Sunday, September 28, 2014

Hair today…gone tomorrow

hair pic So I had eight inches of hair cut off today.  I’m donating the braid to Children with Hair Loss.  It feels kind of weird.  I’m so used to having to move hair out of the way when I do stuff.  It is almost a habit.  It is much lighter.  Though I probably won’t always straighten it, I like that it seems like it will be easy to manage. 

I wanted to grow my hair out mostly for the wedding – which I did.  Now that it is over, my long hair was driving me crazy.  I rarely did anything with it other than put some mousse in it and go.  Since it was finally long enough to donate, I decided to go ahead and get it cut.  My hair grows pretty fast so if I want to do it again, I’ll be able to in another three years or so. 

Unfortunately on the way to the salon I got pulled over and received a speeding ticket.  I guess it was a pretty expensive hair cut.  I will probably take defensive driving to have it dismissed, but that will be a pain in the ass.  But it’s my fault.  I’ll certainly be more careful next time. 

Saturday, September 27, 2014

7 Quick Takes – Late Again

School has been busy.  I focused a lot on working on my library book order this week.  I found that if I work on my order from two different vendors at the same time, it is easier to find books that I need.  Many books are offered by both of the major vendors, but sometimes there’s a nice surprise.  I’m also trying ensure that I don’t duplicate books.  I have about $6500 to spend this year.   

Lucy has another week and a half of being in her kitty cast.  I think she’s had enough of it.  Even when she does get it off and can hopefully walk normally, she may never leave my closet.  I think that has become her new home.  She’s not very keen on coming out of it much.  I do want to get her little box out of there though.    

It may be time for me to get a new computer.  My computer randomly just hangs.  Mouse doesn’t move.  Can’t click anything.  Can’t open task manager.  It stays that way for a few minutes and then it goes back to normal.  I’ve found, however, it usually happens when I’m using Chrome.  I’m going to try using Firefox for a few days and see if that makes a difference.  The computer is four years old.  Unfortunately I don’t have the money to buy a new computer right now.  It doesn’t mean I don’t want one though.  I’ve also had an issue with losing the wireless signal.  The only thing that fixes it is unplugging both the router and the modem.  I don’t know if it’s a computer issue or a modem/router issue.   
 
I found Matt’s computer.  I thought I put it in a special place, but it wasn’t all that special.  It was in the living room in the corner on an empty CD stand.  I remember moving it out of the way when cleaning at one point and so now Matt is back online – at least at home.  He does check email at work and on his phone, but now he can enter all his coke points from the caps he’s saved.  Maybe he’ll win us something really cool.   

I grudgingly went to Scrabble club on Thursday.  I guess it was good that I did.  I won 2 and a half games.  The half is because Matt played the first half of it.  I beat one of the players that I rarely ever beat.  One of the new people almost beat me.  I only won because I bingoed out.  Last night we went to a friend’s house to play Scrabble again.  I lost all three games.  At least the last game was competitive and I had three bingos and scored over 400 points.  I finally drew some decent tiles.   

I’m trying to get some reading done.  I’m still 11 books behind on my Good Reads challenge for the year.  I said I’d read 52 books and I’ve only read 27 so far.  I downloaded a few more on my Kindle.  I’m just not really inspired yet.  Maybe I’ll get my book order in by November.  It’s like Christmas when I get new books for the library. 

Josh got rear-ended in Houston last weekend.  I guess it’s not a surprise and traffic generally sucks there.  Luckily it wasn’t his fault and the other company has already gotten him a rental car while his car is in the shop.   

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Friday, September 19, 2014

7 Quick Takes – Same ol’

Today I’ll be gone from school as I’ll be attending a one day library conference.  For the past two years I’ve presented sessions, but I couldn’t think of anything I wanted to share this year.  It will be nice to go without worrying about taking all the stuff for presenting.
Lucy is still healing.  She gets her kitty cast changed once a week.  This week they put in extra padding so it’s more difficult for her to hobble on it.  
I’ve stayed late at school every day this week.  I thought that by becoming a librarian I wouldn’t have to do that very often.  It’s really stuff that I don’t have to do, but it’s nice to stay somewhat caught up.  I’ve been on a creative streak so I guess I should just go with it.  
Matt’s job is saved!  A lot of complaints kept coming in and miraculously the city found enough money to keep the department working its normal hours rather than cutting back to 20 hours a week.  At least Matt won’t be as worrisome now.  I do think, however, if another potential opportunity came up, he would consider it.  Just because it has gotten a reprieve twice now doesn’t mean it won’t be on the chopping block again next year. 
Scrabble club is slowly growing this year.  I didn’t have the overwhelming numbers like I did last year, but it’s been steady growth with a few new students almost daily.  My class has been going fairly well, but they didn’t do as well as I’d hoped on their test that they took today.  I think we’ll be doing a re-teach and retest next week.
I skipped Scrabble club tonight.  I feel kind of bad for not going, but I stayed at work until six and didn’t get home until 6:30.  I had to do a load of laundry so I’ll have something to wear tomorrow.  I’ve been feeling a little itchy so I took a benadryl.  I have to get up early to leave early enough to avoid heavy traffic. 
One of my readers asked the following questions: 
Which roller coaster is your favorite and why? How many times have you got off and got back in line to ride again?
I think my favorite coaster is still Millennium Force at Cedar Point.  It is really fast and I enjoy the overbanked turns.  Kumba is a close second, however.  I think the most I’ve ridden in a row is about 8 times at an ACE coaster event where I didn’t even have to get off the train.  One of the perks of going to official coaster events is the exclusive ride time you get before the park opens or after it closes. 
For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Sometime I amaze myself

