Fun times

Not my photo. I wasn't there. But, thanks to facebook I got to go along with them in photos and comments.

I finally had time to sit down and watch the movie "Cyberbully". This is a big convseration at our meetings at work. Almost every school bans the use of  facebook in the class room, but some classes actually have a facbook page. That is okay with me, because really - I can see both sides.

Now, the use of smartphones. Sexting, bullying. Do school personnel have the right to take away a students phone? All local sheriff departments has somebody handling this area and they are going to every school to educate staff and students.

What a mess

Taken from one of my schools.  A year ago.  How in the world do they troubleshoot a problem? Where do they begin?

Well, for starters the tech person at this school points the blame at everyone else except himself. I flushed out about four things he said this past week that were out and out lies. He said he did this, he said he tried that. Come to find out he did none of that. This is the place where the teacher flew off the handle after I called her. No wonder she is so upset.

They have a lazy technology person. In his defense perhaps he is overwhelmed and frustrated. That still does not justify the lies and the arrogant remarks that his issues are my problem. He does not want to do the leg work to determine where the problem lies.

My organization is provided by the state to assist the school districts. I can pretty much determine how much assistance I give. Some need more help than others. Let's hope your child does not go to this school district.

Where is the editor?

Last evening my daughter asked me to "tell her a story".  We did a few back and forth and then I asked her what was one of her favorite books when she was little. She said "Old Bear."  I looked it up and sure enough there are videos of the Old Bear books. We watched the one with the story book we had.

Halfway through I noticed something that seemed a little racy for children. Where is the editor?

Sadly, I was laughing hard and had to pause the video and capture the scene. Sick ticket that I am. My daughter just sighs and shakes her head.

Don't hate me because I am beautiful   observant.

Seeing red

In extreme rare cases (maybe twice) in my life did I get so angry I have no memory of what I did. Twice. In my early twenties. I became angry yesterday to where I became faint. I read an e-mail that pertained to me and wouldn't you know I could not get anybody on the telephone. I had to leave a few voicemails and stew about it.

Long story - I was attempting to help a school district fix a problem. Instead of waiting for the technology person to get around to working with me I called the teacher directly (a name given to me by the technology person) to see if we could "cut to the chase".  She mistook my call for me asking her to fix the problem for the entire school. At least that is what she said in an e-mail to the superintendent. 

I was not ill mannered in my call. I was more than sweet. I apologized for bothering her and asked her if she had a free  period where we could work on the issue together. She went into a rage. I backed out of the call and told her I was sorry to have bothered her and thanked her for her time. She retaliates by writing a scathing email to the superintendent saying that I told her she had to help me fix this problem. I did not say any such thing.

Ah...well. The superintendent must have confronted the technology person who, in turn - e-mailed me and carbon copied my boss stating the teacher's side of the story only.

Angry? You betcha. Somebody put words in my mouth and twisted what I did say. 

I waited for half an hour for anybody to return my call. Nothing. I finally got up to go to the bathroom and almost passed out. This was over 45 minutes after I read the e-mail. I was still that upset.

I stewed all evening. I dreamt about it. I am going straight to the school today to work on the problem. I had other plans and cancelled them. I am still angry. I am going in composed. I am no shrinking violet. I won't see the teacher I attempted to work with. She is at a tiny elementary school. I will see the technology person, though and if possible, the superintendent. Funny thing is, I worked with this superintendent for over 10 years. He was the building superintendent at the place where my remote office is. He is a good guy.

Sigh. I came home with a headache and needed the Advil. I think they are creeping back in. The headaches. Drat.

I am hoping my eyes are seeing pink, now. Or, at least coral. Blogger keeps flashing a message at me that it is having an issue saving my work. I'll make sure I copy and paste this text into notepad before I publish it. I don't want to lose everything and try to go back from memory.

In the basket

The face of success.

In the basket we go

Since there is nothing going on at my house...I am posting photos from my nephew and niece's collection. I think we can all remember these times if we have had little ones around. Crawl over and in the basket. Crawl out of the basket. Back in.

Depressed - lower in amount

The above photo is not mine. The sweet potatoes at my county fair numbered about three. The presentation, the show was more depressed than usual. I have not been to the fair in a couple of years. There was a huge sweet potato at our fair, though. I can't recall the weight. 

I always try to go through the barn displays of the 4-H. I like to see what photos and pictures were presented and which ones won. Years ago I entered about three photos in a county close to where I grew up. One of my paintings brought in first place. The other, second. My sister entered it. I wasn't even there. I had promised that picture to a friend. He was the one who went through my paintings and he must have seen something in it. LOL! Maybe he was the judge. NO! Just kidding. What was that? Thirty, thirty-two years ago?

