my life

Elizabeth's World

Andrew's World

Susie's World

Jim's World

benicetobears

Thursday, November 14, 2002 06:39 p.m.
I attended a thoroughly wonderful conference today about Family Literacy. This is not, as you may think, parents reading with children, although that is a component. It is educating parents in order that they can help educate their children and be involved in and informed about their children's education. Basically it was aimed at families where the parents have less than a high school education, and probably read at a level far below that (did anybody know that 42%!! of Maine adults fall into that category?). It really had very little practical application to what I'm doing right now, but it really made me want to get my ass in gear and get back to school so I can get into the public schools and actually address issues like this. In retrospect, it may have been a mistake for my boss to pay for me to go to this conference. ;)

Monday, November 11, 2002 07:03 p.m.
The weather now officially has my body completely confused. How can I be looking forward to winter when its 70 degrees out?

And what a great Patriots game last night. I truly thought they were done at 27-6. Glad I kept watching. I've heard from several people who didn't.

Thursday, November 7, 2002 09:08 p.m.
For some reason there is no heat in my living room. I have cranked up the heat in the rest of my apartment in an effort to awaken the radiator in the living room, but to no avail. So I am sitting here with frozen toes anticipating the need to strip as I move into other parts of the house. This is a periodic problem in my apartment. On any given day I can never be sure when and where I will get heat, or to what temperature it will warm my apartment, as the thermostat also seems to be somewhat tempermental. I can't wait until I own my own place since then when things don't work at least I will know it's because I forgot to fill the oil tank or something.

Tuesday, November 5, 2002 09:11 p.m.
I took my sister to vote tonight. Hard to believe she's old enough. I'm not sure that she made the most responsible votes (she didn't even know who was running in the local races), but she was quite proud of herself for voting. I'm proud of her too, since I think it's very easy keep voting once you start. It's just hard to get started. So now she's started and hopefully she'll keep on voting.

Going to vote tonight really reinforced my desire to live in a small town always. I knew all of the people who were working there, and half of the people who were voting. Abby didn't have to show any ID to register...if they didn't need the paperwork they probably wouldn't have even needed her to fill out the registration card, since everybody there had known her since she was little. I like that kind of atmosphere. I like everybody knowing who I am. I hate being nameless.

Monday, November 4, 2002 09:40 p.m.
It was an excellent weekend. I got to spend some quality time with my favorite cousin and cousin-in-law (even though he did beat me constantly). And I came home with a box full of exciting books that will enable me to save hundreds of dollars on books over the next year or so, since it will take that long for me to read all of them. And to top it all off, the Patriots won a good game against Buffalo.

And today it snowed. Not a nice happy snow, but it was snow. I like snow. I'm really excited that they're predicting a couple of inches for later this week. I feel like last winter was kind of a bust. Maybe this winter we'll have several feet of snow. :)

Monday, October 28, 2002 08:02 p.m.
Had a pretty rewarding day at work today. One of my guys wrote his name entirely independently for the first time as far as I know. That was cool. And my other munchkin got approved to stay at the school for another year without any objections from his home school district, which is super cool. Its so gratifying to have schools willing to admit that they are not equipped to educate our students, instead of trying to fight to keep the kids in public school even if they won't be learning anything.

Saturday, October 26, 2002 09:59 p.m.
I'm glad that I am a member of a family that never seems to forget how to laugh. I'm glad that all of my family absolutely delights in looking after each other. And I'm especially glad that that, as my brother said so eloquently, "Grampa was perfect".

Thursday, October 24, 2002 09:47 p.m.
Yet more evidence that Reagan was actually the devil: tonight's Frontline on PBS detailed how the Reagan-appointed transportation board conspired to cover up the inherent safety defects in early SUVs and lobbied against legislation to require better fuel efficiency in them. An interesting story. One that makes me wonder what the hell I was thinking when I decided to buy an SUV (even a small one, which is how I justified it to myself).

