"The most anticipated premiere..."

You know what I'm talking about!
LOST!
I can't wait for tomorrow!

If you aren't the Lost freaks that we are, you can get caught up on the show here.
All 3 seasons, in just 8 minutes 15 seconds.

On the other hand, if you are the Lost freaks we are, give this a try. It's tough! I only got 6 right. Gabe beat me with 7! No cheating...seriously.
-h

still hoping...

for a snow day. It seems like the entire Willamette Valley is covered in lovely white powder, except for the Portland Metro region. That sucks. This picture shows the extent of our snow fall today. Pretty pathetic. Gabe's dad reported almost a foot of snow in Eugene. All I'm asking for is one stinkin' snow day! Is that too much?

In my hopes for a snow day this year, I guess today didn't matter very much. We had a work day without kids today anyway. But it sure would have been nicer to be at home in my PJ's all day, rather than sitting in meetings. My staff was suppose to head up to Cooper Spur for our "work day" (sort of a staff retreat). But that was canceled as soon as the forecast looked questionable. It's a good thing because Mt. Hood got pounded all weekend. Sadly I can't say that I was too disappointed, the drive up there could have been a nightmare. I'm very relieved that I didn't end up arriving home around 8pm and then have to turn around, get up and teach tomorrow. Instead, today was somewhat relaxing and I was home at 4:15!

So...here's to a deep freeze tonight, lots of lovely snowfall, and a call from the phone tree at 6am. (A girl can dream can't she?)
-h

Who else is tired of crap TV?

Browsing through one of my favorite websites, Boing Boing, I read a post about a mock trial on the writers' strike put on by the writers of The Colbert Report and The Daily Show. The article linked by Boing Boing goes on to talk about the mock trial, which sounded pretty funny, but also made some good points. I, like many others, wish the strike was over. I count on something decent being on TV to get me through the dark times of winter. There are only so many reality shows I can handle, though the reruns of Scrubs, The Simpsons and That 70's Show has helped a bit. Heidi and I have also started watching the first season of Heroes, which is very good. Not quite as good as Lost, but something to tide us over until Lost starts (Thursday!). If the strike didn't happen, maybe we wouldn't need a $150 billion economic stimulus package. I mean, think of the money that isn't being spent in LA and New York right now. Okay, yeah, the economy would still stink, but there would at least be something on TV to keep our minds off of it. Speaking of the stimulus deal, we should see our check just about the time we will be headed to Greece. There is something I like about spending that money in another country.

-G

Brrr...it's cold!

I went outside for a few minutes in an attempt to take a picture. It seems like it's been FOREVER since I've picked up the camera. I guess that's what happens when you take a picture almost every day for a year and then you quit cold turkey. Well, I didn't last long out there. It is currently a cold 37 degrees and the wind is blowing something fierce. Thank God the sun is out, but I'm not really enjoying it on my extra day off because I can't stand to be out in the cold and wind. So...here's one of the few shots I managed to get before I had to make a run inside.
We haven't been up to much lately. Winter is my least favorite time of year. To be honest, it actually puts me in a weird funk. Gabe has to drag me out of the house or I'd spend the entire weekend on the couch.
We both spent some time at the dentist today. Yes...I finally got Gabe to the dentist!!!! I just had to give in, and make him an appointment while I was there for my cleaning after Christmas. I don't know anyone who avoids the dentist like that guy does. I can't believe he was going on 5 years....Well, today Gabe got a crown on one of his front teeth and then went to work. While I had yet another cavity to get filled. I really hate the whole "fat lip" feeling. I was done at the dentist 2 hours ago and I'm just starting to regain feeling on the right side of my mouth. Not to mention that I'm hungry and I don't really want to eat. What exactly can you eat when you can't feel your lips? Sounds like it would be a disaster waiting to happen.
-h

All Our Free Time

Some of you may be wondering what we've been doing with all our free time now that we don't have to blog everyday. Well, mainly we've been playing The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Okay, it's not been every free minute, but it has been about 20 some odd hours since we started playing a couple weeks ago. To be more precise, it's been me playing, with Heidi offering suggestions and encouragement. I have to say, it's an amazing game, definitely the best since the original The Legend of Zelda. The gameplay is much like the original, puzzles to solve, huge areas to explore and secrets to find.

