A Dozen.

It's my favorite time of the year!  Jamie and I are heading to the West Coast tomorrow to celebrate the holidays with family.  I'm so excited to see my nieces and bask in their adorableness.  I'm hoping that they don't run away screaming from me since it's been so long since I last saw them...ALMOST A YEAR!

After a very brief time in L.A., we are heading off to Mexico for some more rest and relaxation.  Sadly, I will be bringing along plenty of work to do, but it all seems so much better when said work is being done with an ocean view.

Disclaimer: the next section is especially cutesy and self-indulgent.  This is where the "blog" is more for me to record my thoughts and memories for selfish purposes rather than as a place for others to see what I've been up to.  Feel free to skip to the dancing dog!
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Yesterday, Jamie and I had a mini-celebration for our "date-iversary" and dammit, I'm going to celebrate that forever!  We don't do presents or send cutesy little e-cards, we try to do a little dinner or something, but most years we are actually already at home with family for our date-iversary so we can't really celebrate anyway.  This is the first time since getting married when it really was just the two of us...so we went to a nice dinner (paid for, in part, by a belated and generous wedding gift from a friend) and reminisced about the past 12 years and discussed the years ahead.

Despite knowing Jamie for over half my lifetime now...and spending so much of the past dozen years with him at the forefront of my mind (if not physically with me), it's nice to know that there are still so many things I have to learn about him...And that we can still laugh at the things we already do know about each other and have so much fun with one another.
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Why a salsa-ing dog?  Why not?  (I'm on Winter Break!)

The Potonacs.

I still argue with Jamie about whether his singing group's name should be spelled "Potonacs" or "Potonecs".  It's a pun -- would you expect anything else from Jamie -- having to do with the fact that they are based in D.C. which  is nestled alongside the mighty Potomac River.  I still say it should be the latter.

Anyway, here's a recording of the Potonacs/necs singing a song that I think he added to their repertoire for me.  Because, I love James Taylor (my Berkshire buddy) something fierce.  Jamie denies it, but I know better...

(Click on the little play button below...)

Lonesome Road - Po...

Edited to add: In case the little audio player above doesn't work for some reason and you're in desperate need for acapella (?) here's the "acapella" song (that there is some pretty heavy production) from tonight's Glee.  

We Are Marshall (and Lily).

A few years back, my brother and sister-in-law introduced me to the show, How I Met Your Mother by telling me to watch this video (which I have referenced before in this post.)  I am including it again, because I can still watch it and laugh.

Despite it not being as funny as 30 Rock or Community, or as entertaining as Glee, it still holds a slot on our Tivo.  Mostly because Jamie and I are "Marshall" and "Lily" (only awesomer because we never "took a break" in our relationship).

Now, I know that shows purposely create their characters so that people can relate to them, and Marshall and Lily, in particular, are very relatable.  In fact, I have heard more than one couple say that they were Marshall and Lily -- never mind the fact that they are based on the guy who actually created the show and his wife.  In those situations, I smiled politely and secretly thought to myself that Jamie and I were still more aligned.

• Marshall is Jamie's middle name
• Marshall is an environmental lawyer
• Lily is a elementary school teacher
• Both went to a liberal arts college (albeit, a rival liberal arts college)
• Like us, they dated for 9 years before getting married
• Like Jamie, Marshall comes from a family with 3 tall boys
• Marshall is from Minnesota
• They tend to have their big life events at the same time as us (i.e. wedding, moving, new jobs)
• Lily clearly wears the pants in that relationship

And many other reasons.  The final nail in the "we-are-Marshall-and-Lily" coffin came with the episode a couple weeks back (like I said, we Tivo) when they simultaneously came up with the name "Jamie" as an awesome name.  I agree.

And now, for another uncanny resemblance: a friend of ours visited the Norman Rockwell exhibit that is up here in D.C. and found Jamie's doppleganger on canvas.

Look at him flirting shamelessly with that redhead!

Happy Halloween.

For the record, I got the green light from Jamie to post this Halloween picture.  I find it to be adorably hilarious.

