Where Am I Supposed to Be?

Today was my final day to have all by myself. I actually didn't sleep in today. I got up and made chocolate chip pancakes with bacon for the kids and I made my wife a knock off of an Egg McMuffin. Once they left I got around and headed to the gym. As I mount the treadmill and look to engage my Iphone with my Pandora App I notice that I received a text from a fellow co-worker. Seems she was at an inservice that I was supposed to attend for content point persons.

I texted back and forth a few times and left off with my possibly attending the afternoon content specific session. This allowed me to get in a shortened cardio workout as well as visit the local market place to pick up chips and dip for my noon luncheon with my 5th grade team. I did enjoy a shortened luncheon with my team and headed off to the 1pm afternoon session that was Science specific.

Long story short, I got everything I needed in order to present science material back to my peeps at school. I did receive a text from my assistant principal that asked did I miss something this morning. Nobody at the inservice gave me a hard time and in all truthfulness I didn't end up sitting thru a beyond boring morning session that talked about designing lessons for English Language Learners. I say this because I figure that is less than a few % of our total population so I may or may not have this student in my class.

Did I forget? Did I delete an important email reminding me of my expectation to attend this inservice? I am not a planner kind of guy and have all the appointments and meetings rolling around in my mind all the time.

Summer is almost over.

Bored

Now I know why I run off to St. Louis for a month during Summer break. I can't handle having nothing to do. This morning I got up at 7am and fixed breakfast for the family before they headed off to a teacher workshop and kids club. I figured I'd climb back in bead and snooze a bit. Next thing I know it is almost 11am. I didn't do much today. First thing I did was return a lawn mower part to Home Depot. I then went to the gym for an hour of cardio. Last thing I did was come home and clean up a bit in our bedroom. 3:30 hit and the family walked thru the door. We sat around for about an hour and took off for a fundraiser dinner at The Purple Cow. That's all I did today. I'm tired too????

School Count Down

Can't really complain about having to get ready for school. 3 weeks from today we get live bodies in our rooms. In 10 days I officially report to our 9am beginning of the year Convocation. 2 years ago we had Ron Clark and he was wonderful.

As a teacher I feel very privileged to be able to take a 5 week vacation to visit family in St. Louis. We then came back for a week before I had to take a few days to get professional development hours.

The nice thing about this week is that I do not have any commitments and my kids are going to Kids Club for free while my wife is taking summer classes. I really wouldn't know what I would do if I had this much time all summer.

Being a teacher is a good thing. The pay is actually pretty decent. The hours are great. The time off is awesome. I'm psyching myself up!

Facebook Drawback

One thing about Facebook that has kind of gotten in the way is when you share something it may be intended for just a certain group of people. Not sure if I can edit who gets to view my latest comment. One issue we will have tomorrow is that we are having a birthday party for my son. I know of at least 3 different people we did not invite and my son attending their birthday parties. If we post pics of the party those who did not have their child invited may feel a little bit slighted. We shall see.

I also found a cream ale, Little Kings, that I drank occasionally as a younger adult and decided not to post it since many of my Facebook friends are through church and such.

I do pride myself in not ever really hiding things from people. In the case of the "case" of Little Kings I just know a few of my friends don't drink and probably are offended by it. Albeit a very small percentage, I err in not posting it.

The Wheels are Falling Off

This is the time of year in 5th grade when our students seem to forget normal expectations and begin to think it is okay to bully, cheat, steal and lie. Well, maybe not THAT extreme, but close. There is an art to keeping the balance while addressing certain issues and avoiding breaking spirits or stemming momentum since the big science test is next week. After Thursday, all bets are off.

5th graders only have less than 30 more recesses in their academic careers.

Sucker in the Room

I really enjoy mowing and I also enjoy performing acts of service for people. Recently I was asked to mow for a coworker whom I know is stuggling financially. The place is a bit out of the way, but I agreed to mow in exchange for future childcare. A fair trade in my mind is one mow, worth about $30, in exchange for about 3-4 hours of sitter service. Well, my coworker was just put on bedrest since she is having sciatic back problems while being pregnant. I know what this means, I'm mowing for charity.

Is it wrong for me to not want to continue mowing? My wife suggested I tutor her husband and teach him to mow. Is it wrong for me to mention to my coworker that maybe it is time that her husband take over mowing responsibilities? That is what homeowners do..take care of their lawns.

I'll struggle with this one. As Matt Damon says in the beginning of the poker movie Rounders, "If you can't spot the sucker in your first half hour at the table, then you ARE the sucker." That is kind of how I feel right now.

