We seem to have made it to Christmas break! No school today! Jess has practice this morning from 8:00 - 9:30 but will be done for a week after that.
The girls lost last night in overtime. It was a bit of a dissapointment because they played pretty well. They were tied with a little over a minute left in overtime and a girl from the other team hit a three pointer. That did it. Three points was a lot for our team to overcome in just a minute or so. We pressed and they broke it and ended up winning by 8 or so.
Jess had a good game. She scored 14 point in the first half but didn't get any points in the second half. She was the team high scorer but she only shot the ball twice in the whole second half and missed both. She did shoot a third time but it was blocked and she was fouled pretty good but there was no call.
I talked to her a bit after the game and she was dissapointed. The team is getting better and have finally found a point guard that can play pretty well. We are stuggling on the inside and our older kids are throwing the ball away quite a bit. Still looking for win number one.
I played in the student vs staff basketball game yesterday. It was fun. I scored pretty regularly but am so out of shape I could only play for about 4 minutes at a time. Drew score 7 points. Two normal field goals and a three pointer. He was the only one on his team to score against us. It should be noted that I wasn't guarding him when he scored. That would have been tragic. We played a 2-3 zone and he was shooting from the other side from where I played.
After the first half of the basketball game last night I had a teacher come up to me and say, "The Nichols family is really on tonight. You were on fire in the staff game and so was Drew and now Jess has 14 in the first half. What did you guys eat for breakfast?". Kind of funny.
Today should be a pretty good day. No students, no staff and a relaxed atmosphere. The first day of a break is always great. Towards the end of break, I start thinking about what I have to do after break and the stress of what is to come starts to creep back in but NOT TODAY! Today is party central.
So I found out the national title football game is Monday night, January 7th. The same night I start teaching my class. It is a good thing the huskers weren't good this year. I am not sure what I would have done if they were playing in the national title game. That would have completely sucked. I guess there is a bright side to the huskers sucking this year.
Today I party at work. Tomorrow we make gingerbread houses and Sunday off to Nebraska for a big Christmas celebration. Life it pretty good right now.
Merry Christmas everyone! I will see you soon.
FYI for you devoted readers of the blog. I will not post again until Wednesday the 26th of December. I might even have some Christmas pictures to post.
Friday, December 21, 2007
Thursday, December 20, 2007
I don't care what anybody says, I'm thirsty!
Wednesday came and went with the blink of an eye. We are finally at the last day of school before Christmas break. Whoo-hooo!!!
I am playing in a "Students vs Staff" basketball game today. It is the middle school staff against the middle school students. I am playing becuase Drew is playing. I really could care less about this but I thought it would be fun to talk trash to Drew this week and explain to him how I am going to SLAM DUNK over the top of him today! I think there are 20 staff members playing so we will all probably get about 2 minutes of playing time each. I am in terrible shape so it is probably a good thing.
Jess has a game tonight in Jefferson. She said he brought a couple of the younger players up to the "Blue" practice squad, which is the varsity playing group. There is a chance that she will have a few new faces joining her on the floor today. As poorly as the team has been playing, it sure couldn't hurt.
On a different note: A couple things in the news yesterday caught my attention. The first is the honey bee population is dying off. The honey bees account for the pollenation of 1/3 of our food supply and the word is that if they die off, the human population is in trouble. The second thing was 3 or 4 southern states held a joint conference to discuss their need for drinking water. The drought in the south has caused some major problems with states being able to provide enough water to sustain the population. They feel this situation will get much worse in the future.
Kind of troublesome stuff. As the climate changes there is a chain reaction in many areas. The coming years are sure to bring a variety of challenges we have never been forced to deal with before. I hope we are up to the challenge.
I started working on some of my college class stuff. I have been going through the text books and thinking of assignements and assesments. It is going to be a bit time consuming going through it all but I read that the instructors edition has presentations that cover every chapter in the book. That is good news because the content is all things I know well but putting together the instruction is very time consuming. These premade presentation will be a huge help. I hope I get my instructors material soon.
