Lots O' Posts

I’ve been a busy girl!!

Here’s what I’ve been up to this past week--Enjoy!

An Eventful Thursday

It’s been nice visiting the family in sunny Florida. It hasn’t been too warm… but it sure beats Chicago weather!

I’ve been doing the usual, shopping with Mom (fyi—if you’re ever in the Palm Beach area, there’s this Mexican restaurant where they make guacamole table side…it’s amazing!!—Mom, what’s the name of the place??), hanging out with Jack (check out his Christmas Train display!)





visiting Grandma and Grandpa, going to prison....

That’s right, yesterday, instead of being in a bar, I was behind bars.

My mother has been a CCI (Canine Companions for Independence) puppy raiser. Since her last dog, Tonka, was taken in to the program, she has been training inmates and their puppies in the Sheriff’s Drug Farm Boot Camp Facility.

Thursday morning, I was up bright and early to go to the prison to help her with the days class. Sergeant Harris was there to escort us to the space used for the classroom. Mom leads a class of 8 inmates, and 4 dogs. Evenly divided with men and women, I helped the prisoners work the dogs and practice the commands. Sergeant Harris even took me to see the woman’s dormitory.

It was an interesting experience. It's definately run like a boot camp, but all the prisoners were quite respectful (ma'am, yes, ma'am!). There was some confusion with one of the guards, apparently, he thought I was in High School (good, grief!! I'm a grown-up damn it!!). I was not allowed to take pictures in the prison, but here’s pictures of two of the dogs, Tash (black lab) and Solis (golden mix).





After a morning of puppy class at the prison, we had dinner at Kee, my favorite restaurant in Palm Beach!

Here’s Grandpa, happy to have his scotch (Johnny Walker Black, easy on the rocks--can any one find any ice in his glass? I sure can't!).





Gram with her coffee.






Me and the Grandparents.

Hi, Mom!





Jack and I.

The trip was short this time, but it was nice to see everyone!

Christmas Surprises

After the game, I headed home to pack for Christmas. I was flying to Florida to surprise my mom for Christmas. I only got about an hour of sleep before I had to hop in a cab and head to O’Hare.

What got me through the day?

Thank goodness for caffeine!




Mom was definitely surprised! I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen her speechless!





After the surprise, I had some time to freshen up, and then headed to Christmas dinner with the family!

Merry Christmas to ME!!

After my bout with the flu, I was concerned that my Christmas Eve plans would be squelched. Fortunately, I’m a CHAMP and hopped out of bed at 4:30 am rarein’ to go!!

I hit the shower, got everything together to drive to Laura’s house. I did stop for bagels. The people a Dunkin’ Donuts found me quite entertaining. I was skipping through the store in my Butkus Jersey and Bears Santa Hat. For some reason, they decided, that I didn’t need any coffee. (I wonder way? Caffeine Nazis!!)

Any who, I made it to Laura’s a little before 6:00—ROADTRIP!!

For those of you out of the loop, Laura, Nancy, Rob and I were heading to Detroit to see the Bears game!!

Here’s Laura and Nancy waiting for the game to start,







The Bears Santa hat made it’s debut at this game. (I love “Bears Wear!”) I also love my Bears Fan! It also says, "Go Chicago" and "Number One"--It was part of my Christmas present from Becca. She found it in rual Iowa...who knew?! (Thanks, Becca!!)

The view from our seats.

They actually sell Guinness at Ford Field!! Merry Christmas to me!!

Go Bears!!!

During the game, there’s a game to play, sponsored by Dunkin’ Donuts, where each level of the stadium is either “Cuppy the Coffee”, a Breakfast Sandwich or a Donut, and they race on the screen. I’m sure many of you have seen a similar thing at other sporting events. Well, at Ford field, people dressed as these characters finish the on screen race by running out of the tunnel and onto the field. It was hilarious when the breakfast sandwich fell on the field and couldn’t get up. If you look carefully, you can see them in the top of the pic.

After a heart stopping ending…Bears win!!

Here are the happy Bears fans…

And disgruntled Lions fans…I know you can’t read the signs…but they’re really rude to Millen. (Thanks to the friendly Lions fans for the pic).