I think it may also be the closest I've ever seen Jamie to being unhappy.  He's just a pretty happy guy.  Also, for some Halloween fun, you may wish to check out this site.  I definitely had some costumes that belonged on that site.  Couldn't dig any of those up...but here is me as a bumblebee.

Rally Call.

A pretty great day for a rally.  It was gorgeous outside -- very crisp and fresh -- and the sun was shining.  It wasn't below freezing like the last time we stood outside on The Mall for a long time.  So, we strolled over to the Capitol and tried to find a place to stand and see the nearest Jumbotron.

Note: the sea of people on the other side of the stage.  Yowzers.

Even better, Marty McFly and Doc Brown came down from NYC to attend with me.  

There were lots and lots (and lots) of people there.  And, I found that -- just like at inauguration -- people were in such good spirits.  It was an important message, and in the end, I'm glad that so many people felt the clarion call to attend.

P.S. How awesome are Jess and Chad's costumes???

A Joke.

A three-legged dog walks into a saloon in the Old West.  He slides up to the bar and announces: "I'm looking for the man who shot my paw."

I just skimmed through a list of the "Top 50 Funniest Jokes Ever Told" and the one above was the only one that got me to chuckle (and it was #44 so that's not a good sign.)  That being said, here is a great joke (for those of you who are craving a little update on the progress of the CUTEST NIECES IN THE WORLD):

You're welcome (...Abby).

Happy Heart.

One of the main reasons I left Baltimore was because of the heartbreak.  I loved my school, I loved my students,  and I felt successful within my classroom.  The problem that I couldn't get past was the uncertainty that surrounded my students when they left my classroom.  There was the chance they would continue their growth with their next teacher, but there was also a chance that they could be placed on the roster of a "lemon".  Every year, I watched and suffered repeated heartbreak at seeing some of my students slide back into bad habits, lose confidence, or end up suspended more and more often.

So I left.  There were many, many other reasons why I left -- we bought a house, the commute was rough, etc. -- but I may have been able to live with those, had it not been for the lemons.  Unfortunately, I felt powerless to stop it.  It was a city-wide...and even nationwide issue.  So I decided to go with charter schools where the school could hire the most-qualified teachers and fire those that did not pull their weight.

Today, DC Prep was in the news again and it made me cry.

The students in that video are largely made up of my former students -- the last class I ever taught.  After all these years, it is wonderful to know that I have passed them along to excellent teachers in 3rd grade, then 4th grade, and now 5th grade.  What is even better is knowing they will get more of the same at least through 8th grade, and very likely through high school and college.  So proud of DC Prep.

One of my teachers always tells her students that they make her heart smile.  My heart is smiling now.

Musket-free Post.

Hop into my time machine and get magically whisked back to a couple weekends ago when Jamie and I decided to spend Columbus Day (or Indigenous People's Day) in Harper's Ferry.  So we hopped into our car and drove over to West Virginia for a glorious autumn afternoon.

And, of course, it being a holiday weekend, there were all sorts of civil war reenactments going on.  Including this one of Jamie pretending to be President.

All in all, a lovely day with my favorite person.  Thanks, Harper's Ferry!

Heroes.

Look!  Prep is in the news!  Aren't our babies adorable?

If you're in the area and would like to volunteer let me know! 

Be The Hero.

Tonight I spoke on a panel for TFA.  It made me realize how long it has been since I have thought back to when I was nervous about my interview, or when I actually got in, and all of the adventures that followed.  Plus, I never would pass up an opportunity to brag on our students.  They are pretty awesome, though.

I got a little thrill seeing all of the eager, young faces eager to take a part in the movement.

Along the same vein, Jamie and I (and Scott!) went to see Waiting for Superman a couple weeks back.  Our School Board hosted a private screening for staff and friends.  And I know that I have posted the trailer on here before, but I'm doing it again...

Because, seriously, if you haven't seen the movie yet...you should.  As an added bonus, when you buy your ticket online, you actually get a $15 gift certificate to spend at Donorschoose -- which is an awesome organization and is the source for many grants I have received in the past...and actually have many of you to thank for the generous donations!  (Thanks!)  

