SNOW days (with very little actual snow)

I already wrote this once, but my computer crashed while trying to burn a dvd of curriculum for Chrissy. This was probably better written the first time, but I always feel that way when I lose my blog mid-entry.

… I was just complaining to Mom about how I need more time to get things done. Miraculously time appeared. I don’t watch the news. It is too full of local violence, global violence, and how the economy sucks. Not worth watching in my opinion, plus I feel it is extremely biased news. I knew that there was a front coming and that we were expected to get some weather over the next few days, but I was not doing snow dances or expecting anything.

I heard the phone ring. Mom yelled across the hall “No school!” I cheered and rolled over to go back to sleep. My mind was racing with thoughts of all the things I could do with my day off. I tried to envision peaceful tropical Australian beaches, but to no avail, so I got up. I always imagine that I will take a nap later when this happens, but I never do.

I ate some oatmeal, drank some water and then exercised. I started running last spring and have done a good job of keeping it up – I do enjoy it. But cold weather makes me not so enthusiastic, plus there was ice everywhere, so lately I’ve been keeping my exercising to tapes indoors and toying with finally joining the gym. After shaking my booty and working up a sweat, I headed to the kitchen to decide what I wanted to eat for second breakfast.

I love breakfast foods, so I tend to have two breakfasts. One first thing, then I work out, and then I eat breakfast again. Taking stock of the fridge, I realized that my second-breakfast baking was to be modified by the number of eggs. I finished off the last of the frozen bananas by making banana bread and made some oatmeal breakfast cookies. While the bread baked, I ate my oatmeal cookies and read this month’s National Geographic and listened to NPR.

Then I sat down and forced myself to grade science fair projects. This whole science fair business has been too long and very drawn out, and with the amount of guidance and editing I have offered, these should all be fantastic easy to grade-A projects. If only that were true! At first I was very good about grading a few every day, but I lost interest. I had graded a lot the night before in an attempt to wrap up and my goal was to finish them all and be done with it (EXCEPT that I have about 5 students who are not even finished (NOTE projects were due the 9th of January and we technically started them in August. Sheesh.)).

I talked to Karrie mid-day and she told me I should try making bagels because there is a 2 hour time where the dough has to rise. Plus they don’t need eggs, I LOVE bagels, and I have wanted to try making something with yeast, it just never makes it to the top of my to-do list. So I tried out Karrie’s recipe, and in the interim finished grading all the reports I had, and put their pathetic grades into the computer.

I had to call Karrie a couple of times while making the bagels to make sure I was doing it correctly. Boiling bagels does not particularly look appetizing, but it is a slimy and necessary step before baking them into bagel-goodness. I had to call her a second time to see if my bagels were done baking and to tell about my eyebrow burn.

I like to peek in the oven to see how things are going and it seems I had not learned my lesson until this. The oven light does not work, so I had my face close to the door to look at the bagels. As I opened the door, hot moist gases rushed across my face. I staggered across the kitchen, took off my glasses, and cautiously felt my forehead where the pain was the most searing. Hot and tingly, but not crispy. Karrie laughed when I told her I had burned my forehead. She told me it was only a scalding and that it was not possible for me to have anything worse than a first degree burn – if that. In vain I tried to take a photo of the pinkness to prove my accident. It was pinker in real life – probably because it was still tingly-burning and I imagined it to be worse than it was. Karrie also let me know that I had given myself a mini-facial and that it would heal itself and look better than before. Excellent. I should have done a better job of burning my whole face and not just my forehead… Anyway the bagels turned out delicious, but they are a lot of work, so don’t expect me to turn into a bagelry.

I worked on my Best Job speech, timed it, edited it, timed it, edited it. I think I have it down, though I am open to opinions. I did some other school stuff, worked on my scrapbook and otherwise putzed around.

This morning there was a 2-hour delay scheduled. This morning I did not hear the phone ring. I was deep in sleep dreaming about not being in control of my classroom and hating my lack of classroom management. It was a nightmare. Mom called me on my cell phone to let me know there was no school. I remembered thinking when I heard my phone ring that that was not the sound of my alarm. I’m also glad to be done with the dream. Once again my mind was full of things to do, so inevitably I got up.

Don’t have much planned for today, though I will probably fill it. I plan on going to school to play with the software that I will edit my 60-second audition for the Best Job just to see how it works. I hope to have all my stuff done and on their site by Saturday the 7th.