Ebjournal Revisited.

Finally Tonight…

Tony| Category: General, Music and Movies, Entertainment Tonight, Site-Based Management | 0 Comments

I’ve added another friend to the eb-roll. Her name is Dev. She rocks. Literally. As a drummer for an up-and-coming band, Dev is more talented and friendly than other soon-to-be rock stars. She comes from California, and calls this place I live in “the stupid I-state.” Secretly, I think she loves it. So secretly, she doesn’t even know it. Anyway, go read hers! Because she rocks. (LITERALLY.)

Updates

Tony| Category: General, Site-Based Management | 0 Comments

I added a very stupid page today. Mostly because I don’t want to tell you about how much I love/hate Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Oh, wait, that’s the next post. Also, my continuing struggles with grad school! (Don’t you all love my shameless self-promoting? I Know I Do!)
It’s over there ———-> under Pages.
Anyway, more ebjournaling soon.

Perks…

Tony| Category: General, School Daze | 1 Comment

Through a LONG week, yesterday shined a shiny light on what otherwise was a pretty hectic and crazy week. As one of my students walked in, she handed me a bag, and said, “These are for you.”

It was a bag full of pens, pencils, post-it notes, dry erase markers, and other school supplies that I, as a teacher, never seem to have enough of. I asked her if they were cleaning out their desks, and she told me that in fact, her mom works for a famous pen company, and so they always have tons of stuff. I looked closer, and I realized it was a sample kit. I love it. It rocks, and made me feel so appreciated that they thought of me.

The next great thing that happened yesterday was during writing. Currently, we’re writing poetry about our favorite colors. We brainstormed everything we can think of that pertains to the color, and then write about it… (Pink is bubble gum in my mouth. It is an eraser… very simple things.) The kids are doing a great job with this… my two favorite lines (7 year olds came up with this!) “Pink highlights the sky, waiting for the sun to approach.” And “Black runs down your spine when you are scared.” I’ll try to get a few of my favorite poems posted this weekend. I am so impressed with the thinking… I just need to get them moving more quickly.

Anyway, for all that I’m tired and grumpy this week, and miss TLEMK, it’s nice to have those perks. It makes the job worth it. G’night.

Apparently I taste good…

Tony| Category: General, School Daze, Random, WTF? | 3 Comments

The Trifecta of Biting is complete. You may now assume that I will be acquiring superhuman powers soon.

Saturday night, as we’re sitting around the faux bonfire, my family starts noticing that there are mosquitoes still struggling to survive in mid-September. Not until I am back inside under the harsh glare of reality do I notice that I have been bitten three or four times around my ankles. No big deal.

Flash forward to Monday morning. Why are my feet so itchy? I’m wearing new socks, but it doesn’t seem to be affected in the usual sock places. I realize that because I wore sandals all day Sunday, I did not notice that these were juiced-mosquitoes, angry at Mother Earth for making it so cold at night. They exacted their vengence on me, lowly snack bar of blood on a cold Saturday night. Thus, bite(s) number 1.

This morning (Monday) as I’m frantically cleaning up my classroom in my pathetic attempt to resemble an organized teacher, I notice a little spider. After last-week’s half-dollar spider incident, in which I was outwardly brave,
and inwardly shrieking like a girly-man, I had nothing to fear from a tiny spider.

WRONG.

I look down at my wrist, which also has started to itch, right after school started. Naturally, there’s a tiny bump there. So, spiders apparently (apparently!) like me too.

To recap: Itchy feet, new spider bite. Where else, how else could I be tasted, like some sort of buffet?

Oh, gentle readers, if I only realized that there are many other ways to be chomped on and spit out.

During the second lunch shift on Mondays, I do outdoor recess. I usually stand by the door between the lunchroom and the playground, sternly chastising small hobbits to walk. I put out my hands to emphasize to the little ones that if they continue running, they will run into my beefy paws.

Today, one of them challenged that. One little vampirical cherub decided that he should BITE my hand as he ran by, so as not to slow down. He reached out, and chomped with his four baby teeth right at the base of my thumb. The thoughts ran through my head were this, in order:

Hey, what the !@#$% was that?

AND

SOMETHING BIT ME!

It didn’t hurt, and I figured out what happened shortly after that. I yelled after the maniacal culprit, and what happened?

The little booger RAN.

Smiling.

Oh no. Uh-uh.

