Li'l monster car

We see all sorts of crazy things at work.
This is the car that was parked next to our van in a school parking lot - it belongs to the art teacher:

I am so in love with all of the little monsters,

like the ones who will devour tailgaters,

or who love their moms,


but my favorite is this pink one:

He looks so forlorn. He really wants you to be his friend even though he is a monster. I imagine him speaking with just a hint of a lisp and the occasional sniffle.
Of course, TMs Joey and Katie had to be little monsters, too

The teeth on the bumper just bust me up.

I took these pictures about 3 weeks ago, but today on Michele's blog i saw that she had spotted this car too so i wanted to add my monster love to the mix.

just a quickie

The national conference is over and it was awesome. I have the day off to catch up on some sleep, do laundry and finalize my mother's move to Ohio next week. Then, mayhaps, we can get back to some sort of regular posting. You can look forward to a week of Hawaii posts, roller derby, a mini-monster car, jewelry roundup 3 and Oktoberfest. See you soon.

Pear Jelly

Now that there is a wonderful toaster in my life, I was able to try another new food from my BFF:
pear jelly!

why are the eggs only ugly on the day when i photograph my breakfast?

I had no idea what to think. I do not like canned pears and don't think i've ever eaten a fresh pear; what in the world would the jellied version be like?
I am happy to report that it was tasty.
It tasted like... hmmmm... it was defiantly a fruit jelly and not a berry jelly and it was sweet with a little tang... Okay, that description was less than helpful. I guess you just have to have your BFF make you some pear jelly and try it yourself.
Thanks, Rea!

When work is more than what you do

At one time my job was way too much a part of my identity; it was who i was. It wasn't healthy, people. Now i have found a nice balance, but still my job is more than just the time i spend at work.
I love being an educator. I love being a performer. I love touching people's lives.
Tomorrow is the beginning of our national convention and i am super excited because this year my museum is hosting the conference. It has been a ton of work, but i am excited to see it all come to fruition.
Plus i am excited about seeing all of my compatriots. It is awesome to be in a room full of people who do what i do because they understand what my crazy schedule looks like; they understand why i hate GPS and how hard it is to try to get dressed when you are loading a van outside at 7am in January, but 3 hours later have to be on a stage that is 95 degrees.
This week's quote is from... well, i don't know where. I think i cut it out of a magazine about 15 years ago because it is yellowed and wrinkled and peeling, but still taped to my monitor at work. I read it every day and count myself lucky:

Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.
-Herman Cain

Hot toasty love returns to the Nikiverse

Do you remember when my toaster died?
How i tried frantically to fix it, to no avail?
My $7 rebound toaster barely satisfied my toasting needs. After a year of vague disappointment, it finally gave up.
And then i had no toast.
None.
I was given a Free to a Good Home toaster oven with the caveat that it needed cleaned. No big deal, i thought. Wrong. It must have had a fire in it because even after a hard, thorough cleaning it still smoked enough to set off the alarm.
...sigh
Still no toast.
I was desperate enough to put bagels under the broiler, but that was a pain since they went from toasty to cinders in a matter of seconds.
...sigh
Then I decided that i didn't need toast.
My life is full and fine without toast.
Right?
Okay, i'll buy a new toaster.
Thus started the search for a new toaster. How many slots? What width? Toaster oven? Who has them on sale? This was not a frivolous undertaking, people.
Then, out of no-where, there was a like-new toaster oven in my hands. A Black and Decker one. A nice one. An expensive one. A FREE one.
Co-worker Stacey had inherited it from fTM Kate, but neither of them had particularly used it so Stacey was taking it Good Will. Look at it...

remember: no matter how much you love the toaster oven, don't kiss it; it's hot

I am so in love with my toaster oven that i am now toasting things that don't even need toasted.
I might have a problem. But i also have toast.

