happy New Year's Eve!

I'm just waiting for my jeans to finish drying before we take off for Chris and Cindy's house to ring in the new year with the two of them, Jeremy Nelson, and I don't know who else. It's nice to be spending it with them since C + C will be heading to Costa Rica in five weeks indefinitely. We just got back in to town last night, so I haven't had much blog time... Lots to do so far. Any resolutions? I'll post mine tomorrow when I have more time. Cheers! Be safe and be merry tonight. Good times with the Mai Tais, Todd-- We've got lots of Leine's =)

Pictures from a T-Wolves game about two weeks ago. They slammed New Orleans taht night. If you can't tell, we were in the nose-bleeds, but they were free tickets!

favorite things

So I don't know if you've noticed, but there are NO comments to my question of, "What are a few of YOUR favorite things?" Blogger revolt. I need some comments, some new inspiration, to know that SOMEONE is reading... =)

Got a haircut today.

The Blizzard

Phillis Levin

Now that the worst is over, they predict
Something messy and difficult, though not
Life-threatening. Clearly we needed

To stock up on water and candles, making
Tureens of soup and things that keep
When electricity fails and phone lines fall.

Igloos rise on air conditioners, gargoyles
Fly and icicles shatter. Frozen runways,
Lines in markets, and paralyzed avenues

Verify every fear. But there is warmth
In this sudden desire to sleep,
To surrender to our common condition

With joy, watching hours of news
Devoted to weather. People finally stop
To talk to each other - the neighbors

We didn't know were always here.
Today they are ready for business,
Armed with a new vocabulary,

Casting their saga in phrases as severe
As last night's snow: damage assessment,
Evacuation, emergency management.

The shift of the wind matters again,
And we are so simple, so happy to hear
The scrape of a shovel next door.

from Mercury, 2001
Penguin Books

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I took a half day today... shouldn't have gone in in the first place, but I didn't have any sub plans written up, and I hate leaving people in the lurch. Besides, I have planning time periods 1 and 2, and I was only giving a test 3 and 4. I think it's been the flu all weekend. Sore back and ribs and sides, stuffy head, chills, stuff like that. It's always weird being home mid-day on a work day. Lots goes on outside of all of our jobs, and it has always been kind of mysterious to me, kind of like when I would leave the school grounds during high school. There's really a world out there that operates between 8 and 3? Generally when I see people enjoying the luxury of walking their dogs or jogging when I'm on my way to work, I swear under my breath, and wonder why they aren't heading to work. Obviously, just because they are out doesn't mean they don't have a job, but I somehow always think that. And I know that teachers get time in the summer, but I just read something where someone wrote that there aren't many jobs that are more mentally and physically labor intensive-- we have to be ON all day, every day, dealing with what seems like everything, sometimes. Last summer, I didn't ever fully unwind from all of the stress, but those kids are one year older now, and I don't have to deal with them except for occasionally in the halls. Anyhow, I just get this eerie feeling when I am home during the day. I don't watch tv much, and I don't even listen to the radio during the week days, so it's this silent world which leaves lots to wonder about. Or sleep through if you feel like I do right now.

Well, Stephen and Abbey are home, so I'm off.... Have a good week =)

McCarthy, Minnesotan

Remembering Eugene McCarthy

The hills are alive...

These are a few of my favorite things... (items not people mind you)

Aveda Light Elements Smoothing Fluid (yes, better than Hang Straight)
Oatmeal minty soap from Dunlaoghaire
A warm shower at about 9:30 on a bright day in the summer
with the bathroom light turned off
Victoria's Secret Balmy Days lip balm
My Grateful Dead/Willie Nelson and Trey ticket stubs
Barcelona (and being in Europe in general)
Reading excellent poetry, professional and student work
Minnesota/National Public Radio
specifically Cokie Roberts on Monday mornings at about 7:12 am
(just missed her this morning...)
Bright days, about 70 degrees and clear
My new Forester... rah, rah, rah it drives like such a trooper and keeps me safe
A good workout at Lifetime
Bluegrass music
Campfires and camping in general
Pad Thai
Good Indian food
Stephen's pan-smoked salmon
Election season... I LOVE election season

What are a few of your favOrite things?

