Let It Snow, But Not When It's Inconvenient

Even teachers get excited about snow days.  We really do.  We even get excited about 2 hour delays.  Something about not having to put in a full day at school is just marvelous.  I used to love to sleep in, but with the phone ringing at 5:30 to tell me there's no school or a delay, it's not possible.  But it's fun.

Until you don't get the call.  And it's still snowing.  And you don't have a garage so you have to scrape your car.  And you really still have to go to school.  And your back yard looks like this.

Ok, maybe that's too dramatic.  That's a picture I took of Montmorency Falls in Quebec, the first year we took kids to Quebec.  We quickly learned that snow and field trips cause me too much anxiety, so we moved it to warmer times.  But this is a ridiculously spectacular picture.  Oh wait, I don't know if I really took that picture.  Oh crap, I really can't remember if that's my own picture or one I stole.  Ahh the danger of the internet.  It's pretty, anyway.

But I digress.  So, when I got out of bed, this is what the back yard looked like.  Yes, the very same yard where we have a fantabulous patio and spend countless hours in the summer.  With the fire pit that looks like a snow cone.   And sadly, we still have school.

But I agree, snow is pretty.  As much as it is an inconvenience, it is pretty.  And this is a wet, heavy snow, so it's really pretty because it clings to everything.  I like this picture below because I like the blue effect.  The sun hadn't really come up yet, so it looked like this.  And there was no 2 hour delay.

Not sure why the camera likes to make the scene blue.  I'm sure it's all about light and the snow and all that.  But it's intriguing to me, anyway.

And this is what my slimy commute looks like.  All 10 minutes of it.  But it does not inspire a desire to drive far. 

And, here's the greenhouse.  I think the camera making things literally green is a little too much, but it's my phone, so what can I do.  And that's how the greenhouse will look until k-ster is up and running again.  But, we got the posts in the ground before it froze, so that's a good thing.  Otherwise I would really have to wait a long time.  Now it's just the plastic that has to go on, but it's tricky.

Feel Good Friday

It's Friday and I have some feel good moments to share.  When you're done, go see the girl and link up your own!

 1.  Hmm a feel good moment?  Is it because I became so nostalgic when I saw this floor from 1970 something?  No, it's because k-ster had his foot operated on and thought that's not a feel good moment, it felt better when he was back to normal the next day.  We are surgery virgins, so it's like the blind leading the blind around here.  He wasn't woozy, he just wasn't himself.  We've never been injured, broken anything or been under the knife, except for wisdom teeth, so it was a strange 24 hours.  Now he's up and running on his crutches wondering what happens when he goes to his follow up next week. 

2.  I missed two days of school, see above, and when I returned, nothing was amiss.  This was a shock.  I am never absent and on those occasions when I go to a workshop or something, I know way in advance and plan my life away.  As  French teacher, I know the likelihood of getting someone who can do something related to French is non existent, so I always leave things like videos that simply require pushing play.  I hadn't planned to take 2 days, so I only left plans for one, so  I had some scrambling to do that morning.

3.  My afghan that I've been  making on the Bernat Crochet Along is getting closer to being finished.  The squares are almost all put together, since I had lots of time (see #1 and #2) and now I have to do the edging.  I'll post a picture when it's finally all done.

4.  I finally found a cleanser/facial moisturizer that I think I like.  Such a small thing, but it really is difficult and I think we might have a winner.  It's Mary Kay.  But the funny part is that when I tried the sample, I didn't know that there were little microbeads in it..  When I looked down and there were little black things in it, I thought maybe I had some kind of gunk on my hands, so I washed it off and wasted it!  If you're in need of Mary Kay products, go see www.marykay.com/alisonjane

5.  It's been a dull week.  I made rice krispies treats and they made me pretty happy.  Oh, I know another thing that made me happy.  I got 5 emails from a woman claiming she is from the network CMT (Country Music Television).  It seems that I might have typed the word REDNECK a few times on my blog and she noticed and thinks that perhaps I am a perfect candidate for a new show on CMT called My Redneck Reunion or something along those lines, produced by Tom Arnold.  I felt good because I know for a fact I am not such a redneck that I could even hold a candle to someone who really qualifies for that show.  But she was persistent.  And now she'll see that I've typed it again and ask me again and again. 

