Year 2 - Day 31 - January 31

After a meeting day, 3 snow days, and a weekend, I finally got to go back to work today.  I get immense pleasure from using my brain cells.  I'd prefer that I could use them starting at 10 am instead of 7:30 when I get to work ... but my brain turns to mush with too much vacation!

Year 2 - Day 30 - January 30

My raw dinner.  Chickens look disturbing sitting up like that! :)  We did it on a ginger ale can with a little ginger ale because we didn't have a single can of beer in the house.  It came out fine.  Perhaps the beer adds some beer flavor, but we didn't notice a flavor with the ginger ale, just moistness.  It was tasty.  We added it to the list on the fridge that we keep there for ideas when we don't know what to cook for dinner. 

Year 2 - Day 29 - January 29

Tonight, we went to see the Charm City Roller Girls in action.  It was fun!  Last time, I knew nothing and asked a lot of questions because Paul, Danielle, & Darra had all been there before.  This time I was with Mike, Jeff, Sarah & Bryan, so I was actually the veteran.  It's a crazy sport.  If you get a chance, go catch a match in your local area.

Year 2 - Day 28 - January 28

And on the 3rd day of being trapped, she cleaned.  Notice my two cool new pillows - blue stripes, and blue, green & white squares.  My MIL knows my decorating taste well.

Year 2 - Day 27 - January 27

This morning we shoveled the driveway at 6am.  (We were trying to get him out so he could go to work - but then his boss told him to stay home!  At least we got a clean driveway out of the deal, and now we have a whole day to do nothing.)  We finished just before 8 - look how clean it is!  The poor phone was having issues with being in the super cold air - that's the only reason I can think of for the misty look of the picture.

Then we came back inside and looked at the deck:

The snow blew so much all night that it stuck between the railings and to every tiny branch of every tree!

Year 2 - Day 26 - January 26

We woke up to a winter wonderland this morning.  Last forecast before going to bed was that we'd wake up to rain which would eventually change to snow in the late afternoon.  Oops! Too bad, too sad, weather forecasters of the world!  We originally had a 2 hour delay, but with the late start the snowplows got, I guess they couldn't keep up with the roads.  Eventually they changed to being closed.  And now it's afternoon and snowing again...

Year 2 - Day 25 - January 25

I really don't feel like tonight's dinner is all that adventerous - Sausage w/ peppers & onions, pasta & sauce - but it all of a sudden was taking up all 4 burners.

After we get a new hot water heater, a new stove is on the list.  It was hard to cook on all 4 burners because 3 of them are tiny. 

Year 2 - Day 24 - January 24

I try to be a good teacher and come up with hard, brain-power-needed assessments & activities.  Now that I'm grading 150 graphic organizers at each grade level, I catch myself wishing that they were all true and false papers. ;)

Year 2 - Day 23 - January 23

We recently got the newest Rock Band - #3.  The exciting new addition to this version of the game is a keyboard!  It's an actual 2 octave (plus an extra C) keyboard.  There are 2 ways to play in the game.  Regular keys and Pro Keys.  For the regular version, you just use 5 keys - much like the fake guitar playing that has been around since the first version of Guitar Hero.  But for the Pro Keys version, you actually play notes.  I don't have perfect pitch, but from listening, it appears to me that you're actually playing the note you're hitting.  Different songs have a different set of 10 keys showing (like in this one, it's C to E) and sections of the keyboard are color coded to help your eyes. 

IT IS SO HARD!!!!!  I thought my musicial knowledge would come in handy here, but it's actually hurting me more than helping me.  Since I know how to read music, it's REALLY difficult for me to use their graphic to play notes.  With the game's version, every white key is in a space & every black key is on a line.  My brain hurts.  I'm just beginning to crack into Medium level, and I'm still not perfect at the easy level. 

Year 2 - Day 22 - January 22

 Today, we stopped at Costco on the way home from an afternoon party.  They had a really cool set of greeting cards, but it was a little expensive and I can't justify buying cards when I spend time and money collecting the supplies to make them!  There was one in the set that looked like a French message board, so I decided to recreate one.  I don't like mine quite as much as the one in the packet (I would have preferred thinner ribbon & smaller buttons, but I was working with what I have!) but it came out decently.  It'll have to be a birthday card or thinking of you card for someone who likes to travel or something.  It'd be a lot easier to make the 2nd time, now that I have some of the pieces figured out.  I fussed with mini stamps for awhile, and then decided to take advantage of my clipart and color printer.  Sometimes, it's better to go the easier route!