Sunday, October 20, 2002 07:56 p.m.
Today was such a beautiful day. I love fall days like this, with the sun shining and making all the leaves look pretty. Sometimes I think its my favorite time of year. But then as soon as I think that I remember how wonderful the world looks early on a summer morning when the sun is just coming up, or in the spring when all the trees are blooming, or in the winter when there's ice on the trees. When I think of stuff like that I absolutely cannot pick a favorite time of year. I guess I'm okay with that. I mean, if I had a favorite then I would really be less able to enjoy the rest of the year.

I'm glad I got to go up to Farmington this weekend. There's something about being there that really centers me, even when the stuff that has me off balance originates there. Somehow all is right with the world when I'm sitting in the house listening to everyone talk and joke about family history or the state of the world today.

Wednesday, October 16, 2002 09:07 p.m.
Have you ever had a day that just seemed kind of "off"? Where nothing really went wrong and the kids actually behaved better than normal most of the day, but for some reason everything just didn't feel quite right? I had one of those days today. I just found out what was wrong. Way to mess up my week.

Monday, October 14, 2002 09:31 a.m.
I just love Mondays off. It's sooo nice to go to bed on Sunday night knowing that I don't have to get up in the morning. If I am ever in a position to dictate my own work schedule, I'm definitely going for the three day weekend. (Not that that will ever happen because elementary school teachers are generally expected to be in the classroom on Monday mornings, but I can always dream, can't I?)

Went up to camp for a couple of hours yesterday to see Ethan and Aly who spent the weekend up there. It was chilly, but it was also nice and foggy and drizzly in a way that is only pleasant when you're at camp sitting in front of the fire, eating fresh-made apple pie. For anyone who's interested there was a family of about 10 mice (and babies) living in the dish closet. It was quite a sight. They're probably all dead now though, because we D-Con-ed them. That'll be fun to clean up next weekend.

Sunday, September 29, 2002 09:02 p.m.
Well, it was a disappointing game all around. How sad that the Pats hugest weakness has now been exposed for all the world to see. And how strange that they still haven't found a way to defend against the run if their lives depended on it. And its also too bad that they couldn't manage to convert anything on offense today. Maybe last week wasn't enough of a wake up call. Maybe this week will do it for them.

In other news, for those who were worried, I have now put the trash out on the curb and can begin to once again live a clean life.

Wednesday, September 25, 2002 08:30 p.m.
It's amazing how missing a trash day can immediately lead to living in squalor. I haven't done dishes in a week, there's papers all over my apartment, and I haven't actually thrown anything out in five days (it's just sitting wherever it landed). And all because I missed trash day on Monday.

Friday, September 20, 2002 08:17 a.m.
Well, congratulate me everyone. I am now significantly poorer than I was two days ago. I am however the proud owner of a 99 RAV4, so life isn't all bad. Actually, my bank now owns a RAV4, and they just let me drive it, as long as I continue to pay them ridiculous amounts of money every month. That will last, as long as I can live on Ramen.

Sunday, September 15, 2002 07:29 p.m.
Well I've spent a wonderful day doing absolutely nothing but reading the paper and watching football. The paper was interesting (I was reading the Times, which is why it took me all day) and the football was nothing short of amazing. Kind of unnatural to see the Jets fall apart so completely. So completely that even though every Pats drive took about 8 minutes, they still couldn't keep the score down to reasonable levels. Imagine how bored the Pats defense must have been today. I think they only played about 15 minutes of the whole game. The only downside to this second overwhelming win in a row is that teams are finally going to start taking them seriously, and that could make the road a little rougher for them. But I have faith. I think they've got a damn good chance at the Super Bowl.

Friday, September 13, 2002 07:59 p.m.
Ahh, the glorious weekend!! Two full days of not having to listen to kids whining "Mrs. Morin! Mrs. Morin!!" At least the whiney ones haven't figured out my name yet. Only the cool kindergarteners. Whatever am I going to do when I'm actually a kindergarten teacher and the whiney kids know my name? I'm afraid I'll end up belting them all over the head. I guess I'm going to have to work on patience.

Thursday, September 12, 2002 06:46 p.m.
I truly truly despise being sick. I'm such a baby about it really. I get a little runny nose and my world might as well be ending. But there's just nothing worse than waking up in the morning and knowing that you're not nearly sick enough to stay home, but you are definitely sick enough to be feeling truly miserable all day long. I felt a little better today than I did yesterday though, so maybe I am on the mend.