As a sidenote, Davis Guggenheim allegedly told one of our Board Members that if he had the chance to do the movie all over, he would have included DC Prep in the schools he followed.  I take it with a grain of salt, but still fun to think of...

Speaking of which, if anyone is local to DC, DC Prep will be on the news again next Tuesday...at 6am...got a DVR?

Another Fine Day in Our Nation's Capital.

Oh boy, do I love long weekends!  They are very much worth the pain and sorrow of having to return to work.

I do have plenty to share -- most of it not all that exciting, but I will have to parcel out to several days rather than try to cover it all at once.  Jamie and I are trying to turn over a new leaf and get to bed at a reasonable hour these days.  We gotta be in bed by 10:30!  But, you can stay tuned for: (a la Friends)

• The One Where Jamie is Handy
• The One With the Muskets
• The One with the Panel
• The One with the Rally
• The One with Superman
• The One with the Transformers

I'll actually start with the last one, because it is the mystery that has been bugging me all day.

Jamie and I live on an Emergency Thruway -- meaning we're among the first streets to get plowed, and that we have emergency vehicles going up and down it like nobody's business.  That said, we are pretty used to hearing sirens and firetrucks whizzing past our house.  It doesn't really bug us anymore.  But this morning...

This morning, we had sirens blasting for a solid half hour and I counted more than a dozen emergency vehicles go past our house.  It was enough for me to get out of bed and check the computer for any breaking news regarding an attack on the Capitol and think about whether we should close the windows to combat a biological attack of some kind (as if it would help).  Some story about how Transformers 3 would be filming in the area and shutting down streets around town for the next week or so.  Aside from being bummed that I couldn't be inconvenienced for a better movie, I thought nothing of it.

When my friend, Kayla, (hi Kayla!) mentioned that Bumblebee (a Transformer??) was in an accident with a police car today, I immediately pictured some giant Transformer animatronic something or other crushing a police cruiser...something like this:

It did not occur to me that movies these days actually do most of that stuff with computers.  So, in fact, the accident looked more like this*:

Apparently, the police SUV was responding to a bomb scare somewhere on the Hill (which Jamie insists are a weekly thing) and did not get the memo about the streets being closed for filming.  I wonder if he noticed that something was off when he saw the giant Optimus Prime tractor-trailer passing by.  Fortunately, the police officer was okay -- minor injuries -- and no bomb went off on the Hill, and my mystery from this morning was solved.

*If you watch the full video here, you can see how sad it is when they totally have 7 people attending to the Transformers car while only one guy is checking on the police officer (only after seeing the fancy car first.)  

Another Year, Another Go.

In an effort not to stay up way too late and wake up the next morning in a complete funk, I am posting from work!  No worries, kids have been safely dismissed and I'm just taking a mini-break before my next meeting.

I know it's been less than a year, but the OK Go! guys put out a new video today.  I figured, since I had made a little tradition out of posting them on here, I wouldn't stop now.

What would have been really impressive was if they did this with cats.  Or porcupines.  (No.  I'm still impressed.  Apparently, this was Take 74 or 75...)

Back to work.

All Work and No Play...

...makes for a very boring blog.

The trouble with spending over 12 hours at work, then an additional 4 hours working from home every night, is that there is nothing to blog about except work.  Put into that the fact that it is generally not a good idea to blog about work and the blank screen staring back at me gets pretty intimidating.

(Don't worry about me -- I whine, but I do get to do fun things too!  Thanks for the post-work dinner, Kayla!  Ooh!  And thanks brunch on Sunday, Lindsay and Connie!)

Anyway, I realized that I never finished the Wedding Trivia -- so here is the final question:


What is Melissa’s favorite phrase that she picked up from her students?

a)      You big baldheaded boy!

b)     What d’do shorty?

c)     Oh-wah!

d)     I didn’t do nothin’! 