It doesn't seem like Christmas to me. It is almost unbelievable that I will be in Nebraska Sunday for the Griswald, I mean Nichols family Christmas. We haven't really gotten into the Christmas spirit here. Jess was complaining last night that the Christmas tree looks sad because there aren't many presents under it yet. We have the gifts, they just haven't been wrapped yet. I will spend some time tomorrow night getting gifts wrapped and making things a bit more holiday like. The kids and I are going to make Gingerbread houses this weekend.
Have you ever "re-gifted" a present you have recieved? I have never done that but am thinking it may not be such a bad idea sometimes. There are times you get a gift from someone that you really don't care for but you know someone who may love it. Is it so wrong to re-gift it? Seems kind of cheap and ungrateful so I don't know if I will ever be able to do it. I don't blame people for doing it though. At least they don't have a cabinet full of stuff they don't want.
I am keeping a close eye on the weather for the weekend. We are flirting with a snow and ice storm on Saturday that could impact travel on Sunday, when I am supposed to go to Lincoln. Right now it looks like we are going to be ok and the worst of it will be to the south of us. I really don't want weather to put a damper on my trip.
Today is Trash Day as you know it is a sore subject. I think I am going to be irritated every Thursday as I take my trash to the curb.
At least today is the gateway to the break.
More tomorrow.
I am playing in a "Students vs Staff" basketball game today. It is the middle school staff against the middle school students. I am playing becuase Drew is playing. I really could care less about this but I thought it would be fun to talk trash to Drew this week and explain to him how I am going to SLAM DUNK over the top of him today! I think there are 20 staff members playing so we will all probably get about 2 minutes of playing time each. I am in terrible shape so it is probably a good thing.
Jess has a game tonight in Jefferson. She said he brought a couple of the younger players up to the "Blue" practice squad, which is the varsity playing group. There is a chance that she will have a few new faces joining her on the floor today. As poorly as the team has been playing, it sure couldn't hurt.
On a different note: A couple things in the news yesterday caught my attention. The first is the honey bee population is dying off. The honey bees account for the pollenation of 1/3 of our food supply and the word is that if they die off, the human population is in trouble. The second thing was 3 or 4 southern states held a joint conference to discuss their need for drinking water. The drought in the south has caused some major problems with states being able to provide enough water to sustain the population. They feel this situation will get much worse in the future.
Kind of troublesome stuff. As the climate changes there is a chain reaction in many areas. The coming years are sure to bring a variety of challenges we have never been forced to deal with before. I hope we are up to the challenge.
I started working on some of my college class stuff. I have been going through the text books and thinking of assignements and assesments. It is going to be a bit time consuming going through it all but I read that the instructors edition has presentations that cover every chapter in the book. That is good news because the content is all things I know well but putting together the instruction is very time consuming. These premade presentation will be a huge help. I hope I get my instructors material soon.
It doesn't seem like Christmas to me. It is almost unbelievable that I will be in Nebraska Sunday for the Griswald, I mean Nichols family Christmas. We haven't really gotten into the Christmas spirit here. Jess was complaining last night that the Christmas tree looks sad because there aren't many presents under it yet. We have the gifts, they just haven't been wrapped yet. I will spend some time tomorrow night getting gifts wrapped and making things a bit more holiday like. The kids and I are going to make Gingerbread houses this weekend.
Have you ever "re-gifted" a present you have recieved? I have never done that but am thinking it may not be such a bad idea sometimes. There are times you get a gift from someone that you really don't care for but you know someone who may love it. Is it so wrong to re-gift it? Seems kind of cheap and ungrateful so I don't know if I will ever be able to do it. I don't blame people for doing it though. At least they don't have a cabinet full of stuff they don't want.
I am keeping a close eye on the weather for the weekend. We are flirting with a snow and ice storm on Saturday that could impact travel on Sunday, when I am supposed to go to Lincoln. Right now it looks like we are going to be ok and the worst of it will be to the south of us. I really don't want weather to put a damper on my trip.
Today is Trash Day as you know it is a sore subject. I think I am going to be irritated every Thursday as I take my trash to the curb.
At least today is the gateway to the break.
More tomorrow.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Christmas wish #1 - A little common sense in our local government!