In other news, I wish I had been able to stay awake to watch the Pats game this week. I watched the first quarter, and then listened to the rest of the half on the radio before I fell asleep. What a great way to start the season: by rubbing the Steelers noses in their obvious inferiority. :)

Life at school continues at its leisurely pace. Nothing exciting to outsiders has happened in a while. Unless you count that we finally have two speech therapists who really seem to want to work with the kids. (Our old speech person never really did anything for the kids at all. We're glad she's gone.)

Thursday, September 5, 2002 06:53 p.m.
This week has been terribly long. Strange, since it's a short week, but somehow it always seems to work out like that. Four day weeks are always the hardest to get through. But tomorrow is Friday. Yippee!! I wonder what I'm going to do this weekend. I've had people to entertain me on the weekends for a long time, and now that Abby and Tommy are back to school they won't even be able to entertain me. Maybe I'll have to go get myself that cat I've been promising myself for months and months. Maybe I'll go to the movies. Maybe I'll do something truly wild and crazy. I don't know what that would be though. I'll have to think about it.

Wednesday, August 28, 2002 08:27 p.m.
First day of kindergarden today!! It went really well. I was really proud of Eric. He did better than a lot of the other kids. (Of course, this wasn't really his first day of kindergarden - he did it last year too, but he did such a good job!) So now the nervousness is over with since I've made it through the first day, and now I can just concentrate on really getting used to Eric and helping him make it through the year.

So Mary and Kathy are arriving tomorrow afternoon. I'm afraid I won't be the greatest hostess, since I have to work on Friday, and I'm going to be totally beat on Saturday after this week of hell at work. I'm glad they're not the demanding sort. I'll just have to come up with some suggestions for them for stuff to do on Friday.

Monday, August 26, 2002 08:40 p.m.
I just rearranged my living room. I did it because I think I'm going to be trading computers with Ethan and he has a desktop, so I had to come up with someplace to put a big computer. The former configuration of my apartment did not have space for a desktop. I think it can be done now. I switched my desk and a bookshelf, so now the desk is in the living room, by the phone jack. I think overall the rearrangement makes my living room look a little more crowded, but also a little cozier. I'm not entirely sure if I like it yet, but I've got a couple of days to decide. If I don't like it I'll just have to have Ethan come over and help me re-rearrange.

Sunday, August 25, 2002 07:58 p.m.
I went running with Abby today. Actually, she ran; I kind of panted along behind her. We ran on the cross country trail up at Grandma and Grandpa's house. It made me renew my resolution to get back into shape. Maybe this winter I will be healthy enough to actually work at getting in shape.

In other news, don't you hate it when you're reading a series of books and you get to the fourth one and the author seems to have completely forgotten everything she wrote in the first one? It drives me nuts.

Saturday, August 24, 2002 05:07 p.m.
I think I'm going to have to buy cable.

This is a new low point in my life.

Thursday, August 22, 2002 08:43 p.m.
Wow, talk about nutty. This week has been totally crazy.

I have a new student, starting tomorrow. Tomorrow I'm actually going to have to deal with my current student, and my new little guy. I was supposed to have my last day with Melissa today and have it out with her about my leaving, but she inconveniently didn't show up at school today. So I have to go in tomorrow and have a long talk with her, and then switch immediately. Tomorrow is going to be wacky.

I'm super tired. I've been at my parents for dinner every night this week until tonight. And they eat late - at like 8:30 or later. I go to bed at 9. (Doesn't something seem wrong about that: my parents are eating dinner when I'm already in bed? Somehow I've aged past my parents.) So tonight I'm finally going to bed on time. It will be good. I will get lots of sleep. And I will feel much better and refreshed for the craziness of tomorrow.

Monday, August 19, 2002 04:46 p.m.
It was so nice to go up to camp this weekend, even if it was for less than 24 hours. It's always a wonderful time when I get to go up there. Only problem: since I spent the better part of my weekend up in Farmington, it meant that once again, I did not do any laundry. That makes two weeks in a row that I haven't done laundry. I have completely run out of acceptable hot weather clothes to wear (and I've even worn some of my shirts twice!). I guess I'm going to have to wash some stuff tonight. Blah. Doing laundry is such a pain. I can't wait until I have my own washer and dryer. That would make me really happy.

