Monday evening coming down

Teaching: Prepared AP Handouts, slid out of the optional breakfast and survived the mandatory one in the afternoon.
Internet: gmail chatted with my good friend Joe A. this evening.
Animal Kingdom: All three inside dogs got a fancy, complimentary, flea treatment this afternoon and Ada and I had a fun bath with her fancy shampoo in the kiddy pool and a 1/2 mile walk to dry off, and then everybody (except me) slept.
Exercising: Lifted with R.S. after school, he's a great workout partner.

Saturday Already?

- I met with N.W., and AP History expert and tried to glean what i could. I've spent time yesterday & today sorting .docs & .pdfs hoping to bring order to chaos and find tweh things that can help my students the most.
- Took Ada to the vet Thursday and Friday & finally got her spayed. She was up, but stoned out of her gourd, all night. In a week & a half she'll go outside in her own doggy hotel.
- I've worked out consistently, but have fallen behind in walking the dogs, what with everyone going to the vet & working out evening - must improve.
- We had a Christopher Guest double feature a few days back, watching Best in Show and For Your Consideration.
- Finally watched the end of Last Restaurant Standing. The jerky Royal Marine cook and his weepy wife won, but it seems that they didn't last very long once they opened the real restaurant.

Exercise

38 minutes on the elliptical today. A mile with Ada and Thisbe this evening. Got that (heavy) dog pen today. We'll see how it works out.

We finally watched the end of Last Restaurant Standing. The best cook (the royal marine) won, but not the best people (the twins). The winners apparently left the restaurant they got to open after only a few months.

A New Dog

Tobermory and I took in a Rat Terrier from the Pet Rescue guy who comes to PetSmart. He's a boy, Pyramus, to go along with Thisbe. Ada, who has gotten quite big, will become an outside dog. She spent yesterday evening in the pen in back. However she was persistent in slipping through the gap by the gate. When I finally shackled the gate tight (about 11pm), she went over the top (about 1am). We'll be looking at a new dog fence/kennel today.

Back to the Salt Mine (by choice this time)

- A little elliptical and strength training this morning.
- A few chores around the house.
- Returned to my room at school after a week away from it.
- Lunch with Tobermory in the Starbucks/Target Cafe.
- Worked in my room til 6pm.
- Target household shopping
- Computer digital cleanup
- A little SimCity Classic.
- A few chores & then bed.

Update: I took Ada and Thisbe (our dogs) for a mile walk 'round midnight. I love summer vacation.

Vacation

- Summer School ended Friday. I think the last time I was that happy to end a job was the day in the summer of 1985 when I walked out of the Columbus Foundry for the last time.
- Clyde Frog is visiting and we've been working to get things done.
-- Turtle table constructed.
-- The pasture is finally mowed.
- Coach S. & I have been working out consistently. My muscles seem to be recovering from being long dormant and, most importantly, I hit 34 minutes on the evil elliptical machine today.

- The Sam Adams quote below kicks ass.

Mid-June Report

- Finally got the lawn tractor running and rolling properly (new belt/fix-a-flat) and mowed down by the road. Still have the pasture to go.
- Finished teaching the first two weeks of summer school and have begun to judiciously spend my hard-won lucre.
- Visited my Dad at the VA Hospital in Birmingham a couple of times. The heart/fluid issue seems to be getting resolved.
- I'm considering reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy, despite its popularity.
- We've added a couple of Greek Tortoises, who may well get a 'Turtle Table' today, while the Box Turtle & the Redfoot are enjoying the newly expanded 'Turtle Corral' outside.
- Started reading Naming the World and other exercises for the creative writer.
- Have continued to work out consistently - did 25 minutes on the hated elliptical trainer.
- Found an incredible Shatner spokenword/ST:TAS mashup video - Common People.

Teaching: Preparing for Summer School by 'collecting' the necessary materials and making my Grand Strategy for next year.
Home Improvement: Planning on Turtle Corral Action
Writing & Reading: Will make time to revise my little story.
TV & Movies: Catching up on Battlestar Galactica and Top Chef
Internet: been checking popurls to keep up with the digital world.
Animal Kingdom: Ada is behaving better and we need more walks.
Exercising: Worked out this afternoon with Coach S. Did 14 minutes on the elliptical before lifting & finished with 14 on the treadmill.

Done.

