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.

I have Tenure!!!!

Totally don't believe in tenure for teachers. I think it's bad for kids, professional development, and society in general.

Still, it's a pretty cool thing to have!

:)

Bicycling a Marathon

Wow! Didn't even realize it's been a month since I blogged. Too busy doing stuff that's not that interesting.... here goes.

You can hear about Michael's marathon woes at his site. Mine are different.

After two weeks of constant nagging from Tricia, I signed up to ride the Long Beach marathon. This entails arriving by the 6 am start and bicycling the 26.2 mile course ahead of the runners. Admittedly, bicycling is much easier than running, although it is challenging to navigate through thousands of cyclists who have no idea what they're doing.

I didn't find Tricia and her friends at the start. After a mostly cut-off phone call, I decided they must be in front of me. I spent the first 18 miles spinning at about 18 mph, pretty good for me. Then I decided I was never going to catch up and slowed down a bit. Once I made that decision, I came around a corner and there was Tricia waiting for me. We rode the last few miles and chatted. She gave me a half-eaten granola bar when I wanted to stop and eat, and I managed to finish in just under 2 hours. Not terrible, when you consider I had to brake for:

1) The 5 mile marker in the middle of the bike path.

2) A guy on a mountain bike weaving in front of me as I was going under a low-hanging tree branch.

3) The beach cruiser chick who said "on my left? There's only sand on my left."

4) 3 guys on weird stand-up trike things. Definately not 'bicycles.'

5) A couple on a Trek tandem who had to stop and walk around a wide corner that my captain could have made easily.

Tricia looked cute at the finish. Here's her picture. I have a medal just like hers, but it wouldn't fit over my helmet, and it seemed silly to take a picture without it!



Afterward, I entertained myself by talking to the AIDS Life Cycle folks (Tricia will hit you up for donations soon.), figuring out where Michael had left the car, watching the people stagger into the race festival, and hanging out at mile 26 for an hour waiting for Michael.

I was very nervous waiting for Michael. I knew he wasn't feeling great, and when he didn't come in as he usually does like clockwork at 4 hours, I started to wonder about all the awful things that might have happened to him somewhere on the course. Luckily, he survived, and was only a little sick on the 90-minute wait to get out of Long Beach. I can't wait for the next, nice, local OC Marathon, where I get to drop him off and enjoy the next 4 hours doing other stuff!

Labor Day Acrostic

Micheal, Jessica, Ben and I biked to San Diego last weekend. Michael and I also biked back. Here's a picture of Jessica. She's smiling despite the giant hill she can see approaching.

Last Tuesday, my class wrote acrostic poems about what they did on Labor Day weekend.

Here was mine (pretty much; I'm not sure I remember it accurately):

Bicycling to San Diego and back
Is a truly Laborious weekend.
Cherry-red nose under the blistering sun.
Yearning for fish tacos.
Coasting gratefully down Torrey Pines.
Lunging painfully up the inclines.
"It's not about the bike"
Ninety-one miles times two.
Greatness is in overcoming the agony.

My Day Was Worse Than Yours

First of all, a mileage update:

Tandem Mileage on Wednesday night: Approximately 21 miles. Our light interferes with our computer.

Yesterday, one of the teachers at our site went to have a conference with our principal. In the course of the conference, said teacher quit. As in, she went home and isn't planning to come back. Shock. Didn't sleep last night.

The other teacher and I decided not to tell the kids until Monday, by which time we hope to know what's going to happen to their class, etc. Plan derailed. The teacher who quit called one of her students and told the student she was fired. Not true. The teacher thought she was going to be fired, so she quit on the spot.

Our wonderful Assistant Principal talked to the class, but they are in complete denial. They don't believe she would, in their words, "abandon" them like that. They are convinced everyone else is lying to them. When I told my own class, their first question was "Is it because of us, Nicole?" Ouch. I didn't cry, but I came close.

These kids already have abandonment issues, and this is the third teacher to leave the site this year. Of course, the other two gave notice and made leaving as positive experience as they could.

I feel like I'm in mourning. I don't know if I believe in the five stages of grief, but if they exist, I'm still in the anger phase. Her students deserved better.

Mileage Update

I rode alongside Michael as he ran today. I don't know if the mileage really counts, since I was going pretty slowly, but I did put it in my lowest gear and spun as much as possible.

Felt Mileage: 10 mi

Total bike miles this week: 30.1 miles

Yet Another Way to be Injured on a Bike

Last night, Michael and I went for a spin with Jessica, who just bought a new bike. At first, we were going really slow into the wind... about 6 mph... so as not to lose Jessica. On the way back, with a tailwind, we started moving at a more respectable speed... 16 to 20 mph.

