The last time I drove up to Barbara's Brewery, which is "on the other side of downtown" near "General Hospital" (County USC), it took me 2 hours, so this time, with rain expected, I allowed myself two hours and got there in 45 minutes. The good news is that I got there at the same time as the other Municipal Liason, Elizabeth. We laid out the prizes, (Big Lots Baby) and I ordered a hamburger because I was starving! Later they laid out a spread of appetizers (with lots of cheese!)
I was a little worried at first, because not a whole lot of people replied to the thread saying they would be there... but when we counted the raffle ticket stubs, we had nearly 40 people there. It was a little loud with the music and the miniature jet engine heater. Overall, I think it was a great success. I had fun talking to everyone about their novels and matching names with faces. I felt my voice starting to go so around 9:30, so I said goodbye to Elizabeth and headed home.
Sunday, December 04, 2005
TGIO - Thursday Bombs R Us
So I've had a Mega Packed 72 hours and plan to do completely NOTHING today to make up for it.
It all started when during the last class of the day, my ELD 1 class, an announcement came over that we had a lock down drill. My students dutifully closed the windows and blinds and I locked the door. I had to keep them from peeking out the slats in the blinds at the army of police and fire that were arriving.
In case of a lockdown, teachers are instructed to check their email, as they won't make announcements... in case the emergency is due to a gunman in the school. I get an email that says someone turned in a red backpack to the bookroom with some strange box with wires attached to it. The bookroom, in case your wondering is directly downstairs and over one from my classroom. Peachy.
The email also said that the 100 building had already been evacuated... 20 to thirty minutes before. So I sent an email back asking where we were supposed to be. About ten minutes later I get an angry phone call. "Where are you, you were supposed to be in the auditorium!"
Don't ask me how I'm supposed to be somewhere when no one told me where to go.
"Wait for your administrator to come escort you out."
I tell the students to pack up their stuff as we're leaving. They're confused, but it's a chance not to do their work... so they pack up and head off down the hall when Ms. Broadway comes to get us.
So we got to leave school 20 minutes early and I had to walk the long way around home... and I didn't get to make the copies I planned to make after school.
The bomb turned out to be a speaker with electrical tape and wire sticking out of it. I don't know what bothers me more... that they forgot to evacuate me, or they blamed me for not knowing about it. sigh.
It all started when during the last class of the day, my ELD 1 class, an announcement came over that we had a lock down drill. My students dutifully closed the windows and blinds and I locked the door. I had to keep them from peeking out the slats in the blinds at the army of police and fire that were arriving.
In case of a lockdown, teachers are instructed to check their email, as they won't make announcements... in case the emergency is due to a gunman in the school. I get an email that says someone turned in a red backpack to the bookroom with some strange box with wires attached to it. The bookroom, in case your wondering is directly downstairs and over one from my classroom. Peachy.
The email also said that the 100 building had already been evacuated... 20 to thirty minutes before. So I sent an email back asking where we were supposed to be. About ten minutes later I get an angry phone call. "Where are you, you were supposed to be in the auditorium!"
Don't ask me how I'm supposed to be somewhere when no one told me where to go.
"Wait for your administrator to come escort you out."
I tell the students to pack up their stuff as we're leaving. They're confused, but it's a chance not to do their work... so they pack up and head off down the hall when Ms. Broadway comes to get us.
So we got to leave school 20 minutes early and I had to walk the long way around home... and I didn't get to make the copies I planned to make after school.
The bomb turned out to be a speaker with electrical tape and wire sticking out of it. I don't know what bothers me more... that they forgot to evacuate me, or they blamed me for not knowing about it. sigh.
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Post Nano Blues
Okay, so it's only the last day of NaNoWriMo, but I know I'm going to be sad. I'm always sad after nano. It's like saying goodbye to a friend who only comes to visit once a year. Sigh.
