Who Are All Of These Children, and Why Do They Keep Calling Me Mister?

Back with real kids, in the place of the perfect ones that we get in in-services. And they were real for sure, man. Not awful, just flaky. Kind of makes sense after the layoff, under the circumstances. We all got through it, and that will work fine for the moment. Tomorrow we will try for something a little more substantial, and I hope that it will work.

I challenged my students to finish the year on grade level for reading. If they do, they get to give me a haircut. They have been wanting to do it for the last year or so. I needed to have a target that they had a good chance of hitting. This group has a good chance.

There is not a whole lot else to report, except that my darling and I are having a diet and exercise competition, and it involves drinking a lot of water, among other things. I don't know how often she was hitting the bathroom today, but I was making regular trips. I will update the competition as the winter goes along. It will add a little spice to this time of year.

I think that my body is still on Eastern time, because I begin getting noticeably tired at 8:00 or 8:30 in the evenings. I know that it will pass, but for now I am just going to go with it and get lots of sleep. That is probably not a bad thing, given my predilection for insomnia. Mmmm, nice warm comfy bed...night, Napas...

Back At It...

...kind of. Today was an in-service day, and we spent most of the day playing at being teachers. Lots of talk involving most of the usual cliches. Entirely too many uses of the word "rich" in contexts other than personal wealth and desserts. Incantations of the phrase "with fidelity." All of the usual suspects in the murder of language that is educationese.

I was shuffled off to the math ghetto where I have taken up residence by accident. I enjoy teaching the course, but I am often as baffled as my students. Nonetheless, it is what I do, for a good chunk of my day. Tomorrow, I will try to get the returning vacationers to review geometric concepts in preparation for a test. O joy.

Despite the dreary nature of the day's activity, I am glad to be back. I saw a couple of kids, and was happy for it. My bride and I are starting something called "Game On," and we will see how living like this for the next several weeks affects our mutual sanity. I have relatively little by way of prepared lesson plans for the week, partially because I expect to spend no little time reviewing basic concepts and wakening young brains back into the school regimen. I had probably come up with something a little more complex than that, so it will be an early night, so that I may arise early to prepare something more substantial.

Maybe I will have it together by the end of the week...

Early To Bed and Early To Rise...

...is for suckers.

Gee, It's Good To Be Back Home Again...

The oil stove is making it nice and warm, and the sun is shining in the living room window...we have made it home safely again. Buddha is scamming popcorn, and the mutt is sleeping peacefully next to her mistress on the couch. We put away groceries and did some of the clean-up that we didn't get to do before we left, and took a nap. We are now sitting in our jammies at 4:30 in the afternoon catching up on a few necessities. It feels quiet and homey and altogether welcome after a couple days of travel.

Our trip from Anchorage to Bethel was as uneventful as was the trip from Chicago to Anchorage. That is a good thing in my book. It was sunny and spectacular as we flew over the mountains, and the time passed quickly. Joe B was there to greet us after we got off of the plane, and the ride home was smooth. I managed to get the door unlocked without any difficulty, and we proceeded in our homecoming routine.

Tomorrow is an in-service day, and I have laundry to get finished. (And probably lesson plans, too.) It is time for winter semester, and I am looking forward to it. Time to see what we can get done.

Here Again

We touched down in Anchorage at about 1:37 local time yesterday-it is snowy and cold, so there are no surprises there. All is well so far, and we are looking forward to getting back to our little corner of paradise today, if all goes well. The weather looks promising, and Joe has promised to meet us at the airport in Bethel, so it looks as if we will ride back in the comfort of a nice warm truck cab rather than on the back of a snowmachine. I am not quite ready for that action yet, so you can color me grateful. The only obligatory thing left to do before we leave ANC is the trip to the grocery store.

I was definitely more excited about getting here yesterday than I am this morning, but that may have something to do with what the football authorities call "excessive celebration" last night. I suspect that I will ultimately live...stay tuned for further updates...

Pathetic

I have to be posting more than this or everyone will recognize me for the pathetic useless bugger that I am. Not much new here to post, as the days have been filled with either visits with friends and family or appointments. Necessities such as dentist/optometrist/haircut and the like. We seem to be doing a pretty good job of getting the visiting done as well.

I am waiting to see if my new bike and glasses will make it here before we leave. Our estimated departure date looks as if it will most likely be Friday, as there is supposed to be a bunch of snow deposited between here and Chicago between now and Wednesday night, and I would like to give the road commissions time to clear it off of the roads. Tomorrow we will go to Traverse City once again to see friends, let my wife get a pedicure, and access a little wi-fi, so that I can do some submissions for my masters in Juneau.

Vacation has been fun, relaxing, and productive simultaneously. It is too bad that it is nearly over, but it is also time to get back to work for a few months before the next break. Teachers are streaming back into the LKSD system, and there are inservices and lesson plans to get around to. Back to normal (!) life...

Over To A New Year...

I managed to avoid the portentous post about 1/1/11...most people thankfully avoided the subject as far as I could tell. Maybe they are more focused on the upcoming end of the world in 2012.

We have continued to whirl through the Northern Michigan wilds celebrating and visiting. Lotsa friends and family. More to come tonight, as we head for the southern part of the state and my family.

We have been fortunate to get a little rest in with all of the fun, and I think that maybe we are getting refreshed for our return to PKA in a couple of weeks. If we are not, I think that we will work diligently on that in the time remaining.

Here's hoping that all of our friends in Napaskiak have had a safe and happy New Year so far...