Green?

So what are you doing to go green?

I'm not a fanatic, and I don't think the world is going to end tomorrow if I keep burning gas and forget to recycle my cans but I also don't see any reason for all the waste that we have and I really like the idea of recycling and reusing or repurposing old things.

Here is what I'm doing and I'm just curious to see what, if anything you're doing.

1. I recycle here in Seabrook, the trash guys pick up cans, bottles and that stuff once a week and we take in newspapers and boxes to the recycle bin at the library.

2. We use reusable grocery bags. I like that we get to reuse them but I am also tired of collecting all those plastic grocery bags.

3. Since we remodeled the house we are much more energy efficient here, double pane windows and a 16 seer AC unit.

4. We are switching to CFL bulbs when the old ones burn out. There are a few places that the old standard bulbs are staying though because the CFLs don't fit inside the globe.

5. I bought an electric weed eater when the old gas one called it quits, it is a Ryobi cordless model. It works fine for my rather small yard but I would not recommend it for anything much bigger. It just does not have that much power.

6. The wife carpools to work, I'm pretty sure that the fact that she saves money and she gets to nap on the way to work means more to her than the environmental impact but who cares, it still counts.

Downfall of Society Part 1

So, school has started and even though I hate doing it, going over rules and procedures is absolutely necessary in order to get things going in the right direction. Students have to know your expectations if you want them to live up to your expectations. One thing in particular that gets to me every year when I do this is the reactions that I get when I tell them to watch their language.

I tell them that I do not want to hear profanity in my classroom and they laugh and carry on and make it out like I'm some kind of goody goody. For anyone that knows me, they know that that is far from the truth, I just don't like hearing profanity. I personally do not use profanity, or at least I try not to, I do slip up from time to time but I don't see a reason to use it all the time. The students I have will use profanity in almost every conversation and never think twice about it or have any concern about who is nearby.

I could go on and on about this but I think you get my drift. I guess part of my problem is the fact that they don't care who is around, I think they should at least show respect to people of authority and watch their mouth.

OK, I'll get off that soap box, mainly so I can use it to wash their mouths out.

Stay tuned for for future posts on this topic regarding facial peircings and wearing hats in buildings.

Depression, confusion, fear and excitement

Only teachers understand this. It's time to go back to work. There is a certain amount of depression at this time of year. For one, it seems like just when you start to get things done around the house it's time to go back to work. You also have to start looking at your "work clothes" that you haven't worn in 2 months and realize that your a$$ has grown over the summer and you need to go get new clothes.

Next there is confusion and fear. What will I teach this year? What will my students be like? Will that t*#d that failed be back to cause me grief? Will the new principal bug me with walk throughs or just let me teach? How long will the line for the copier be? How long will I have to print things at home before our new order gets shipped?

And there is a little excitement, I consider many of my co-workers good friends but after spending every day together for 10 months I don't hang out with them over the summer so I'm excited to see them. I'm excited about trying a few new ideas had over the summer.

It's a very emotional time of year and even though I've been back to coaching for a week and have our first game tonight, part of me is already looking forward to Thanksgiving Break.

Concerts and Theater

Friday night I went to the House of Blues for the first time. The food is good but the restaurant is a little loud for my taste. The concert venue very intimate but nice. It is really a good place to see a show. We saw Queensryche, the first time I have ever seen them. If you remember they had one album that got really big around 1990, EMPIRE. They played for about 2 1/2 hours so it was a good show. Of course they didn't play a single song off the empire album for the first hour and a half. Over all it was a good show, I wouldn't say that they would break into my top 5 concert events but it was worth seeing them. 

Saturday night we went to the Alley Theater to see a Tom Stoppard play called "Rock N Roll". It was in the lower theater and done in a theater in the round style. The stage was actually the floor and then the seats rose up around the stage. It was a story about Communist occupation in Prague from 1968 - 1990. It was very thought provoking, especially since you could see a lot of similarities between what the communist and socialist characters were talking about and what our current administration is trying to put in place.  Oops, I didn't mean to get political. 

Well, that was the beginning of the weekend, now I've got some ribs on the grill and family coming over. I think that family and entertainment are good ways to celebrate our freedoms on this Memorial Weekend.  