To my Darling Neti Pot Upon the Return of Autumnal Allergies

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
I'd pen words of devotion,
If i could think of anything that rhymes with nasal irrigation.

if only i could keep my dang mouth shut.

The word for today, my friends, is hubris.
Hubris is excessive pride or insolence.
Often, it is referred to as pride before the fall because it is a classic character flaw in heroes.
Basically, the hero has so much self-confidence that he is blinded into doing something exceedingly dumb that proves to be the beginning of his undoing.
One of the interesting things about hubris is that it is so blatant, so obvious that everyone can recognize it (except for the hero himself) and most everyone can guess what is going to happen because of it. 
Let's take a hypothetical example... the heroine of a story is feeling so good, so happy, so elated that she declares before a gathering of her friends that she is unafraid of Fate; she boasts that no matter what, she will be going on vacation to Alaska in eight months.
Hubris!
Therefore, no one would be the least bit surprised when one week later a text message arrives -while she is hypothetically grocery shopping and trying to decide what kind of yogurt to buy- with the news that the trip might have to be cancelled; no one, that is, except our hapless heroine who honestly can't frickin' believe it. Despite having studied Aristotle's Poetics on more than one occasion and having written numerous papers on hubris, she is indeed clueless and doesn't see the other shoe inevitably falling.
Of course, Fate has risen to the call-out and tossed a good, legitimate wrench into the works.
Why?
HUBRIS

...sigh

ps - hey Fate, sorry about that; you win

new from K-Tel

Here are the newest members of my team: Katie, Joey and Chris.
As posed as this looks, it actually happened quite organically; we were outside getting ready to do some awesome exploding science when my brother called to us and we each looked up. With this job you get used to being photographed a lot so when we see a camera it is natural to just freeze at whatever you are doing until you see the flash. You can tell Chris and I have been here longer than Katie and Joey because we both automatically smiled as well.
When Katie first saw this picture she remarked It looks like our band photo; you know, for the cover or inside of an album.
Holy crap, it really does...
teehee..  I think Katie's body language says keyboards, Joey's says drummer (though in real life he is a guitarist) and Chris would be our affable bass player. I, obviously, would be the applause-wh*re frontman. [just like real-life ;-)]
What i first noticed, however, is that Katie is all nicely tanned and my legs look like i am a vampire.
Dang.

The Shine Project

I like reading other people's blogs; i enjoy seeing slices of other lives. Recently, i added The Shine Project to the my blogroll because i find the writer Ashley inspirational. She issues challenges to her readers to make the world a little better in tangible ways. She tries to be creative and foster imagination in others. I like that. I like that she is making real changes in the world, not just talking about it.
In fact, her current project is to raise $20,000 to help kids from a city school where she volunteers to go to college. She started a change4change drive, is donating some of the proceeds from her vintage clothing store and handmade necklace line and is hosting a fund-raising event at the end of this month. I found the blog too late to do a change4change jar, which would have been cool, so instead i am sending my 50 cents per day for charity to her this month.
It is amazing to me that in this huge world, every little thing we do can affect change.
Really.

not just for grannies

So i went to water aerobics with fTM Felicia.
Water aerobics.
You know, stretching and moving using the water for resistance.
It's very popular in retirement communities.
Felicia goes because she has a bad back.
I've always thought it sounded interesting and she had a guest pass so i joined her.
You figure, if this is the exercise of choice for grannies, how hard can it be, right?
Holy frijole, people.
It wasn't stretching, it wasn't gentle, it wasn't for grannies.
It was almost an hour of running and jumping in water up to my shoulders.
Forget low impact; within 20 minutes my bad ankle was screaming from the repetitive jumping and landing on concrete; sure the water made the impact less than my body weight, but it was still concrete.
I realized that if i tread water with my hands i could still do all of the jumping without fully landing, but that means that i was also treading water while running and jumping.
It was exhausting, but really, really fun.
Next, Felicia says that i have to try the deep water class where you lift weights.
Can't wait.