There is a nice ring to the sound of Wednesday this week. Two days left until break and it seems like I am running in sand towards the finish line. I am not sure why this week has seemed so long but it is dragging. One thing bad about heading into a break is I have a tendency to just put things off. I tell myself, after break I will take a look at that. If a teacher needs someting that isn't an emegency, I say, "Give me a call after break and I will come and take a look.". The procrastinator in me comes out BIG TIME. Once January comes, I am depressed about being back and I have a boat load of work to do.
Oh well, I'll worry about that in January...lol
Both of the kids teams lost last night. Drew had 2 points in a ten point loss and Jess has 4 points in a 30 something point loss. Both of them are ready for the Christmas break. I feel bad for the girls. They work really hard and just can't get a win or even be competitive. They should get their first win Thursday. We play a 2A school that isn't very strong. I hope we win, it will be nice to go into Christmas on a high note.
I attended the DMACC orientation last night and found out I have a lot of work to do. My instructor books aren't in yet but they at least gave me student versions. I have two huge textbooks to work with. There is a list of competencies the students should possess after taking my course so I have to develop a class using that as a reference. I have decide my grade scale, setup my class rules and policies, create assignments and tests, and develop a lesson plan to use for the instruction during class. There are a couple of people that also teach DMACC classes that work at our high school so I am going to ask them what they do for some of this. It seems like I have a bunch to do prior to the 7th.
Wednesday is early out at school. It is also known as Chicken, Chicken, Cripito day. They have the same lunch on Wedneday - A spicy chicken sandwich, a normal chicken sandwish or a cripito. It is the same every Wednesday. FYI - I have no idea what a cripito is. I don't eat the school lunch because I think they rip people off and are not good to the kids. I would rather go hungry than give them any more money than I have to.
I hinted a few days back that the garbage people are wanting thing to be easier for them. Well, the city council, the mayor and the city manager, in their infinite wisdom has deemed it necessary for all the citizens of Perry to put their garbage out with the following stipulations:
Oh well, I'll worry about that in January...lol
Both of the kids teams lost last night. Drew had 2 points in a ten point loss and Jess has 4 points in a 30 something point loss. Both of them are ready for the Christmas break. I feel bad for the girls. They work really hard and just can't get a win or even be competitive. They should get their first win Thursday. We play a 2A school that isn't very strong. I hope we win, it will be nice to go into Christmas on a high note.
I attended the DMACC orientation last night and found out I have a lot of work to do. My instructor books aren't in yet but they at least gave me student versions. I have two huge textbooks to work with. There is a list of competencies the students should possess after taking my course so I have to develop a class using that as a reference. I have decide my grade scale, setup my class rules and policies, create assignments and tests, and develop a lesson plan to use for the instruction during class. There are a couple of people that also teach DMACC classes that work at our high school so I am going to ask them what they do for some of this. It seems like I have a bunch to do prior to the 7th.
Wednesday is early out at school. It is also known as Chicken, Chicken, Cripito day. They have the same lunch on Wedneday - A spicy chicken sandwich, a normal chicken sandwish or a cripito. It is the same every Wednesday. FYI - I have no idea what a cripito is. I don't eat the school lunch because I think they rip people off and are not good to the kids. I would rather go hungry than give them any more money than I have to.
I hinted a few days back that the garbage people are wanting thing to be easier for them. Well, the city council, the mayor and the city manager, in their infinite wisdom has deemed it necessary for all the citizens of Perry to put their garbage out with the following stipulations:
- No garbage cans of any kind can be put at the curb
- All garbage is to be put in no larger than 40 gallon bags
- These bags are to be tied and left on the curb the morning of pickup
- A limit of 4 bags per household will be picked up.
The reasoning behind this is they have had a bunch of workman comp claims and they are trying to limit the physical demands on the garbage men in an attempt to limit the injuries.
WARNING: IF YOU ARE NOT IN THE MOOD TO LISTEN TO A RANT DO NOT CONTINUE READING THIS BLOG - HAVE A GREAT DAY AND I WILL HAVE MORE TOMORROW!
What the hell is that all about! Garbage men worried about the physical nature of their jobs! THAT IS THEIR JOBS! IT IS PHYSICAL - YOU LIFT GARBAGE ALL DAY, EVERY DAY. Get over it or find a new job! To me it is like me going to my boss and saying the work is too TECHNICAL, we need to find a way to DUMB IT DOWN a bit. My brain just can't take all the technology!
