Jools

Here is Jools in her favorite habitat in the entire house. If I can't find her, I know to look under my desk. When I work at my desk, I automatically sit to the side so that my little dingo (not the one that ate the baby) can be comfortable. She survived Katrina, so darnit, she's gonna get spoiled here.

The squeaky belt gets the oil -- then tries to chop your finger off

On the way home from work for his mini-bday celebration, Luis decided to stop and put some oil on a sqeaky belt in the Honda... in his effort to be fast so that he could get home and get showered before my parents got there, he put his finger down to steady the belt. Well, the belt had no regard for the steadying intentions of my poor husband and it took his finger all the way around and through the pulley. Needless to say his finger looks like he should be on the news for a shark attack.

They always say that the squeaky wheel gets the oil -- is this the logical next step: attempted amputation? If so, I am ignoring the parents in the class who make huge deals to get little perks for their kids so that I can protect my digits. And, yes, that is a napkin ring around L's finger -- we like to decorate where we can.

Luis's Bday

Yesterday was Luis's 31st bday. My parents came for supper and we had a low key night with them. Today, though, for his bday we are going on 2 surprises -- one of which Dad accidently spilled the beans to him about. I could have screamed. As hard as it is it to surprise Luis, I was impressed that I kept it going this long. Here is Luis posing in the jacket my parents gave him.

Going off the rails of a crazy train

Tomorrow is the last day of teaching that I have until 2008. Kathryn (my trusty TA) and I are holding onto our sanity by our fingernails and have been for the last 2 weeks. Our normally borderline-genius kids have been acting ... well... like children from the "other" Kindergarten class. We had some high schoolers come down and talk about recycling and my students told them that they really don't like coloring. I think we all just need a break from Kindergarten. But as soon as we are ready to be over it, one of the kids will hand us a "love note" which is their latest craze. They take paper from the the estimation box and write messages on it like "I loe m v" (translated from the original kindergarten this means I love Mrs. Velasquez) or more brazen attempts like "I love Vlascez". We might be going nuts, but at least we'll all go down with love :)