Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Wednesday

Yesterday as I mentioned, I did some yard work, and I did walk with the SIL, however, she's accomplished at this and I'm sure she felt like she was dragging me along toward the end of the trail. I decided that i wasn't going to walk on the days that I mow, however, I HAD to mow last night because we have 3 more days of rain coming and the grass was already high in the backyard. SO, not only did I walk like a banshee, but I mowed for an hour and a half. Frequent breaks drinking water helped, but I had a sugar low in the evening, even with a snack. And, an update about the ants on the forsythia, as I stepped out on the porch, I noticed a couple of birds having lunch with ant souffle as the main course, so I did not spread any poison around. If they help with the problem, that would be great, just great.

So, today I'm finishing up the mandatory 12 hours of "Diversity Training" that this school district requires of its new employees. I'll be there all day, morning, and afternoon sessions. Can I sigh now, or are you going to make me wait until it's all over?

I told my brother I can condense 12 hours of diversity training into an 8 word sentence. Here it is: "We're all different, but we're all the same." There ya go. However, if anyone at the district ever figured that out, a few people would lose some well-paying jobs. I have already been to half of this training and if you held a loaded water pistol filled with icy slush to my head, I could not begin to tell you what we "learned".

As a side note, happy birthday to my nephew John who turned 12 yesterday! It seems impossible that he would be this age, but that's what old people say when trying to contend with the passage of time.

Happy Wednesday!

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

First day work

So, it's Tuesday, the first day of my summer "vacation". I've already gotten some things done, but I've also just enjoyed not thinking about work.

One of the things I did was probably trivial, (as is everything I write about), but I feel better having done it. I have a rather large forsythia growing in front of my house. I did not trim it last year, and with all the rain this spring, this bush became very tall and unkempt. It didn't even bloom very well this spring, but we had a late frost and I think that got it. Anyhow, I hauled out my loppers and my hand shears and gave it an army haircut. In doing so, I discovered a whole world of black ants underneath it, traveling up and down the branches, turning the forsythia into a mass transit system. SO, now I need to find ant repellent-I have some in the shed, but, it looks like rain, and you can't use it if it will rain in the next few hours, yadda yadda. My son and I loaded up the forsythia brush, 3 old storm doors, and various other disposables and headed to the transfer station, where a waiting loader piled our refuse into a truck, which hauled it, along with the refuse of all the rest of Wichita, down to a landfill south of here about 40 miles.

Laundry is working, and now I need to make a trip to Sedgwick County Hazardous Waste Disposal to get rid of some old paint cans. Next on the agenda will be a walk at Sedgwick County park with my sister-in-law, the power walker and fitness buff. I'm glad to be going with someone since I lost my previous partner.

Well, Dan's ready to help load cans up, so off I go.

Friday, May 25, 2007

To all my faithful readers who have given up on me ever posting again, I say, I'm BACK. I apologize for not posting since last April 21, but I'm going to able to do so with regularity at this point.

School was out yesterday. Today is "teacher work day". You pack up your stuff, you return test kits etc to downtown, you take home what you want home, and you bid a fond farewell to your schools. We started the day out with breakfast at Kensler-oh my. There was some blueberry french toast casserole, egg casseroles, fruit, bagels, muffins, sausage gravy, juice, coffee, etc etc. We had a meeting to honor our retirees and wrap things up, then off to my office I went. I spent the morning filing and putting things away, then went to Clark and wrapped things up there by having, of all things, a meeting with a parent! I also met the new principal, who is bringing 4 teachers with her from her previous school, and I gotta tell you, she impresses me. I'm looking forward to working with her.

So, school's out. Two months are stretched before me, but I've heard time flies by quickly. I have a lot of projects I want to get done, one of the first is, a cleaning out of my house and a possible yard sale. I've never been one to set pretty things around and to decorate (I inherited my mother's gene for functionalism instead of beauty), but I do want to do some painting and I dunno, I MIGHT buy some new curtains. We'll see. If I could afford it, I would pay an interior designer to come in and just do some simple things for me. I DO, however, have two nieces who could do a pretty good job with that...you wanna help me this summer Nicole and Michele?

I also managed to have a complete physical a couple of weeks ago, and will go in next week for test results, so will write about those on my other blog, "A Decision for Health". I guess I could put a link on here if I could figure out how to do that...