Manual

I can now officially, if not efficiantly, drive a manual transmission vehicle. And the whole feat was accomplished with no yelling! (Unlike my driving lessons in an automatic...my Mom and I did not mesh in the instruction category.) I've even been highway driving, and I'm only averaging about one stall a trip now (give me some credit, it's only been a couple weeks.) Soon, and very soon, I will rule the world.

Doing Our Part.

Just this last week The mister and I were able to do our part in both stimulating the economy AND saving the environment. Two birds with one stone...pretty exciting. We got new blinds! Perhaps not the excitment I thought life would bring, but I can't help it. I love them. I think it helps if you know how the old blinds looked.

The Office.


The Bedroom. (The blanket was to block out the streetlight which was directly outside the window, since the blinds were both translucent and missing large sections.)


As you can imagine from those pictures, it looked like squatters were living in the house from the front. I didn't bother with pictures of the back blinds, since esentially there were none. The back of the house faces directly west, meaning that in the afternoon it was possible to sunbathe on the sofa. We covered the back door glass, as well. That's were the real energy savings should come in. Ok here are the after photos.




Cheers.

April showers!

The weather took a literal interpretation of April showers, and it rained for 36hours straight starting Wednesday night. The bad news is that it rained on my day off. the goodnews is that I slept like a baby during the showers. I always sleep well when it's raining. The last two days have had utterly divine weather. drew and I spent today diggin up the other front flower bed and moving those hideous holly bushes.

It was just the right temperature to work outside all day and not get hot. Unfortunately we forgot that the sun still burns even when it's not blazing. I think Jody would be very disappointed in our performance. It's the yearly first-nice-day-of-spring sunburn.

Mister Misfire

So the school finally did the Mister in. Ironically it was not the students whofinally got him down. So after curing out two administrators he declared himself on 'medical leave' and is resting up until after spring break. Or so he thinks.

I personally have a list of yard stuff I want done. Manual labor is good for body, mind and soul. The stuff we pretend is grass is growing again, and there are bushes to move. We'll see if he holds up any better against the no-see-ums.

Happy Green!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day! The mister and I spent it with Steve at a Mexican restaurant (naturally.) There wasn't green beer, but I did consume a very livid colored maragarita. Sure we could have done the usual thing and gone to Savannah, second largest St Patty's fest in the nation, But we're old and have to work to support a Mexican food filled lifestyle.

Actually, Mexican was not my idea (shocking, I know.) But as someone who gave up cheese and cheese-products for lent, I found it a bit trying. Still guacamole cures a world of cheese craving ills.

Almost Misadventure

The Mister's hate of his current position and fear of/poor luck with officers of the law were combined recently when he stepped into the hall to see what all the commotion was about. He was expecting to break up another fight, instead he was partially pepper-sprayed by the school officer. The officer was trying to subdue a student at the time.

Attempted blinding is a continuing theme. I'm not sure if I mentioned it in the blog, but you may have heard me refer to the 'Bleach Fight' earlier this year. The Mister was involved in breaking up a fight wherein one of his students attempted to blind another girl by throwing a water bottle full of bleach in this girl's face. Apparently the first girl had been carrying around the water bottle all day for this purpose. Fortunately, another teacher stepped in, and only a dress shirt was ruined. A third teacher was kicked in his tender bits while attempting to restrain the bleacher.

You're probably asking the same question I did initially: What could the second girl have done to trigger a bleaching? Of course you will soon realize that this is a logically dead-end question, since no sane, socially adjusted person would ever resolve on blinding a person with Clorox. The correct answer is that this girl is crazy as evidenced by her requiring a mask (I like to think of it as a muzzle) to prevent her from spitting on people as she was taken away.

Really, the first incident puts the pepper spray in perspective.

Newly Wed?

Two people have commentedon my wedding rings in the last 24 hours. COmmented as in "I didn't notice you wearing rings last time I was here," and "Did you get a New ring?" It's weird to have someone comment about the jewelry now that I've been married for awhile. Probablly because I'm not as aware of it as I used to be. It's weirder still because both of these people have seen me many many times, and only ever met me after I'd been married.

Eh, maybe it's just because the rings are extra sparkly since they had their yearly shining-up in Knoxville while I was home.