After about 3 seconds of my 75% outdoor voice, everyone within a 100-foot perimeter knew that they should be taking cover. Eventually I got the young man’s attention and he stopped, and I watched, WATCHED as the chap slowly realized that he was in trouble, and not just “I’m sorry” trouble, but like, you know principal’s office trouble. Hell, that even scares ME. I marched him down the office, to find that the boss was already engaged with three fifth graders, and she was NOT in a good mood. In fact, I’ve never seen her in this particular mood. I started to feel very sorry for the young man as I meekly approached my boss, and said that the boy needed to see her. He was too slow in moving and she pretty much snarled, “Get in here right now, young man.” After that, the boy lost it, even more than the tears streaming down his face from my discussion with him. I tried hard not to laugh, because the kid was screwed. I felt bad for him, because I truly believe he didn’t realize what he did, or how social graces dictated that it is NEVER OKAY TO BITE PEOPLE. Unfortunately, he had to learn the hard way. Suffice to say, his parents had to be brought in, and I had to give me spiel again. The parents were mortified, and the kid wouldn’t even look at me. So that happened.

Once bitten, twice shy.

Twice bitten, itchy.

Thrice bitten, looking over my shoulder for vampires.

:-B

Emmy’s and Other Stuff

Tony| Category: General, School Daze, Entertainment Tonight | 3 Comments

Some quick thoughts tonight…

I’m still completely torn about what to develop my thesis on… inferencing as an explicit strategy for primary readers, or the effects of fluency on comprehension. I’ve been researching articles, and there are good arguments for both. Scary for me to be thinking that I’m actually starting to take the plunge towards becoming a real researcher. Who knew? Anyway, any teachers out there can help by weighing with what they think is more interesting.

On to other thoughts— the Emmy’s are currently on, and apparently I missed a lot of miniseries. I always miss miniseries, because they always seem so contrived to me. Lost has won some Emmy’s, along with the Daily Show. Good for them! Lost premieres this week, and I have to TiVo it. Not that I haven’t been TWOP reading spoilers to keep me entertained. If you haven’t had a chance to check out Lost’s website, and you’re a fan, you really should. It’s neat. If you’re a fan of stream-of-consciousness writing, keep reading! William H. Macy is married to Felicity Huffman? (IMDB them, I’m too lazy to link) Who knew? Also, Jennifer Garner looks magnificent. Not nearly as stunningly gorgeous as TLEMK, but still purty. The In Memorium segments are always sad. I thought they did a nice job honoring the Big Three in newscasters, especially with the tribute to Peter Jennings. I also miss Johnny Carson. I appreciate him so much more now that I’m older.

Okay, I can’t keep this up. I need to sleep sometime. Good luck to all this week. It’ll be a doozy!

Good night.

We Salute You, Constitutional Grandma

Tony| Category: General, School Daze, Entertainment Tonight | 2 Comments

Today, September 17th, is important for two reasons. First, it’s important because it’s my grandma’s birthday. Happy birthday, Grandma!

(Sample conversation:
Me: “I wished you happy birthday on my blog, Gram.”

Grandma: “You have a diary? And you let other people read it? If your grandfather were here, he’d call you a nancy boy.” )

She’s just kidding. We’re going over to my parents place to celebrate her birthday, along with TLEMK’s, which was a few weeks ago. We’re having chili. Mmm…

The other reason today is important is because it is Constitution Day! WOOOOO!!!! WOOOOO!!!! Woo. (woo.) You can read about the ninth annual Constitution Day here. But since it was on a Saturday, we celebrated it yesterday in school, on the 16th. We kicked off by having the kids sing the Preamble (Schoolhouse Rock style), and say the Pledge together. Then we went back to our rooms, and I proceded to attempt to teach my students. Something. About. The Constitution. I decided against the whole How a Bill Becomes a Law spiel, and went straight into how there are three branches of government.

Ladies and gentlemen, I drew a tree. I put the word “Constitution” running up the trunk, and I drew and named three branches on the tree Executive, Legislative, and Judicial. Woot. After we discussed some of those, we read Time For Kids, which was conveniently on the Supreme Court nomination. What did my kids take away from this? Hopefully?

1)There are three branches of government.
2)There are nine Justices on the Supreme Court.
3)Right now, there are only eight justices, so they’re working on getting another one.