That's all I have to say.  It's been a weird week.  Go see the girl and see what other people did for fun!

To All My Canadian Readers, Please Help

If you live in Canada, perhaps you can verify this.  I went to the Bernat Blog to see about entering a picture for the Crochet Along contest that I have been participating in.  Though I am not completely finished, I'm almost finished, so I wanted to know what the deadline is.  I'm safe, so I'll be entering. 

But that's not why I've called you here.  I was reading the eligibility rules.  And I pass. But if I lived in Canada, I would have to obey this one:

-If the winner is a citizen of Canada, a mathematical skill testing question will be administered and must be correctly answered before an entrant is declared to be a winner.

 Seriously?  Are all contests in Canada like this?  You must pass a math test?  What kind of math?  How many questions?  I'm starting to shake a little, due to my lack of mathematical skills and I don't even live in Canada!  The US does not have such crazy rules.

Maybe this is the answer to the problems with education in this country?  If kids knew that to win a contest ever as an adult, they would have to pass a math test, I bet they'd be singing the praises of math and we'd have a bunch of geniuses!   

So, fellow readers who are of Canadian citizenship, please chime in.  Non Canadian residents, please don't give me your 2 cents about how you've heard of this rule or whatever.  I want to know if it's legit so I know Canada isn't the place I will abscond to when I'm on the lam.

And all you Quebekkers, I know you have your own set of rules and the French language requirement has something to do with it, but don't you feel left out?  I keep seeing things that say "Canadian residents, with exception of the province of Quebec" and things of that nature.  I'm so sad for you! 

Sunchips Are So Not Degrading

A while back, I posted about the claim on the Sunchips bag that after 14 weeks, the bag would decompose, being biodegrable and leave no trace.  I am nothing if not curious, so on May 2, 2010, I placed one of these Sunchips bags in my garden.  I did not bury it in the compost for a lot of reasons, but mainly because I thought that the average litterbug doesn't bother to bury trash.  I wanted to see if someone just tossed it on the ground, would it break down.

Saturday, I took this picture.  Let's see.  May 2, 2010 to December 11, 2010.  That's umm lots of weeks.  More than 14, to be sure.  And yet, do you see that most of the bag is there?  Can you read what I can read? I am highly disappointed.  I thought 7 months after I placed it on the ground, very little would be left.  I anchored it down with a brick so it wouldn't blow away.  Now I'm glad, because it would be real litter!

I went to their website when I posted back in August, to see why mine didn't break down.  I see that on their website, they show that it breaks down under very controlled circumstances involving heat and clear plastic wrap so you can see the breakdown.  Well, I supposed if I wanted to add more trash and put Saran Wrap over it, it might work.  But on the bag, they don't tell you all of the hijinks you have to perform to make it break down.  They encourage you to buy it so you can feel good about buying something that won't pollute the earth.

And after 7 months, no matter what method I used, I expected there to be very little left.  I figured that the exposure to sunlight alone should be enough to make it break down into smithereens.

I'm very disappointed, Sunchips.  Very.  And to top it off, the bag is so noisy that somewhere I read that they had to stop making the bag because there were so many complaints.

Ugh, I have nothing more to say except that I will continue my little experiment and see where we are a year from May 2!

Governor is the New Scrooge

In the great state where I live, it has suddenly become a law or maybe has always been a law and now someone is enforcing it that teachers cannot receive Christmas gifts of more than $50 value from any one student or parent.  How UN.FAIR.  Who the heck is receiving gifts valued at $50 or more from more than one kid????  Where are these people teaching?   And more importantly, why have I ever received a gift valued at $50 or more?

So in our school mailboxes today, we received a very thick packet from some lawyers delineating what can and cannot be accepted by teachers during the holiday season and throughout the year.  It's really amazing that someone has spent so much time on this.  Here are some examples, in case you were planning to buy something lavish for me at this time of the year.

