aimless meanderings of a simple mind

for description of of title...see title...

Name:
Location: olympia, washington, United States

Saturday, November 29, 2008

finally.

it's finally cold here in california again. i've been waking up to what i can only really describe as washintonian mornings these last few days. it's been down right BRISK outside when i take the dogs out AND there's been a good amount of fog greeting me as i look around our little canyon. it's just like walking around outside on a brisk fall day in...say, Seattle, or my hometown of Olympia. makes me a little nostalgic for those places, i have to admit. but, i'll be there again soon enough.

thanksgiving was pretty rad this year. through some workings of schedules and whatnot weatherjen and i picked up the task of having the california family dinner at our house. we did christmas last year, and now this was our first official whole 'so-cal family' dinner. it was amazing and the food was beyond good. mother-in-law decided to come down on a last minute whim and she's been staying here the last few days and helping with the food and cleaning. it's been pretty nice. her extra help has turned this 'holiday break' into a full-on vacation! ...now, don't get me wrong, i've been doing work too! but, an extra set of hands certainly lightens the load quite a bit!

today is saturday, and i'm probably going to be driving family to different places. we had our little cousins (13 and 10) staying with us (because cousin Jenny is SO MUCH FUN!) and while weatherjen works, i'll take them and my mother in law back to "grandma's" (in-law's mom) house. i'll most likely be back in plenty of time to watch the USC game. don't think i even want to watch UW play. 0-11 is almost TOO much to bear and CAL very well could make it a NO WIN SEASON! ...good god, how sad. but, i'll watch to see what happens with the rest of the PAC-10. i have no real plans for tomorrow or the rest of weekend. just trying to get things done and hoping that the next holiday break will come quickly.

we leave for washington on friday, december 19th in the evening. i can't wait to be back in washington. it'll have been almost a year since i was last there. more than 11 months. that's WAY too long. i really have to start being better about getting back more regularly. it's just a matter of planning, and as some of you know, i'm terrible at planning. anyways, i WILL be around for ten days starting on the 19th though, so plans really need to start being made. i think Jen and i are going to flesh out a schedule so that we can divide our time pretty evenly between Oly and Seattle. we have so many people that we want to see that it's gonna be necessary to have a schedule to let everyone know where we'll be and when. i'll post again when we have an idea of what we're gonna do. BUT, we're talking about having a couple of different nights where we (jen and i) just go to a bar in a central location (maybe u-district and some other place, possibly on the east side) and send out the clarion call to all comers. i just want to see as many people as humanly possible, since it's been so long!

k, well this post has been nice and lengthy. i'll send this out now, with more to follow as more news becomes available. actually, there's lots more stuff to say, but i'm gonna go and take a nice mid-morning nap. i always get up WAY too early and get tired and start falling asleep at un-fun times. you gotta love the holidays!

so, yeah.

stay tuned.

Sunday, November 02, 2008

Ooh...

...and eight.

how much more can i take? the huskies have not won a game ALL year and some people think they very well might not get a win ALL SEASON. i think they'll probably pull a win off during the apple cup this year, but that's gonna be basically a battle for the bottom. it's just sad.

that said, i'm looking forward to positive week. last week was SUPER stressful at school. we had No Child Left Behind advisers come to our school to review us and give us help. (for the record, our school's test scores have gone up EVERY YEAR i've been there; it's just a formality that NLCB flagged school have to go through) that was totally nerve wrecking! in the end though, they only came into my classroom for like two minutes and that was it. a lot of buildup for not a lot of action. but, i'm totally okay with that. grades are due this week, but that's not too big of a deal.

i'm most excited for tuesday! i'm gonna be on a field trip with my kids to UCLA for a musical thing. it'll be cool getting the kids out and into the collegiate world. but, we'll be back before the end of the day so i can get to the polls and get my vote in before i head home and spend the majority of the afternoon and all evening watching CNN to see when our new president is chosen. i'm just praying that the current polls are right and hold firm!

PLEASE...don't screw this up America!