A couple days ago I'd written a big long post, and then Kari (my cat) walked across my keyboard ... poof!

Today we had teacher in-service. It was okay as far as in-services go. We had a real Mass (versus the version we do each week at school.) That was interesting - especially the way the Bishop sing songed most things (other than the homily.)

After we were done, I stopped at Wal-mart and got groceries. When I got home, Kari had knocked down her food container, and her food was all over the floor. Her food container now has a new home.
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The last few nights I've been on an Ally McBeal kick. I'm almost through the first season. I asked some of my coworkers if they'd watched Ally - one said she liked the dancing baby. Later I realized that most (if not all) of the teachers at the table were under 27, so most likely had been in elementary school when Ally was on. (Thank you Netflix for letting me get my Ally fix.)

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Last weekend I was in San Jose, CA celebrating my grandma's 90th birthday. It was good mostly. The very best part of it was going up to Napa and seeing my brother for a few hours. He's recently gotten a job on the Napa Wine Train, and so is pretty much working 7 days a week. This new job is in his field (what he actually got his degree in), so we're all hoping that eventually he'll be able to get out of the restaurant business. (being a waiter is fine, but it is hard on the body + he's got a college degree - it would be good if he could use it!)
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I came up with this project for 6th, 7th and 8th where they are being put into pairs (or trios) and each given a topic related to plagiarism/citing sources. They have to research it, then create a storyboard and a script. Finally, they will make a video (3 to 5 minutes) sharing their information. The Title 1 teacher was in the lab when I was explaining the project to the 7th graders. She later asked me if I had a camera - I told her that I have a flip camera, plus my iPhone camera. The next day she told me she told her husband about my project, and he offered to give me (the school) an extra video camera!! So we'll have a real honest to goodness camera to use!! The Title 1 teacher also taught the 7th graders how to do a storyboard - they had no idea what I was talking about when I introduced it. That works for me - I was planning on explaining it in more detail when we got to it, but now I won't have to spend so much time on it.

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I just remembered something I was going to post about last time. Buddy (my mom's Maltese) apparentally bit a small child. I'm not sure of the whole story (and with my mom .... who knows what *really* happened) and I guess he also caused her to fall and scrape her leg when he lunged after a man who was running by (he seems to have something against males of a certain color - he goes nuts mostly only when he sees one ...). So the long and short of it is that she is looking to find a new home for him.

As soon as I heard she'd dumped J and gone back to M, I had a gut feeling that she was going to start looking for any excuse to get rid of Buddy. M and Buddy don't get along too well.

I would take him if I had the time to get him retrained, and wouldn't have to leave him alone from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (or later) 5 days a week. And of course there is the matter of Kari - I really don't know how he'd handle another animal taking my attention (or how Kari'd handle it.)

It just makes me sick. To me, when you take an animal into your home, you are making a lifetime commitment. That animal is yours to care for until it dies. I personally even have life insurance to make sure that if something were to happen to me, that whomever took over the care of my current pet, would be financially compensated.

My mom and I are alike in some ways, but in many other ways we are worlds apart.
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When my brother was here helping me move, he checked out my stereo to see what I would need to connect my iPhone to it (to play my iPod music, etc.) While I was visiting him in Napa, we stopped by a Radio Shack and got the needed cord. I now can play my music over my stereo!!

Possibly in November, or perhaps December, I'm going to upgrade to the iPhone 5. Then I'll keep my current iPhone(3gs) as a dedicated iPod/radio. (The regular radio here only gets maybe two or three stations - none of which I care for.)