It’s time to head home, Rob, leaves the stadium with his Bears tail.

This road trip was awesome!! Thanks to Laura for finding tickets.

GO BEARS!!

Ick

I’m going to start this post by saying, I officially do not like orange juice. I also should warn the masses…the story you are about to read is not for the weak of stomach.

Why you may ask? What’s that, faithful readers? Shouldn’t this post be one of joy due to my impending Holiday Break that comes with being a teacher? Well, let’s just say, my last day at work blew (literally).

I started the day our usual Friday staff breakfast (Mr. Greenburg’s “crack cake” –as I call it—was awesome!). I delivered my Secret Santa gift (I was foiled by my unique handwriting!!). Sarah, our former band teacher was in town for a conference and came by to visit. The children actually weren’t that crazy so far…I had even gotten some homemade cards from a few of my students. It seemed that this day wasn’t going to be so crazy…until fourth period with the 4th graders.

I felt that something wasn’t right. Maybe I was hungry. I hadn’t had much for breakfast besides Greenburg’s crack cake and some fruit with the formentioned orange juice nothing out of the ordinary. I was reprimanding a student, who (and this is important later in the story) has a speech impediment of stuttering when suddenly, I NEEDED my garbage can. Yeah, I yakked. This poor kid froze. He just stood there starring at me with HUGE eyes. Eventually he got out the sentence “M-m-m-m-m-ms. B? Sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-ould I g-g-g-g-g-get the of-f-f-f-f-f-fice?” In between heaves, I told him to get Ms. Rose in the Library. Ten minutes later he came running back into my room, grabbed another student and ran back out of my room. I later found out that he was so excited and due to his speech, he couldn’t quite get the information out. Ms. Rose did eventually come to my class and helped by taking my fourth graders for the remainder of the period.

I bagged up the garbage can and took it to the dumpster, but ended up throwing up in the downstairs bathroom near the cafeteria. The lunch ladies began asking when my baby was due thinking that my sickness was due to morning sickness rather than the flu. No amount of convincing could make them believe that it REALLY IS THE FLU!! (Sorry, ladies, no preggos here!)

I made it back up to my classroom to see my sixth graders waiting for me. The sixth grade teacher took one look at me and asked what was wrong. She did offer to give up her prep, but I said that I would try to take her kids. I guess I must have looked pretty bad because they didn’t even want to walk into my room! I have to admit, I wanted them for slightly selfish reasons; they’re a really good bunch of kids, and I needed a few things put away before the break and I knew I could count on them to help me out. It was the best decision I could have made. Students who weren’t helping me were quiet and coloring, the rest of the students straightened up my classroom, cleaned my tables, and prepped the clay for the break. (Kudos to room 304!!).

I was honestly hoping that I would make it to the end of the day. But as the period was stretching on, I new it was not possible. I got together some coloring pages for the 7th and 8th graders (my last two periods of the day) and sent them to the office with a note saying that I needed to go home, and to give these to whom ever was covering my class.

As the sixth graders were lining up, I was preparing to leave and then it hit me. I wasn’t going to leave my school without paying homage to the porcelain gods one more time. Just as I grabbed my garbage can and hit the floor, I heard my assistant principal asking me why I wanted to leave early? (HELLO?!?! I Think everyone in the school knew Ms. B was barfing by now!!!) Was it an emergency? (Ya, think?) and that I couldn’t leave because there weren’t any subs available (WTF?!?!?!). Unfortunately, I was a little to occupied to answer.

I’m sure that my sixth graders were picked up by their teacher. I was in my classroom, still vomiting, when I heard the other art teacher run in my room. Laura, bless her heart, had a front row show. You know you have a good friend, when they make sure you’re alive during the flu (LP—YOU ROCK!!). Even better, she single handedly diverted my in coming 8th grade class. All I heard was her telling Mr. S. that his class was NOT having art today. I did hear one student get by her, for a glimpse of the show. That student informed her class that “Ms. B was on the floor puking all over the place” (Sweet, isn’t she?).

A few minutes later, the swells had calmed, and I gathered my belongings, as the garbage, I heard over the speaker, “Um, Ms. B?” “Yeah?”, I feebly answered. “Ms. B, I had no idea you were that sick, your classes have been canceled for the day, you may go home.”