To cheer myself up, I thought I'd post my favorite Andy Poem, from 2002 (ooh, preBlogspot)
A Dragon Poem
by Andy Cohen (a.k.a. the spouse of Liarbyrd)
If dragons wrote modernist poetry:
Burnt down your castle,
Ate all your crunchy dwarves,
Rolled around in your gold,
Stole your daughter.
Sorry. My bad.
I could not help myself.
To cheer myself up, I thought I'd post my favorite Andy Poem, from 2002 (ooh, preBlogspot)
A Dragon Poem
by Andy Cohen (a.k.a. the spouse of Liarbyrd)
If dragons wrote modernist poetry:
Burnt down your castle,
Ate all your crunchy dwarves,
Rolled around in your gold,
Stole your daughter.
Sorry. My bad.
I could not help myself.
Saturday, November 26, 2005
Hey, I'm Ba-ack
In case you've wondered where I've been, check out my nanoblog... link to right where Liarbyrd and I have been writing a book. I'm pretty much done... she's not.
So I survived Thanksgiving with little incident, though Mr. A. (Rainbow Guy) must now think the Mathises are the most materialistic family in the world. We spent most of the afternoon talking about how the rent's stuff was going to be divided after the future move.
Out of curiousity I asked Nikki if she was taking the piano or if it was going into storage. Automatically I got pounced on. "Don't even think of taking the piano!" Duh... like it would go to anyone but her. I just wondered whether she was taking it now.
Anyway, I picked Lizzie up from the airport with little fuss, and we headed over to The Bridge for Islands (Yum! Yaki Tacos!) and IMAX HP4. Coolness indeed. I'm very glad the idea struck me.
I'm sad the idea struck me to go to Wally World on Long Beach Blvd. I needed yellow yarn for the Valkerie hair. Walmart in that part of town is pretty scummy, and some of the people gave me the heebie jeebies. The woman in the tutu/green polka dotted skirt and trashy bathroom slippers was scary. The man who wandered past the cash registers was singing loudly to himself. The teenagers pawing through the DVD's looked like they were about to put them in their pockets, and the man with the black hat with the pom pom on top, looked like he was casing me. Serious skeeze.
On the blog front, I've removed my cool nano-counter, as the guy said they wanted more money for bandwidth... and I also removed the tagboard, as it was generating more spam comments than real ones.
I hate spammers. There should be a special circle of hell for those who hock viagra and credit cards on the internet.
So I survived Thanksgiving with little incident, though Mr. A. (Rainbow Guy) must now think the Mathises are the most materialistic family in the world. We spent most of the afternoon talking about how the rent's stuff was going to be divided after the future move.
Out of curiousity I asked Nikki if she was taking the piano or if it was going into storage. Automatically I got pounced on. "Don't even think of taking the piano!" Duh... like it would go to anyone but her. I just wondered whether she was taking it now.
Anyway, I picked Lizzie up from the airport with little fuss, and we headed over to The Bridge for Islands (Yum! Yaki Tacos!) and IMAX HP4. Coolness indeed. I'm very glad the idea struck me.
I'm sad the idea struck me to go to Wally World on Long Beach Blvd. I needed yellow yarn for the Valkerie hair. Walmart in that part of town is pretty scummy, and some of the people gave me the heebie jeebies. The woman in the tutu/green polka dotted skirt and trashy bathroom slippers was scary. The man who wandered past the cash registers was singing loudly to himself. The teenagers pawing through the DVD's looked like they were about to put them in their pockets, and the man with the black hat with the pom pom on top, looked like he was casing me. Serious skeeze.
On the blog front, I've removed my cool nano-counter, as the guy said they wanted more money for bandwidth... and I also removed the tagboard, as it was generating more spam comments than real ones.
I hate spammers. There should be a special circle of hell for those who hock viagra and credit cards on the internet.
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Mom's No Good Very Bad Day
Mom is telling anyone who will listen about how horrible her day was.
She lost her purse... or thought she left it on the bumper of the car, until she got home and she realized it was on the living room floor.