-a teacher cannot accept a gift that he/she knows is valued over $50 unless it is from several students who chipped in.  Then , the teacher cannot accept anything else from those students who chipped in, because together, they have spent $50.

-if a teacher is given tickets to a show that were worth $40 but then they become scarce and are valued at $500, the teacher would then have been given a $460 gift even though the parents only paid $40 the day they bought them.

-if there is no admission charge to an event, but the presumed cost of food and drink for the attendees is $90 per person, that was a gift over $50.

Really?????  So, now if I happen to get the random gift or two from kids, I have to give them the 3rd degree.  Who bought this?  How many people helped cover the cost?  What was the actual value the day you bought it?  What will the value be the day I redeem it?  Have you given me any other gift during this school year?

And my favorite one is the one about the free admission but the presumed cost.  So now when I am invited to any sort of event, I must ask what the presumed cost per person was so that I know I'm not breaking the law.

So this is what's wrong with education today?  Are all teachers so busy with their fancy gifts that they've stopped teaching?  Who polices these kinds of things?  So, teachers are not allowed to redeem gift cards and tickets they were given because at the time they redeem them they might be worth a whole lot more?  Are you kidding me????  Are there really teachers sitting on death row because they accepted tickets to a Broadway show and dinner afterwards? 

Since this was made such a big deal in our district last year and again today, my fear is that mock presents are going to be given to teachers to "test" us to see if we really accept a gift that is over $50.  This, in a district where over 50% of our kids are on free or reduced lunch.  Yep, I see my Lamborghini waiting with my name on the license plate.

And really, where are all of these rich parents who are giving gifts over $50 to the same teacher?  Seriously?  Send them my way.  They use examples of spa services and fancy dinners and plays.  Umm, I could use some.  I won't even tell anyone, I promise.

I'm lucky if I get a gift from one child worth 50 cents at Christmas.

Adult Trick or Treating

Ahhh the Cookie Stroll.  Someone called it adult trick or treating today, and I liked that, so I stole it.  BEcause it is.  People wear ridiculous holiday clothes(pins, hats, scarves, turtlenecks) all in the name of being festive.  Then they go door to designated door expecting a treat because that's what it said on their ticket when they paid.  Here in  my area of the neighborhood, there is a yearly cookie stroll to benefit the library.  We have lots and lots of old houses in the area, and people just love to be nosy, so it's a good pairing.  At each home, everyone gets a cookie to put in their little bags that they get when they buy their tickets.  And the library makes a butt load of money.

The first year I went, I collected all of the cookies and they were G-R-O-S-S.  It seemed most had been stored in mothballs or they just had no flavor at all.  I quickly learned and the next 2 years, I brought my bag to each house but refused the cookie.  They thought I was nuts.  I didn't care.  I'm all about looking at the houses.  Because...

a)  I am super nosy
b)  I grew up in this neighborhood but never knew the neighbors, so I never got to see their houses
c)  I am always looking to see what people do for decor
d)  I am really catty

I guess I should address the last one first.  I live in an old house.  Around 1810 was the building date for the front portion of the house.  Actually, I should say circa 1810.  Because here, everyone knows the word circa.  It means they aren't sure of the date, so it's around that date.  You see it marked on people's houses like a statement of pride.  Around here, everyone seems to know the dates that everything happened in their houses.  I'd like to know more about mine, but I am very, very lazy when it comes to that.  And I don't know that I trust the info I find, because how do people really know if they are talking about the right house?  And I fear I could become one of those people who constantly rattles off dates that extraordinary things happened in their house.  And that makes for boring dinner conversation.  Here are some important dates I can recall in my house:

circa 1979 we moved here with me and my sister a-ster but I don't remember the move

circa 1980 my sister e-ster was brought home and I was certain I was choking on a chicken bone because no one was paying attention to me.  I was not choking on anything.