If they took that away with them, I’d be very happy. There was a lot of other stuff in there, so we’ll see how if anything was retained. They did get to keep the issue of TFK. Maybe one of them went home and talked about it with their family. Then, I will have accomplished discourse between the generations. Also, the kids wore red, white, and blue yesterday, and one of my female students was wearing a “Future President” T-Shirt. I complimented her on it, and told her to remember her second grade teacher when she was that powerful. She looked at me funny. As usual.

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On a side note, I fell “a little” off the wagon last night with my consumption of greasy tacos. They were so delicious, and I didn’t eat anything else. I will endeavour to do better, gentle readers.

New (Old) Taxes

Tony| Category: General, WTF?, EAT | 1 Comment

In the fall of 1999, we were sitting in trombone sectionals during a MI (Marching Illini) rehearsal of some sort. The discussion quickly turned to t-shirt ordering for the upcoming road trip.

Schrand: Okay it’s 10 bucks a shirt for sizes up to XL, and then a dollar extra for each additional X.

Everyone Else: NO!
————————————-

As I was ordering a hooded zipper jacket this morning from my school, I noticed that the FAT tax is still in effect. On top of paying the $20 for the sweatshirt, I have to add $2 for my spare tire so I can get an XXL. I want my two dollars back. Two dollars.

I am so going to complain. Again.

And now I’ll go back to losing weight, so that someday, somewhere, my personal Fat Tax will be repealed. Hmm, maybe if I dump all the peanut butter cups into Lake Michigan…

For the Record

Tony| Category: General, Sports and Wine | 6 Comments

Zigzag and I tied in our first weigh-in for pounds lost over the first two-week period. We are both approximately 13% closer to our respective goal weights. So I guess the Gardenburger helped after all.

You may wonder why I am so bold as to talk about this on the World! Wide! Web! The truth is, I’m hoping it will motivate me. I’m usually pretty close-mouthed on the subject of my gargantuaness, (Hey, my fat, my words) but enough is enough. And since I didn’t try out for the Biggest Loser, this is my way of motivating myself; putting it out there. Anyway, this is my site, so I get to talk about what I want. Zigzag really doesn’t need to lose that much, because he is a handsome man, so this competition feels more like a personal challenge rather than one against a good friend. That being said, I am totally going to destroy him in the second weigh-in. (Currently scheduled for Sunday, September 25th). I’ll keep y’all posted, unless of course, my site stats dramatically drop.

For the record, you won’t get numbers on here… just how much toward the unnamed goal, in percentages. Because I am embarrassed about how much I weigh, until I get better, I’m not comfortable talking about it exactly.

Thanks for the mind dump. You may now go back to your ice cream.

Extreme Power Footballing to the Third Degree!

Tony| Category: General, Sports and Wine | 1 Comment

Beyond the fact that my Levi’s used to say “husky” when I was a boy, and hot weather and I don’t get along (I’m already well-insulated on the warm side), fall approaching means more than as Zigzag and I call it “Fat Guy” weather. Nay, it means the most glorious of sports has returned:

Football is back, folks. Scroll on to something else if you’re not interested in one of the following : Football (NCAA), Football (NFL), Football (Fantasy), or Football (Activities related to the previous football categories.)

This weekend I made my first pilgrimmage to the land of the Morrow Plots, Zupke Field, and Burritos as Big as Your Head. I arrived in Champaign late Friday night in order to be properly rested for a full day the next day.

Mistake #1: Zigzag and I bought a bottle of libations (It rhymes with Laker’s Park) to give to Kenny, who was going to put up with both of our gaseous selves.

Mistake #2: We decided to open the bottle, and play poker, starting, at oh…. 11:30. We played one pretend round, and then the six of us (AJ, Jason, Zigzag, Kenny, Stuck, and yours truly) bought in for $5. After several tall doubles, at least three of us were belligerent. But folks, that’s when I play best. I got down to me and Jason, and then he took pity on me and let us play one hand for the kitty. I won. After watching some of The Cooler, and listening to Someone yell about ordering Adult Programming, we finally went to bed passed out. At a little after 3. In the morning. That’s not normal.

The alarm went off at 7:30, and I got up a little after 8. We finally made it to parking lot around 9:30, and tailgated. With McCurtises in our stomachs, and our arms warmed up from pathetic attempts at catch, it was game time. Commence inept football analysis NOW:

The Illini looked pretty good for playing a team that beat them two years ago. We now run the option. Most of the time, they optioned to hand it up the middle, but every once in a while they would pitch it out, or let Brasic keep it. The game, it was hot. Our defense still seems to be subscribing to “Bend, not Break” school of thought. The Horange and Blue put in their scrubs halfway through the third quarter, and still did well. It will be hard to not be able to see them against a ranked team next week (At press time, they hadn’t set a game time), because it’s not going to be on TV. Somehow, they are 2-0. Go Illini!

