Stealing your heart…

It’s been awhile.  A few weeks anyways.  The world looks a little different since I last checked in here. I lost a very dear man in my life. Someone who taught me to play basketball, taught me to drive and ate breakfast with my every Tuesday morning in the summer.  My uncle was a great man and this world is a little less bright without his singing and laughter.  He loved dogs and dogs loved him.  No matter what dog it was or where we were, they were attracted to him.  I could hear him say, “Oh look at this….” as he leaned down to scratch the head of a new furry little friend. I took great comfort in knowing that when he left us, his beloved little Scoutie was waiting for him.  So today’s cartoon is for the dogs and for him.

It’s Feeding Time…

I would be telling just a little bit of  story if I said this actually happened.  However….we have had squirrels suspiciously looking through the front window, even at odd hours. Nothing like opening the curtain at 4:30 in the morning to a wee little animal with a look of disgust on his face because the trough has not been filled yet.  My Dad made me a little trough out of the trunk of a tree.  I fill it daily with sunflower seed, sit in the window and watch the wonderful HD of mother nature.  Most days it is better than the Comedy Channel and more dramatic than soaps on TV.  There is certainly a hierarchy to the feeding frenzy.  Obviously the biggest squirrel is the one in charge.  He sits atop the trough right in the middle, nestled down in the seed, daring anyone to step up.  And they do try.  That’s when it turns into a premier wrestling event.  He establishes his dominance and goes back to eating.  All the while throwing a seed or two here and there to several that have gathered at the base.  The birds flutter about from tree to tree diving once and while to grab a seed.  The cat across the street just discovered this circus and has taken to hiding in the pine tree and fighting the squirrels. Not the birds, the squirrels.  Some of the squirrels are as big as he is, that was a fun afternoon.  After a few days I knew the cat danger was too much for my little birds so I gave Penny Ann a mission: keep the cat away.  She does a great job.  She sits in the window and tells the world when he comes onto the property.  Unfortunately we now have to seek therapy for Alexander and it took two days to get him out of the fetal position caused by her incessant barking.  He is such a gentle soul.  He does not like any disruptions or waves in his peaceful existence.

So Much Snow…

So we had a monster of a storm last week.  No one really expected to be snowed in for a few days, least of all my two dogs.  Penny, the small black poodle/terrier mix, is very scrappy.  Snow is more of a challenge for her.  She loves it.  She runs through it with all her heart.  Bobbing, weaving, and finally flying with sparkly flakes cascading behind her. She loves the bling.  Alexander on the other hand, a strapping 75 lb shepherd, is petrified of getting his wittle feet cold.  He usually makes it down the stairs of the deck to collapse in the snow with his feet in the air in a helpless stance of “come get me”.  Meanwhile, Penny is running circles around him throwing snow on him and I swear, laughing.  After the snow and ice had passed, I let them out and Penny proceeded to celebrate the winter day.  Alexander went around the corner in an attempt to fool me that he was going down into the yard.  I went about my business in the kitchen and turned around to see him looking in the back door, going to the bathroom right on the deck.  A couple of hours later he went out again, walked over to it, smelled it, and had the nerve to look like “Ohhhhhh…..who would do such a thing?!?”

Testing is coming…just like spring.

Testing is on its way. We are all starting to feel the crunch of the looming assessment in our future. Do you think it is a coincidence that the abbreviation of assessment could be ass.? I think not. We are also on the brink of Spring Break. The two do not really go together. Extreme Crunch time coupled with a lazy week off. Hopefully all the kids will return with their test-taking skills in tact. I haven’t posted a cartoon recently do to this annoying Crunch time but hope to have one up soon. Happy Spring everyone and to those of you in Cincinnati…Happy Opening Day!