circa that same era my mother had to go back to the hospital for a kidney stone but I was afraid she was bringing home another baby (I don't think I choked on anything that time)

circa 1983 we got a dog and then promptly gave him away 6 months later because he was too much for us to handle

circa all of the 1980s, we had many a cat who disappeared or was hit on the street in front of our house

circa 1989 we moved next door to the new house

circa 1997 I moved back into this house

circa 2000 we put in an outdoor shower, truly the best $300 I've ever spent

circa 2008 we k-ster built our fantastic patio

circa 2010 we built a greenhouse

So as you can see, my house has lots of history.  I have no room to remember troubling things like which year a room was added on or when it was floated over from the island or whatever.  Because it was common in the 1800s to float your house over here from the island to sell to the rich folks who liked to summer here.  And over time, they gave it to family members who lived here permanently and rooms were added as babies were born and renovations happened as money came in and lo and behold here we are in 2010 and some look nothing like the original and some have been so painstakingly preserved to look like the original, that this is where my cattiness begins.  And I don't think my house was floated over here, by the way.  I think it was born here.

In my old house, I am horrified that I regularly have to scrub with bleach to get rid of mildew on the walls and ceilings.  Hell would certainly freeze over if I let 700 people march through my house on a stroll to look at my mildew.  I've been in several houses on these tours where not only could you see the mildew, but it all smelled like it.

In my old house, I have some paint issues and flakes are currently falling from the ceiling because it's  a catch 22 about replacing the ceiling entirely or just trying to deflake and repaint. Everything in an old house is a catch 22.  If you replace one thing, you should really replace the entire room because you will have to rip it out again when you decide to really renovate.  So instead, you wait until something actually breaks or explodes and then it's a crisis, so we make do and never actually do a real renovation. Again, no one is allowed to march through here on any kind of tour until we get this settled.  This appears not to phase some homeowners and they open their homes right up.

In my old house, there might be one level floor and that would be the kitchen floor because it was redone circa 1978.  All of the others are so charming that you could put a ball on the floor on one side of the room and go get it a second later when it rolls, on its own, to the other side.  I say this is charming because that's what the people who stroll through these houses say, usually with a big, envious grin.

In my old house, I have replaced all of the carpets which were only about 15 years old because I was grossed out by the fact that other tenants had lived on them and there were some issues with irons or hot coals having been dropped.  Apparently, as I learned today, it is enviable that some people have rugs up their staircases that are literally threadbare and DIS-GUS-TING because great, great, great aunt so and so made it and it's an heirloom.  Can you imagine the filth, bugs, and whatever else live in those? 

In my old house, my mother steamed off the old wallpaper and put her up own 30 years ago and someone else later steamed off her "modern" paper (the kitchen paper had orange potbellied stoves) and all of the walls are just painted.  It appears that very old, mildewed, falling of the wall wallpaper is quaint and people love it.  Really??  I have a shoe closet that has ancient wallpaper remains from probably circa 1800 that anyone can come look at and take, for all I care.

I could go on and on.  I secretly love to go on these strolls so I can have a constant conversation in my head about how I would NEVER let the general public come within 10 feet of my house if it looked like that.  And people are paying $15 per person to stroll through 6-10 houses that have some of the very features I mentioned above.

Some houses are truly gorgeous.  And some have made do in really neat, but not cheesy ways.  And some are actually new houses.  But there are those that just shock me.

Instead of strolling today, I hosted at a house for 2 hours.  And here, my cattiness continues as I share my study in human behavior. Here was what I saw for my whole shift.

Yes, a kitchen,  Not too remarkable.  Not too shocking.  Not too old, not too modern.  This house was built in the early 1800s (but I think mine is older, I just don't go bragging about it) and people were just fascinated.  The reason I show you this shot is because a woman stood right in front of me, looked around and said "Is this the kitchen?"  No ma'am, it's the garage.  I must have made a face because the woman behind her was cracking up. 

I could never live in this house for many reasons (it smelled, it was left to look too old and cold, but mostly, there were no cabinet doors on the upper cabinets and really very little cabinet space at all.  UGH.  I must have cabinets.

The part that I marveled at the most, and that most people marveled at was this.