Tuesday, August 13, 2002 08:35 p.m.
I had a super good visit with Kim this weekend. I'm so glad she decided to make Matt do the packing and came up to visit me instead of getting ready to move! :) The only problem with her visit was that the plans for her departure weren't really well thought out. Long story short, I had to leave home at 6:15 this morning to get her to the bus in Portland in time for me to get back to work on time. Should have thought about that one a little more carefully. Especially since her flight out of Logan wasn't until 1:45.

I'm getting a little sick of miserable hottness. I'm just about ready for some nice crisp cool fall air. A few September-ish days would put me in a much improved mood. We're taking a bunch of the kids to a Sea Dogs game tomorrow. I'm thinking I may just die of the heat.

There is a toaser oven sitting on my desk. Maybe this weekend I will get around to rearranging the kitchen to make room for my favorite new appliance. And I'll have to find space for the super cool vacuum my mom got me too. It's a really nice one, even better than Elizabeth's (also a present from my mom) since mine has a HEPA filter. Thank god I won't have any more of those pesky HEPAs running around the house.

Thursday, August 8, 2002 10:04 p.m.
Man, I keep staying up late on Thursdays. It makes Fridays go by so slowly. At least this week I didn't drink myself into oblivion. I went to the Motocross up at Oxford Plains. It wasn't quite worth the $15 I shelled out, but it was fun.
Now to bed and then work again tomorrow. Its Friday, which is such a wonderful thing.

Monday, August 5, 2002 04:35 p.m.
I'm not a big fan of control freaks. So why, oh why, do I end up working with so many of them?

I'm getting a new student in a couple of weeks - I'm switching out of my older girl's program (which gets me away from her control freak case manager - who I actually do like, but nonetheless is a control freak) and into a younger boy's program. He's a wicked cutie, and I think it's going to be a lot of fun working with him. However, a former teacher of his is a total control freak. EVERYTHING has to be under her control. Including his program, even though she hasn't been involved in it at all for at least two months. So that means that nothing I do with him is ever going to be right in her eyes, because its not her that's doing it. And joy of joys, I get to work with him while she's in the room, because she has a student who is in the same classroom. I'm really not at all looking forward to it. At least not that part of it. I'm really looking forward to working with this kid. He's a riot.

Saturday, August 3, 2002 09:46 p.m.
I made curtains today. It made me feel all domestic and capable. Maybe I'll make curtains more often from now on. :)

Saturday, August 3, 2002 09:58 a.m.
So here's the thing: getting drunk on Thursday nights is fun and all, but it really makes Friday mornings hell.

I went out to my friend Sara's house Thursday night to continue a bitch session with one of our coworkers, and to have "A" drink. It turned into six or seven (maybe more, I have no idea). I'm trying to tell myself I'll never do it again, but I try not to make promises like that to myself, because I always break them. It's almost guaranteed that there will again come a time when I drag myself into work hung over, wishing that it was Saturday and that I hadn't been so stupid as to get trashed on a school night. I wish it wouldn't happen again, but it probably will. Because the truth of the matter is, as awful as I felt yesterday morning, I've felt worse before, and plus, now that I feel fine, it makes for a great story. :)

Thursday, August 1, 2002 11:55 p.m.
I have decided once and for all: boys are stupid.

Wednesday, July 31, 2002 08:23 p.m.
There is a definite overabundance in my life of boys who have an inability to communicate. At least they are unable to communicate with me on any sort of time table that I feel falls within the realm of reality.

This is not to say that I think I myself am any sort of Great Communicator (God forbid), but would it kill a guy to call, when he has me on speed dial, after he's gotten three messages from me? How come I get all the duds? Could I have been right all along- boys suck? I knew I was onto something back in second grade when I was sure boys had cooties. How did I forget that important piece of info?

