Weekend Plans

Jack and I are going to a friend's house to meet a new baby boy Friday night. On Saturday we will probably put out our Christmas decorations. I will make sure I post pics for all of you. Sunday will probably involve visiting with more friends. I have a planning meeting for the community group that I conduct. We are starting our season a little late due to some family emergencies for our manager/founder. What are you up to this weekend?

I had to check it out.

I'm not sure if they give this to everyone, but it's kinda fun to know. This means that you are all geniuses.

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Winter's Here

I guess Winter is here. It had to happen sometime I suppose.

8:43 PM

I actually didn't start the 2nd coat until about 5 PM. The painting is finished! I still have to put the blinds up and the outlet covers. What do you think? If you look at the moulding you will notice that I finally gave up trying to keep paint off of it. I'll have to paint that later.

Day 2 7:58 AM

I have already gathered the garbage for the trash guys, emptied the litterbox, made coffee and eaten breakfast. After a few cups of coffee I will ready to finish the kitchen. I will post "after" pics tonight!

9:55 PM

I am quitting for the evening. I have the first coat down on all of it and a second coat on half. I need to take care of the area behind the fridge tomorrow and finish the second coat and I will be finished! It looks a lot like chocolate milk. I'm not too crazy about it, but Jack likes it really well.

3:10 PM

Officially primed!

1:02 PM

I just finished cutting in the primer. This is going to be a long day.

8:47 AM

I've had 3 cups of coffee and I have realized that painter's tape does not stick to dirt. Darn. More work to prep before I get started on the fun stuff.

Kitchen Day 1

Here are some pics of the kitchen before I began my project.

This is the evening of Day 1. The "window treatments" came from our yard wrapped in a plastic bag. I am enjoying the color. By the way, I chickened out on the red. We went with Stone Brown instead.

Friday!

One of the greatest "perks" that teachers get is the occasional mini-vacation. Friday is my last day of school until the 26th. It's not paid vacation, but it sure is handy. My brain is TIRED!

Here are my plans for this wonderful, blessed time off: Saturday I will take Jack to breakfast at his favorite Creole restaurant, Lucile's Creole Cafe, in Longmont then go to a craft fair nearby. Saturday evening will be spent celebrating the defense of Lindsey's dissertation. Go Dr. Lindsey! Sunday will most likely be spent sleeping. Jack still has school on Monday and Tuesday so we will not leave to visit family until Wednesday. I haven't decided if I want to paint the kitchen merlot (a beautiful deep ruby color) or give the house an extra special cleaning. I may wait for the painting until December. I also need to squeeze in a visit to the dentist and a physical.

I'm a horrible procrastinator. Actually, I should say I'm a very good procrastinator. I have put off the physical and dental visits for a couple of years. The painting has been put off for three years now. I have had some burn-out with painting. The white walls are starting to drive me a little crazy so I will be painting in the near future. Those are my plans, what are yours?

Idea for a school mascot: The "Puritans"

How would you like to be at this school? The combination of internet chat rooms and no PDA's will make our society very Puritan. Hmm...

Songs that pull the heartstrings

Occasionally there are pieces that the mere mention of which causes my throat to close and tears to form in the corners of my eyes. One such piece is Barber's Adagio for Strings. I was thinking about this great piece during my commute to work this morning. I felt my throat close and the tears forming as I was driving. This is definitely not the piece to think about while driving on I-25 for various reasons. Other pieces that make me unable to drive are: Un Bel di (Madame Butterfly) actually any Puccini will send me over the edge, Cat Stevens Father and Son, and any Luciano Pavarotti (because of his recent death). I don't know if I am more sensitive than the general public, but these pieces totally incapacitate me. I am not functional during and for about 1/2 an hour after listening to these pieces. Do you have works that cause you to be so lost in the emotion that you are no longer functional?

Trouble in Town

Apparently two schools in my district were closed today because of this. My school is not close to this area of town. The schools themselves are fine, it's just your run-of-the-mill SWAT situation in the neighborhood. Again, my school is fine.

I love my Ipod!

There are some really great uses for the Ipod, aside from the obvious listening to music or watching movies. Jack is using my Ipod to record his graduate classes by using a mic that plugs into the bottom of the Ipod. It records directly on to the Ipod and we can download it to our computer to share or burn to disc. This is pretty cool when you think about it from the standpoint of a music teacher. I can record auditions for kids on my Ipod, take it home and download the sound file onto my computer, then burn it to disc to send to wherever it needs to go. I can record rehearsals and concerts for later study, as well. I have stumbled upon some great Podcasts in my adventures. I have about 200 Podcasts dealing mainly with percussion and trombone-playing (David might like the trombone podcasts).

I found a pretty funny podcast called "Opera Now" (it cannot possibly be related to the British magazine of the same name). This Podcast was a strange blend of no budget and major pretentiousness. I found it humorous because these people were being so catty about different productions and singers, but the "host" kept losing the connection with the "panelists". Apparently they were having a rough day with Skype. You could clearly hear phones ringing and other distractions in the background. At least one of the panelists didn't know that she was a panelist. The host called her to ask about a production and just kept her on as an impromptu member of the panel. People kept leaving and coming back in again. I was imagining a guy in his mother's basement running his little podcast at his "command center." You should check it out in Itunes, but not too closely. Anyway...

What I need now is a video out cable that can go from the Ipod to a projector (In-Focus) and amplifier so I can show my students some of these really cool video podcasts. I won't share "Opera Now".