Blogging vs. Facebook and Grieving

I really miss blogging. Facebook really stole me away from blogging on a regular basis. I actually have 4 blog accounts, my TheMANFC, one for each of my kids and one based on scripture readings. Saddest thing is that I haven't posted to my scripture blog in over a year. I started blogs for each of my kids as a form of journaling what is going on in their lives. My daughter was born in 2001 and I actually wrote in a journal for her. My son was born in 2004 and I wrote very little in his journal. Blogging for them was kind of a way to document what is actually going on in our lives. It may serve as my memory someday. Sad thing is, I couldn't remember my password to my blog accounts. TheMANFC blog in its hey day was a good way for me to keep up with BillyV and Huffdaddy without actually talking to them. It also allowed me to connect with a few other people in the country who teach, one a substitute and another a professor.

I really enjoy Facebook and I give it credit for reconnecting me with MANY friends that I had lost touch with. I only try to become friends with someone if I would truly consider having lunch with them if we crossed paths. What Facebook has done is stolen what we call screen time in my house away from Blogger.

Last Thursday I made a visit back to blogger in a desperate attempt to find out what had happened to a good friend of mine that I hadn't seen in a few months. A mutual friend informed me that this friend had passed away. I didn't really find anything on blogger about my friend and ironically it was on Facebook that his wife posted the details of his Memorial Service.

Oddly enough both medium have allowed me to grieve the loss of my friend. Many of his friends posted their feelings as they shared how special a person he was. It was therapuetic to read how much he meant to so many people. Then tonight I was able to read his most recent posts. On a few of them I should have been able to realize how tough things were going for him on a daily basis. And most of his posts you would never realize how much he was battling just trying to stay healthy.

What I do have in our blog connection is the ability to read his posts over the past few years and to hear his voice in his writing. I can go back through my posts and read his comments. 9 times out of 10 his comments make me smile, even chuckle, and now I look forward to spending more screen time listening to my friend who has moved on from this life. It was also cool to see a new post from his 9 year old son on his blog. It was my kind of post too: A restaurant review......NICE!

I really hope I am able to keep a healthy balance between Facebook, blogging, bible reading and family.

#81

I am visiting my friend Billy V in Columbia MO, home of the Mizzou Tigers. We had lunch at Shakespeares, a downtown pizza place. It wasn't bad. The atmosphere was better than the pizza. Afterwards we went to the Mizzou store and when we walked through a little deli to use the restroom we got locked out and had to go back outside in order to get back in so we just left. We ended up going to Walmart and I was really dreading the throng of shoppers.

To my surprise the store was relatively calm for December 23rd. I ended up getting my brother a Mizzou coozie and while looking for a white longsleeve or mock turtle neck I came across a good number of #81 Owens jerserys. He last played for the Cowboys 12 months ago and these jerseys were on clearance racks in Dallas last January. I was shocked to see them listed for $29 and these were the cheap jerseys. Makes my $23 purchase last Friday seem like a great deal since Witten is still on the team.

Guess they shipped all #81 jerseys up north hoping the simple folks here in Missouri wouldn't know any better. I should have checked for Green Bay Favre jerseys.

KFC Response

I got a quick response this time especially since I sent the link to my blog that complained about KFC and last of customer service. The email was nice and offered me $20 in KFC credit. We'll see if it shows up. Will post when it does.

Do you think KFC will go out of business like the other places I visit do?

Another One Bites the Dust

I think I am only going to post about eating from now on.

Last Saturday after mowing for most of the day I decided to treat the family to a late lunch. Of course I had a coupon for a place called Dodie's, a cajun seafood place. My wife informs me that it is no longer open at the location we used to visit, but I knew there was a Dodie's sportsbar just down the highway a bit. I looked their number up online and called asking about them honoring the coupon. The girl said they did not.

We ended up going anyway as I was hoping to catch the Cards/Cubs on tv. When I got there all the TV's were on college football and I was informed that was all I was going to get. We stayed and within minutes the band started playing. It was LOUD. We found out that they were setting up for the night and they only played Separate Ways from Journey.

I think this restaurant was related to the other seafood place, but the menu was less seafood and had a larger variety. My wife and I split a catfish dinner and the kids split a kid's popcorn shrimp me. Overall the food was good and our server was great. May go back again sometime.

Yum Yum to GONE

Friday I was going to order Chinese food Yum Yum to Go, a from a place owned by the family of a student I had last year. I was really busy Friday and realized our school lunch was in about an hour. I hopped online and typed in their web address. It came back "not found." I google searched and again no luck. We ended up ordering McD's at the last moment.

Saturday while out mowing I drove by the strip where it is located and was going to pick up a flyer in order to have their number for future references. As I drove up I couldn't find it. The sign was gone and it was replaced with a Nail salon sign.

Not being stereotypical, but did this family keep the building and just switch occupations?

"Extra long nails just 4 dollar more."