Monday, July 29, 2002 08:00 p.m.
Elizabeth, I like your made-up job idea. Can I work for you? I would love to read with the kiddos. And recommend books. And watch bad movies. :)

Friday, July 26, 2002 05:17 p.m.
I just thought I'd let the world know that I discovered last night that I am able to get NBC and ABC on my tv. This was a big discovery. Possibly a bad thing, since I'd been doing pretty well with only CBS and PBS, but a very exciting thing. Especially because I really really don't like the channel 13 news, so I'm really happy that I can watch Joe and Kevin, my favorite weathermen in the whole world, again.

Tuesday, July 23, 2002 06:05 p.m.
I guess its been quite a while. I finished out my wonderful conference, and had a lovely week vacation up at camp. For the whole week I did absolutely nothing except read, play solitare, do crosswords, sleep, and listen to loons. And now I'm back at work, and there's lots and lots to do. But it's not so bad really. My older girl has been quite loveable the past two days, and my little guy is always the cutest thing on earth, even when I want to wring his neck. I'm so happy that I have a job that I love. I don't know what I would do if I had to get up every day and go into a job that I hated.

Also, as several people are already aware, my love life has heated up, from absolute zero to about lukewarm. In my world, this is very exciting. Hopefully things will continue on a warmer path.

Thursday, July 11, 2002 06:26 p.m.
I know I expound upon how much I love my work on here quite often, but today I have a new reason to love it. The whole staff of the school is being sent to a three day conference (today, tomorrow, and Saturday) on Teaching Verbal Behavior. Today was absolutely the most fun I have ever had sitting listening to a 8.5 hour lecture. In fact, it was more fun than I've had doing a few more enjoyable things too. I got so much out of today's conference. And there are two more days to go! All of us teachers have grand plans to go back after vacation and completely revamp all our kids' programs. I'm very happy about it.

Saturday, July 6, 2002 05:39 p.m.
Sometimes people really annoy me. Mostly exes and certain boys who claim they will call and then never do.

Wednesday, July 3, 2002 06:32 p.m.
So for all who were wondering, this weather is the real reason why I won't live anywhere else but Maine. I could easily be a hermit somewhere else, and I could probably even find nice people who wouldn't bother me near an ocean someplace else. However, everywhere else in the world it gets hotter than this. And I can't stand it. Plus up here, this weather only happens once every summer, and I get to spend the rest of the summer complaining about how cold it is. :) I like that. I don't like endless days of unbearable heat where I have to retreat into air conditioning or die. I'd much rather have three months of 72 degrees thank you very much.

In other news, tomorrow is the annual 4th of July gathering up at Varnum's and I'm very excited about that. There will be canoe rides and Andrew will probably fall out of the canoe, and everybody else will "fall in" the water, and there will be too much food and lots of clam dip and bizarre arguments about things like how to drain water from the camp road and whether there should be more tabasco sauce in the clam dip. My family at its best. I love it. :)

Tuesday, July 2, 2002 06:05 p.m.
Damn its hot.

And that's pretty much all I have to say, except that Kim just promised me a visit sometime in the next few months, and that makes me very happy indeed....despite the heat.

Monday, July 1, 2002 05:17 p.m.
First things first: a belated happy anniversary to Eliz. and Andrew. I did not forget, I just did not have access to a computer to post that here. And I thought about calling, but I decided I would leave you in peace for one day. :)

It is very hot and steamy, making me unhappy. I like hot and not steamy. Even hot and steamy is okay when I have some water to jump into, but that, alas, is not available to me right now. Blah.

This weekend I read an excellent book about waitressing. I know, I know, you now all think I'm totally off my rocker, but hear me out. It was by this woman who has been a waitress for over twenty years and she wrote about all the good and the bad stuff. I very much identified with everything she had to say. It made me want to be waitressing again. I may do it. I may try for someplace other than Friendly's, that might be good for my sanity, but I do kinda miss waitressing. I'll have to think about it. Plus the money would be great. An extra couple hundred bucks a week would not be bad at all. :)

Saturday, June 29, 2002 09:16 p.m.
What a beautiful day today was! I went to the beach with Abby this afternoon and it was truly wonderful. The air was just the right temperature so that the breeze made everything feel perfect. Even the water was nice, although it wasn't quite warm enough to stay in for long. I'll have to wait for August for that. But I think I got a little sunburn, which is okay since it will fade to tan. It makes me happy, since now I am no longer glowing white.