So all while she was having "her boob squished" (her words, not mine) she was worried about the purse.
I suppose it took her mind off the mamogram... especially when it was a second one, because they thought they saw something on the first.
Sound like a fairly good day to me... no breast cancer and no lost purse.
Side Note: It's Official Nano Start Day! Whoo hoo! Not quite at my target for the day, but I'm working on it. I've got about 500 more words to go for today.
She lost her purse... or thought she left it on the bumper of the car, until she got home and she realized it was on the living room floor.
So all while she was having "her boob squished" (her words, not mine) she was worried about the purse.
I suppose it took her mind off the mamogram... especially when it was a second one, because they thought they saw something on the first.
Sound like a fairly good day to me... no breast cancer and no lost purse.
Side Note: It's Official Nano Start Day! Whoo hoo! Not quite at my target for the day, but I'm working on it. I've got about 500 more words to go for today.
Saturday, October 01, 2005
Here We Go Again
So it's October 1, and Nano is supposed to be officially opened today, but there's nothing there yet. I'm so sad.
Sometime in the second week of July, Mel and I went outside of our chateaux and began to plan our new nanonovels. This year I'm doing something different. There will be no more Seven Part 4... which was potentially about Snult finding a hord of dragon eggs.
Instead we're writing space opera. Yes, we. We're writing the same book, though 50 years apart. My main character, Ofelia Clovelly, is a New Historian on a colony ship called The Hope on a 20 year journey to a new planet. The Hope is the first of two ships (the other called The Crosby) that plans to set up a thriving colony on a distant planet. Unfortunately, The Hope Colony disappears and the only one on Earth who seems to care is Ofelia's distant relative Viola.
That's where Mel comes in. She's writing Viola's story and search for the lost colony... and I'm writing how the colony got lost...
Oh, but it gets more complex, because Natalie heard about the fun, and is joining in. She's writing the faux history perspective of Earth.
At the end of November, we should have 150,000 words and then we'll see how to weave them together and voila, a best seller.
Or that's the plan, anyway.
Things don't always go according to plan. Just ask Ofelia.
For Nano updates - just click on my Nanolink to the right.
Sometime in the second week of July, Mel and I went outside of our chateaux and began to plan our new nanonovels. This year I'm doing something different. There will be no more Seven Part 4... which was potentially about Snult finding a hord of dragon eggs.
Instead we're writing space opera. Yes, we. We're writing the same book, though 50 years apart. My main character, Ofelia Clovelly, is a New Historian on a colony ship called The Hope on a 20 year journey to a new planet. The Hope is the first of two ships (the other called The Crosby) that plans to set up a thriving colony on a distant planet. Unfortunately, The Hope Colony disappears and the only one on Earth who seems to care is Ofelia's distant relative Viola.
That's where Mel comes in. She's writing Viola's story and search for the lost colony... and I'm writing how the colony got lost...
Oh, but it gets more complex, because Natalie heard about the fun, and is joining in. She's writing the faux history perspective of Earth.
At the end of November, we should have 150,000 words and then we'll see how to weave them together and voila, a best seller.
Or that's the plan, anyway.
Things don't always go according to plan. Just ask Ofelia.
For Nano updates - just click on my Nanolink to the right.
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Too Darn Hot!
Just thought I'd let everyone know that it is really hot today. Like 100 degrees hot. Seriously. Yahoo weather said 98, but the Weather Bug program says it's 107... but was 111 about 30 minutes ago. Either way, that's aweful.
Back To School Night is tonight. I've got to go find something to eat to get my energy back up. I slept through my alarm this morning, and only woke up when it turned off a half hour later. That's scary. Need to stop going to bed around midnight.
Back To School Night is tonight. I've got to go find something to eat to get my energy back up. I slept through my alarm this morning, and only woke up when it turned off a half hour later. That's scary. Need to stop going to bed around midnight.
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