HALELULLEA!! It’s a Christmas Miracle!!

I’m not sure who changed the office’s mind, but thank GOD!! Made a second trip to the dumpster and headed in to drop my keys. My Ass’t Principal saw me and said that from my note, she didn’t realize that I was that ill. She said that she was sorry, and asked if I was ok to drive home. I really wasn’t terrible interested in the explanation, I just wanted to go home!!

I did make it home without defiling the interior of my car and took a nice nap on my bathroom floor. Nothing like starting the holiday break with a bang.

Stumped

When I came home from work on Thursday night, something looked different on my parkway.

The city finally did something about the dead trees on my parkway. The tree closest to my garage has been dead for two years and the other one never had leaves over the summer.






I guess now I don’t have to worry about branches falling and hurting anyone, but the space looks so empty now! Look at the HUGE Stumps!





Hopefully, next spring the city will plant some new trees. My parkway looks so sparse!

More un-suprising results...

Yet another quiz where the results are a surprise to no one!

(except the implication that I'm "less weird"!)

Arty Kid

Whether you were a drama freak or an emo poet, you definitely were expressive and unique. You're probably a little less weird these days - but even more talented!

Who Were You In High School?

Thoughts on Decorations

Since she was in between residency interviews, Barb and I went to Lincolnwood to check out their Christmas lights. Some of these houses are actually professionally decorated. There's one house that is my favorite, that we made sure to see. It has a three story Christmas tree in the house, where the "top" of the tree actually appears to be poking through the roof. They also have a sleigh with real deer attached to it.

I told Barb, that I love to see this house every year because "It's just not Christmas with out dead reindeer!" We got to wondering, where does one store taxidermied reindeer? Those two deer have been out there for years, so they must keep them somewhere. I'm not sure I'd want them stacked in my garage or attic. EW!

On the way home, I happened to notice a house that I had talked about in an earlier post.

The house that I had mentioned back in September as putting out their Christmas lights, actually had no lights on it!! This house is even more messed up than I thought. Why does one put UP lights in September to not have anything remotely holiday durning the time period it's expected!? WTF?!?!

Something off...

So, this is just a quickie thought...

I was just lounging on my couch tonight and this Buy Owner commercial came on. You know the ones, where people sit in their bright and shiney newly purchased homes and tell how quick and easy it was to buy and sell their homes using this service.

It occured to me that there seems to be something off about some of these people. I started to wonder, are they real people? Are they actors? If they're real people, they seem awfully stiff, and if their actors, they're not very good. Maybe they're actually cyborgs...(maybe I shouldn't have had a martini and mini-marshmellows for dinner...)

For the Kids

In a previous post I shared my experience making Haitian Spirit Bottles. I was trying to figure out what type of bottles that would be both easily obtained and small. I decided that I would try these cute little tonic water bottles.





I'll be honest, I've never had tonic water before, much less have any clue what to do with it. Of course I bought the diet variety, heck, I buy diet everything. I tried it out of the bottle...it was a little bitter. I've heard of gin and tonic, so I figured why not give that a whirl. Shot of gin, little lime...I'm golden! It's probably something that I'd have to be in the mood for, but at least I have a way to get spirit bottles for my kids!

Anyone have suggestions for other uses for tonic water or other drinks that come in those cute little bottles?

Until then I'll be having gin and tonics...after all, it's for the kids!

Cafe Cubano

I usually have some time to kill between work and class on Wednesdays. Last week, instead of the usual Panera, I decided to check out Cafe' Cubano on North Ave. in Elmwood Park.




Obviously, it's a Cuban resturaunt... so I ordered a Mojito.

It was pretty good...made the old fashoned way. Muddled and not made with the simple syrup. I also ordered a sandwich, Miami style.

Standard Cuban fare, the bread was fabulous and crunchy. I'd probably go back if I was in the mood.

The best part was watching the windows get painted for the holidays. It was so fun to watch!

I didn't get a good picture from the outside, it was too dark. But if you're driving on North Ave. west of Harlem, check it out!