To be honest, I don't actually know which one I would have listed as my answer -- I actually hated ALL of these because of how many times I had to hear them.  If it is based on the phrase that I adopted as my own, it would have to be option "c".  The "Oh-wah!" is a perfect expression of shock at an "unjustified" accusation.  Of course, "unjustified" is in quotes because it was ALWAYS justified.  Always.

In Baltimore at the beginning of the decade, "a" was the worst insult one 3rd grader could throw at another 3rd grader.  And "d" gives me indigestion just to think of...I had to listen to "I didn't do nothin'" about 25 times a day.  *shudder*

And so ends wedding trivia.  Can't believe it took me so long to get around to finishing that up...hooray for procrastination...and now: bed.

A Concerted Effort.

Despite the craziness that is work right now, I'm going to make a concerted effort to blog more.  It seems like all around me things have been happening -- people are suffering loss, people are celebrating successes, people are moving away, people are multiplying, people are hitting milestones -- and it makes me remember why I wanted to have this blog in the first place: to keep in touch with friends.

Now more than ever, as I get more and more of my time swallowed up by work, it is important that I leave this trail of breadcrumbs behind me as I go.  As has been established in past blog posts, I am terrible at keeping in touch with friends -- no matter how dear they are to me.  So, if I haven't spoken to you in a long time, just know that I'm alive and well!  While I may not be able to swing a post a day for 30 days, I'll definitely try to do much better than the post a month as of late.

No Spoonful of Sugar.

Too tired to post anything of substance -- it's been exhausting at work lately.  But, I'm still alive!  And well!  Just super-busy.  And now, a video of a puppy taking some medicine.  We've all been there little Spanish-speaking puppy...we just don't look as adorable when rejecting icky food.

A real post soon.

Emerging.

I am emerging from my blog silence.  A couple reasons for this: 1) my parents are out of the country and I bet they are checking my blog for updates while they are in Peru and 2) I was encouraged to "breathe, then blog" by a colleague at work (who I didn't know knew I had a blog.)  I started this blog as a way to keep in touch with people -- or rather, for them to keep in touch with me -- while I was across the country in Massachusetts.  It's kind of sad to think that my work schedule is such that it has now become a way to keep in touch with people who are across the building.  Bum bum.

Still, it's worth it right now!  Our kiddies started up again this past week and things seem to be going pretty well.  By day two, the kids were looking great walking in the hall, the teachers are on top of their game, and we are already moving pretty quickly towards our goals.  Feels good!

I promise, I'm almost done bragging about our kids and teachers, but I have to get one last one in there.  After all of the District's test scores were released, our Assessment Associate pored over them in order to run some comparisons.

• In the end we found that overall, our 3rd through 8th graders performed over 35% better than the average for all DC public schools and public charter schools.  
• Our middle school is ranked #3 in reading and #4 in math for overall student performance (and that includes schools that have very different or "traditionally high-performing" demographics then ours).
• Our middle school is #1 in reading and #2 in math in overall student performance among the "disadvantaged" demographic.  
• Our 8th graders -- those who have been with us the longest -- are the highest performing students in the city.  (You can't get much better than 100% proficiency.)

I see how hard our students and our teachers work every day and it is the most motivating thing...

Is It Wrong...

...that as someone who works in a public charter school I can totally relate to the dog owner in this video?  Constantly encouraging kids/people...making excuses...not getting much back in return.  Although, I can probably relate to that dog too...(disclaimer: there is some foul language and a pooping dog in this video.)

It's been a very long week.  Students returned to school and it has been early mornings and late nights*.  Totally worth it, though...but I'm going to get into that in a later post.  For now, I need to finish up reviewing these lesson plans before I can start packing for our quick trip to New York!

*I am so sleep-deprived that this video made me laugh so hard that I cried.  

Pacey-Con.

Stumbled upon this today.  As you know, in my youth (er...and my adult life) I was a big fan of Pacey...So I enjoyed this.

Pacey-Con with Joshua Jackson from Joshua Jackson

I would totally go to Pacey-Con.  Drew...you game?

