Wednesday, November 28, 2007
guess what musical we saw
if you can read sign language (which was modified a little) you should be able to figure out what we saw.
and i have to say that we really liked it! thanks jay for bringing us there!
and i’ll post my commentary and the other crazy pictures later…
any guesses?
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
learning to ride a motorcycle
so marlene and i signed up for honda’s motorcycle safety class since we didn’t have any work this whole week for thanksgiving break. we had so much fun and we both passed our skills test today!
here we are goofing off in our new helmets
marlene on one of her first rides on the bike
and me on one of my first rides on the bike
it was definitely a fun 2-day class and i’d definitely recommend it to anyone! and it was definitely a workout! my arms and legs and back ache…
oh, and in a few days i’ll take the written test at the dmv and have my motorcycle license. isn’t that cool? =)
Monday, November 19, 2007
burnt fuse
so my lights kept on going out on wednesday and on sunday night, and the fuse wouldn’t stay on, even though the lights would come back on when i would trip the fuse. and the fuse sounded like it was sizzling and the fuse smelled real bad!
well… here’s why!
thank goodness the fuse got replaced today!
i bought a fire extinguisher too because i just realized i didn’t have one.
i’m happy because i feel safe now =)
Friday, November 16, 2007
things i did not know about girl dogs
so i ended up taking home this girl yesterday just to see how she did in my house, and i was right about the yard situation. the gap from the fence to the ground is wayyyy too big in some places and she’ll just escape from her cement prison if i leave her out there all alone. it’s been interesting cuz i haven’t had to take care of a dog in a while so it all sorta feels vaugely new, and then i realized i have never ever ever had a girl dog. i’m sure some of the differences between her and my previous dogs are just personality differences, but a key one comes from being female.
i walked her before bedtime, and she sniffed all over the place - but she didn’t mark any bushes!! i was so confused as we walked past the first bush. she is insanely curious and thoroughly inspected our house when she came home, and apparently she did that on the outside too. but she didn’t bother lifting her leg - she just continued walking on. WEIRD!
speaking of lifting her leg, she also doesn’t lift her leg to go pee. i guess this makes sense cuz even human males and females pee in different positions, but i had never just thought about it before. she hunkered down and so i thought she was gonna poo and then she got up and walked off and i’m like… huh? where’s the poo at?!? i can’t see it!!! apparently she had just gone pee.
she didn’t try to cover her poo by scratching the grass either… is that a male thing only or a breed thing?
and apparently if she’s not fixed she will have her time of the month - about 2 times a year. i think she’d have to get fixed to be able to stay here cuz i dunno if i can handle a menstruating dog.
other than that, she’s definitely curious, yet she’s still… shy? is that the right word? skittish would be more accurate. every new person that comes into the house she wants to approach and sniff, but if they act like they want to pet her, she will run away! maybe that’s because of previous owners or something, but at least she has -always- opened up eventually and let that person pet her. she’s very loving and affectionate.
and smart. she’s very smart. or at least, very obedient. every time i have said no to her she has listened. there’s already parts of the house that are off limits to her (like my walk-in closet) and after my first “no”, she sat outside it patiently watching me, waiting for me to come back out. i taught her to climb our stairs and she seemed scared of it at first, but after the first time up, she has gone up and down no problem. i even taught her the command “stay” today when i was leaving for work. she tried to follow me out the door and i told her “sit”. she sat, but then stood up as soon as i turned away. i said no, and she sat right down when i said stay, and stayed there until the door closed. she’s already potty-trained (which i’m sure is due to the previous owner) but man… it is just a joy to have a tiny “puppy” in your house that already knows all of that stuff! she seems like a puppy cuz she’s brand new and so tiny, but i’m sure she’s much older than that.
i know i won’t have her for very long, apparently we’re just a foster home, but still, i wanna teach her some tricks and be her foster mommy and her babysitter. silly, is it?
anyways, here’s a photo of her looking like a kangaroo asleep on our couch. enjoy!
by that way, any suggestion for names? we haven’t come up with anything fitting and we’re just calling her “doggie” or “baby girl”.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
learn to drive, people!
or just learn to be courteous, at least!
so every morning as i drive to school there is inevitably some parent stopped in front of the driveway for the faculty parking lot.
never mind that they also stop at the green left turn light, as soon as they cross the intersection, dropping their kids off while all the cars behind them that are also turning get stuck in the intersection.
never mind that the kids walk all over the street, ignoring traffic signals, no matter if that means you get stuck in the intersection behind them.
EVERY SINGLE TIME i’ve driven to school there has been someone blocking the driveway. even the time that i got to school early at 6:30 and there were no cars in the street except for me and the car blocking me. and i’m not even exaggerating! i’m guessing the mom thought she was the only person in the street so she had pulled into the driveway and stopped and was saying bye to her kid. i drive up and sit there waiting for her to move her car outta the way. ugh.
today was the worst, though! i got stuck in the intersection. then when i got up to the faculty parking lot, there was someone parked there. ok… i guess that’s standard. and then when that car drove away, the car behind it pulled up, stopped in front of the driveway, and then dropped off their kid THE WHOLE TIME BLOCKING ME FROM ENTERING THE DRIVEWAY, EVEN THOUGH I WAS SITTING THERE WITH MY LEFT TURN SIGNAL BLINKING!! and then all these cars had built up behind it so when that parent was done, i had to wait for all the cars to get out of my way. the last car in the line started slowing down right before the driveway and i was thinking - hmm… maybe she’s gonna let me in!
