. Findings were disclosed. Precautions were taken. Safety was ensured. Rumors escalated. The process repeated. Half (no exaggeration) of the students were no-shows.

I believe there were several causes of this. Spring time is when teenagers go a little more insane than normal. What better way to feel important than to be a part of something involving life and death? People in general LOVE rumors. If it's about a faceless institution, it's that much better. Teenagers also love getting off of school.

I mentioned precautions. Doors were kept closed and locked during class time. An adult was stationed at every hallway intersection throughout the day. 15 armed police officers were in the cafeteria during all lunch periods and were fairly conspicuous the rest of the day. The principal encouraged worried parents to pick students up and take them out to lunch.

Monkey-Girl, who made a rare off-mountain appearance, heard many escalations of the rumors from community people. We agree that this sort of thing makes people feel important in a very sick way. We've all been guilty of it. I'm not going to point fingers.

With most of my class absent, I had my students doing make-up work all day. I got a lot of paper work done. It rained all day.

All in all, Friday was terribly long and boring.

Total Geeks

I know it's been over two weeks since I updated the blog. Monkey-Girl got back from Wisconsin just fine. We got through Holy Week too. (That's more of an accomplishment for her than me.) We've finally had a normal week together. Whatever that is.

Today's picture showcases Mercutio and I hanging out. He's not usually this lovey with me. He's a momma's boy at heart. When he deigns to grace me with his affection it's typically in a moment when I'm fairly content being left alone. Such is this case here. (My pictorial debut in my own blog!)

I'm reviewing the rules to Illuminati!, a fun and funny card game. Now, I'm geeky enough to think of this as pleasurable reading. Mercutio decided to lay on my side just as I was wanting to get up, of course. I'm just silly enough to think that if I consent to being inconvenienced occasionally that I'll be repaid someday when I need a little kitty affection. (I'll let you know if that works out.)

Of course, Mercutio could just be looking for some strategies for the next time we play.

Happy Pi Day!

Geeks! Where you at? It's time to celebrate the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, yo.

For those of you that are unaware March 14th is Pi Day. (3.14 . . . celebrated on 3/14, get it?) It's not much, but we math teachers have to have something to celebrate with our students. Besides, pi is the world's most famous irrational number and one of the most useful. Why else would people dedicate so much effort to memorizing its digits?

I personally only know 3.14159265358979 . . . . That's because of the mnemonic device, "I need a drink, alcoholic of course, after the heavy lectures involving quantum mechanics." The number of letters in each word corresponds to the digits after the decimal point. Now, before you start looking down your nose at me, Chao Lu of China recited the first 67,890 digits of pi on November 20, 2005. He hold the world record for pi recitation. (Collecting Transformers toys doesn't sound so weird now, does it?)

I'll leave you with a palindrome, "I prefer pi."

Shower in a Box

Today marks Monkey-Girl's first shower back in Wisconsin. My mom, feeling I might be missing out, sent down what I'm calling a shower in a box. I took many pictures and will now subject you to viewing them all. Click on any thumbnail to view a larger image. It begins!


Here it is. The SIAB measures 19x13X8 offering an impressive 1.27 cubic feet of interior space. It's not too heavy for its size. That's a relief considering Monkey-Girl had to lug this beast to the car on her own.




Careful use of a kitchen knife reveals the well-packed glory of SIAB.






The pre-shower spread.







What would a shower be without snacks? My mom knows her audience too. We have Valentine heart shaped SweeTarts and Airheads Sours. I have to say 100% of the guests loved the snacks.





A lovely card . . .







. . . with a lovely inscription.

















Socks.







Hooded blankets. Thus begins the theme of yellow. As we're not finding out the baby's gender until he or she is delivered, we're going to be getting a lot of gender neutral colors.













Four sets of footie pyjamas, including an appropriately sized Halloween set. (My mother LOVES Halloween. You don't even know.)





Diaper pins. Yes, we're using cloth. (Hippies.)







Yellow washcloths. I hope baby likes duckies.







Many onesies! Featured are two Greenbay Packer sets and one set stating "I mickey-mouse-head Grandma". Rest assured, Mom, baby will definitely mickey-mouse-head you.

Winnie the Pooh crib sheet. Yes!








Matching blankets. I like the instructions on how to wrap baby up like a burrito.















A Halloween costume. A dalmatian? Perhaps a cow . . . .















The miscellaneous section. Plugs for electric outlets. (Our baby shouldn't have curly hair anyway.) A monkey rattle. (Have it!) And a ghost rattle. (Mom, Mom, Mom . . .)






This one's for me. I love Dr. Seuss. I'm not as familiar with Hop on Pop, but Monkey-Girl likes to say the title when encouraging Mercutio to jump on me. I also like that when buying these sets the proceeds go to children's' hospitals.




Wow! That's a lot of stuff. It was fun to have my own little shower, just me and the cat. It was also fun to put together this report. Thank you for the thought and the gifts, Mom.

I love you!