Can't Resist.

Hope my brother and sister-in-law don't mind me posting the latest nieces video despite them being the tub -- because, holy moly: my nieces are smart/adorable/beautiful/articulate/etc.

I have watched this video a ridiculous number of times today.  My favorite parts are Leah's attempts to cut the time short (i.e. "three? four? FIVELEAHTURN!!!") and Riley's simple "No! no." response.  And of course, Leah's sighing "fiiiiive" (at 0:47) and passing off the bucket to her sister.  

Baby geniuses.

Bowl-rack O-bowl-ma.

For the record, Jamie made me write that title.

In my continued effort to catch everyone up with the happenings of the past couple months, I want to share a few pictures from our most recent adventure to The White House.  Earlier this summer - late June, I think - a friend of ours invited us to go bowling at the White House bowling alley.  Jamie made sure to use the opportunity to ham it up for the cameras.

He's supposedly holding back W's ball.

Guhlers Goodness.

Work is really, really busy right now.  I haven't gotten to post about some of the happenings over here lately.  Since tonight was a pretty late night at work, I left my computer there and gave myself the rest of the night off.  So tonight, I will share some pictures of the fun we had in Olean, NY a couple weekends back celebrating the first year of marriage of our friends Ari and Heather.  (They had gotten married very quickly last year and did not have a wedding to celebrate it with friends then.)

It was fun times!

 It was a gorgeous day -- sunny in the afternoon during the ceremony, and after the sun went down, we got a big thunderstorm that put on a great electrical show over the mountains in the evening.  We played Cornhole (which I guess is just a beanbag toss) and caught up with friends...saw plenty of hilarious dancing...it was a pretty great night.

A Secret.

The results of the DC high stakes test were released to schools earlier this month.  Remember that test we took back in April?  Today, 241 D.C. teachers were fired.  As part of DC's overhaul of the school system, a rigorous teacher evaluation process was developed and implemented.  According to their test data, those teachers that were let go today were not moving students forward.  

Normally when data is first released to schools there is an embargo until the appeals process is complete.  Since today is the last day for appeals, I figure it is okay to share the news here...right? 

We made AYP!  Not just that -- our third graders' Reading and Math scores improved by 15% and 13% on average since last year.  Basically, it means that in our 3rd year of existence our 3rd graders are outperforming most of the schools in DC.  I am very proud of our students and our teachers.  They worked hard and they got results.  We still have lots of work to do, but it is wonderful to know that we are moving in the right direction fast.

Incidentally, our 8th graders -- those students who have been in our school for the longest -- did exceptionally well.  Are you ready?  94% proficient and advanced in Reading, and 100% proficient and advanced in Math.  Every single student in our graduating class is on grade level or above in Math, and all but one or two is on grade level in Reading. 

We're closing the achievement gap one step at a time...Congratulations to our students and staff.

Vignette.

Scott just stopped by to shower at our place after an Ultimate Frisbee game.  We keep clean towels in our guest bathroom in a basket next to the sink.  So, when he called out from the bathroom if he could use the towel on the floor I didn't think much of it and told him "of course".  Later, I noticed he was drying off his head with the bath mat.

You just gotta love the guy.

Bahamian Adventure.

We got back from our latest Bahamian adventure last weekend.  Tanned and rested, we are now faced with some pretty hectic workdays.  Still...it was totally worth it.  Just look:

Hooray for Abby, Jonas and Scott making it to the island with us!  We survived the crazy hot and humid weather by spending a lot of time on the boat or in the ocean.  Fortunately for us, DC was hit with  a heat wave around the same time we were in the Bahamas, so it was pretty nice to know that we wouldn't have been much better off temperature-wise.

The water was unusually calm for most of our stay.  It was like glass when we arrived, and allowed for some pretty smooth boating for the whole trip.  We went snorkeling a couple times, and our last day there, we had probably the best snorkeling I've ever encountered.  Absolutely no waves with perfect visibility.  I even got to see the elusive sea turtle!