Stupid Meetings

Meetings are not fun. Especially when the meeting is taking place after a full work day AND it is on the first full glorious day of spring time weather. The high today should reach a balmy 76 degrees with a cloudless sky. I will be stuck inside a middle school library discussing data of some sort and how it relates to the violent tempest that is the middle school adolescent. Luckily, with “springing forward” this past weekend, we have an additional hour of daylight. So I will be able to enjoy just a little bit of the afternoon. More importantly, my dogs will be able to enjoy it. Penny had her first full day outside Sunday. She came in smelling like sunshine and even though she is covered in black fur, I swear she had a touch of sun on her cheeks. She slept like a rock all Sunday evening. I had to carry her to bed Sunday night. Have a great day everyone! I hope where ever you are it is a sunny cloudless day with a warm breeze (even if its raining).

Spring…Where Is It?

Anyone else ready for Spring? I realize that it is still technically February but with our temperatures climbing into the 60s today, I am certainly ready for Spring….Summer in fact. I love the fact that it is getting lighter in the morning also. I have to say I freaked out a little this week when I drove to school on Monday and it was light. I thought I was late. That didn’t hinder my Starbucks stop however. You can never be too late for a Starbucks run. I’m working on a proposal for my local Starbucks. They should offer a service where your local barrista has your coffee ready and is standing in front of the store at a certain time. You simply have to drive by at a lower speed and grab it from their hand. I think it might work.

There’s No Business Like Show Business…..

On a Monday morning, a dreary, dark Monday morning, you really must put on a star-studded show to capture the attention of any one in adolescence. If you think about it, it really is quite amazing that a teenager is able to get up in the middle of the night, let’s face it, 7:00 am is the middle of the night for most teenagers, and come to school. And on top of this we try to crack open their heads and pour in as much as we can before 9:00 am, hoping they won’t notice. Well they need to notice otherwise they won’t know it’s there. So you have to motivate, perform, sing, dance, and tell jokes all in the hope that they wake up and notice what you are doing.

Somedays…

Are there days like this or what? Even though it is only 7:58 am, this day has already started out like this. I assign projects that every student must turn in at the end of every quarter. But it’s high interest projects AND if they don’t like any of mine they can create their own on ANYTHING. Why am I surprised when I do a mid-quarter check and they have nothing. Oh and did I mention that they have EVERY Friday to work on this?!?!? AHHHHHHHHHHH!!! It’s not like I don’t check this each Friday but pieces of their project miraculously disappear from one Friday to another. Apparently I stole them. At least that’s the feeling I get when I ask them about it. Actually the feeling I get is one I described on an early post. See the one entitled, “Do You Ever Feel Like This?!?” Thank goodness it’s Friday.

Volunteering

Check back this weekend for my first “Sunday Comic”. If anyone has any funny ideas let me know.

The Weekend…

It’s the weekend. You thought the work week was bad. It just helps you get cranked for the weekend. Not having kids myself, I only know about this because I got a glimpse into this crazy world by accident last fall. Due to an illness in the family we were left to care for two kids for the weekend. Two kids, you think, no big deal. What I didn’t realize was there were two kids, two soccer teams, once dance practice, a Star Wars themed birthday party, and the construction of one oversized Stars Wars lego ship. I was glad to see Monday come, only so I could rest. I have a good friend who often tells me about her schedule and I don’t know how she does it without a large scheduling board, GPS tracking, and that nifty gift of teleporting (think Heroes). When I was a kid we had one soccer practice two times a week and I rode my own banana-seat bike to it or I wasn’t going. Today’s kids certainly are busy and so are their parents. It’s hard being a parent these days….at least its hard if you don’t have a Blackberry. Which brings me to one other point….have you tried to find a pay phone recently? I actually left my house without my cell phone to go to the Kroger. I realized this about two miles from my house when I attempted to call someone because heaven forbid I actually be alone for any amount of time. In today’s society its hard to be alone. So I went into panic mode. There I was, out in the world, all alone with no way to communicate with anyone. Stranded. I reached Kroger and knew I had forgotten something from the list. Unsure what to do, I decided to locate a pay phone. Nearly impossible. I finally found one and used most of my spice-scented hand sanitizer to clean it before I could touch it. It was 50 cents for a phone call! I felt vulnerable and exposed the entire trip. I needed my cell phone. What did we do before them?