This is the ceiling of the kitchen that had a cool window but now it looks like a gaping hole.  Let me teach you a little bit about this.  If you look at the boards, they are about 2 feet wide.  This is classic circa 1800s building wood and I know I have this all over my house because a) it looks like this in my attic, all open and such and b) when we redid the laundry room, the boards behind the sheetrock looked like this as did the entire outside of the house when they reshingled a few years back.  However, most people do not leave these boards exposed.  One reason, they are not all perfect, so it looks like of slipshod.  Perfection must not have been invented circa 1800.  Another reason, when the shingles are put on the roof, all of the nails go through, so you can see them all.  The biggest reason, they are not tight.  So another roof has to be put on top or all your heat will escape and the rain will come in.  However, this creative soul found it so important to expose this wood, she had the insulation put OUTSIDE on top of the roof and then another roof on top of that so she could have a cozy kitchen and still think it's old. 

I had to stifle a laugh every time someone ooohed and ahhhed over this because I have the very same thing in my attic but I didn't think anyone would pay a penny to see it.  And I'm horrified when someone does!  And if you look closely, this is some of that ancient wallpaper that I mentioned.  Some of it looked OK but a lot of it was just worn and hideous.  One poor woman thought it was birch and was peeling off because it was meant to.

Another thing that is so telling of an old house is the floor.  Wide planks, milled long before Pergo was even a glimmer in someone's eye.  But there are gaps. And I never understood how anyone could just smile and deal with the gaps.  I've been in some houses where rope was shoved between the boards.  Mmmm very neat and clean.  Thus I have carpet.  And if you look closely, you see specks.  This is a technique whereby they spatter paint on the floor.  I have a theory that it allows the floor not to look like it's dirty, worn or has dirt acutally on it.  I just think it looks like someone spattered paint.  But lots of people were drooling over it today and want to recreate it in their homes.  I bet there are wives at home right now flinging paint all over their Pergo.

What's strange is that I took some pictures of the views from this house but they did not come up on my phone's site.  Sad, actually.  The views are truly breathtaking.  They look out onto the river and from every room, you can see the river.  And it was a glorious day today, so it was picture perfect from any window.  Sorry I can't show that.  It might make living in that house entirely worth it.  But the living room, excuse me, parlor windows are the ancient glass that looks all wobbly, so you would see everything in a blur.  And I cannot handle that.

So my human behavior study results are as follows:

1.  people will do anything, and pay just about anything, to go nose around in someone else's house
2.  people will bring friends along with them and whisper, or sometimes just outright say, bad things about the house
3.  people will become experts on the spot and tell people the most asinine, untrue things and sound like the know for sure (like the woodstove that was in one room that is probably circa 1960 at the earliest and people kept saying it was the "original" potbellied stove.  There was no pot belly, it was flat, and I am certain it was not the original because we have one just like it at the car wash.  Now who's the expert?)
4.  people are never happy with what they have.  Judging the people on looks only, I am certain that they have fabulous houses that are much newer, with more modern features, that are much more efficient, yet they long for the "history" and old ways of the old house.
5.  people will wait in line to go into a house that is supposed to have some great historical secret, like the house a few years ago that supposedly had a shoe that was found under a stair when it was renovated.  Everyone lined up to see the ancient shoe in a glass box.

I am often suspicious of these wild claims that people make about their houses.  Like those were supposedly on the Underground Railroad.  Really?  All the way up here in New England?  I thought once they were north of the Mason Dixon line, they were pretty OK?  We are pretty far north of that, so I don't know why anyone would have been hiding anyone.  And many of these homeowners are so removed from the families that built them, it's all based on hearsay.

I know it is human nature to be curious.  I told you in the beginning I am very nosy, myself.  And I suppose it is our nature to always want what we don't have, no matter how good or bad it might look.  And we like to sound knowledgeable, so we like to think we know everything and share it with those people of lesser intelligence who simply know nothing.  And we love to show off and feel like we really own things.

If this was not our nature, there would be no one to open their homes and there wouldn't be anyone who would pay to go see them and the library wouldn't make a cent.