Suddenly, I feel a rock hit my cheeckbone! Jessica screamed behind me, and I thought she was hit, too! It turned out she saw me hit by some kind of rubber ball, probably from a group who were hitting balls with bats nearby on the beach. My eye is still swollen, but not bruised, which is good. Explaining a black eye to the juvenille delinquents is not easy. (Don't ask me how I know.)

On the way back, we were taunted by a couple on beach cruisers, who were very fast. The chick was probably going 20 on her cruiser. So Mike and I had to kick it up, leaving Jessica in our dust. She didn't see a corner on the beach path, and drove into the sand. Her knee was very bloody, and she's now worried abou scars and future marriage prospects. Crazy, huh? Everyone knows guys dig girls with nice... umm... figures. Bicycling = Fit = Jessica. :)

Anyway, Michael told me for the first time to "just relax, don't pedal." It's hard not to pedal, so that didn't last long. But my eyes were teary all the way home.

Sunday tandem mileage: 20.1 mi

My hair is real!

On Saturday, a lady in Jamba Juice asked me if my hair was "all mine, or if they weaved stuff into it." I was wearing it in braids... can you braid a weave? Who knows. Then she kept pointing it out to people while we were waiting for our smoothies.

Yesterday: Performance Bike in Aliso Viejo via Irvine. Home via Laguna.

Tandem mileage: 45 miles.

Ten Years?!?

Can you believe we've been married ten years?
Happy Anniversary Dr. Lasko.

French and Swiss Food Delights!

By fan demand, I must publish something about my recent food adventures.

Over the weekend, I attempted tart flambe for the first time. This was the best food in France! It came out pretty well. This is basically pizza with a very thin crust and pricy French cheese. I burnt it around the edges a little... used to making regular pizzas. Thanks to Bristol Farms for actually carrying both fromage blanc and creme.... oh, yeah, creme fraiche. That, of course, is fake bacon.



On Tuesday, our fondue pot arrived in the mail. Immediately, I rushed out to buy the proper cheeses, and invited Tricia and Jessica over for the evening. This recipe's pretty close to what I made, and was almost as good as the fondue in Switzerland. I didn't use mustard, though. Sorry, no pics... I forgot to take them during all the fondue excitement. I finished the "meal" with peaches flambe over ice cream. Lighting things on fire is never a bad thing. :)

We played poker. Tricia won. It took a long time.

Spontaneous food and drink is fun. I should get more friends.

Mileage Log

Tandem mileage today: 53.43 miles

Went with the Bike Club of Irvine this morning. We biked there and did the medium ride. We're a little fast for the medium group, but the long rides are usually all hills. Decided today, though, that flat is sort of boring. Lots of pedaling with no reward. Maybe next week we'll try the long.

Overcommitted?

Assuming I don't blow the interview, I'm going to be my area's Character Based Literacy Fellow this coming year. This involves a lot of hand-holding and keeping track of books. I have Chandi to blame for leaving me.

And then my AP calls yesterday to ask if I can be the math person for my site. More hand-holding and being all positive and happy about teaching math instead of telling kids to learn it on their own.
Between the two, I'll make an extra $2350 next year. Woo hoo!

I'm waiting for a job I'm actually qualified for... perhaps something in history?

As Promised... a Picture of my Dragon

One of my favorite people in the whole world, my fellow teacher Chandi, is leaving our school and moving up to Santa Cruz. As happy as I am for her, I'm as devastated as our students, and will miss her greatly.

One of the things Chandi has done for me is taken many pictures of the gorgeous stuff I do in my room. My kids say it looks like an elementary school room, but secretly they like my "artwork." Since Chandi's leaving, I have to start taking pictures myself. My word wall, which is simply a giant wall of vocabulary words, is my favorite ongoing project. We're about to start the book Dragonwings, so this month's word wall will be a giant Chinese dragon. Each word is a scale, so by the end of the book, he will be very large. Here's his beginning, with the theme of the novel "Integrity Requires Wholeness" as the first three words.

"Dragon" in butcher paper and oil pastel

I did ride to work today. Headwinds both ways, due to the typical OC windshift. It made the ride back about 1/3 slower than the ride there. And if you ride the Santa Ana River Bike Trail, you should know that it's blocked by construction at Warner... you have to take a street detour.

Today's mileage: 29.437

July's: 69.437 in Orange County
About 250? in Germany and France (At some point, I'll add up the routesheets.

My Felt's odometer: 138.41.. how sad is that?

Back to bicycling...

It only took us about 3 hours to put the bike together today. Not a great time, but it's really clean.

We biked to Dana Point... that's about 40 miles round trip. In Europe, people do not drive Escalades. That was a nice thing. An Escalade on PCH in Laguna Beach is not a pretty sight from 18 inches away.

Mileage this week: 40 miles

I'm all packed for commuting tomorrow.

Also tomorrow: a picture of my Word Wall dragon.