sunday night

thanks to everyone who helped me celebrate on friday! seven bottles of wine and who knows how many beer bottles later... i really am thirty =) for the record, i slept by a plastic bowl all night, but i never had to use it. the surprise of the night: my parents showed up from minot! i didn't expect them to and didn't even entertain the notion that they would. they were in south dakota last week celebrating their anniversary, and we'll see them in a couple of weeks for christmas. so that was pretty cool! got some pretty cool stuff... chiang mai thai gc from jeremy, burt's bees lip assortment from paul and anna, hand-made scarves from lisa and nick, wine from my parents, marshall fields gc from jenny at work, notecards and cool post-its from christie at work, homemade bread from kim and seamus, a very cool card from amanda in minot, dessert snacks from jill, a cool package full of funny things from stephen's parents, assorted cards from relatives... a fleece robe from stephen and abbey. yea! it's different when you get older and don't expect anything. everything including the party is so appreciated.

so my niece, lauren, is just a kick lately! she will be two in mid february and has started talking a lot. of course, that means we all inundate her with requests to say our names and various sentences. at least we have moved on from imploring her to make barn animal sounds, which was our diversion for several months. this phase in her life makes me a little more excited to try to get [you know] next summer. i seem to go back and forth between being really freaked about a little baby and ok about it.

we took abbey to see the sound of music at eastview hs (apple valley) today. they did a great job, and it was fun for me to see lots of past students either acting or on the tech crew or pit orchestra lists. abbey has aspirations of acting, and i'd like to take her to so many more plays than we actually do. can't time slow down somehow?

the new vehicle>>> a 2003 subaru forester, silver. we got a great deal and will have some settlement money to put towards it. still, it sucks to have a car payment after having paid off both of our cars. i must admit that the subaru is a hell of a car! yes, nicer than a saturn wagon.

superhero journal
muse to muse
cool camera
post secret

and last but not least, i found myself writing an apology letter to parents of an off-again friend of abbey's. she got herself in hot water by using things we had said at home about their kid in a different way than we intended them when she spilled the beans in the guise of "my step-mom says that... and that's why i can't be friends with you." obviously none of us (parents) who said anything meant to be malicious when abbey would ask, "who is more __(fill in the blank)__, me or her?" but it still ended up hurting this kid. so that's that. when all was said and done, i felt bad enough to write a page full of apologies.

good enough to start the week...

Michannuel... has a nice ring...

For unto us a child was born and they called Her name Michannnuel -- meaning Michelle with us! Let us not ever forget that Michelle is with us:

• Even when they take Her name out of the schools (that would be at retirement)
• Even when they take Her name out of the pledges
(hmmm, pledge to MPR every year!)
• Even when they take Her name off the walls of buildings (graffiti?)
(oh, and they took down the big M sign in Minot, that obviously stood for, well,
Michelle... damn them)
• Even when they take Her name off our currency and coins
(ain't got a lot of that anyways...)
• Even when they take the most holy and highest name of all names and
blaspheme it (students who hate me? Abbey when she is a mad teenager?)

Father, let us never forget that it is because of KAREN and LARRY and Your gift of MICHELLE that we live today -- in Bill Clinton's name I pray Amen!
(because everyone knows that he should still be president...)

I suppose that was sac-religious... And here I am being naughty when my guardian angels were so good to me last week... in that I didn't get smacked on the highway after my car crash... because hitting a cement wall isn't enough... but everyone knows they helped out just because I didn't swear at all as I crashed, just repeated, "Oh my God" over and over. Really, it's true!

As a side note, if you are coming to my party on Friday, be ready to drink some wine. Mr. Geffre picked up enough for the whole neighborhood =)

easy come, easy go

easiest money i've ever gotten
for not eating cake!

i got paid 30 bucks
for driving south
thirty blocks.

they had run out of samples
by the time my shift came around,
so i got cash instead of calories.

Happy happy

Happy wedding anniversary, Mom and Dad =)
41 years of wedded bliss
and a few gray hairs from their lovely children...

Toby- 10 years

A note from my brother, Chris:

On december fifth 2005, it will have been ten years since we lost a
good friend, Toby Mock.  I would like to invite everybody who had
anything to do with him to join in a candle light vigil in memory,
alone or with friends, whatever you're comfortable with.  nine pm
central is when i'm going to light mine, please join me and get this
out to as many people as you can who you think would like to know,
never forget.  Peace - Shaff

cake eater

i don't have the heart to post a picture of my long lost saturn wagon... totaled wagon, that is. otherwise i would.

i AM feeling better each day. today i had to fill out a bunch of paperwork about the crash. i didn't know it was so hard to get into an accident. my knee is all shades of purple, but overall achy-wise, i'm better than i was on tuesday. of course, the pain pills may have something to do with that =)

in other news, i'm getting 30 bucks on tuesday night to take part in a 45-minute cake tasting survey. ha ha! who ever thought i'd get paid for eating cake! and on the same week as my 30th birthday nonetheless!