Consider these pictures ... "Behind The Scenes - The Making of January 22nd's Picture." ;)

At one point, 3 different drawers were open in the tower, but I consolidated!

It's hard sharing a desk with the family computer.  A few things you see: ribbon of various sizes & colors, stamps, sticky strip of various sizes, adhesive, 2 pairs of scissors, a case of color blocks, a cutter, stamps, ink, paper, glue stick, clipart ...

Year 2 - Day 21 - January 21

We had a 2 hr delay this morning.  In our world, that really only translates to a 1 hr delay, but it's just enough to make sure it's sort of light outside.  I don't think the moon was full last night, but it looked cool this morning.

Year 2 - Day 20 - January 20

As seen at the new Arbutus library.  These are the closest spots to the door, other than the handicapped spots.

Year 2 - Day 19 - January 19

I know this might be silly, but I live in complete fear of forgetting to shut the garage door.  I am better at KNOWING I didn't forget these days, so I don't turn around to check ... but I still worry about it a lot.  And it amuses me, because I really don't fret about things constantly!

Year 2 - Day 18 - January 18

Yesterday I read a quick blurb in the paper that we might get some freezing rain overnight, so I took my phone upstairs with me just in case.  I was crossing my fingers for a delay, but didn't really think it would happen.  Imagine my surprise when I woke up to find out we didn't just have a delay, but a whole day off.  The world around us was completely encased in ice this morning.  It looked like water, but every drop was frozen solid.  By about 10am, there was enough warmth to at least move in the direction of slush, which greatly helped the driveway & sidewalk cleaning!  I was MUCH more productive today than any other day this weekend.  I got a bunch of grading done, I wrote a paper for a class I'm taking, and I managed some relaxation time too.  Very excellent day, indeed.

Year 2 - Day 17 - January 17

It isn't easy to see it with the iphone camera in the dark, but it's snowing again!  Rumor has it that it's going to be freezing rain and slushy overnight and into rush hour ... perhaps another 2 hour delay?  It's so hard to get back into the groove with the crazy weather schedule lately!

Year 2 - Day 16 - January 16

For the first time in 5 seasons, I'm watching the Big Love premiere live!

Year 2 - Day 15 - January 15

Recently, the local cupcakery got its own storefront.  For the first time, I stopped by today to get a box.  We decided to eat junk food during the game - and to do that properly, one must prepare ahead of time with all the important food groups. (Sweet, salty, sugar, fat, grease, and soda.)

Sadly, they were out of chocolate peanut butter but we did get: (Clockwise from top) raspberry lemonade, cookies & cream, salted caramel, vanilla milk chocolate, german chocolate, and snickerdoodle.

I can't wait to eat them!

Year 2 - Day 14 - January 14

Our monthly stamping club was supposed to be tomorrow night but due to the playoff game, we moved it to tonight.  We made two valentiny cards.  The top one I totally messed up - the white was supposed to cover the whole front and then the red ribbon would go on top of that.  However, I glued my ribbon down and forgot about the white piece.  Oops.  A little snipping fixed that.  The bottom one is just flowery. 

Year 2 - Day 13 - January 13

Oops!  I can't for the life of me get this picture to flip.

For my leadership course, we have to read a leadership book about leadership in any field that is NOT education.  I presume we will be linking them to the education world eventually. :)  These are 3 I found while browsing the Harford County Library collection.  One is common sense, one is about leadership in the era of social technology, and the last one was written by the head of Longaberger.  I will skim them and then decide which one to dig deeper with.

Year 2 - Day 12 - January 12

With the speed he jumped on the coffee table to get the last few drops of water out of the glass, I have to wonder if human glasses make water taste that much better than cat water bowls??? This is the reason I never leave still in use glasses unattended on the coffee table and why I never reuse them if I forget and leave an empty one out!

Year 2 - Day 11 - January 11

There are not a lot of shows that my hubby & I sit down and watch together, but Dirty Jobs is one of them. We haven't seen it in forever, so there are 2 episodes in a row on tonight that are new to both of us.  We're watching him make an asphalt road which is a job that I could totally do for fun for just one day!

