Maybe Mother Natured died and was succeeded by her mean sister

We are in a freeze advisory this morning. What the HELL is that all about? Freezing! Give me a break.

Drew ran in a track meet last night. He did the high jump, the open 100 and the 4x100. Since he is not the speediest fellow in the land, I told him he needs to shoot for personal bests and improve each time and use this time for conditioning for summer and fall sports. He doesn't really like to lose but I think he just likes participating for the most part.

He has another track meet tonight and one on Friday.

Jess ran at her track meet last night. She got 2nd in the long jump, I think she jumped 15 ft even. 1st in the 400, 1st in the 800 and 1st in the sprint med. Three golds and a silver. No too bad since they were running against Des Moines East and Des Moines North high schools as well as Saydel. Her next meet is Thursday.

Last night was the last night of my Monday night DMACC class. The final test took them a lot longer than I thought it would. It took most of them 3 hours and a couple of them 4. It is a long night sitting there at the computer for 4 hours. All I have to do now is grade the finals and enter the grades into the system.

I have learned a great deal from this experience and will do things differently next term. I will be much more organized and efficient next term since I have already taught the class once. It will really be easy if they use the same books.

I have some pictures to put up but it probably won't happen until this weekend. I was pretty good at taking pictures but have gotten lazy lately. One of my favorite things of the blog is to look back at the pictures. I need to do a better job of putting more up.

I have to say one more thing about this damn weather. Last weekend, I saw people out mowing their lawn in WINTER COATS!!!! This completely sucks!

I have a busy day today with proctoring tests this morning and a meeting in Ames this afternoon. I really am not in the mood to drive to Ames but it probably will be good to get out of the office for half a day.

So I started reading this book called "Into the Wild" maybe it is Wilderness, I am not sure and I am not going to check so whatever. Anyway, it is about a young guy from the west coast who leaves all his belongings and heads up to Alaska to live off the land for a couple of years. So I am on the hopper this morning thinking this is going to be some kind of inspirational story about survival and the struggle against nature. Well I think he died! Within the first 30 pages they find his body. Apparently starved to death. Good thing I was where I was when I read that.

Ok, off to start my day.

The birds don't care that it is Monday..They sing like it's Friday.

I really am not a fan of Monday. It is cold, AGAIN, and I think the end of the week is going to be be rainy and chilly.

The weekend was uneventful. Jess got her prom dress. Drew and I went to the grocery store and then to the driving range in the afternoon. Yesterday, we played in a father/son baseball scrimmage, again. It started at 6:30 pm, which was a little late for my taste. We didn't get done until about 8:45.

Today is the last night of my Monday night DMACC class. They take the final and that will be it. I am part of the Adjunct council at DMACC and we have this end of the year event Wednesday. It is called, an evening with adjuncts. We will have wine, music and a couple of perfomances from some of the adjuncts. I really don't feel much like going but since I am on the council it would look bad if I didn't.

Sports wise this week - Jess and Drew both have track meets tonight. Tomorrow, Drew has another track meet. Thursday, Jess has a meet and Friday Drew has another meet. Track is in full bloom. I think the Middle School is done with track this week. Jess has meets this week and next Monday is Conference and that Friday is Regionals. The following weekend will be State.

It is getting close to the end of the school year but with the weather being so poor, it doesn't feel like it. I don't think anyone has "Spring Fever" yet becuase the weather is just a crapfest.

Dawn head for Chicago on Tuesday and will be gone until Friday evening sometime.

I don't have any meeting scheduled for today. Which is a good thing on a Monday. I am just not in the mood.

I will let you know how my day turns out.

You know what?......This sucks!

Friday is finally here and it comes with a mixed bag of emotions. Yes, it is Friday and it is a teacher's inservice day so there aren't any student or classroom issues to deal with, however; I have to setup a laptop cart and for the morning staff development session and I have a meeting later in the day to go over a computer based test we are giving on Tuesday of next week.

It is also raining like a bastard outside right now. The lying weather lady says it will be done this morning some time but it may just be humid after. I have the windows open in the house this morning and it seems kind of humid. We will probably go from cold, rainy and windy to hot and humid. Apparently, Mother Nature is pissed about us warming her up.

Jess has a track meet tonight and I think it will be a go. The weather should be better after lunch. It is only going to get up to 50 and we might have some wind but it should be good enough for a meet.