Other quick observations: Chuck never loses at bags. He didn’t lose all day. It was creepy. Also, our seats are better, and they are selling ice cream novelties separate from the usual concession stands. I like Lemon Chills. Finally, I wore three different hats this weekend. Literally.

After grilling my Delicious! Gardenburger, we headed back to the ‘burbs, where I managed to catch the last quarter of the OSU-UT game… Hook ‘em Horns!! It must’ve been the new hat.

Dang, this post is already too long.

More on football as I find the time. And maybe other stuff.

I apologize for the crappiness of this post. I’m distracted by football.

Dizz Knee Land

Tony| Category: General, Exploring | 3 Comments

I just flipped off President George… I’m going to Diz Knee Land…

*Wha?* Sorry, I was just reminiscing about my last post, in which I think I got pseudo-spam.

Anyway, how are YOU, faithful 3.1415759 readers? I had a whirlwind weekend, the forthcoming recap of which is not designed to bore you, but to enlighten you.

Friday night, we flew out to the O.C. via American Airlines, who’s motto (”More Leg Room, Less Shoulder Room”) left me gazing enviously at the first class and their jumbo bag of pretzels. I’ve already documented that I don’t like flying. However, instead of drinking before the flight, on this particular flight I tried drinking on the plane. Maybe it was Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, but I think the Jack Daniels mini actually helped. It was tasty, anyway. Oh yeah, the in-flight move was preadolescent chick flick mentioned above. TLEMK’s vote: LAME. Mine: Not as lame as I thought it would be. It was nice to see Alexis Bledel and Amber Tamblyn getting work… playing their exact same TV characters in a movie. We all know I’m a sap, so I’ll move on.

Nothing really eventful happened once we made it to the hotel. We had a kingsize bed. It shore were nice.

Bright and early Saturday morning, we got all gussied up for the wedding of V’s cousin. The wedding took place on The Entertainer, one of those big boats that accomodates 150 people, and yet has only one male and female bathroom. The wedding ceremony last LITERALLY 6 minutes. They walked into a song, they exchanged vows, and pronounced by the captain of the ship, they were married, and walked belowdecks. Then we proceeded to drink as much as possible for the next 3.5 hours. My choice for the momentous occasion was the ever-popular 7&7. It was powerful good, aided by my brother-in-laws keeping my glass filled up to the tip-top. It looked like this:

I had a great time at the wedding reception, which was short enough that I didn’t feel like I was obligated to dance more than three songs.
Afterwards, I got to go to my favorite burger joint in the whole world, which is saying a lot because, well, I don’t really like burgers: IN N’ OUT. Folks, the meat is fresh, the fries are fresh, and they speak a separate language. I got two 2 x 4’s, ketchup instead, and an order of piping hot fries. SO GOOD. The rest of the evening was spent hanging out in the insect-free region known as Southern California. We gathered a couple patio tables, and drank well into the night, interrupted only by a Frosty run, and an hour-and-a-half debate with an uncle and a cousin about the state of education, No Child Left Behind, and character education. I wasn’t inebriated, so it was very hard to follow the circular logic at times. Props to B, my bro-in-law for instigating the discussion, and then sitting back and watching like one of those cats you see watching Pong or a tennis game. (What, too archaic? Obscure?)

Sunday (waaaaaaaay too early) brought the 9 immediate family members (plus V’s Uncle Craig) together for a sojourn to the land of the giant mouse.

Here’s a formula for disaster–

Drinking late + 50 year celebration of Disneyland opening + Labor Day Weekend = 3 rides in 3 hours.

So things were moving REALLY slow in Anaheim on Sunday. We had to wait in two lines just to get into the park.

Also this was not a normal Disney excursion. It was also the first foray into amusement parks by our two and a half year old nephew.

Here’s another recipe. Guess if you can calculate the outcome:

2 and a half year old off sleep routine + waiting in line for an hour + Space Mountain (which is mostly pitch black) =

???