I am disgusted on two fronts. 1- The lazy, crying, wimpy garbage men that are crying like a bunch of babies about how hard their jobs are. GET OVER IT. LIFE IS HARD! GABAGE MEN SHOULD BE HAPPY TO HAVE A CITY JOB WITH GOOD BENEFITS! BE GRATEFUL! 2 - The city council need their asses kicked to go along with such nonsense. When has this community decided the citizens work for the city instead of the other way around. They need to get a clue and get a handle on how to make the city work for the citizens not the other way around. The council contantly complains about people not wanting to move to Perry! Well maybe if we didn't have the tail wagging the dog, people would come!
Ok, sorry about all that but it needed to be said. You know, I actually feel a little better.
Off to start my day.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
There is a great deal of apathy in the world and I don't care.
I will be happy when the Iowa caucus is over. The campaigns are just really in a frenzy right now. I get calls every night from the various candidates and it is getting old very fast. Well, I am not getting calls from the candidates themselves; it is someone from the "insert name here" campaign. Blah Blah Blah.
It is important to also note that I am not a fan of the caucus system. It seems to be a bit of a pain in the butt. For those of you unfamiliar with the process here in Iowa, let me share. Each precinct has a meeting area. I think mine is at the high school. Anyway, all the Democrats, since that is what pertains to me, meet at this location. There is some talk and a few speeches, then they say, "Everyone who supports "insert name here", go the that corner. They do this for each candidate, seperating everyone into areas of the room by candidate. The people who don't have very many are talked into joining one of the larger groups. In the end, the number of electorals are divide among the groups remaining. There is some other stuff that goes on after that but I will leave at this point.
Doesn't that seem a bit much? I would much rather stop by a voting area, cast my vote and be done with it. I know people like to hold on to tradition and such but it seems to me that the more unpleasant it is, and this to me is unpleasant, the less people will participate. I think if they truly want people to turn out, they hold a normal primary.
Both kids have games tonight. I have my orientation at 4:30 in West Des Moines so I will miss both games. Jess will have a game of Thursday in Jefferson that I will be able to attend.
One of the girls on the basketball team, quit last night. There is another one on the fence and is waiting to see how much playing time they get tonight to decide if they are going to quit or not. They are both seniors but won't be much of an impact on the team.
One of Jess's friend's, mother passed away unexpectedly the other day. The boy is in Jess's class and in FCA with her and is with the group of kids she hangs out with. She went with one of her friends to visitation last night and they sat and talked with him for about an hour. It was hard for her but she said he was very happy they came. She thought he just needed some people there to talk with. He is holding up ok but she said she knows it has to be really hard for him. His mom was 55 and his dad came home and she was laying on the couch, not breathing. They aren't sure what the cause of death was.
We are continuing the countdown to Christmas break. Three days left and I think the teachers are kind of just passing time until Friday. Drew said they are watching movies today in class and tomorrow they are going to the rec center and the museum here in town. Thurday they have an assembly. This is all good news to me because it doesn't sound like they are doing anything that requires technology support.
JoDee - if you are reading this, know that I have been thinking about you and love you.
It is important to also note that I am not a fan of the caucus system. It seems to be a bit of a pain in the butt. For those of you unfamiliar with the process here in Iowa, let me share. Each precinct has a meeting area. I think mine is at the high school. Anyway, all the Democrats, since that is what pertains to me, meet at this location. There is some talk and a few speeches, then they say, "Everyone who supports "insert name here", go the that corner. They do this for each candidate, seperating everyone into areas of the room by candidate. The people who don't have very many are talked into joining one of the larger groups. In the end, the number of electorals are divide among the groups remaining. There is some other stuff that goes on after that but I will leave at this point.
Doesn't that seem a bit much? I would much rather stop by a voting area, cast my vote and be done with it. I know people like to hold on to tradition and such but it seems to me that the more unpleasant it is, and this to me is unpleasant, the less people will participate. I think if they truly want people to turn out, they hold a normal primary.
Both kids have games tonight. I have my orientation at 4:30 in West Des Moines so I will miss both games. Jess will have a game of Thursday in Jefferson that I will be able to attend.
