Ethics Camp

I'm spending a fun-filled week at Santa Clara University at Ethics Camp. This is a teacher thing, and most of you won't be fascinated by details, so I won't give you any.

For those of you who are wondering "what is Santa Clara University?" it's billed as the oldest-operating college in California set on the grounds of the 5th of the famous California missions. However, being a University of the Pacific alumna and former campus tour guide, I am fully aware the UOP was chartered first. Also, perusing SCU's website, I noticed that it was actually a prep school in 1851, not a college. Therefore, I think UOP wins. And it has a better website.

You can't beat Santa Clara for beauty, though. I must admit, it is a gorgeously tended campus full of gardens and lush lawns. However, as I thought when I was a 17-year-old picking a college, it's a bit sterile. You might be stoned if you picked a flower or trampled a blade of grass.

Graduation!!!

Graduation was today!
For the first time, it was my students graduating!
This is a picture of me with my wonderful graduates, my two favorite students -

Alberto and Darius.



Yes, I cut my hair.... here's me last night after it was done.
I don't look good because I had been crying. Not about the hair, though.



....The crying is a subject for another post.

Yes, I have a personal trainer

Her name is Gina.

This is Gina training some guy who's much stronger than me. I do not look like him when I lift weights. I look much sillier.

For those of you who are unaware, I have lost almost 20 lbs in the last six months. This primarily involved eating less.

About three months ago, I decided I needed to exercise more to go with it. However, I hated running, wasn't biking enough, and eschewed all other forms of exercise. I still hate running, but am now financially obligated to exercise at least twice a week. And Gina's fun. Perhaps my legs will make it up those Tuscany hills in September.

I really need to get in shape because I'm doing something insane this summer.

I'm becoming a middle school teacher.

"Middle school is great," many teachers say. Jenny loved middle school. Tricia would love to teach it someday. However, think 12-14 year olds with raging hormones who have been expelled from their regular middle school. That will be my world.

I will need much energy.

Another Tour de Cure successfully completed...

107 km (approximately 66 miles) in a little under 5 hours. That includes 7 stops, which is excessive for us.

• Wardrobe adjustment
• The nicest restroom on the trip
• Peanut butter desperately needed after Newport Coast
• Ferry crossing
  
• Flat tire immediately after getting off the ferry
• Someone else's flat tire 4 miles later
• Exhaustion Stop for more peanut butter

Still, I managed to get the least geeky Tour picture yet at the end.


There's one on Michael's site that's much better. I had to order a different one than him. There's also a photo of me with a celebrity.

All in all, a good day. I raised more money than last year, thanks to my very generous friends. If any of you feel like helping out the American Diabetes Association a little further, I'm only $72 away from a really cute jersey. Of course, that shouldn't be my motivation.

How I managed to gain a lb while biking that far, I can't imagine. Must have been the peanut butter.

I Am Pure Evil

C'mon... is this really a suprise?

You are Pure Evil

How Evil Are You?

Who says there aren't freaks in Newport?

In the parking lot of my condo, an old lady with an adorable cocker spaniel... "You're driving me crazy. Be careful or it's off to animal research for you."

Around the corner, in the middle of the street, a guy running full speed down the street, dribbling a basketball.

We went all the way to Red Bluff for my cousin Stacy's wedding last weekend. Here's a picture of her with her eyes closed. Unfortunately, the only picture I took.




My sisters and I wore brown. Glamor says that sunglasses as headband is a "do," which makes me cooler than them. Tricia, you were right, though: drama eyes better than bold lips. Jenny and I look a little hooker.



The wedding was pretty standard Red Bluff. Only I really missed the country band.

We also went to Solvang, which was lots of fun. Michael's site has more info on that.

White People Have Feelings, Too

Why is it that my white friends go out of their way to be politically correct, but non-whites I know, of all race and creed, find it perfectly acceptable to make derogatory comments about white people?

I know as a race we haven't had the best modern history in our treatment of minorities, but does that mean we as individuals should be constantly abused?

My students complain about racism, and then make rude comments about Asian drivers.

At least once a day I hear the phrase, "it's because you're white."

My non-white friends seem to mention race in every conversation. Is that what defines us? And if so, why do they want to be friends with me?

A comment made months ago about a snack I served that still annoys me: "This is so white."
Are white people the only people who eat cheese? I carefully went to the cheese store and selected a beautiful, perfectly balanced selection of cheeses, nuts, and fruit (from all over the world, by the way), sliced and arranged with care and served with a specific lovely wine, and the only comment I get is "this is so white?" I didn't even know the race of the strangers I was going to be having in my home ahead of time! Only white people like cheese? This is news to me!

However, most of my friends are not white, and none of them understand why I'm upset about these kinds of things. I guess I'm lucky I married a white guy, who gets this.

I've got a roof over my head..."

New bed set up and the bedroom is slowly coming together... still waiting on some linen.



What do you guys think: canopy or no canopy?

Very Sad Bed Day

Last week, I bought a new bed from Crate and Barrel. I love this bed. Unfortunately, it would not fit up our stairs. The 82" posts are permanently attached to the foot board and headboard. The delivery guys tried 4 different ways of getting it up, but it just wouldn't go. I applaud their efforts. I still recommend Crate and Barrel furniture. However, I'm very sad that we will be spending another night with the mattress on the floor. (Of course, today we have a foundation, because that WAS delivered from Sit 'n Sleep.)