Un KFC Again?

Last May I posted about printing a coupon Oprah endorsed for the new grilled chicken for KFC. It had a barcode on it and you had to print a new coupon per customer. I took my family of 4 and when I got there they didn't honor the coupon "Due to the success of the promotion........" I went in and was told to fill our a form which I should have known better when I filled out a torn piece of paper with my name and info and one for each family member. After about 2 months I contacted KFC via email through their customer service "Contact Us" link. I shared what I went through and again never heard from them. So, just last week I contacted them again asking for my free meal OR just a simple apology. I included that I would never visit a KFC again until I got the meal or an apology. It has been a week and I've not gotten an email.

What would you do? Just write it off and visit again? Stick to your guns and never go back? Keep complaining and let everyone know about the poor customer service? Tell me?

I think I will write one more email and just link this post for them to read. At this point, I will never go to KFC again. I know they are in kahoots with Taco Bell and I went there last night so what do I do with a Taco Bell?KFC combo store?

Pots and Pans

My wife shopped at Kohls and Sunday and while she was out I realized we had the new booklet advertising their upcoming sale so I tried to call her to tell her to wait. No luck, her phone was dead. She purchased a Calaphon 10 piece set on sale for $180 plus tax. We took it back Sunday night and I repurchased it last night and did I get a deal.

My coupon was for an extra 20% off-new sale price $144.
Plus we earned $30 Kohl's cash- $30 additional plus
Plus the lady who helped me found a FREE Gift-$70 Calaphon Dish/Lid.

By using the coupon and waiting our net savings/deal ended up being about $136. WOW. All that on a $180 purchase.

He shoots, he SCORES!

Another Restaurant Bites the Dust

When we got back from St. Louis I really had a craving for a breakfast sandwhich from The Bagel Factory. About a month my family stopped by on the way to church only to see a sign on the door saying "Closed today." We did go back a few weeks later and enjoyed a perfect breakfast. We talked to who I think was the owner and the guy who has always made our food. I asked about that Sunday and he said they had a few issues that day. On this visit we found a banner out front that said, "New Management, Cheaper Prices." The food was indeed cheaper and just as good.

Well, since we were running late to church on Sunday I decided to take the kids for breakfast before church. I was leary when I pulled in and the banner was barely hanging. As we got out of my truck another couple tried to open the door and it was locked. A lady nearby said they had been closed for about 2 weeks. BUMMER.

I just wonder if I am so cheap that I like places with cheaper prices and coupons which in the long run cause them to go out of business.

I took my kids to Einstein's Bagels and ended paying $15 for our breakfast which would easily have been about $10 or so from The Bagel Factory. I hope they manage to pull it together and re-open.

Slowing Down

I kind of feel like a ball player at the end of their career. They just don't hit as many homeruns as they used to. The magic number for homeruns was at 754 for a LONG time and some guy named Barry Bonds, with the aid of steroids, past that number and ended up with about 760 something. Well, I'm at about 651 posts and haven't posted in about a month. I guess I'm really busy and it is easier to just post something on FACEBOOK. I guess I like Facebook since I am connected with my closest friends.

The one thing about Facebook I don't like is having to accept or reject friend requests. "Will you be my friend?" There are some people I just don't want knowing my business. And I have a few friends that I have decided to hide their comments for various reasons. I sometimes get a request from someone I worked with a while back, but didn't really know. If I have to ask someone who it was I probably should ignore the request.

I think I would like to be consistent with blogging again because it lets me share things going on at a little bit more indepth. I'm very inconsistent to what I may post, but I think that is good. I really fizzled out this summer when I went to St. Louis.

We shall see! Maybe I can take some online steroids and bump my numbers like a few ball players have.

Froggy Got Baptized

This morning our church had a baptism service where about 30 people were baptized. Kids 5 and up were in the service instead of chidlren's church. How great the impact. My daughter on the way home asked if dogs went to heaven. I told her dogs don't have a soul and therefore can't accept Jesus as saviour. Well, tonight my 5 year old son asked me to re-inflate the pool. Wasn't long before he and a "toad" friend were swimming together. About 5 minutes in he says, "Hey daddy, froggy got baptized."

You never know when life's magic moments will occur.

Just a Few Things

We went to Crater of Diamonds State Park near Murfreesboro Arkansas and the weird experience of the trip was driving thru Hope AR. It is the birthplace of Clinton, but that is not strange. What was strange or weird was seeing the thousands of small white FEMA trailers that were used during the Hurricane Katrina days. These things are packed in like sardines for acres. Not sure if they are usable anymore.

The day after we got back from our trip the a/c blower on my truck stopped. Fortunately for me I only had 35,300 miles on my truck and it was covered. Another 700 miles and I'm sure that would have cost me about $500 bucks.

