Category: To Occupy my Time

The fall of lice.

The autumn of 2008 has had some big milestones, but for me the end of 2008 will always be the period in which a significant portion of my work life was caught up in the lice infestation that began in September and was still going as of mid-December. I lost track of the number of full school lice inspections that I did with Tara and Maureen. My presence in a classroom eventually became synonymous with those lice inspections. One day in early November, I walked into Allegra’s classroom to ask her a question and Mina piped up: “Do we have a lice inspection today?”

I’m hoping that the three-week break will bring an end to this particularly hardy strain, but I’m also worried that without our constant emails about the state of the lice infestation, the lice have been colonizing heads, ready to come back stronger than ever. For the sake of the parents and staff, I hope that isn’t the case.

My first day of guidelines.

How did it go? Pretty well.

I did get up, went jogging (4) and got dressed (1). For work (5) I spent from 8:30-3:00 (includes transportation time) decorating the tree at my Aunt Pat’s house. I also wrote my Christmas letter and went by the library to see if I could pick up the books on hold. Sadly, they were closed because of the snow. Oh! And I shoveled the walk. I just loaded up the dish washer (7) though have not picked up the house at all today. I actually packaged up the rest of my apple from breakfast this morning because I was full (9) but did get a little full for lunch and dinner.

On the didn’t side.
No nap (6) today, so well under my 30 minute limit. There was no studying for the math test (2) though that was on purpose as I want to take a 2 hour practice test tomorrow, so that will count for both days. I made my food plan (8) this morning, instead of last night. I haven’t watched a movie today, but if I do, I have my eye on a pomegranate (10) in the fridge.

On the maybe side:
I still have 34 minutes left of blog time (3) I may do the full hour.

Bus tips.

First in an occasional series.
When riding the bus, or any kind of public transportation, take a seat. If you feel like standing, move to the rear of the bus. Do not stand at the front of the bus near the driver. When you do that people have trouble getting onto the bus and everyone’s commute takes longer.

One thing that often happens on semi-crowded buses, is that people will “move to the back” but stop at about the point where the woman is wearing the tan coat, instead of walking up the rear steps all the way to the back of the bus. Then other people can’t get by them, so the front of the bus becomes quite crowded while often there are still some seats left in the very back. If people would instead walk all the way to the very back of the bus, more people would be transported more comfortably.

Remember, the key to happy public transportation is to not only watch out for yourself, but your fellow travelers too.

Guidelines

Well, this evening begins my two weeks of Winter Break. One of the perks of my job is that I have a lot of vacation. Would that every American had this much vacation, I think we would be a much happier and healthier country.

As much as I love vacation, I sometimes get a bit off track. When free from the normal structures of my life, I sometimes want to be free from all structure and some parts of my vacations have passed in a food coma haze where I also either watch to many movies, read too many books or both.

The problem is that if I keep to my normal routine it doesn’t feel like vacation, it just feels like work in a different place. But if I discard all my routines I become a bit too free and that isn’t pleasurable either. Sometimes I have a project that keeps me occupied, but I wasn’t feeling up to a whole project thing this break. So instead, I decided to have guidelines. Things that aren’t quite my normal routine, but are things that will most likely make for a pleasurable vacation. Here they are:
1. Get up and dress to the shoes.
This is a Flylady thing. Flylady is always going on about putting on your shoes so you are prepared for anything. I’ve found it is true for me, and it is so cold that I need to wear shoes right now anyway.
2. One hour review for math test.
It’s coming up right after break is over and I would love to pass it the first time.
3. One hour work on the blogs.
The other one is caught up, but this one is horribly behind. Hopefully, I can chip away at this and get this post up in January or *gasp* December.
4. One hour of exercise.
Although if I jog, then 25 minutes plus stretching will do. I feel so much better if I exercise and it, sadly, is one of the main things that falls apart during vacations.
5. Four hours work.
“Work” means anything I am doing that is not officially leisurely. I’ve got a lot of little this and that in the project realm that could be finished, I could work on the blogs or do some house cleaning. Running errands counts too.
6. Maximum nap time: 30 minutes.
As vacations go on my naps tend to get longer which messes up my overnight sleep. I know that I can have 30 lovely minutes of napping (one of my favorite parts of vacation) without affecting my sleep, so that is where I will draw the line.
7. Keep up with dishes and picking up.
There is nothing worse then attempting to eat a lovely lunch and finding that there is no clean silverware. Okay, there are worse things, but a lack of silverware is a vacation downer.
8. Plan food the day before.
When at home, I tend to react with excitement to every item I see in the refrigerator. Thus my meals can become quite large. This should keep them normally sized.
9. Eat only when hungry and stop when full.
Yet another challenge while on break. Life is better for me when I can do this, though.
10. When watching movies, eat nothing or fruits and vegetables.
I have stockpiled a bunch of movies to watch over the break. I usually like to have popcorn, but fourteen days of popcorn would not be a pretty thing. However, I can have one bowl of popcorn, as long as I stick to having fruits and veggies the rest of the time.

I’ll check in mostly daily and see how I do.

Parking lots and snow

One thing I always remember about snow in Boise, is how a light snow would fall and cover everything, including the parking lots. People would drive to the mall, or the store, or someplace with a parking lot and take their best guess as to where the spaces were. They would then go in a shop, or perhaps work. Meanwhile the temperature would warm up and the snow would melt, exposing the actual parking spaces, many of which were difficult to park in, because the people who guessed would have guessed wrong, yet their cars were still there, parked outside the lines.

With that memory in mind, I was pleased to see this ingenious solution at a parking lot near my work.

White Elephant Theme: Summer.

Each year for the youth group holiday party we have a white elephant gift exchange. This year we decided to go with a theme: summer. Here Sam models some of the gifts. From the top: A lovely red hat, which now is named Fernando. A fabulous sword. A quite nice swimsuit that Deborah was happy to grab for someone, but first Sam had to model it. And some lovely flip flops, sadly obscured by the couch.

Fabulous!

I’ve been watching this work in progress for about six months now and I just have to remark about how very cool it is. First of all, growing things in the front yard is super cool. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
Secondly, though I myself have decided that raised beds are not for me, I love how contained this front yard garden is. I think that is the key to success with front yard gardens: make them very aesthetically pleasing. Either that or have a full-on permaculture garden, but avoid that midpoint where things are kind of weedy and unkempt.
Hiding behind that cloche is a lot of kale and collards. I’m a bit jealous.
And look! Soon an espalier fruit tree will grow along the front of the house. I want to espalier fruit trees in my backyard.
And here is that empty lot around the corner from me. It’s still waiting for me to plant a huge garden there. If only the generous owners would realize what a better owner I would be and give me the deed…