Forgotten Funny

Does anyone remember a time when Grey's Anatomy would have a heavy, serious dramatic episode and then follow it up with a light hearted funny episode?? I think they forgot the funny!!! This whole season has been one serious drama after another; sure, once in a while they throw in a joke that lasts for about 5 seconds before you move back into something serious. Since the finale is fresh on my mind, it was kinda funny to see Little Grey shoot down Sloan and then he turns into a girl but that took 5 seconds and then we have to go take a tumor out of Izzie's brain. 

I swear if they don't get some funny back by next season I think the whole cast will end up jumping off the Space Needle, and considering how they left it hanging I would imagine that they are all waiting in line for the elevator right now. 

Facebook

OK, so I broke down a couple of weeks ago and signed up for Facebook. I keep hearing people talk about how cool it is but I'm not sure I'm sold yet. Yes, it is cool that I have heard from a couple of people that I had lost contact with and I've heard from some people that I knew in high school, but if we hadn't grown in separate directions after high school then I would still be talking to them without Facebook. Now that I haven't talked to these people in 15 or more years do I really care that they are "at sonic getting tater tots" or if they were "running late for work", I don't know, I'm sure there is something good there, I just haven't seen anything yet that makes me think it is really that cool. Maybe I ned Facebook lessons to open up some really cool stuff that I just don't know how to find. 

Anyway, that's my take on it for now. I fully expect to get blasted for this post. 

Random Tidbits

Still getting settled in at the house. Actually not so much settled in, more like painting, hanging pictures, new lights and on and on. I promise to post some pictures after the Re-habitation party this weekend. I don't want to spoil the surprise for the people that can make it. 

My quest to be a non- smoker has started again. I made about 8 days then fell off the wagon for about a week but I jumped back on and am now at about 10 days smoke free. 

I love Craigslist!!!!! For a while now I have been wanting to get a sit-on-top kayak instead of the sit inside that I have so I placed an ad that I would like to trade. It worked. Last Friday I traded for a 14 ft ocean kayak sit-on-top. 

I finished my last principal academy weekend so now I have completed enough that I can officially request my principal certification. I am also getting very close to finishing up college. I graduate in October. 

We finished TAKS testing last week. I'm glad it is behind us but I am anxious to see how my kids did. I would be thrilled if I could get about 60% to pass. Now that we have completed TAKS testing though the kids really don't want to do anything anymore, that may work for some teachers, but not me. I plan on keeping them working till the bitter end. It did remind me of something my uncle said one time. 

"School and church are the only two things that make people happy when they do not get their money's worth"

It took me a while to explain what that meant, eventually they all understood, but still didn't care and agreed that they would still be happy if we didn't do anything. 

All right, I can't think of much more right now, I'll try to get back a little more often.

What is Culture??

So I feel that I have been pretty multi-cultural the past couple of weeks but so often when you hear people talk about culture they limit their definition to things like opera and museums. So what do you think it means? I'm curious to know. Either way, I've had a great time the past couple of weeks, here is a list of the events:

Roger Creager is a great Texas Country artist. Writes great songs and always puts on a good show. One thing I enjoy is that he really seems to be enjoying himself. 

The next night we went to the TUTS performance of Les Mis. I had never seen it before, The Wife had seen it 3 times and The Sister had seen it twice. It was a really good show. Also, before the show we ate at a German Restaurant called The Old Heidelberg in the Galeria area. At least I think that's the area it was in. I won't say it was like being in Germany but it was still good. 

The next weekend we went to Wrestlemania 25 at Reliant Arena. There were almost 73,000 people there. I have been a wrestling fan for a loooong time and this was a great show and a great experience. I have to thank The Wife since the tickets were awesome and they were a Christmas gift. 

Then this past Monday I went to the Astros opening day game. I think this is the 3rd year in a row that we have gone. No, we didn't win but we were there supporting the team and there's still 167 games to go so there is plenty of time to catch up. 

So this has been a couple of great weeks. Does it count as culture, maybe I don't care if it does or not because they were all fun and I had a great time. 

Tag.........I'm it

So for the past 6 months or so The Wife and I have been pretty stressed out with getting the house rebuilt and put back together and all of our friends have been great at being supportive and helping us out. 