In other news, once upon a time a certain person called me and told me that we would be hanging out next week for the 4th. This was a definite plan. In a subsequent call, he asked me if I would like to maybe hang out on the 4th. In his most recent communication, he said to call him if I have time next week. How do I interpret this? Is he retracting his invitation? Has he forgotten that he invited me? Does he think I didn't want to hang out with him and is trying to backpeddle? I don't get it. Someone please explain to me the inner workings of the male mind. I just don't get it.

Heather, I love you and I hope you're having a good weekend!

Friday, June 28, 2002 09:51 p.m.
Three of us took two of the kids to Old Orchard today. Two of the most hyperactive kids on the planet. And guess what happened as soon as we got to the beach. A deluge of true biblical proportions began. It could not possibly have been raining any harder. It was the most ridiculous trip to the beach I have ever been on in my life.

My sister is going to steal my computer for a month. I just told her she could take it with her to Brandeis. So I will once again be forced to do all of my Internet communication from my parents' house. I'm such a pushover. I told her she's gonna owe me big when she gets back, but the chances of my ever actually collecting on that are slim to none. Closer to none than slim.

In other sibling news, all three of them have actually been sitting at home all week with nothing to do (Ethan had his wisdom teeth out so he hasn't been going in to work). It's been rather hot this week. Normal people, sitting at my house in the heat would do at least one, if not both, of two possible things: recall from past experience, or even just physics class, that moving air is cooler than still air and get the fans out; or notice that there is a large resevoir-type construction, often called a "pool," in the back yard that could potentially be filled with water in which to cool off, and go swimming. My siblings did neither of these things. Instead they sat inside and complained about the heat. I think there are one or two neurons that just aren't firing. Why would you do that? I just don't get it.

Wednesday, June 26, 2002 07:35 p.m.
Today has been a good day. Both my kids had great days today, for the first time in forever. They were both in a good mood too. I love good days like today. And to top it off, I just got a telemarketer call from a guy who actually sounded like he had a personality. Not that telemarketer calls are generally good, but this guy sounded like he genuinely believed what he was telling me. I actually felt bad about turning him down.

On the down side of today, I don't have any fans in my apartment, because it hasn't been anywhere near hot enough to need them, and now it is very uncomfortably hot here. And I'll have to wait until tomorrow to get the fans. Damn.

Tuesday, June 25, 2002 08:43 p.m.
It's Tuesday, and it's already been a long week. But really, I just have to make it through this week and then I have two short weeks and a week of vacation. That will make me very very happy.

I seem to have an unending and insatiable desire for more books. I went to Elizabeth and Andrew's last night and I took a couple of books from them. And I want more books. I still have a bunch of books on my shelves that I haven't read (and a lot of them look like they'll be pretty good when I get around to it: "The Art of Courtly Love", "Witchcraft in Europe 400-1700", both obviously from school), but there's always more that I want or need. My wish list on Amazon is getting pretty long. I've managed to restrain myself from buying most of the books so far, but one of these days I'm going to break down and spend a couple of hundred dollars on all of them.

I told myself that I was going to do dishes tonight, because all of my favorite glasses are dirty, but I don't think I'm actually going to do it. I'll have to use less wonderful glasses tomorrow morning again. Oh well.

Sunday, June 23, 2002 09:33 p.m.
What a nice visit today with Elizabeth and Andrew and Mack. I'm so glad Mack came down. I haven't had a chance to hang out with him in a long time. I hope he's really planning on moving up here something in the near future. He's been talking about it for years, maybe he's really going to do it in the next year or so.

I wish I didn't have to work tomorrow. I wish weekends were three days long. I need another day to get ready for work. And I gotta get the trash together. What a pain.

Saturday, June 22, 2002 01:12 a.m.
i give bad advice when i'm drunk. i shouldn't do that anymore.

Thursday, June 20, 2002 07:38 a.m.
Note to self: Don't let Tommy drive my car in crowded parking lots.