- This school year is officially done.
- I have a week off and then I'll work summer school thru June.
- Put my new in an story online workshop and got good feedback. I'll finish it up this week.
- I've cleaned up some of the 'den' and I've done a little to restablish the guest bedroom, after it spent some time as a reptile room.
- The girls (our dogs) have been behaving better and the reptile/amphibian contingent are doing quite well.
- Watched a couple of episodes of Top Chef, trying to catch up.
- I've had done about 7 workouts now. Used the elliptical for the first time, it's tougher than I expected. I did 12 cardio before & after & 2 sets of 8 exercises in between. Benched 165 - 2x12. A long way to go. Got Coach S. to go with me the last two times.
- Went to Allsteak in Cullman last night. Outstanding. Tobermory said it was one of the best meals she's ever had.

Monday 5/5

Teaching: Notes from Vicksburg to The Wilderness Campaign, with a great reading of the Gettysburg Address by Sam Waterston from Ken Burns Civil War
Home Improvement: Fixed the mower by removing the deck housings and repositioning the belt. Mowed the side & front up until dark.
Writing: I've started typing my short urban fantasy story, and will try to finish that in a bit.
Reading: finished up “In the House of the Seven Librarians” by Ellen Klages from The Best Science Fiction And Fantasy Of The Year Volume 1 (Spring 2007).
TV & Movies: Over the weekend I re-watched the first 13 episodes of Season 3 of Battlestar Galactica with Clyde Squid. The show is relentless. It rips you apart every episode, makes you cringe and makes you want to save the human race from the Cylons, all at the same time.
Internet: Mostly Civil War stuff for my notes - some cool stuff on the Unionist unit - 1st Alabama Cavalry, U.S. Volunteers
Animal Kingdom: Turtles, frogs, chameleons, snakes, dogs, cats all living the high life.
Exercising: Completed my fourth workout, did two 7-minute rides on the exercise bike and one set of eight exercises for 10 reps, but I'm nearing limit on weight and will move to two sets and then up weight and go for periodization. 175x10 on bench - easily done. Getting very close to actually working out.

Big Wednesday Morning

Not Really.
Yesterday:
Washed a ton of clothes.
Pets were all properly cared for.
Overpaid for a Waffle House breakfast.
Watched most of the first episode Top Chef.
Dog-walked a 1/2 mile in the morning and two 1/2 miles in the evening.

Spring Break Woo-Hoo!

Teaching: see post title
Home Improvement: Maintained our gains in the front room, hall bedroom & kitchen. Washed several sheets & changed & freshened the bedclothes.
Pets: Everybody was on schedule & I think Tarquin (the frog) actually ate a cricket.
Writing & Reading: Nothing today
Movies & TV:: Watched the first & second episodes of John Adams with Bromide this morning. It's good work. Not overwhelming, but workmanlike.
Internet: Ironically spent time looking at productivity blogs this evening.
Exercising: Slacked off today

Friday/Saturday Morning

- I showed Firefly to my captive 9th graders (I'll have them for about three hours in the morning for the next week). What a great show. Showed The Patriot to my afternoon classes. It drives me nuts to sit around & not teach during the grad exam - but that's what we have to do.
- Working hard at regulating dog behavior and toxic waste.
- I've had a chance to surf the net a lttle and have been mostly checking out scifi sources and the new io9 is pretty damn good.
- I'm entertained by the Iron Man Trailer
- I've added a few good del.icio.us links lately as well
- Walked a mile this morning with Thisbe
- Spent the rest of the morning trying to fix the Austin High wikipedia page, which had obviously been done by a Decatur High plant.

Thursday - not a bad day

Tobermory worked this evening, so I brought Chinese takeout and we had an "Escape" picnic.
Teaching: Taught most of the highlights of next year's class (11th) for my students so that most of them will pass the graduation exam. Now it will six days of babysitting.
Home Improvement: Regulated Ada's room access to establish some order in waste elimination.
Internet: Darkness Scare (Onion), Subprime Humor (NSFW), State of the art in evolution research, seemingly intelligent culture mag - SmartSet
TV: New Gordon Ramsay

Sunday

- Rode back from Birmingham with Paul.
Writing: grinding through 38 Fiction Mistakes by Jack Bickham.
Home Improvement: Closer in the Hall bedroom - pulled up more carpet, stored toys, and moved some shelves around. Also made the pink bathroom sink workable.
Exercising: 3/4 mile walk in the evening
- We added a new puppy dog, Ada, she's a lab/Australian sheepdog mix. Sweet as can be.