Officially Technological

This is an article written about the children's garden my cousin, Josh, manages. I am insanely proud of his accomplishments, and I especially like the bit about being "slightly grubby and obscenely cheerful."

Bravo, Josh!

Maggie has been blue lately. In the classic reap what you sew scenario, Maggie made a poor decision when she chose to chew up a blue pen on our new lightly colored carpet. Maggie's poor choice has had a ripple effect since our home owner's insurance doesn't cover dog damage with pen (though ironically they cover dog damage with red wine - can you believe it's so specific??), and since we literally couldn't get it out with anything less than slightly diluted bleach. So, we now have a very stern, white spot, in our very soft, creamy carpet.

Brian immediately put Maggie for sale on Facebook and even had some inquiries. I, of course, protected the poor dear. Could she have possibly guessed that this tubular toy-looking thing would squirt permanent blue all over the carpet when gnawed? I reasoned. Brian took Maggie off the market. But no words of forgiveness and/or apology had been uttered between the two in the passing weeks.

It was surprising then, when Brian and I got home last night to see that Maggie had gotten in the trash and had pulled out a couple of empty envelopes. We assumed she must have wanted to conduct a little business. So, Brian told her that if she wanted to write a letter, all she needs to do is ask for an envelope. The ones from the trash aren't very nice any more anyway. She acted very sad, and meek, and it turned out that she wanted to write a letter to the president of the United States. When she was questioned about what business she had with said diplomat, she said that she wanted to write a letter of pardon. She wanted to be pardoned for the heinous crime of staining the carpet with blue ink and she wanted to be restored to her former title of "Good Girl".

You can imagine that Brian was quite heartbroken with her apology, so he hugged her and told her she didn't need to be pardoned by the president because he had forgiven her and that she could go on and be free. So Maggie and Brian are reconciled. All is right again (except, of course, the carpet).

So, with eating local foods being a new fad, Brian and I decided to get on the band wagon. We decided to only eat food from Georgetown Square. So, we will be eating a lot at Ziffles Rib Bar, quite a bit at Peking, once and a while at Munchies, and in a pinch, Subway. I'm not exactly sure what "eating local" means, but I think Brian and I have cut to the heart of it.

In other news:

• Mags is enrolled in school (we're so proud - I told her I'd get her a new "My Little Pony" lunchbox for the occassion because she's really nervous about it).
• I'm almost done student teaching for the semester, and I am done with one of the craziest classes I've taken in my life.
• We watched "Seven Pounds" last night. It made me quite sentimental.
• I marked a quilt to quilt, and the new pen I had spent 5 bucks on is a "vanishing" pen, instead of a water soluable pen and so all my marking wore off. I was... pretty tight.
• We're finally going to replace the carpet in Sam's room and the blue room upstairs (for those of you who have never been to our house, the "blue room" is very apropriately named. It is the brightest Superman blue you can imagine). We think we may use bamboo to give it a little something fun.
• I slipped down the stairs this morning (Brian said I "galloped" but I don't think I know how to gallop) and now my knee and ankle hurts. Bummer.
• I finished reading one of those Amish books. It was good. I'm always so caught up in the verbage. Like "jah" instead of "yeah" or "dat" instead of "dad". I don't know many Amish people (which seems weird because there's about a zillion who live very close to us), but I wonder if they really use those words.
• "Spring" is starting to tick me off. This isn't spring, it's winter with more birds. >:( Kinda annoyed that I can't wear flip-flops today (in case you couldn't tell)

Happy Monday!

Not really, I just thought that sounded better than "Not Moving On". I'm still really bummed about Sam, but at least I can look at his kennel without bursting into tears, and Brian gave me a book that he made of pictures we had of Sam. That was really sweet. So, I am doing a little better, but still sad about that.

OK so in other news, my student teaching is getting totally out of control. I'm so frustrated. I think that's all I work on, think about, dream about etc. etc. I think it's driving me nuts. I think part of the problem is that I only have one class, so there's nothing by which to compare them. Am I effective? Don't know. Compared to what? Am I fun? Don't know. Compared to what? Have I made positive relationships? Don't know. Compared to what? Have I taught any math at all?... You get the drift. It seemed like when I had several classes throughout the day I didn't have this particular problem, because a bad day with one class was a good day with another. Ugh. Then, I am being observed literally the rest of this week, which is a lot of pressure and hours and hours of lesson planning (every time you're observed, you have to put your lesson plans in the official lesson plan template). Today and tomorrow, I'm being observed by my cooperating teacher, and Friday I'm being observed by my university supervisor. So, I'm a little stressed out. I also sent mid-terms yesterday, so now I have residual paperwork that accompanies those. Yikes.

Anyway, I would love to teach non-freshmen some time and see how it is with other classes. Better? Worse? The same? It would be fun to be a fly on other people's walls. Just so I'd have something to measure by. Although teaching is not really the type of field where comparing serves you well, it would just be nice to know that others are in the same boat as me.

Well, enough ranting. I promise to try to be much more cheerful the next time I post. Until then... :)

Well, the dreaded day is coming. As probably all of you know, Sam has a couple of growths on his tummy that look like (for the lack of better comparison) huge blood blisters. Well, this weekend, his growths started bleeding. A lot. Not a great combination with the new carpet. So, we keep him bandaged up (which he's pretty good about), but it's still kind of a bummer because we have to take off his bandages to let him go potty, etc. etc. So, kinda a nightmare. So, yesterday we took him to the vet and found out how much it would cost to get the spots removed. Not only is a chunk of change, but the vet isn't sure if he is well enough survive a surgery. She said his gums are really pale and that concerned her a lot, and he's lost a pound since his last vet visit (for a Jack Russel that's a bit). So, she's worried that he isn't really up for a surgery. What she doesn't know is that this is Sam. He's a free spirit. He doesn't let little things like age get in the way of his spirit. :) But anyway, she said if his spots are melanoma, they would metastasize to his lungs first. She listened to his lungs and she said they were great but they were decent. So, that was hopeful. She said the same for his heart. So, it sounds like Sammy has aged quite a bit in the last year and a half (since he's been to the vet last). And he will likely not be around forever (believe it or not, when you have a dog like Sam, you do kinda get it stuck in your head that he's immortal). So, you can pray for Sam (if you like) that we can make him comfortable, and that we will have a better idea of what to do with his surgery. But most importantly that we can make him comfortable, because he's given us... well, a lot of laughs for one. So, we really want him to be able to enjoy the rest of his life.

In brighter news: He got a peticure while at the vet. His nails look splendid. I think he's really happy with them. LOL