So Jess and I were playing Wii last night and we were bowling. Jess goes to through the ball and Molly jumps in front of her and Jess accidentally smacks her in the head with the contoller. Well, the controller was damaged and didn't work after that. I finally smacked it on the floor a couple times and it seems to be working ok now. Molly's head is fine. Stupid ass dog.

I don't have any plans for the weekend. I do plan to go into work for a bit and then maybe some yard work if the weather holds. It is supposed to rain Saturday night.

Monday is the last night of my DMACC instruction for the semester. It kind of sucks because I am just giving the final and Jess has a track meet. I would like to go to the meet but I have to give the dang final. This is a make-up track meet so it wasn't scheduled on this date. Oh well, I get to see plenty of track.

Drew had a track meet last night and ran the 4x100 relay. It was a slow heat and they came in last. He was the anchor and he said they were so far behind when he got the baton, that he didn't have a chance.

Jess has her regional meet in Atlantic, Iowa so if any of you can come out and watch, she would really, really like that. It is about a half an hour East of Des Moines so it is as close to the Nebraska border as we get for a meet. Since it is the regional meet, it will be the meet that she will qualify for state. The competition should be competitive so it really will be a good meet to go to. It is on a Friday and I think it starts at 4 pm. The date is two weeks from today. I think it is the 10th of May. If anyone can make it, let me know and we can make plans.

State would be the weekend after that.

Ok, off to start the weekend!

Oh! GO BIG RED...I hear the spring game was great!

Even people on Survivor get an unlimited supply of RICE!!!

Ok, I am really tired today. I taught class Monday night, went to Jess' track meet Tuesday night and last night taught my final class at the DMACC West campus. The students took the final and two of them took the WHOLE 4 HOURS TO COMPLETE THE TEST!!!! I left the classroom at 10:05. Ugh! 40-45 minute drive home and now up early to start my day.

The weather is back to being crappy today. Rain and wind.Drew is supposed to have a track meet tonight but I guess it will depend on the weather.

The good news for today is that I don't have any meetings. It is also the last day of school for the week so that is good too. Once I get over being so tired, life will be much better. I might skip my workout this morning and just drink coffee.

While I was sitting in the classrrom for 4 hours last night, waiting for the students to complete the test, I was surfing the web and came across some very funny and odd items.

Some animal rights organization has a contest with a winning prize of 1 million dollars for the company or person that can make meat from genetic material. So get this-they would use stem cells from animals to create a piece of meat - not the animal, just the meat. A genetically created ribeye....What the hell!!!! The wouldn't be killing an animal, just creating a specific piece of meat from the genetic material from the animal. That sounds really messed up to me. I probably would eat it anyway.

I also found out we are in a huge food shortage. Did you know this? Where the hell have I been? Costco and SAMS are limiting the amount of rice and grain you can buy? What! Should I stock up on that kind of stuff? It seems very hard to believe in the society we live in today that we could have a food shortage but apparently it is as bad as it has been since WWII. Again-Where the hell have I been that I haven't heard of this before?

It is trash day--grrr

Ok, I am off to start my day. Save a bag a rice for me!

Meetings are a drag!

We have one more day of good weather and then tomorrow it is going to be rainy. I really am getting sick and tired of the rain. Give me a break!

Jess ran in her track meet last night. The weather was GREAT!!! Warm and just a slight breeze and sunny. It really was one of the best nights that we have had in a long time.

Anyway, she won the long jump, won the open 400 and set a meet record with a time of 59.41 seconds, won the open 800 and won the sprint medley relay. 4 GOLDS!!!! There were 11 teams at the meet and Perry won the meet as well. The team scored 107 points and between Jess and a senior girl named Christina, they had a hand in 72 of those points. It was the first meet they won and they were very happy. They ran a victory lap and then came back to town and rang the victory bell at the high school.

Jess was also asked to Prom yesterday. The guy is a Junior and is a pretty good kid so I am letting her go. Prom is all contained these days. They go to prom, then are locked in the school for an "after Prom" party. It like a casino night with food and dancing and games. That goes until 4 am and then they let the kids out to go home.

Drew had a baseball game last night. They got down 8-1 and then came back to tie the game. They ended up losing 11-10 but the game got called because it got dark. The field they played on didn't have lights so they just had to stop and the score was 11-10, so they lost.