But I like to fancy myself a "normal" person who can stroll through a house, have a conversation in my head about the atrocities in it and how dare the person think they are so special they can just open their house to strangers and invite them to see their crap, refuse a cookie and carry on with my life.  I don't have to dress in my holiday stroll garb.  I don't have to waltz through every house saying everything is "lovely" at every turn.  I don't have to thank the homeowner profusely for letting us in.  I don't even have to bring a friend with me on the stroll.

But most importantly:  I can run my usual run route all year long and tell myself "I've been in that house and that house and that house and that house...." because before I die, I want to have visited every house in my neighborhood.  And to have made my inner commentary about them all.

Feel Good Friday

We're at it again! Go link up with the girl and do your own Feel Good Friday!

5.  I know it's completely ridiculous, but the zipper on my very old Eddie Bauer jacket, that no one can seem to make another of, fell off yesterday and I almost cried.  Because the head of the zipper sheared itself right off, so I had nothing to attach the pull to.  But, k-ster and I are too slick for failure, so I got a paperclip and he figured out how to reattach it.  See that fancy gold?  That's my styling new fangled zipper!  I'm so rich, I buy gold paperclips!  If someone would just make winter parkas like they did 10 years ago, this would not have been the near tragedy that it was yesterday morning.  Phew.

4.  I laughed so hard at the laundress over at laundry hurts my feelings and it felt so damned good.  One of those hysterical belly laughs that makes tears come and your nose hurts.  Go read yesterday's post to get the link and laugh your own butt off.  Imagine if we could have one of those real hysterical laughs every day?  I guess it would old after a while.  I laugh, I snicker, I smile, but I rarely get one of those guffaw's going.  She did it to me.

3.  We had our school concert yesterday morning which means that the period before the concert, all musicians report to the music room.  That left me with 4 boys who are not musically inclined, and to tell the truth, not French inclined either.  So, I dragged out my European Monopoly board, the one I bought in Belgium and dragged all the way back here, and made them count in French and tell me in French that they would like whichever property.  It was truly the best thing I could have done for them.  I thought they might tell me it was queer and give me grief, but these 4 seventh grade boys just ATE.IT.UP.  They thought it was so cool.  They all counted together each time someone moved.  I just about split my head open from the boredom, but they were highly entertained.  So that was nice.  And the kid who couldn't count at 8:40 seemed to have a pretty firm grasp on 1-12 by 9:20.

2.  Holy CRAP I just realized that we did work on the greenhouse and I didn't post the picture!!! Well that was certainly a feel good moment on Sunday.  We have the frame all up and all of the supports. K-ster wasted no time marking his territory.  Now it's the scary part of putting on the polycarbonate ends and the sides and then the top.  Hopefully tomorrow will be perfect weather so this is all ready before k-ster goes under the knife on Tuesday. Otherwise it will be February before this is finished.  Not sure what my greenhouse reference is all about?  Read all the details here.

1.  I didn't feel good when I was riding Tucker yesterday becasue he was being ridiculous and seemed glued to his water station.  Sucking it down like there was no tomorrow.  I was annoyed, and limited on time, so I kept spanking and kicking him and trying to veer him away whenever we went by it.  I do feel bad when I spank or kick him because I just want him to do what I'm asking.   Some days, he's just such a teenager.  He cooperated on and off but was really ridiculous when he'd see the waterer and try everything to get there.  As soon as I ended the lesson, he went right back and sucked down more water.  I felt really good when r-ster went in to find that none of the horses had water because their self waterers were not working!  I didn't feel good that they had no water, but I felt good knowing that the reason he was being such a brat was because he was dying of thirst, not because he was a brat.  I felt really good that she discovered that before they all died because they had no water!  And that she wasn't alone when she discovered it or she would have had a hard time closing up the barn.  Normally the paddock doors stay open and they get to go outside if they want.  They wear blankets.  And the self waterers have a heater somewhere the keeps the pipe from freezing.  But with the pipe frozen (did I mention it was 14 degrees this morning?) they had to have water in buckets.  We shut up the barn hoping that the buckets would not freeze because maybe 5 beasts in a closed barn would keep it toasty.

That's all the Feel Good I've got, now go see the girl!