One of the girls on the basketball team, quit last night. There is another one on the fence and is waiting to see how much playing time they get tonight to decide if they are going to quit or not. They are both seniors but won't be much of an impact on the team.
One of Jess's friend's, mother passed away unexpectedly the other day. The boy is in Jess's class and in FCA with her and is with the group of kids she hangs out with. She went with one of her friends to visitation last night and they sat and talked with him for about an hour. It was hard for her but she said he was very happy they came. She thought he just needed some people there to talk with. He is holding up ok but she said she knows it has to be really hard for him. His mom was 55 and his dad came home and she was laying on the couch, not breathing. They aren't sure what the cause of death was.
We are continuing the countdown to Christmas break. Three days left and I think the teachers are kind of just passing time until Friday. Drew said they are watching movies today in class and tomorrow they are going to the rec center and the museum here in town. Thurday they have an assembly. This is all good news to me because it doesn't sound like they are doing anything that requires technology support.
JoDee - if you are reading this, know that I have been thinking about you and love you.
Monday, December 17, 2007
Frankly, I don't think you know what you are talking about!
The start of the week is once again upon us. This week is a short week, however; so that seems to make today more bearable.
We start Christmas break on Friday. There is no school that day and the teachers will all be gone. It is a great day in a couple of ways. For one, there is no school. Two, the teachers are gone; and three, it is a Friday. Kind of like the perfect storm but in a good way.
Update on Friday. It was a bad night again for the girls basketball team. They lost by 15 and it was a team the probably should beat. The coach went ballistic and is going to shake things up for the remainder of the season. He didn't even hold practice this weekend. He told the girls he didn't even want to see them.
The Christmas party was fun. We had some very good wine and food. The gifts were wonderul and it was a very nice night to relax and get together as a department without having to talk about work stuff. I wouldn't want to do it every week but it really is nice once in awhile.
Jess wanted to go to the gym this weekend and shoot baskets. Drew, Jess and I went to the gym and played for about an hour. She beat me in a couple of one on one games because I am terribly out of shape. I did beat her in "horse" though. I have to admit she has a very quick "first step" in basketball.
This week, both kids have games on Tuesday and Jess also has a game on Thursday. Drew's game is here in town but I will miss Jess's game Tuesday night. I have to go to the DMACC mentor/mentee orientation from 6:30 to 8:30.
I got my Christmas shopping pretty much done this weekend. Drew and I went out and spent the day together. We had a good time. The shopping kind of sucked but the time with Drew was good.
I am not sure what this week will bring but if I were to guess, I would say it will be pretty slow. Most people are going to just want to get through the week so I would imagine they won't want to be bothering me too much.
Off to start.
We start Christmas break on Friday. There is no school that day and the teachers will all be gone. It is a great day in a couple of ways. For one, there is no school. Two, the teachers are gone; and three, it is a Friday. Kind of like the perfect storm but in a good way.
Update on Friday. It was a bad night again for the girls basketball team. They lost by 15 and it was a team the probably should beat. The coach went ballistic and is going to shake things up for the remainder of the season. He didn't even hold practice this weekend. He told the girls he didn't even want to see them.
The Christmas party was fun. We had some very good wine and food. The gifts were wonderul and it was a very nice night to relax and get together as a department without having to talk about work stuff. I wouldn't want to do it every week but it really is nice once in awhile.
Jess wanted to go to the gym this weekend and shoot baskets. Drew, Jess and I went to the gym and played for about an hour. She beat me in a couple of one on one games because I am terribly out of shape. I did beat her in "horse" though. I have to admit she has a very quick "first step" in basketball.
This week, both kids have games on Tuesday and Jess also has a game on Thursday. Drew's game is here in town but I will miss Jess's game Tuesday night. I have to go to the DMACC mentor/mentee orientation from 6:30 to 8:30.
I got my Christmas shopping pretty much done this weekend. Drew and I went out and spent the day together. We had a good time. The shopping kind of sucked but the time with Drew was good.
I am not sure what this week will bring but if I were to guess, I would say it will be pretty slow. Most people are going to just want to get through the week so I would imagine they won't want to be bothering me too much.
Off to start.
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