Archerr

I am very busy and very tired. It's now spring break. I hope I can rest up and get some things done.

That is all.

I read on Lewis' blog about his addiction with cars. He listed all the cars he's owned and talked about his obsession with buying cars. I think he might be finished buying cars for the time being. Reading that post made me think about all the cars I've owned. And of course I came up with a list. Comparing my list with Lewis', I can see that I'm not nearly as addicted to cars as he is. What cars have you owned?

1986 Pontiac Fiero
1989 Chevrolet Beretta
1992 Pontiac Grand Am
1995 Ford Ranger Pick Up
2002 Ford Escape XLT SUV
2006 Honda Civic Hybrid (which I'll be keeping for quite a long time.)

Interesting thing is all those cars were white except for the Ford Ranger Pick Up, which was black. I learned with that one that I'll never own a dark car again. They show the dirt so bad where as my white cars always look clean (from a distance) even though they need to be washed.

My current car.

Luckily I had lunch today at the same time John Edwards was holding his press conference with his wife. They announced today that her cancer is back. They thought she was cancer free earlier this week but then she felt a pain, had a check up, and as you know, has more cancer but this time it's in her ribs. This means that it is incurable but treatable. They did not say how long she has.

When John Edwards began explaining this during the press conference I was listening intently. My eyes welled up when I heard that it was incurable. I felt so bad for her. She's dealt with this for so long. I know she's a strong woman and isn't giving up but knowing that she will eventually die from this really made me tear up. John Edwards says his campaign will continue. I think this is a great thing but I wonder how his wife's illness will effect the campaign. I'm worried that this isn't a good thing in the long run for either of them. It's really sad. I feel bad for them both.

I remember seeing the original Apple ad in the Superbowl in 1984. I think this is a scary use of the ad and wonder what Obama is thinking about it. I know it's not endorsed by his campaign but I wonder if he's happy about it or not. Why can't they just leave Hillary alone.

Here's a short video of me talking with the boyfriend about making gumbo.

Click on the picture below to see the video.

It had been awhile since the boyfriend had a dinner party so we decided to have one. Last night we had 9 people (counting the 4 year old) over for a gumbo dinner. The boyfriend spent all day making the chicken gumbo. I had left over tilapia that we had for lunch.

Interesting thing is none of the guests were gay. We had 3 straight couples over. Sometimes we have difficulty getting gay men to commit to a dinner party. There's always something "better" to do, I guess, then come over for an evening of conversation, good food, and nice wines.

We had 6 bottles of wine. I know that sounds like a lot but it ended up really being a taste of each wine for each person. Of course the boyfriend did an amazing job of pairing the wines with the food. Everyone enjoyed the gumbo and the wine choices. We had some fun conversations and laughed a lot. Straight people can be a lot of fun especially when they aren't concerned in the least about your sexuality.

Here's a photo for the evening.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!


I can't remember a time when we had ice and snow on the ground on St. Patrick's Day. The boyfriend and I were unable to get together last night because of the ice and snow. The weather cleared enough for us to get together...meaning I wasn't too much of a wimp to get out on the roads during daylight hours.

Oh, the number in the title means how many posts I've made. I might keep doing that to keep track of my posts.

Well, our spring lasted about 3 days. We had some beautiful weather for 3 days. The sun was out, it was dry, we had temperatures in the 70's and low 80's. Now, the temperature has dropped about 40 degrees in 24 hours and they are calling for snow tonight! I guess it's the time of the year when the weather is very unpredictable.

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What was this guy thinking? Obviously he wasn't. Surely you know he said that homosexuality is immoral and gays shouldn't serve in the military. He has since said that he shouldn't have spoken about his personal feelings and only talked about the policy. Whatever...it's already out there. We know you are against the gays. When people like this speak publicly against others, it makes me wonder what they are hiding. They must have something they are hiding and use topics like this to take attention away from what they are hiding. Just a hunch.

I found this YouTube video via Towleroad. I think it's a pretty cool political statement wrapped up in a parody of an Apple commercial.

Last night the boyfriend and I went to Grapeseed, a win bar/restaurant in Bethesda, Maryland. The do a wonderful job of pairing wines with their meals. Their menu says they start with the wine and create the meals to go with them.

I'm such a picky eater. It's always hard to find things on the menu that I will eat. I saw "crispy fish" on the menu and had to ask our waiter what the fish was. He said it was tilapia. I had never had it before. It's a relatively simple white fish that's a little more dense than the cod that I'm used to. The tilapia was lightly battered and lightly fried. It was actually pretty good. I liked it. It wasn't that heavy, fried stuff you get elsewhere. It was pretty light and was on top of a pile of jasmine rice. I really liked it. I think I'd try it again sometime. Maybe the boyfriend will make it for me sometime.

This was sent around my school today. I thought it was funny and thought anyone in education could relate to it:

Have you heard about the next planned "Survivor" show?

Three businessmen and three businesswomen will be dropped in an elementary school classroom for 6 weeks. Each business person will be provided with a copy of his/her school district's curriculum, and a class of 28 students.

Each class will have five learning-disabled children, three with A.D.D., one gifted child, and two who speak limited English. Three will be labeled with severe behavior problems.