Well now I think it is my turn to be there for our friends and family. In the past week the Sister has has been dealing with some nerve racking medical issues, just tests, nothing worth worrying about has been found; 2 of our close friends have lost or been notified that they are losing their jobs; another close friend had to break off his engagement; another friend is battling breast cancer and 2 more are currently pregnant. Yes the pregnancies are happy things but they still are a huge life changing event. 

Now it is our turn to give back some of that help and support that has been shown to us the past few months so if anyone needs anything feel free to let us know and we will be there.........just like all of you have been for us. 

Man Space

Since so many people have been asking to see the house now that it is finished and we are moved home I thought I would post a few. Here are a few pictures of my favorite parts of what has been done since moving home. 

You can see in this picture that the garage has upper cabinets and a very nice work bench. 

Some of the special items that make this a Man Space are the taxidermy and the special cabinet for the shop radio. 

One thing that I am very pleased with is cut out for the miter saw. Now I can lay boards across the entire length of the bench for support. 

Yes, this is a bit of a joke but not totally. I have always enjoyed working in the garage on many different things and this is the first time that I have had a blank slate to work with and I am pretty happy with what I have been able to do so far. So as for pictures of the house this is what you get for now. Now that the tools all have a home I will be able to easily find them and get all the other projects taken care of in the house. 

Finally..............

we are moving home!! The house is probably 99.5% complete right now and we are going to move home today. Last night our contractor finished up the last of the major projects and said we were ok to move back in. We were told to look around and just make a list of anything we come across that still needs to be done and he would come back this weekend to finish those last little things.

So tonight should be fun. We have purchased some furniture and a few other things that are already delivered but have some assembly required and that is what I will be doing .... assembleing furniture and probably setting up a TV.

Hope to see you all at the house real soon.

Counting the days....

and hours....and minutes......and seconds till we get to move home. I know I recently posted that it might have been last week or this past weekend but sometimes things take a little longer than you hope. This is a huge lesson in delayed gratification. Right now it feels like it is so close to done I can taste it but those last few details seem to take the longest. 

It really looks like a real house again, we have all the flooring done now, carpet went down yesterday and it looks great next to the tile and the wood floor. We have a couple of appliances installed and the others should be put in place tomorrow. Tonight we painted a bathroom and added the last few switch plate covers. I know that doesn't seem like much but every little thing gets us one step closer to moving home. 

I can't wait for everyone to see what it looks like, I'm not posting any pictures right now because we don't want to spoil the surprise when everyone can come see it in person. 

See you all back at our house real soon. 

Very Soon......

We will be moving home!!!! Eladio told us just a few minutes ago that we may be able to move in by Wednesday. That is only 6 days away. I'm trying not to get too excited so I don't get disappointed if it takes a little longer but I don't think that's working. 

While it is very exciting to think about moving home it is also a little overwhelming since when we move in we still need towels, sheets, a bed, food, cookware etc, etc. I don't claim to be psychic but I see trips to Target and Bed, Bath and Beyond in my near future. 

Be prepared for a reoccupation party in the near future!!

Exciting Times

OK, so I have not been blogging much in a while but that is mostly because there just has not been much worth talking about that I don't already spend every minute that Im awake already talking about. Luckily the times they are a changin'; there is actually some exciting, and good things going on. 

First, I'll start with the house. We are getting very close to getting finished and ready to move in. We are looking at about 2 weeks right now. Even though we had a lot of trouble with our original contractor the new one is GREAT!! and things are looking even better than we had originally planned. 

The next, super exciting thing that happened is that I passed the Principal Exam. Woo Hoo. That gets one more thing off the list to being fully certified to be a principal. I have 2 classes left in school and then all that is left is a little paperwork and getting intern hours. I have done a few intern hours already and it has been a really nice change of pace to be principal for a day. I like the fact that things change all day long instead of giving the same lecture about electrons or how to calculate speed four or five times a day. 

The last thing that I will mention may not be quite as exciting for some of you but it is for me. In order to do some of the work around the house I have begun replacing some of the tools that I lost in the flood. I bought some and also got some for Christmas. I decided to upgrade some of them and they are awesome. So far I have used my new Makita circular saw, my Bosch Jig saw and my Dewalt orbital sander and they are so nice to use. Very smooth and plenty of power, I would highly recommend them all. 

Well, that's all for now, I'll try to get back here more often.