The island was super-busy (at least in terms of Man-o-War).  Lots of people around, and we got a few fireworks displays for Independence Day.  We ventured out to Tilloo Bank and played frisbee off the boat.  It's still one of my favorite places on earth...

We visited Hope Town and Great Guana...everywhere we went we saw Wanted Posters for the Barefoot Bandit (who had arrived at the same time we had.)  Whole islands were buzzing about it -- everyone was on the look out -- so it actually makes sense that he got caught there.  When you have islands we so few people on it and everyone is looking for your face...there are not many places to hide.  Sadly, he broke into Curly Tails which is a restaurant we have frequented in the past (when Wally's is closed, of course).  But, the Royal Bahamas Police triumphed in the end.  

And with BB's capture, Jamie and I came back to the States.  On a plane FULL of babies!  Babies everywhere!  All of the babies on the plane were incredibly well-behaved.......except for two (from the same family) who screamed bloody murder the entire. way. home.  I actually thought it was pretty comical because it wasn't just that they cried the whole way...it was that they were full-out screaming the whole way.  

By the end, Jamie and I were rooting for them to persevere.  (They did.)  It actually worked out pretty well for us since all of the rows immediately surrounding the boys cleared out and left Jamie and I (Jamie with his noise-canceling ear buds, and me with my workplace-induced immunity to screaming children) with a whole row to ourselves.  It probably wouldn't have been so entertaining had the trip been any longer...but, hooray for the quick, 2-hour trip between West Palm Beach and D.C.!

I'm already daydreaming of our next trip down...but for now...back to work.

Not the Bahamas But...

We're back from the Bahamas and have plenty of pictures and stories to share. Unfortunately, our internet has been very spotty. Since I probably only have two minutes of internet time before Comcast starts ripping me off again and dies, I will instead share some Old Spice Man Love. This guy:

Cracks me up. And while I'm sure everyone has seen his ads, I just discovered his You Tube page where he posts responses to tweets about him. I couldn't stop laughing. Teacher friends will probably appreciate Mustafa's awesome "fireworks" celebration in his response to Apolo Ohno. My personal favorite might be his response to sjuman28 (or maybe his response to Alyssa Milano).

I promise I'm not obsessed with men in towels.

Bahamas soon.

Cold Feet, Warm Heart.

As much as I enjoy clicking on the bookmark to my blog and seeing Jamie Bamber looking back at me, it is also a little creepy.  Especially since, the screen cuts off before his towel comes into the picture and it makes it look like he may be nude.  And this is not that type of website.

That means, it must be time for the second to last Longzaki trivia question!

6. What is the worst part about sharing a bed with Jamie?

a)       gas

b)      cold feet

c)       flailing arms

d)      all of the above 

This one was actually a gift to our friend/officiant/blog contributor/all-around-awesome guy, Drew.  You see, aside from me, the only other person who had to suffer through Jamie's cold feet in bed was Drew (and maybe one or both of his brothers).  I'm quite certain that Drew's team was the only group to get this one right.  I don't know why they shared a bed -- maybe something to do with their singing group -- but I do know that I earned Drew's utmost respect for being able to share a bed with Jamie's frigid feet.

Maybe Jamie is a vampire (and one reader of my blog will get that.  You know who you are.)

Fortunately for me, the answer was not "D".  In fact, I am the one who does gymnastics in my sleep.  To the point where the cats know not to sleep by me unless they enjoy the thrill of hurtling through the air when I kick them in my sleep.  Jamie on the other hand, sleeps like he's in a coffin with his arms straight at his sides or folded neatly on his chest.  Maybe he IS a vampire!

A Scene from Dinner.

[After dinner...before busing plates]


Me: [staring lovingly at husband]

Man Boo: ...

Me: [giggling] You look like Lee Adama right now.

MB: Thanks!  You look like Quasimodo.

[end scene]


For the record, Lee Adama (a.k.a. Jamie Bamber) looks like this:

While, Quasimodo looks like this:

(MB did specify that I looked like the Disney Quasimodo)

Thanks, hon.  That's sweet.