New Rules

I’ve recently felt that I’ve been making some cardinal dating mistakes. I really should know better. There are days when I feel like (to quote Phoebe from Friends) my collective dating history reads like a who’s who of human crap. The moves I’ve been making are totally JV moves. So I’ve decided to create some rules for myself. As a way to stick to it, I’m posting it for all to see!

Bethie’s 10 rules for dating: (in no particular order)

1. No dating anyone who works at Radio Shack or Circuit City. Not that there’s anything wrong with these businesses. I’m just sticking to past precedent and cutting them off!

2. No Recycling. Either I, or a friend of mine broke up with a person for a reason. If I start to recycle, I’m calling Barb to reinforce this one. (Barb, you’re officially my anti-recycling sponsor! Tough love, baby, tough love.)

3. No Cheaters. Let’s face it; I know that if a man cheated on their current girlfriend/wife to date me, there is a high likelihood that the same thing will happen to me. You’d think I’d have this one down by now. I deserve better than to be the “other woman.” And it is not fun when the “first woman” shows up at my door…even though I didn’t know I was the “other woman”…it still wasn’t fun.

4. No dating any one I work with. I’ve never actually done this one. It’s probably a good thing.

5. No dating friends. There needs to be at least one to two degrees of separation, otherwise there is a strong possibility of awkwardness. And then, if there’s a break-up, mutual friends end up getting divided in the divorce. It’s fraught with messiness.

6. No more assholes. Really, I need to pay attention to this one and the clues that go along with it. If a man is a major jerk to his friends, family, random strangers or small animals that’s bad news bears…a leopard may be able to cover his spots for a while, but eventually they will show through.

7. If a guy doesn’t talk to you before 12:00 am (i.e. makes initial contact), you don’t need to make friends. I was at this bar and watched this guy do five shots of Patron before he came over to talk to me. I discovered he’s a 42 year old, divorce’ who was too drunk to give me his number…the number I ended up with was 847-847-1847. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Chicagoland area, 847 is the area code for the northern suburbs. He just was too drunk to realize that he didn’t make sense. No, I wasn’t interested in the first place, but it is an entertaining story that exemplifies my point.

8. Find out the sports affiliation early. Football season stretches from August through February (that’s almost 6 months!): 3 weeks of training camp, 4 weeks of pre-season, a 16 week regular season, plus the play-offs is way too long to deal with someone who doesn’t understand that I bleed blue and orange. I also root for the Cubs, the Wolves, the Mallards, the Rush, and when no particular sports affiliation is made, any Chicago team. Packer fans need not apply.

9. Don’t be afraid to take advantage of the 90-day return policy. I’m convinced that you have 90 days from the initial meeting to get out without hard feelings. After that, it turns into a relationship. No need to waste time if it’s not working.

10. Trust your gut. ‘Nuff said.

Friends, vegans, vegetarians...lend me your cookbooks!

I decided to be creative with dinner tonight. I had some tofu in the fridge and on the way home from the gym, I decided that tofu tacos would be fun! I had made some pico de gallo over the weekend, so I picked up some cheese and tortillas on the way home.

I crumbled up the tofu in the pan and cooked it with the taco spice packet...and something went dreadfully wrong. It wouldn't cook. It was warm, but squishy. What the hell?!?! I cooked off all the liquid, but what remained was a gelatinous mess! It looked ok...but sure was squishy.






I decided to give it a go. It looks sorta like chicken.

With the rest of the toppings we seem to be ok...

But when I actually bit in to it, it was very wrong. Don't get me wrong, the flavor was fine, BUT it was like eating taco paste! Who wants warm taco goo for dinner? What did I do wrong? I heard that tofu cooks just like meat, what happened? If there's a market for a high protein taco flavored jello, I'm on it! Ugh, tonights dinner was a total waste of cheese.

Can someone help before another tofu mishap strikes again?

Probably not what Ram Jam had in mind…

I had some time to kill yesterday between my study group meeting for class and heading to Meg’s house for dinner. I was wandering in and out of some stores and I stumbled upon a new product: Betty Beauty’s Hair Dye .

What’s so blog worthy about this hair dye? I’m so glad you asked.