In other news of the day, who's ready to eat some steak from the offspring of a cloned cow? (Eating the clone would be to expensive apparently) The news from today I was more interested in was the new MacBook Air that Apple announced today. Though combining them doesn't sound bad, BBQ a steak, and eat it on the patio while browsing on a new MacBook Air. I guess it would have to be summer for that to happen.

-G

Viva Las Vegas

We made the commitment. For spring break we'll be visiting Becky in Las Vegas. My one, and only, experience with Sin City was terrible! (Boy is that a long story...and there's something depressing about people sitting in front of blinking machines 24 hours a day.) But since my sister's been there for almost 2 years, I decided I'd better give it another chance. We found a really good deal on 2 nights at the Luxor. I'm very excited to stay there. I vaguely remember it being my favorite casino when we were there last time. But, it's possible that the yard-o-margarita might have had something to do with that. Anyway...we're also hoping to camp out on Lake Mead or Valley of Fire State Park for a few nights too. It should be much better the second time!

Since we aren't doing the whole "Photo-A-Day" thing this year...I'm having a great deal of trouble thinking of anything to write about. Being that this is my 5th year teaching middle school, I thought I'd share with you some of the things you might be missing out on. So, today I'll begin what I'm going to call...

Middle Schoolers: They Say the Most Random Things.

On his way out the front door this afternoon, one of my students says to the girl walking next to him, "My hair smells like lavender." Where did that come from? This is a classic example of the way the middle school mind works. Thought enters head, it immediately exits through the mouth. No screening process needed.
-h

Change of plans

What was I thinking? Why didn't someone slap me? I really thought that the reason people sew things is because it's cheaper than buying them. Boy was I wrong. We went to Fabric Depot this morning...big mistake because they were having a huge sale and every one was there! Not only that, the fabric I found, the one I really wanted, was (gulp) $21.99 a yard. Even with the 40% off sale that would have made the new curtains I wanted to sew $150...just in fabric! Not to mention if I messed it all up somehow and had to get more fabric. Seriously, what was I thinking? I couldn't take the madness of fabric hell so we went over to Joanne's. I needed a simpler and cheaper first sewing project. So, after much "debate" I decided to try sewing some napkins.

Of course, I didn't run home and start this project immediately. We went to see Juno and now I'm sitting here blogging. Killing time before we go meet Dave and Carley for dinner. If you can believe it, I didn't even mention the worst parts of my day. Yes...there is more. I'm trying to put it all behind me now. Let's just say, I'd be better off never leaving my house. I don't like people much. Especially stinky people in movie theatres.
-h

My new "hobby"

Thank goodness for instruction manuals. Or should I say the pictures in the instruction manuals. I sat down yesterday with the manual to the sewing machine and actually figured out how to get it all threaded. It was a proud moment. Sadly, something was amiss because my stitches looked terrible. When Gabe got home, he noticed a small mistake I'd made in the threading process. After that I cranked out some amazing straight stitches.

So, here's my project for the weekend...new curtains for the living room. Sewn by yours truly. The curtains that are currently hanging in the living room have been destroyed by the wild animal we let run our home (aka Jupiter). Plus, they were pretty cheap ones we got at IKEA. Time for something new.

Even though we aren't doing a photo a day this year, I'm not sure I'll be able to bring myself to post without also posting a photo. After 183 posts, it's pretty much habit at this point. Plus, our skills did improve a lot last year. Looking at some of our pictures from January o7, you can tell we came a long way! Since I'm still not as skilled as I'd like to be, it makes sense to keep boring you with my photographs.
-h

New Look for '08

There's probably some tweaking that will happen over the next couple days, but we felt a change was needed. Let us know what you think.

-G