To clarify, I had been resting my weary head on my hand at the time and it was only when I squished my face on one side (and squinted that eye) that Man Boo actually looked liked Lee Adama -- so MB probably meant that I looked like Quasimodo because one side of my face was squished.  At least that's what he says...

Maybe I should further clarify that he looked more like Lee Adama when he was President (rather than getting out of the shower) you know...because of the suit and the hair...

But really, I just wanted an excuse to put that shower picture up.  I love myself some Lee Adama.  And I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm a huge nerd who watched Battlestar Galactica (the newer version).  That was a seriously good show, you guys.  Like...as good as The Wire good. 

And now, for something completely different (although further demonstrating my nerdiness...)

The Lottery.

Apparently our appalling education system is going to be the trendy issue this year.  Move over global warming.  I got an invite to go see a premiere of this movie and attend a Q&A with it's director on Saturday.

Check it out!  Sadly, I can't go because Man Boo and I also got an invite to bowl at the White House.  I'm more excited about bowling than I am about doing it in the White House.  I'm a nerd.

Like A Prayer.

This trivia sure is being stretched out over many, many weeks!  But, we are getting to last few questions...

6. What was Melissa and Jamie’s first dance?

a)      Tubthumping – Chumbawamba

b)     I’ll Make Love to You – Boys II Men

c)     Thriller – Michael Jackson

d)     Like A Prayer – Madonna 

Our first dance was at Man Boo's 17th  birthday party to which I was invited the previous weekend when we had flirted shamelessly at a different friend's party.  It should be noted that I am a terrible dancer, and back in those days, I absolutely never danced.  It was the first time I had been to MB's house, and they had decked it out for his birthday -- complete with a whole DJ setup.

It should be testament to how big my crush was, that I said "yes" when Jamie Man Boo asked me to dance.  We danced to Like A Prayer...which is a REALLY LONG song to dance to when you don't dance.

In the end my 5 minutes and 39 seconds of teenage awkward dancing landed me a husband so I guess it worked out.  Of course, this dance had to be the last song that played at our wedding.  It has also been the last song to play at several other weddings...because it is that awesome.

As another side note, a Carleton tradition is for all of the girls to take off their shirts when this song plays.  I have witnessed it...just...wow.  I am forever grateful to all of the Carleton alum who were at our wedding and did not take off their clothing.  That may have changed the tone of the evening.

13 Seconds.

It's true. Man Boo has arrived. He was on The Daily Show for 13 whole seconds...

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Day 59 - Judgment Day - The Strife Aquatic
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

You'll have to skip (Man Boo says "watch") to 6:57...

STB! STB!

If you have been a reader of this blog for a while, you may remember those posts about Traffic Light Boy. If not, you need to click those links and catch up. Sadly, I don’t have any updates on TLB or his quest to become an electrical engineer in order to solve the Great Traffic Light Crisis in America. But, today, one our teachers shared with me an obsession of one of her students that surpasses TLB.

Prepare yourselves.

Marcus is obsessed with sharp teeth. SHARP TEETH! Apparently, he will list things with sharp teeth (i.e. sharks, cats, Ms. Miller – his teacher) and automatically love anything with sharp teeth. For the record, Ms. Miller’s teeth are not any sharper than the normal set of adult teeth…I think it’s his way of justifying his love for her.

I wish that I could post a picture of how adorable this kid is…he may be one of our cutest (and we have tons of cute), but I must restrain myself. Just know that there is a teeny little preschooler out there, with a big smile, who is obsessed with anything to do with sharp teeth.

Animal House.

Slowly but surely…here’s another trivia question.

6. Which of the following is not a pet that Melissa has owned?

a)     monkey

b)     parrot

c)     turtle

d)     frog

This was one that my family would have been able to get pretty easily.  I have never owned a turtle.  In writing this post, I began to list all of the pets that I have owned in my lifetime and realized a couple things:

·      I have had a surprising variety of pets in my lifetime

·      I have had many pets in my lifetime – so many that it would be boring and sad to list them all

·      I am not very creative when it comes to naming pets.  Especially when I was really young.  To give you an idea, my first pets were a parakeet named Pinky, a rabbit named Brownie, and a parrot named Feathers.