Today I spent most of the day working on Scrabble class stuff.  I put together their first major test that they will be taking tomorrow.  The test is online in Moodle and I was able to incorporate created images of Scrabble boards for figuring out scores.  That wasn’t that impressive though it is pretty cool. 

I am, however, impressed with myself for creating a Google Form that my students will use to input their information on their score sheets.  That data is saved online and I can create charts to show their progress.  I also figured out how to export the data to another sheet where I show the entire class’ progress.  My biggest problem right now is figuring out how to get the exported charts to show the correct size after publishing them on my wiki page.  I can create an image, but I’m wanting to publish it where it updates itself every time they enter information. 

Now I have to spend the rest of the evening toying with it and see what I can figure out. 

Friday, September 12, 2014

7 Quick Takes – really quick

This week has gone by so fast that it didn’t really dawn on my that it was Friday until after I got home this evening and was catching up on other blogs.  Oh yeah, I guess I get to sleep in tomorrow.  

I made Lucy a very happy kitty tonight by bringing home some catnip.  I don’t know what kind of drug it to her, but she was going to town for a bit after I put it on her scratchy thing.

Work has been busy but good.  Scrabble class is going well.  They are taking their first major test next week.  I’m going to create it this week.  From now on, tests will be taken online… easier grading.

Matt and I went to Applebees for dinner.  My meal wasn’t very good but the perfect margarita was great as always.  I had the Honey Pepper Chicken with four cheese macaroni.  The chicken was fine, but I didn’t care for the taste of the macaroni. 

Today I’m hosting a teacher library orientation.  This is the first time I’ve been able to do this.  I’m offering snacks and coffee.  Hopefully that will get a few teachers to come.

Matt and I accidentally overslept earlier this week.  I’m not sure how that happened.  I’m pretty sure I set my alarm, but it didn’t seem to go off.  Matt usually gets up with no problem without an alarm.  I think the dogs are to blame because they were going crazy around 5 or 6 a.m. and Matt got up to let them downstairs.  He normally gets up at 7, but I noticed it was 7:24 at one point.  We both made it to work on time, but he had to skip breakfast.  I had to have coffee once I got to work.

I’ve lost Matt’s computer.  I think I put it up in a safe place before we went on our honeymoon, but now I can’t find where I put it.  I’m going to have to dig through the house tomorrow to see if I can find it.  It’s a very strange thing.  I have a great memory where I can remember birthdays of friends in junior high or useless movie facts, but I could probably hide Easter Eggs from myself.  
 
For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Friday, September 05, 2014

7 Quick Takes – I’m Tired

We’ve survived a second week of school.  Amazingly the library will be ready to open to students on Monday.  I think that is the earliest I’ve opened it so far.  
I’ve been having some moments of genius this week.  I think I figured out a way that students can input their own Scrabble stats using google docs which will save me a lot of time.  I’ve also revamped some of my library wiki web page.  It’s been nice to be able to work without a lot of distractions this week.
Lucy got her cast changed again yesterday.  Matt took her this time.  For some reason it took a lot longer than it usually does.  She seems to be doing well still though they had to give her another round of antibiotics.
I thought I might be getting a cold yesterday, but I think it may have just been allergies.  I felt kind of blah and was sneezing.  I took a claritin and started feeling a little better in the afternoon.     
Today I’m hosting a teacher library orientation.  This is the first time I’ve been able to do this.  I’m offering snacks and coffee.  Hopefully that will get a few teachers to come.
We’ve started band rehearsals again.  It’s great to be playing again, but it is kind of exhausting.  Thankfully I’m no longer on the board or the band secretary – although I’m still doing some of the work.  The person that was going to be secretary suddenly resigned from the board and so I’m still sending out emails as needed.  But that’s it.  I’m drawing the line. 
Having the gate at the top of the stairs has been great to keep the dogs downstairs when I’m going during the day.  Unfortunately Angie is now eating the fence.  I’ve discovered parts of the fence on the kitchen floor.  I guess we’ll need to go to home depot this weekend and get stuff to fix it before she makes herself at home at the neighbor’s house.   
For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!