An old lady left a message on my answering machine that says, "Arlene! You're a troubleMAKER. Byyye"

It makes me giggle, so I haven't erased it.

Today in science we discussed the characteristics of mammals, and that humans are mammals too. I told them they had hair all over, even on their stomachs. (Immediately at least one little girl checked her belly out.) We also talked about how mammals give birth to live young. Another student started counting on his fingers and then proudly announced to the class exactly how old (or young) his mom was when he was born....

Well, damn. My new laptop topcase allowed my mouse to work just long enough to make me remember how nice it is to not always have to trail around the external thing. Now what do I do???

Oh man. I am ready for my lease to be up on this apartment, cause I want to MOVE! But it is a good thing I have till June, because I have no idea where I would move, or if I would live by myself, or anything. Grrr. One more example of how I want to fast forward everything to like... a year from now.

Yes!! My laptop now has a working mouse! Much thanks to my brother and to his ex-roomates, owners of PB FixIt. I no longer have to trail around that silly external mouse. (My laptop mouse failed about two months after I bought this thing off ebay.)

Yesterday was my school's yearly carnival. It is supposed to be parent-run, but in reality the teachers work their butts off to get the thing going. I am soooo glad it is over. This year it was Friday, 4-8 instead of Saturday afternoon. That meant that I had very little time to get everything ready Friday once school was over. I ended up pulling a 12 1/2 hour day, which is way too much. I must say, though, that everyone liked my bat tic-tac-toe game...

I would like to announce the arrival on the blog scene (should I be retarded and say blogosphere?) of Dandroid. Dandroid is a 23 year old robot who is looking for love. He is a Virgo.


I hear that Dandroid is way hotter than this guy. (Plus, he's better at defragging...)

Last week I found that it takes me 8 minutes to drive to little ceasers, get a 5 dollar pizza, eat a piece at a stoplight, and get back up to my apartment. In another 8, half the pizza was gone.

Included in my afternoon teacher workshop: how to use The Onion in the classroom. Too bad I don't think I could find any articles my third graders would "get." Or maybe I can...... (The session was given by a teacher lady who I knew from last year, but I had no idea she was so damn wacky and hilarious.)

I went to get my mail today and the mailman was still putting things in the mailbox. This mailman didn't really look familiar, and my apartment complex has like 200 units with their mailboxes right there. ...And the mailman knew my name and handed me my mail. He asked me where I taught.

Whaaaaaaaaaaat?? How does he know who I am? Its not like my mail comes with pictures of me pasted next to the stamp.

A direct consequence of me being home alone at night is that I watch a lot of Law and Order.

i don't know what the hell to talk about today.

the absence of posting is better than this post. i'll make it better by including a photo.


preeeeeeeeeegnant!

Oh, man. Things are so much easier this fall.

1) Not dealing with traumatic breakup and then surprising new long-distance relationship.
2) Class is full of children that are easier for me to handle.
3) Less grading cause we don't give letter grades in primary.
4) I have two other experienced teachers at my grade level to help me out.

It is all conspiring to mean that I get a halfway decent amount of sleep and have some free time, which is nice.

We took our time on the drive back up from socal. We stopped in San Luis for lunch at my favorite restaurant, and then took Highway 1 up the coast. Steve's big idea was to go to a restaurant/ cafe called Nepenthe that was 3/4 of the way to Monterey. By chance, we got there as the sun was about to set. We got coffee, sat outside on the deck, and watched the sunset. This photo is a picture of the view, but not at sunset. ...And I want to go there again.