And So It Goes.

This is old news, but I hadn't gotten a chance to put together a video until now.  The Potonacs (the a capella group that Man Boo started some years back with friends from Law School) performed a couple of weeks ago to benefit SMYAL.  In the end, they ended up raising around $2000 for them in their short concert.  It was good times.

Man Boo always sings this one for me...

Fun with Pets.

Yeah yeah yeah, I haven't posted in a long time, whatevercakes.  SO busy I'm going out of my mind, but tonight I will post a super-short one.

So, I recently downloaded an app to my iPad that I heard about on NPR.  It's an app for cats.  Yes.  CATS.  Little fish swim around the screen and your cat bats at them and gets points each time it "gets" one.  I downloaded it think there was no way it would actually entice my cats into playing.  But, it was the most incredibly entertaining 4 minutes of my morning.  They went bananas!  Cody was clearly the better fishercat and beat out Junior who didn't grasp the concept and just kept jumping around the iPad and gnawing on the edges.

Unfortunately, when I got up to get my phone, they immediately thought I was going to feed them and they lost all interest.  I have yet to recreate those magical 4 minutes.

Since I have no video of them to show you, I give you this one...which is not all that unlike Cat Fishing.  Watch until the end for awesomeness.

Final Stretch.

Tomorrow is the last day of school for students.  Friday is the last day of school for teaching staff.  I don't think I have had more to do in my life than I do this week.  For the first time since I entered the professional world I actually fear it. will. not. all. get. done.

I think it might have been written all over my face today because more than one person sent me this link.

Kid Gives Speech After Learning To Ride A Bike - Watch more Funny Videos

Thanks for the perspective kid!  (Oh how I wish your dad could have panned up to the American flag that was just over your shoulder...)

I promise there will be more posts after the teachers are out for the summer!

Breaking News: Rockstars

I'm interrupting my Tanzania recap (just one more post left!) to share the latest DC Prep in the news!  Emily was on TV this morning.  Go Prep!

Fight for Children Helps Improve Education in DC Area: MyFoxDC.com

Cause and Effect.

Today was the first day of the DC-CAS for our students.  This is how I feel right now:

I'm just so exhausted after so many months of non-stop prepping and planning.  Last night, I woke up at 3:40am and couldn't go back to sleep because my mind was running a mile a minute.  (Incidentally, there was a pretty awesome storm that hit around 4:30 that kept me company.)  Now is the time for us to see the fruits of our labor...but unfortunately, the actual results don't come out until sometime in July.  

Hopefully, I'll be able to get some sleep before then...

Organized.

I know I said I would stop doing this...but this is the best ever.

Seriously?  It doesn't get much better than that.

Now for something completely unrelated.  At work we are starting a series of optional lunch sessions that are more focused on broader topics -- less grade-specific and more focused on leadership (i.e. designing agendas, facilitating meetings, etc.)  This Friday, one of our first sessions in the series is on getting organized.

This is a complete shift from my regular presentations which normally have to do with something data-related or some instructional practice.  But this one kind of stumps me.  Granted, I am pretty organized when it comes to work -- but I just think it's so funny that I would be considered competent enough with organization to put together an entire professional development session on it.  Now to plan the PD.  If only I could get organized enough to start.

Also, anyone who has seen my closet understands the irony...

The Force.

Just had a good giggle at this commercial.  I am continuing my trend of lazy blog-posting because I wanted to share with you what I think is a good bit of kid-acting.  I tend to be pretty critical of kid actors in movies...but this kid can emote through that Darth Vader mask and that's pretty awesome.  (Thanks, Patricia for leading me to this video.  It warms my SW geek heart.)

I wish I could "the force" things.

Hello Ladies.

Old Spice - Scent Vacation - (2011) :60

Real post soon!

Google Takes on Art.

Have you seen this?  It's incredible.

Magic Act.

Couldn't resist.

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!
-----
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.
-----

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!

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.

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! 

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.

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.

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.