Come to think of it, since I wasn't there - maybe there were only three paintings entered. Grin.

If somebody liked my painting, I gave it to them. I have not painted in years. I took up drawing again about twenty years ago, but .... eh. I was always "the artist" in my class. I wonder what some of my teachers and fellow students would think when they found out I ended up in computers. They would probably scratch their heads and say "Huh?  Her?"

I went to the county fair today to watch the trotters. It turned out to be a beautiful day. There were only a handful of races. The attendance is way down this year. Economy, perhaps? Swine flu scare?

We did not walk through the animal barns except for the goats and that was when we first arrived to get from point A to point B. Nobody was walking through.

I watched "Snow White and the Huntsman" last night. I missed patches of it because I was doing other stuff and at one point even took the dogs outside. My daughter liked it. I find it very difficult to watch K Stewart. And it is not because of her recent indiscretion, but I just find it hard to look at her.

Buzz Ballz

I saw these little ballz in the grocery store last evening. They are clear plastic with aluminum lids. They came in red (cranberry), orange, yellow (lemonade), and green - tequila w/vodka. 20% by volume. Yeesh! Check the web page - there are a lot more flavors. The suggested retail is $3.99. They float, won't break and can be frozen to a slush.

End of the Line

A picture is worth a thousand words. I thought that this picture (of a picture) I snapped at my "Unusual" lunch spot would tell a great story. You could write an entire story about this one picture. How would you start it? Mine would go something like this. 

The guy with the ball cap: "He flipped over the railin' right 'cheer." Then he spit a wad of chew to mark the spot.

The guy with the hard hat: "That would have made a fine mess."

The young boy, in utter amazement, trying to picture the scene, shudders: "Gosh!"

Missing my boxer

I dreamt last night that he forgot who I was. His owner (not the actual one I gave him to) had brought him to a party and he ran right past me. I tried to call out to him but he just kept running around and he did not remember who I was. Sigh.

Current Owner said that his family is going on vacation in October to Florida and I could watch him , but what if they don't want me to? What if they are worried I will get re-attached to him? What if I am worried that I will?

Mean and Green

Guess where I had lunch the other day? That's right! The place where they sell a thousand different brands of hot sauce. Well, maybe a hundred or so. I was able to capture about five shots of sauce that I did not previously post. I did not feel comfortable taking pictures because I neglected to ask permission first. They were just too busy.

I have not purchased any, yet. Some day I will. Maybe.

Sweet!

Zucchini carrot cake with cream cheese icing. Made it Monday evening. It was SO sweet, I could not finish it. Yes, I had to purchase zucchini. Drat! No friends. :(  Yes, this small cake was still too warm to ice, but I had things to do!

Hold strong

For all the ignorant conspiracy theories I heard this year regarding 9/11 - they are out there. The nut cases who think that the government was behind this horrible tragedy. My niece married one.

Car lashes

The photo is blurry. I was a couple of parking lots over and only had my phone with me. This photo is cropped from the original. I had never seen them before. Car lashes.

I was with sisters Saturday night and we watched "A Joyful Noise." I have a sister who is a D Parton fan. We made comments about the surgery structure of her face of course - how plasticized she looked and she even had a zinger put in the movie to make fun of her surgeries. Q Latifah's character was arguing with her and spit out  "I liked you seven procedures ago!"  - or something to that nature. It has a few one liners but for the most part if you don't like singing - skip this one. I love singing and still did not like it.

My sisters and I would have sworn that was Stella Parton at the end of the show singing on stage, but no - the movie claims it was Karen Peck. Sounded very much like D Parton.

And it was very strange that all choir members had loose-fitting choir robes but Dolly's was form fitting - snug as could be to show off her figure. Bizarre and distracting. What is up with that? Why does she feel the need to do that and how in the heck does she think it appropriate for a church choir for one to stand out like that?

My black babies

I did not take pictures Saturday night. I don't know why. I did not even think about it. My niece 1982 snapped this one of my babies. I had 23 show up from the family. My daughter had an after-the-family-leaves party for her age group. 21 - 23 crowd. From what I could see, she had about a dozen. She came in and chased me out of her bed at about 5:00 a.m. I was sleeping in her room with the window open so I could keep an "ear" out for their noise level. At 2:30 she had the group move inside the garage to continue.

I am just concerned about the one neighbor lady whose bedroom is almost butt up against my patio. She is 95 and has had many falls the past few years. She has somebody staying with her. I heard a man coughing while I was hosing off my patio Sunday morning.

I felt great the next day. No headache. But then again, I only drank a couple of the Bud Lite Lime-a-ritas that are kind of popular right now.