NO! she stopped right in front of the driveway! i looked behind me to see if she was waiting for the line of cars to move and she had a 50ft gap between her and the car in front of her! she was just stopping at the right spot to block me from turning left.
gRRRRRR!!!
OH MY GOSH PEOPLE LEARN TO DRIVE!!! OR JUST LEARN TO BE COURTEOUS!!!! OR JUST STAY OUTTA MY WAY!!
please.
thank you!
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
up for adoption
so this dog was abandoned into my friends’ yard and they’ve gone around the neighborhood and no one has claimed it.
she’s the sweetest, the quietest (they haven’t heard her bark yet!), and the most loving dog… she was hiding under the chair because the other two dogs were intimidating her.
i picked her up and she cuddled under my arm and hid there for a while, and the dogs were jealous of her on my lap
look at her falling asleep in my arms…
and then falling asleep in her arms…
everyone i’ve talked to has said it is such a cute adorable dog… but they can’t adopt her. i would take her in but i have no yard and i think that’s cruel, especially since the 10 sq ft of patio that i do have is always in the sun during the day. for being a tiny chihuahua mix she’s amazingly non-yippy and calm.
can you adopt her?
Sunday, November 04, 2007
what do i do with all this time?
this last week has been pretty busy… it was the last week of the season and we had to make up a game from the week before because of the fires, so we had 3 games this week. i didn’t leave work till 7pm on monday, 9pm on tuesday, 6pm on wednesday, 7pm on thursday after planning senior night for the girls’ last game, and then just when you think it’d get better, i had to be at school at 6:30am on friday for a CMC conference in palm springs, so that was a 12 hour day too, and then i went there again on saturday for another 10 hours. it’s also the end of the quarter so all the grades are due tomorrow morning so i spent today trying to catch up on all that paperwork which i haven’t had time for… -sigh- yeah.... that means i worked a 7-day workweek (70 hours at school plus all the grading i’m doing today) and am starting the next week tomorrow so that will be 12 consecutive days. yeesh! at least this week will (hopefully) be less hectic because of the end of the volleyball season. i still have to plan a few more activities with them though…
however, now that the volleyball season is over, i think i’m gonna have an unprecedented amount of time on my hands… i’m done teaching at 1:30 and then i have an hour to get all my work graded and recorded and prepared for the next day, which is -totally- doable if i stay focused. that means at 2:30, when school lets out, i will be free until 6am the next day.
some of the things i want to do with my time:
- learn tagalog
- pursue a math degree (at csusb?)
- get back into doing pottery (which would involve picking up my pottery wheel from carynn’s house
- work out and play sports in the drayson center (thus making some friends who share the same hobbies as me)
- do more photography
- learn to cook more creatively
i almost bought a tagalog language book today but we’ll have to work on that some other way. maybe tagalog movies?
what i’ll probably end up doing first:
- playing my wii
- sleeping a lot to catch up from this 7-day work week with 12-hour days. sheesh. i worked half of this week!
- eating out more often because i can actually afford it now!
once the novelty of being able to nap wears off, i’m sure i’ll be motivated to be more active =)
but the only thing on my list that relates to this blog is that i will try to go back to posting my “photo of the day”. i’ll have to grow into it incrementally so i’ll probably start off with 2 photos weekly. i’m gonna start participating in “photofriday“ and other weekly photo contests.
and now that i’ve told you i’ll (hopefully) start doing it. yay for more hobbies!! =)
i’ll start off with just a few pictures of my friends. nothing horribly artistic but just a few of the ones i had on my camera from this weekend.
at the pizza party
at mu
and at mu again
and now… i have to get back to grading papers. urgh.
UPDATE: approx. 5 hours later… i’m done grading the pile on the left. the pile on the right is loose papers from students (who KNOW i don’t collect late work). now all i have to do is record it all and the report the grades back to the school. --sigh--
Thursday, November 01, 2007
finishing off the season with a bang!
tonight was “senior night” for my volleyball varsity - basically, it’s our last game and the last game that the seniors play on a high school varsity volleyball team. my girls were on fire tonight and they did so awesome!
i got them flowers, and the jv team gave them goodie bags, and the freshman team gave the balloons, and they each said something nice about each one of them. it was real cute!
and then after all of that, then they gave me a poster that they all signed and a bouquet of roses. oh, and a bag of doritos and 2 cans of pringles just for me =) hahahah… do they know me or what?
anyways, here the picture i took of the flowers and the poster they made:
i’m sad the season is over but i’m so glad we did so good!! =)
UPDATE: We tied for 3rd place with Arroyo Valley. Sweet!! We placed!! with more wins than last year! Puh-retty good for a first time coach, eh? =)