I think I took a year or two off my life last night in the car with Tom. He had me take him golfing (and I did because I felt bad for him since he'd been stuck at home alone all day) and I even promised him I'd let him drive home. Driving my car is a special treat for him since it's a standard. However, Tommy is still not too smooth driving my car and his first task was to get himself out of the crowded parking lot. Now my car also has a challenge in addition to the three pedals in that it doesn't have power steering, so even though my car is very little you still have to muscle it around at very low speeds, such as when attempting to back out of a parking space. For Tommy, this was almost too much. I think he may have bumped one of the cars, but after about 5 minutes he was in the clear. And he did fine the rest of the way home. But I think next time I let him drive, I'm going to start him off in a wide open space.

Monday, June 17, 2002 06:52 p.m.
Okay, so it's been almost a month since I've written anything in here. My apologies to everyone who checks this site daily to make sure I'm alive. The reason I haven't written is because I haven't had internet access at my apartment, so anything internet-ish required a trip to my parents house and a fight with a sibling over use of the computer. But today I finally got my act together and set up access here, so now I'm comfortably sitting on my ugly couch in my own apartment, with no one to object to the amount of time I'm spending online.

Of course now that I have all the time in the world, I really have not much to say. The sun is finally out, which is a good thing, since it hasn't been visible for a week. Hopefully it will stay out for a few days.

I made chicken soup yesterday from scratch. It was really easy and it turned out really well. The only problem is that there's so much of it. I think I'm going to be eating chicken soup for a long time. I need to learn to make smaller amounts of food. I'm so used to cooking for 6 people that cooking for just one is impossible. Every time I make something I promise myself that I'm not going to make more than enough for two, maybe three meals (I always want to have leftovers), and every time I end up eating the same meal for two weeks. (Note to everyone trying to do that math: when cooking for six people I always made enough for leftovers. That means at least 10 servings.) So anyway, if anybody wants some really good chicken soup, come visit. There's plenty to go around!

Friday, May 24, 2002 05:37 p.m.
Thank God it's Friday. What a long week. And it shouldn't have been, since I really had a short week because my little guy was gone Thursday and today. But it just made it seem that much longer. But it's over. I made it through. And now I have a most wonderful three day weekend ahead of me.
Elizabeth, I would love to have you and Andrew come up to visit on Monday. You should bring Susie with you too. We could have a super fun day!

Wednesday, May 22, 2002 05:21 p.m.
Okay, for all those of you who were worrying about me, my TV dilemma has been solved. It turns out that 13 comes in way better than I thought it did, which means that now, in addition to PBS, I also have a network station that has sitcoms when I need them, and local news and weather, which is what I was really worried about. So I now have no need for cable which makes me a very happy woman.

In other news, I had a very good day at work today. The only problem was that it was such a good day (meaning I really didn't do much of anything) that it felt like a Friday. Sadly, I still have two days of work to get through. However, I do have the long weekend and I'm so excited about it!!! I have no idea what I'm going to do....maybe I could have a dinner party and invite people to come sample my cooking and watch movies. :)
Or maybe I could find my darn cat's kittens so I could finally bring her home with me. That would make me happy too.

Tuesday, May 14, 2002 05:41 p.m.
A scary thing happened to me last night. Ethan brought my TV over to my apartment and we hooked it up to the antenna and turned it on to see what we got. Turns out the signal in Lewiston isn't so great (which is probably why Adelphia can get away with charging so much for a basic cable package that includes the networks, 5 home shopping channels and C-SPAN) and all I can get with my antenna is PBS. Which isn't a bad thing - I like PBS, and I enjoy watching it. But I'm used to having more network channels to choose from. Now we get to the scary part: I actually momentarily decided to pay for cable because the possibility of living without TV actually didn't occur to me. I am a certifiable TV addict. Of course my life will go on without TV. And I have parents and plenty of friends who's TVs are at my disposal whenever I need a fix. And I've been telling myself for at least a year now that I want to lock my TV up in a closet anyway since I watch too much of it. So really my dilemma is a blessing. But it bothers me that I didn't see it that way immediately. I never watched anything but PBS as a kid. There's no reason why I can't do that now.

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