Today was my first official day back at work for the 09-10 school year.

This Weekend

Wow, I packed a lot in this weekend. Last Thursday I went to the midnight showing of GI Joe. Friday I mowed for a friend and that took up 2 1/2 hours of my day. I played cards both Friday night AND Saturday night. Sunday we got up and decided to head for Arkansas. My wife had been wanting to go camping since Spring Break. There was no planning and prepping involved. Our main destination was Crater of Diamonds State Park. We found out online that the campground was closed. We left our house about 9:45am, gassed up, then headed east. We stopped on the way for groceries and arrived around 2:30pm. It was HOT! We basically checked the place out and asked where would be a good place to camp.

We arrived at Narrow Dam campgrounds about 4:30pm. While setting up a park ranger informed us that we were setting up our tent in a restricted area. After talking with him for a while he recommended another campground nearby that might be more enjoyable. It was right on the water and had a beach swimming area. We made it there and got our tent set up by 6pm. We purchased 3 day fishing passes, hunted for worms, went swimming, fished and then had hot dogs and smores before dark. We packed it in.

We bedded down about 9:30. As of 12:45am I had yet to fall into a deep sleep. At one time I saw the moon as it glided across the sky right about our open screened tent. We packed up camp by 8:30am and headed to search for diamonds..

We spent about 4 hours total sifting through the Arkansas soil searching for the big one. It is really just a field that has been plowed. You rent a bucket, screens and shovel for about $20 and we paid $18 as a family to get into the park to dig. It was really hot so we found a large tree and started digging. As far as we know we didn't find any diamonds. This couple acre area was deemed not a profitable place to mine for diamonds, but a few big ones have been found there.

As we were finishing up our daughter reminded us that she had gymnastics practice. We hurried and left by 1:15pm and made it home by 5:30. Just enough time to shower and get to practice.

FUN times!

The Zone McKinney

I took my kids this morning for pizza at Alfonzo's at The Zone in McKinney. It had been a long time since we had visited, but the last time we visited we saw changes due to new ownership/management. After visiting today I doubt I'll ever trek across town to visit either the pizza place or the arcade area.

What went wrong at Alfonzo's Pizza:
It was about 12:30 when we arrived. I would think this is peak lunch time, yet when we arrived there were only 2 other people having lunch. Of the 6 pizza slots only the remnants of 2 pizzas existed. When we ordered the buffet I was charged for kids drinks which comes with their meal. The high school worker was nice, but not knowledgeable at all. I asked about 3 generic questions and was answered with, "I don't know." The guy making pizzas did make what I asked for although when I asked for bbq chicken he responded that he wasn't sure if they had any chicken. The lettuce was not so fresh and was JUST lettuce instead of a normal mixture with purple cabbage and carrots. The dessert had yet to be put out. When he did put it out there was nothing to pick it up with(fingers). I was bummed they didn't have rice krispy treats.
They ran out of plates so I reused mine twice. Loud music was blaring from the pizza making area.

What went wrong at The Zone arcade:
When we visited about 4 months or so ago it appeared as if they were shutting down. They were decreasing the number of games they had. Today many of the crane machines were almost barren. You could see the bottom of the machines on at least 3 of the games. Other than that many of the games didn't give out tickets or were just out of order.

In it's hey day the place was busy. Today it was a ghost town. Kids are out of school and this place should have been hopping. I can't see this place staying in business much longer. That's a shame.

Don't Tease

Last week I went to a few teacher workshops. Teachers in Texas are expected to take 18 hours of Professional Development throughout the year. To help with this most districts have weeklong summer workshops for subject specific areas. One day I took a morning session and in my class there were only 5 people. I knew the instructor well since she is a curriculum person for my subject area. She started the session off by saying we'd get out early since we had such a small group. She posted a time......11am. So when 11am came and went the whole group got a little antsy. 11:20 and she is still instructing and then started asking for feedback. She asked what we could use from this workshop in our classes. AND then she asked what she could do better to make it more relevant next time. REALLY? It was 11:28 when she said, "We are going anywhere until everyone shares something."

Somehow I walked out of the class 1 minute early. I really wanted to tell her in front of everyone that she not should say we are getting out early when indeed we didn't. I've experienced this with this person a few times prior so I was leary when she said we were getting out early.

This would be like telling a kids they could have ice cream later and not coming through for them. Or a wife telling her husband that maybe there could be some quality time after the kids go to sleep tonight. Once that carrot has been dangled that is all a guy is thinking about all day. Then the night comes and it doesn't happen he is bent. Well, I left the inservice bent. I am still wondering if I should email her the constructive feedback or will it only put strain on things since I will be working with her all year long.