Each business person must complete lesson plans at least 3 days in advance with annotations for curriculum objectives and modify, organize, or create materials accordingly. They will be required to teach students, handle misconduct, implement technology, document attendance, write referrals, correct homework, make bulletin boards, compute grades, complete report cards, document benchmarks, communicate with parents, and arrange parent conferences. They must also supervise recess and monitor the hallways.

In addition, they will complete fire drills, tornado drills, and [Code Red] drills for shooting attacks.

They must attend workshops, (180 hours), faculty meetings, union meetings, attend curriculum development meetings. They must also tutor those students who are behind and strive to get their 2 non-English speaking children proficient enough to take the SOLs. If they are sick or having a bad day they must not let it show.

Each day they must incorporate reading, writing, math, science, and social studies into the program. They must maintain discipline and provide an educationally stimulating environment at all times.

The business people will only have access to the golf course on the weekends, but on their new salary they will not be able to afford it anyway. There will be no access to vendors who want to take them out to lunch, and lunch will be limited to 30 minutes. On days when they do not have recess duty, the business people will be permitted to use the staff restroom as long as another survival candidate is supervising their class.

They will be provided with two 40-minute planning periods per week while their students are at specials.

If the copier is operable, they may make copies of necessary materials at this time. They cannot surpass their daily limit. The business people must continually advance their education on their own time.

The winner will be allowed to return to his or her job.

While Homer and Bert are posting photos of spring flowers blooming, we had an Alberta clipper swing through our area today. It dropped anywhere from a dusting to 8 inches. We were in the 2 to 3 inch range. I hope this is the end of the winter weather. I think I'm ready for spring to begin. We saw some flowers begin to bloom in January when we had a strech of warm weather. I hope the last month or so of very cold weather hasn't killed them off. I guess we'll see in a few weeks.

Homer called last night. We chat once or twice a week about this and that. Homer was telling me about a post on Glennalicious about high school. Glenn wrote about how it had been 18 years since he was in high school. The post continued about his high school days. Reading it reminded me so much of high school and how so much has changed since high school. Not only physical changes but the way I think and act. I graduated from high school 25 years ago. I'm sure there will be some kind of reunion this summer. I might go. Anyway, Homer and I decided we would re-live high school a bit and post pictures from high school. Here is my senior high school picture and a picture from today. Besides a few wrinkles and the facial hair, I don't think I've changed all that much. I think I might even weigh the same as I did in high school.

The boyfriend and I were at a winery on Saturday and while he was grading some papers I was thinking about floss. I know, that sounds odd but I was talking to the guys on my podcast about floss and while I was killing time at the winery I was thinking about the conversation.

Do you use floss? I think there are so many people who don't. I use it several times a week but not everyday at every brushing. For years I've used the old fashioned waxed floss. I haven't been that happy with it though. The wax comes off in your teeth and I don't like that. So I've been thinking of changing floss.

The question is, "What kind would you change to?" There seems to be so many kinds of floss that it's hard to choose. The first choice is between string or tape. The tape seems good because it's flat and will slide between your teeth easily but it might miss some of the food stuck there. The string is good because it seems to get those bits and pieces that the tape misses. But sometimes the string is too big and hurts when you force it between your teeth. How do you decide?

Then of course there are the new kinds of floss out there. You have floss that is flavored. You have floss that is designed just for tartar control. It's got some kind of sand paper or something on the string that cuts through that nasty tartar. You can also get any combinations of these variations as well.

I find it all too confusing. There's a reason to get each one but I can't imagine having 4 or 5 different boxes of floss in my medicine cabinet. What should I do? I think I will just try to find the floss that is just string. No wax, no favors, no tartar control. None of that for me. What do you think?

Today the boyfriend and I went to one of our favorite wineries. While the boyfriend was grading papers I was people watching and playing on the computer. We sat upstairs in the loft area and enjoyed a glass of wine.

While sitting in the loft, two hot guys came upstairs to look around. One of them was wearing shorts and had really hairy legs. They couldn’t have been more then 25-28 years old. The boyfriend and I were both looking at them the whole time they were in the loft area. The boyfriend got so distracted that he spilled his glass of wine on his papers. It was funny when it spilled it but it was funnier when he spilled the glass the second time. I guess we are both easily distracted.

I used the built in iSight camera on the laptop to take a few photos. Here’s one of the boyfriend just after he spilled his wine on his papers. Below that is a picture of the two hot guys while they were looking over the loft area. I know they aren’t the best pictures but it was the iSight after all. It wasn’t like I had my super nice camera with me to take photos of the event.

Today is Dr. Seuss' birthday. Kids all over the country participated in Read Across America day. This is a day to celebrate the contributions of Dr. Seuss. This is also the 50th year of The Cat In The Hat. Happy Birthday Cat!

You know the old question, "Did March come in like a lamb or a lion?" Well, with today's weather it is really hard to say which it was this time.

Our day started out very nice. It was sunny and clear and it got up to 50 degrees. But by the afternoon it was very dark and cloudy. The rain moved in during the late evening and now we are under a flash flood warning for tonight.

So considering the difference in the weather today, how did March come in for me? Like a lamb or a lion?