This no drip dye comes in 5 colors, Auburn Betty, Black Betty (it’s ok, sing it! you know I am), Blonde Betty, Brown Betty and Fun Betty (Pink). What caught my eye was the Black Betty, for obvious reasons. Upon further inspection I discovered that this hair dye is not for your head.

That’s right folks! This is a semi-permanent dye for the hair on your nether region. The creator was in Rome and discovered that when women got their hair colored, they were given a “doggie” bag…for “the hair down there”. Seeing the untapped market, Betty Beauty was born.

Whether it’s covering gray (a la Samantha in Sex and the City) or just a dyed to match look, your prayers have been answered. If any one tries this product, I’d be interested in hearing the testimonial!



Is yours?

Registered to Hustle

Today I registered for the annual “Hustle up the Hancock”. For those of you who don’t know, this is an annual event to run up the stairs of the Hancock building, the second tallest building in Chicago.

I completely forgot that the registration opened today, so I didn’t get to the site until after noon. The full climb was closed, so I registered for the half climb of 52 floors and got on the waiting list for the full climb of all 94 floors.

If you’re interested in supporting me, check out my site ! I’ll keep you updated on my progess! This is my first try, so wish me luck! :)

Trick or Treat!

I hope you all had a fabulous Halloween! Here's something fun...

Trick or Treat!


Thanks to Petra for the link!

Holy Cow, that was fun!

Yesterday was the last day of the IAEA conference. I had fun making my Haitian Spirit bottle. Something interesting that I learned about them is that these bottles were used as a part of the Vodou religious altars and ceremonies. The spirit part does not refer to keeping a soul in the bottle, rather alcoholic spirits. The liquor (rum, whiskey or gin) is kept in the bottle until they are needed in the ceremony. Then a priest or priestess sips from the bottle and sprays the liquor on the alter and persons requesting the ceremony. The spirits bless whom or what ever was sprayed.

Here’s my bottle:




And yes, the protective talisman on top of the bottle is in fact Liono from Thundercats! When I found him in the collage materials, I knew he was my “protective entity”!





Here are some others that were made at the workshop at the Intuit Center.





There were even free 15 minute massages at the last event. The last event was a vendor give away, and you don’t know what you’re going to get. Unfortunately, I won 13 lbs. of clay. Not that I’m not grateful or anything (my 6th graders are going to make something fun with it!), but lugging home a huge bag of clay on the el sucked!






After the IAEA conference, I went with Julia to a Halloween Party.

Here’s Julia and I all dressed up. Julia is “Holy Cow” (you can’t see her wings) and I’m the pirate (Arrgh! I forgot me eye patch!).






I found that people knew what I was faster when I carried around this prop from the bar…”but WHY is all the rum gone!”





It was fun to meet new people, and talk with Tina and Pete. I think I needed to avoid the Ghostbuster.

I also spent the evening “hitting on” Mike—he’s such a good listener!

Thanks Julia for bringing me along! Good Times!

Thunderstruck

Yesterday, Erik Larson’s new book, Thunderstruck came out. You may recognize his name from his last book Devil in the White City (I would highly recommend it, if you haven’t read it already).




Anywho, I read in my TOC that Erik Larson was going to be in the Chicago area for his book release. So today, I headed to Centuries & Sleuths Bookstore in Forest Park to see him.

The store was so quaint! Everyone seemed to know each other (it was like the "Cheers" of bookstores!). So much more personable than your average Borders, and the place was packed!

It was a great session, even if I did walk in late… He was talking about researching his new book, as well as did a reading from it.

Eric Larson then did a brief Q&A, including questions about "Devil" and then began signing books.

Here’s my signed first edition copy!!

I know I'm going to sound like a complete and total dork, but I can't wait to dive in and get reading!

The Results...

So, I took this quiz on line...

You Are Not Logical

Logic is obviously not a talent of yours Or maybe your brain is totally fried today Try again later!

How Logical Are You?

Is this information really earth shattering to anybody?

New Do

Today, Stephanie stopped by...




and now I have red extensions in my hair!



It makes me feel a little better about the bad haircut of a few weeks ago. Yeah fun new do!

Old habits die hard

What is it about Westerlin that makes me pilfer pirate posters?

It's laminated and hanging in my classroom :)