I teach my last DMACC West campus class tonight. I actually don't even teach. It is Final night so I am just giving them the Final and that is it. They should be done in a couple hours so it should be an easy and early night.

Drew has a track meet tomorrow and Jess has one Friday. We will be lucky to have the meet Thursday because of the weather. Friday we might be in better shape. The rain is supposed to be done in the morning Friday, so I guess we will just have to wait and see.

I need some coffee!

Happy Earth Day!!!!

It was rainy overnight but it looks like it might be a decent day today. The rain is supposed to be done by this morning and then we will have some clouds and some sun but dry. I will take it!

Class went ok last night. The students struggled a bit with the applications, which isn't really a suprise because they were to worried about Prom and screwing around when we covered the material. I think they are kind of crapping themselves now. I wish them well on Monday.

Jess got back from Minneapolis last night. They lost in the first round of the playoffs. It wasn't a big suprise because thier best hitter missed the match because she had a track meet yesterday. The volleyball season is officially over. The experience was good for her. I think she is sad that it is over but it was time to be done.

Drew ran in a track meet last night. He ran the open 100----what the hell! He also ran the 4x100, again------what the hell! He had fun so that was what mattered. I guess on the bright side...no matter how slow you are, you can only lose in the 100 by a relatively small margin.

Tonight, Drew has a baseball game in Grimes and Jess has a track meet in Adel. I think the weather is going to cooperate so we will have a chance to actually get these in.

We are getting closer and closer to the end of the school year. I think there are 20 something school days left. The last day of school is May 30.

We don't have school on Friday. It is a full day teacher's insevice. The kids really like that. Well, there is a bit of a catch. There is a track meet that night. Jess is not so happy about that one. I think she just needs something to complain about or she isn't happy.

Wednesday is my last night of class at the West campus for the semester. That group will do well on the Final. They seemed to breeze through the practice test and they are all good students. I don't think it will be a problem. I will kind of miss that group. They are all pleasant and a joy to be around. I will be happy to be done teaching for the term but I will miss the people.

I had a lady come up to me the other day and thank me for teaching my classes. She said she took an applications class from me a couple years back and the skills she learned in that class enabled her to get the job she has now. She told me she would have never been hired if she hadn't been able to demonstrate her computer skills and she learned those skills in my class.

It is kind of nice to know I helped someone. It is also nice to know that the things I am teaching are actually sinking in to people.

Off to start the day.........Do something for Mother Earth today!

Remember - You don't have to do everything, just do something.

I think elevator music can make you go crazy!

It was a very quick weekend with all kinds of activities.

Jess played in her volleyball tournament and is still playing today. They won their brackets on Saturday and Sunday and then Sunday night had to play in a challenge round to see if they were playing for the championship today or not. They lost in three games. This means they will get no worse than 30th out of 146 teams. They play in the Silver round today.

Drew had baseball pictures Friday night, Opening Ceremonies for baseball Saturday night and then we played in a father son scrimmage yesterday at 1. It lasted about two hours and we had a good time.

We also ran up to Des Moines and bought a Wii. Drew had money for Christmas and he has been wanting a Wii but we just havent been able to find one. Well they had 80 of them at ToysRUs and we got one.

The weekend went quick but it was good. The weather was nice yesterday and I am not sure about today. My cable for the local stations is not working so I am not sure of the forecast.

I have a couple meetings today and I teach class tonight. Only three total classes left. I teach tonight and then Wednesday and next Monday are just giving the students the final exam.

Gas prices are continuing to just go up and up. It cost me $38 to fill up yesterday. It used to cost me 28 then 32 now, 38. This sucks!

Drew and I also bought this singing game. It has two microphones and is for playstation 2. It has all kinds of 80's songs and it is kind of like karioki and it plays the video in the background. It is kind of fun. It tracks your pitch and gives you points and a rating. Drew and I played last night and it was funny. I think you are probably better playing if if you are drunk. I think the kids will have fun with it. We probably need to get a game where they music would be more familiar to them.

Jess finishes up her volleyball tournament today and should be returning home tonight. Drew has a track meet tonight but I am not sure if the weather will allow it to happen. Damn rain!

Ok, of to start my Monday!