Screaming. The answer, gentle readers, is screaming. Maybe Space Mountain wasn’t the best choice for him, followed quickly by one of those 3-D movies where things seem to blow up on you. He got better, but seriously, the boy did not like not knowing what was going to happen next. In the words of my sister-in-law, “It was kinda funny because he was terrified and screaming but excited all at the same time, and I knew nothing could happen to him, so I felt like laughing at him.”

As a Public Service Announcement, I can tell you that Disney’s California Adventure Theme Park SUCKS. The one roller coaster that they have was closed, and had been for the last five weeks. It was not worth the extra cost to get both parks (which are right across the street from each other) on a one-day ticket.

After losing V’s sister, who is 19, (really, who loses a crowd of nine? When you’re 19? ) but didn’t have a cell phone, and couldn’t find us in the park, tempers were running high. We also lost V’s dad later, but that’s another story for another day. It was all solved by tasty Outback, at a very late dinner.

Monday, we flew back. The plane made a noise that scared V, which almost caused my testes to permanently ascend. (She’s MY rock). This was after having to go through extra screening, three hours before our flight, including very personal wand-waving, and shoe removing. because Someone lost their current driver’s license on the flight to California, which also induced near-panic on Friday. (What if we never get home?) For what it’s worth, that Someone’s name starts with T and ends with LEMK.

All in all, a beautiful weekend. I’m hoping to get more pictures up, but people, it’s been busy. Between celebrating the wedding and the aformentioned birthday, and with starting grad. classes again, it’s hard to make the pictures pretty. *Whew!*

GOOD NIGHT.

Feliz Cumplea~nos a ti!

Tony| Category: General | 2 Comments

Happy birthday, TLEMK! Welcome to not-your-early twenties… I love you!

Kenny, are you keeping track of the dates? 9/7, …., …..

I swear the CA update is coming soon. Just ignore though, it’s boring.
(You’re boring.)

The Air Up There…

Tony| Category: General, Entertainment Tonight, Exploring | 2 Comments

The following was typed in my adreneline/panic - induced semi-comatose caffeine hyped state on Friday, as we flew out to the the left coast for a California style wedding. More updates soon!

Ladies and gentlemen, this is your ebjournaler speaking. Coming to you live from 34,000 feet above the Earth. Um, it’s freaky as usual.

Welcome to my random ranting as I desperately cling to the hope of survival.

A couple things that are on my mind:

1) Katrina. There are so many feelings that I have about this subject. I am devastated by the loss of life, by the inhumanity of people, and amazed that the thing most of us not directly affected (by living, or being related to people down there) are discussing how this is going to affect gas prices. Yes, gas prices. I would gladly pay five dollars a gallon if it meant there wasn’t as much suffering for the people that are living in the cesspool that is New Orleans. I can’t pretend to know how those people feel, nor would I even want to learn, but it depresses me that the media coverage is on the anger of the people down there, the looting, and the continued destruction of the city. I don’t know if there will be a Newer Orleans, but I hope ALL are watching and learning. On the flip side, I hear that the six major networks, along with cable stations, will be doing a roadblock broadcast for a major fundraiser, along with what happened in the aftermath of 11/9 (I’m European.)

Recently, on NPR, I heard a fairly long piece on how Americans, per capita, give the most to charities when compared to other “modern” countries. I contribute where I can, but I don’t know if any of us will ever feel like it is enough. Wow, this isn’t what I’m trying to get across. My point is, I feel helpless, and that we, as a people, give a lot, and I don’t know if I’ll ever feel not guilty about not giving more (Must be my former Catholic side. )

2) Our Clueless Leader. I’m so happy that the President decided to cut his five week vacation short by two days. You go, boy. I try REALLY hard not to get political here, because my purpose is well, to journal. But any soundclip I hear recently of Mr. Bush Jr. makes me long for the days of Bubba C. To point:

“It’s important to conserve energy. Don’t buy gas if you don’t have to.” (I’ll try to find the exact quote soon. But, the part about buying gas if you don’t have to, vintage W.) WHO IS HOARDING GAS???? It’s not like a sale on Rubbermaid tubs, that you can store in your basement for when you have to add ANOTHER box to the Christmas decorations. IT’S GAS.
Better now. For what it’s worth, the other sound clip that has stuck in my head is “We need immediate action now.” Thunk.

3) We landed. I lived. O.C. updates, complete with pictures, fantasy football draft results, and how spending three hours at the airport can be a good thing… all in the next few days. Until then, enjoy Waiterrant.