Year 2 - Day 10 - January 10

I had a test today (There's nothing wrong with me!) at a radiology place I had never been to before.  This was hanging all over the place - their "mission statement," I suppose.  The title changed depending on where I was (The check in place said "Admissions Guiding Principle," for example.)

I can honestly say that every single person I encountered embodied these principles.  The person who checked me in, the person who walked me to the room, the people who did the test - even random people walking in the hallways.  Everyone was friendly, personable, and reassuring.  I had a lot of time to think about this sign (Notice - "You will be seen promptly" is not a principle of courtesy!) this afternoon.  Would I pick courtesy over good medical care? No. However, I can assume that all the doctors and hospitals nearby are picking qualified doctors and nurses, so all qualifications and medical skills being equal, I'd prefer the courtesy.

SUCH a difference from the people I encountered in December!  The person running the trainings and the people in charge of making sure it continues to happen are all doing a good job.

Do I show all these traits daily?  Probably not.  If this sign was hanging everywhere I turned would I think more about it? Maybe.  If this sign was hanging everywhere I turned *and* I was working with adults who could read the sign would I think about it? Most likely. What about you?

Year 2 - Day 9 - January 9

The Magic Jack.  We've had it installed for a little over a week now.  You've probably seen the commercials promising a year of phone for just 20 bucks.  It's a VOIP system that lets you call anyone (as opposed to Skype, which has some limitations.) So far, here are my thoughts.

Plus:
-They're serious when they say $20 a year - and the first year's cost is bundled with the cost of the dongle, so getting it as a gift meant we could plug it in and use it right away with no credit card involved in the set up. (However, they attempted to add features for additional fees during setup, such as pick your own vanity number.)
-We can call any US (or Canada? I forget, cause I don't call Canada) landline or cell number for free.
-Haven't lost a call yet. We have a 4 handset cordless set from back when we had a land line in the town house.  We plugged the phone line base into the MagicJack and the other handsets are around the house. All good so far - but we do have a new dual band N+ router, so I don't know if that's part of our success or not.
-We haven't had a landline since spring of 2009, so for us it's nice to have an option when the cell service is bad (which is daily here.)
-They say we can plug the dongle into any USB on any computer and bring our number with us. This isn't a huge deal to us, especially since only 2 people have the number!


Minus:
-The desktop computer it's plugged into has to be on, awake, and logged into Mike's side of Windows.  We are not used to having the desktop on all the time since I have a laptop and now we have the ipad.  This is taking getting used to, so for now the phone is pretty much outgoing only because we never remember to turn it on. 
-If the power goes out, it will be useless.
-If the internet goes out, it will be useless.
-We have our address in their 911 service.  We had to click a box promising to change that address if we ever plug the dongle into a computer at another location.  It claims that it THINKS they could communicate our location should we ever have to call 911 from the magicjack but that they can't guarantee it.

Overall, I would not recommend having a MagicJack as your ONLY phone.  If you are already surviving without a landline and would just like something to use to either save cell minutes or if you have lousy cell reception at home, then it's a worthwhile investment for the minimal cost. 

Year 2 - Day 8 - January 8

Did you see that show on TV recently about extreme couponing?

I am not one of those people, but I love a good deal and my version of a good deal is becoming a lower and lower price.

I just did a quick trip to Rite Aid to take advantage of a sale ending today and some coupons that were getting ready to expire.

This whole trip cost me 39 cents.  Granted, I had some Rite Aid "Up points" (they're like come back cash) from a trip in December that covered a large percentage of the sale, but it is almost $30 worth of product! Victory!  And now my husband will smell good, have clean teeth, and be clean shaven for quite some time. :)

Year 2 - Day 7 - January 7

This ugly spot has been on our bathroom ceiling since we moved in. I have always assumed it was an ugly patch job over the textured ceiling. That is until this morning when it started dripping! Luckily, a plumber came over, found the problem, and fixed it. An elbow joint had come off a pipe. I'm guessing it had happened before and that's why the mark was there.

So now that the source of the problem is taken care off, we need to do something about the ugly ceiling!

Year 2 - Day 6 - January 6

My library looks awesome today ... this is just a tiny portion (on top of the shelves, and on the tippy top of the shelves in the background) of all the new books we have on display! The kids are in agony because I make them leave the new ones on display for a WHOLE WEEK before I let them check any out or put them on hold. 

In addition, I went with the photo tips tweet of the day (from yesterday) to do something diagonal.