When I was in 2^nd or 3^rd grade (I don’t actually know because my elementary school did not have “grades”), Los Angeles was hit by some incredible storms.  Schools were shut down for days because massive rivers of water were running down streets and mudslides were burying roads.  My house had this giant backyard, and during the floods a big stream came running through our yard and I would spend hours sending twigs down the flow to watch it go through the different channels.

Anyway, our “river” started by a lagoon of sorts, which became the breeding ground for hundreds of frogs.  Since our 2^nd/3^rd class was studying the life cycle, I brought in some tadpoles so we could watch them turn into frogs.  I was the coolest kid that year, because everyone wanted me to bring them frogs. 

The monkey came years later during a trip to the Amazon.  No.  I did not try to sneak the monkey into the U.S.  It lived in Peru and I would play with it on my visits.  And no.  I hadn’t seen Outbreak yet -- such a great movie, with such a horrible last line.  Don't remember?  Skip to 7:40. (I should also warn you that this clip picks up at a pretty climactic part of the movie, so don't watch it if you have never seen the movie and intend to...)

I should mention that this movie is great. I love this movie (it has MORGAN FREEMAN in it!) The fact that it is so great, is what makes that last line so horrible.

Chippy Goodness.

Not that I talk about my blog often, but 9 times out of 10 when I do, the person I am speaking to will say something along the lines of: "I blog-stalk your brother too!" or "I love your brother's blog!" and definitely "Tell your brother to blog more!"

In an effort to lure more people back to my blog, I present to you a video of my adorable nieces on their recent vacation to Monterey.  

As far as I know, my brother has not yet claimed exclusive rights to his videos...

Chills.

Finally saw the trailer for Waiting for Superman and it gives me chills.

If we can inspire one more great educator to join the fight in our public schools, inspire one more middle schooler to stay in high school, or inspire one more high school graduate to go to college than it will be worth it.  Of course -- much like An Inconvenient Truth -- the people who will go and actually see this movie are the ones who don't need this message because they already know.

Light a fire under someone you know to go see this movie with an open heart and mind.

Williams Weekend.

What a weekend!  After having a great time with Man Boo's family in D.C., we had to motor over to Williamstown (well, Pittsfield) for a wedding.  It had been a very long time since I had been back to Williams, and I was really excited to see it again.  Not to mention spend time with the old Williams crew.

Man Boo and I tried to avoid going through New York...and somehow ended up at Princeton University.  On Reunion Day.  We were not happy.  But we did make it to Williamstown eventually.  Fortunately for us, we had some pretty fantastic weather.

Of course, the main event for the weekend was the wedding of our friends Lindsay and Noah.  

The ceremony took place in front of a lake and the sun was shining down on us -- with a great breeze!  Dinner and dancing followed and good times were had by all.

 This was our sad, sad attempt at spelling out Williams.  I enjoy Abby's backward "S".

As we posed, I could not get out of my head that You Tube video where the wedding party broke the dock.  So glad that dock remained intact.  

Yet another reason to celebrate was that it was also Abby and Samir's first anniversary...

This is them double-fisting drinks when they each oh-so-cutely got the other drinks at different bars.

All in all, a pretty great weekend!  Man Boo and I drove back today...this time, avoiding Princeton.  Being too cheap to invest in Books on Tape and not having time to go the library, we decided to pull a fun book from our shelves and just read aloud to each other.  We returned with a couple chapters of Murder on the Orient Express (courtesy of Man Boo's mother) to spare, but managed to finish on our trip up to Dulles airport when I dropped Man Boo off for this week's trip to Denver.

If you are fortunate enough to have a driving partner who has a pretty good collection of accents under his sleeve, I highly recommend the frugal book on tape option.  Poor Man Boo had to suffer through my inability to do any other accent that American and bad British.  I think the book probably had a different feel when Hercule Poirot was a British guy.