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!