Year 2 - Day 5 - January 5

These numbers are suspiciously close to the Lost numbers!  There are only 3 exact ones, but if you played all the Lost numbers and only hit on those three, you still won $150.  I'm amused!

Year 2 - Day 4 - January 4

I am not a morning person.  Not in any sense of the word.  But like the generations that came before me who sat and drank coffee and read the paper in the morning, I am willing to get up 10 minutes earlier so I can sit on the couch, have an OJ and catch up on my Google Reader.  A surprising amount of things show up between 9:30pm and 6:30am while my computer is off most nights!

*Please ignore the fact that the Christmas candles are still in the windows...I forgot about them when I un-decorated, and now I'm being lazy. Maybe tonight....

Year 2 - Day 3 - January 3

This is a screen shot, but it's called "Picture 1" on my desktop, so we're going to count it. :)

Awhile back, I signed up for a website called Voicethread.  It allows you to make slideshows and then add comments/narration by either voice or text.  I never got off the ground with it last year because of the amount of times it required booking the lab and the difficulties that come with that.  But apparently I accidentally clicked "Renew my account automatically" button because this fall I got an email letting me know my card was charged for another year.  My frugal nature kicked in and said 'If you are going to pay for it, you're going to use it!"

My fourth graders were beginning a project about the Hindenburg to get in some practice with various research skills so I decided we'd use VT for their final projects.  That way they could leave feedback for each other and share their projects with their parents. 

Everything was going well until one day in late December.  It was the day we were scheduled to share with each other so I opened up the files to do a test run before the kids got to school.  They were gone.  Everything that had been created was just GONE.  They had all been created under different student accounts, so I know that someone didn't just accidentally hit delete. 

Enter customer service.  They were fantastic!  I had a significant amount of information to share with them, like the names of the kids who created them, the links to the projects, the amount of comments & pictures, the dates they were created & disappeared, etc.  Using all of that information from me and a few other people who were in my situation, they figured out that there had been a glitch during backing up.  They constantly emailed me to keep me up to date on the happenings behind the scenes and then - they found & restored everything!  I was thrilled with the customer service and of course the result. 

So this morning, we got to watch them.  The kids were so excited to see everyone else's and of course cringed as soon as they heard their own voice.  It was cute. :)

Year 2 - Day 2 - January 2

We went to the Ravens game today.  They didn't play very well, but managed to win in the end.  I loved that there was a nice winter thaw just in time for the game.  40's and 50's is a much more game friendly temperature than I was expecting for the first weekend in January. 

On the way home, we stopped at Minato so Mike could have sushi.  I had sesame chicken which was a completely different recipe than I had ever come across.  It wasn't fried and in a gooey sauce like every other place I have had it ... it was however completely encrusted in sesame seeds.  Surprising and tasty.  Mike had a bunch of random rolls.  It cost more than we like to spend when we go out, but very affordable for sushi and I brought half of my chicken home.  Mike's biggest issue with living "way out here" is that the quality sushi places are lacking.  He's used to living closer to the beltway where sushi restaurants grow like weeds. 

And so, Christmas vacation ends...

Year 2 - Day 1 - January 1

Happy New Year!

Welcome to year 2.  I probably should have thought about what to do differently in year 2 before it actually got here, but I didn't, so here we are.  I read some ideas today about project365.  Some people like to stick with a theme and others lean more towards what I did last year - just a shot of something that happens that day.  I think this year I'm going to try out a bunch of different ideas just to keep me going and to get me out of a rut.

For starters, I signed up for a photography class at the local community college.  I have wanted to do it since we bought our nice camera...I guess for about 3 years now, but the days of the week always conflicted with something else on my schedule.  My class is for 4 Wednesdays in February ... it will conflict with February book club, but I've already read that book so I decided to go for it.  If I like it, there is a part 2 right after part 1. 

One of the themes this year is going to be pictures of things I make.  I want to make more cards because I really enjoyed making the sets of cards for people for Christmas this year.  It's more fun than just pulling the stuff out to make Christmas cards in November.  I also want to make a scrapbook with the bag of things I've been saving for years.  This will not be a fancy work of art with layouts I share and ten dollars worth of embellishments on each page but rather just a compilation of the things I've saved.

Today's picture is 2 pages for that book.  I had the pile of Christmas cards in my hand because I packed up the Christmas stuff today and I didn't want to just throw them away!  I cut out all the signatures & photographs and made them fit on 2 pages.