Tonight I went Internet surfing and then out to investigate. Cost Plus's bed (below) is almost as cute, and comes in pieces. Luckily, I'm good at putting furniture together! My dad is going to help me pick it up tomorrow. Hopefully, by tomorrow night, we'll have a bed. Wish me luck!

Tour de Cure!!!

Michael and I are riding in the Tour de Cure again! Woo-hoo!

We're quite excited as always to be helping to raise money for the American Diabetes Association. This disease adversely affects the lives of millions of people every year, including members of our own family. We hope that our efforts make an important contribution to finding a cure.

Please support me by going to my Tour de Cure page and making a donation. Every contribution, no matter how small, is greatly appreciated.

I'm also looking forward to raising more money than Michael for the third year in a row!

Sharing Isn't Always Caring

I have long wondered what prompts the teenagers in my life to share everything. You know, food, drinks, utensils, clothing, makeup, chap stick, other icky stuff that I wish I didn't know about...

Then I look around at moms of young children who do nothing but "share" with their kids.

At some point very early on, I think we need to teach our children that sharing personal items is not OK. Sometime after nursing but before preschool. If kids are taught that it's OK to share drinks and food and chap stick with mommy, how will they know it's bad to share the juice box with Johnny at school?

I don't think kids differentiate between family and outsiders until a very mature age. When I object to my teenage students sharing, they say things like "it's OK... we share everything at my house." Then they are surprised when they catch everything from colds to cold sores from their friends.

Teach them early. Some things are just personal.

Happy Valentine's Day

I was busy this morning doing The World's Longest Sudoku Puzzle, so I was a little late getting to school this morning. I was met at the door by an early-bird student, who demanded to know what I "got" for Valentine's Day.

I told her that I wouldn't get anything until this evening. Now I'm not sure what I will tell her.



Michael sent me a case of Bouteille Call, a syrah port from Bonny Doon. When I went to pick up the box (since UPS never delivers when I'm home) I was shocked by its size. I must have asked the poor UPS guy three times if he was sure it was my box, since we usually get wines in twos. When opened, the wine was beautifully individually wrapped in red tissue paper. It's sort of like flowers. They both come in dozens.

The wine isn't dreadful swill, even if it isn't the perfect port. Expect dessert wine if we come to your house. I bought Michael port glasses to go with it, along with a pair of lovely martini glasses he's been admiring.

The dilemma? What to tell my students I got for V-Day... neither the wine nor its name is terribly appropriate classroom conversation. :)

Blog Intervention

Tate staged a blog intervention for me on Saturday. Funny, I thought we had driven all the way to Napa to see our friends. However, I suppose he has inspired me to update.

Micheal and I did go to SF this weekend. I forgot the camera, so no pics this time. On Napa, we saw the Lindens and did a little bit of wine tasting. On Sunday, we went bed shopping. We looked at this captain's bed, which we had considered ordering online. I'm glad we didn't, because it was surprisingly flimsy. We saw other beds, but none had the necessary requirements. It is surprisingly complicated to buy a bed for a TempurPedic mattress that doesn't invalidate the warranty.

On Sunday night, we had dinner with the Rosens at Bob's Steak & Chop House. The steak was great, but I found it a little disturbing that all of our plates looked identical, even though we had ordered different steaks. They all had steak, a carrot, and our potato choice. Not very imaginative. Our meals pretty much looked like the ones on their website.

On Monday, we met the Lindens again for breakfast at Home Plate. The scones are very yummy. We also wandered around the Ferry Terminal, which is now a whole bunch of upscale stores. The cheese store is amazing.

I miss cheese, but I've lost 14 lbs so far. That's almost worth the cheese deprivation.

Codeine is evil

The worst cold I have ever had. The Dr. says it is probably bronchitis. Fever for days. She prescribed Robitussin with codeine to stop the cough long enough to let me sleep. I took the minimum dose last night, and I still haven't recovered from it. Loopy. I was actually seeing things this morning. Now I'm just dizzy and weak.

But the cough is much better...

Pigs, pigs, and more pigs

Jessica says I stay at home all day! As a testimonial to what I did over my Christmas vacation, I submit the following pictures:

On the right is the timeline for the novel A Lesson Before Dying, which I'm now reading with my class. You can see that my students wrote what has happened during the first few chapters on the jailbars.


On the left is my word wall. There are precisely 100 pigs on the wall. Over them, my students are putting the red "no" signs, which have the daily vocabulary words on them. This is significant because the main character, "Jefferson" (the guy in jail) has a defense attorney who calls him a hog in his closing argument to get him out of the electric chair. It doesn't work, so the book is about the community proving to Jefferson that he is a man and not an animal before he dies. Hence the pigs slowly disappear each day behind vocabulary. It isn't subtle, but I think the students are getting the point.

Admittedly, my Rainbow girls cut out all the pigs and the no circles, and drew the guy behind the bars, but I supervised and made lots of copies and came up with the ideas! That counts, right? Somewhere I have pics of the girls doing the work, but my camera's not here right now. Special thanks to Colet and Nicole for the lovely colored pencil artistry and pig layout. Luckily, they probably don't read my blog!

The Rainbow girls all claimed to love my classroom, and wished it was theirs. They're probably just being nice, but at least my room isn't boring!

I think I must have one.

I know.

I'm a terrible blogger.

I will soon add blogging to my daily routine.

I also think that feeding the fish would be easier if I had one of these... I could feed them during my daily swish and swipe. It would be adorable in the downstairs nautical bathroom.