Tropic Thunder

Last night I went with a group of friends to see the movie "Tropic Thunder" starring Ben Stiller, Jack Black, and Robert Downey Jr. It was vulgar, crude, rude . . . and totally hilarious!! After spending the last 2 days sweltering in my apartment, it was nice to get out of the house and into an air-conditioned movie theatre! I was quite surprised at just how many "laugh outloud" moments there were in the movie . . . I was totally expecting something much heavier on action. I particularly liked Robert Downey Jr.'s performance. I thought his accents were great and he set the right tone.

Now it's off to the waterslides to celebrate my brother-in-law's 30th birthday. I think today is going to be a little cooler than the past few days, which will be welcome relief. I'm not sure I'll survive this hot weather much longer . . .

Woot Woot for the Sun

So my dentist appointment on Saturday went fine. Apparently I have very nice teeth (said to me by both the dentist and the hygienist) and very strong enamel. That's nice to know. Since my appointment was finished early, I was able to get a couple of errands done before I was supposed to meet my friend for lunch. Long story short: we didn't end up having lunch as she got "detained" elsewhere. Actually, it really ticked me off as we were supposed to meet at 2 and she didn't end up calling me until close to 2:30 to tell me that she was running late. Since she just left a message on my voicemail, it was almost 3 by the time we actually talked and I was STARVING! Needless to say, I was more than a little irritated to find out that she was going to be able to make it after all. Grrrr.

How glad was I to finally see the sun on Sunday?! I have to say, I had no idea just how depressed I was starting to feel until the sun came out! My two favourite seasons are fall and spring. Both tend to be cool but not freezing cold. I love fall because of the changing colours and the excitement of "back to school" (well, before I started teaching year round). But, I love spring because of the feelings of renewal, birth, and the emergence of the sun! I love how seeing the sun again brings a fresh bounce to my step and a new lightness to my heart. In honour of the sun, I wrote this haiku today:

Saw the sun today.
Will it be back tomorrow?
I sure do hope so.

In honour of spring (and the rain forecast for later this week) I wrote this spring haiku:

The rain falls gently
As I walk around the town.
I am soaking wet.

Can you tell that the theme this week in my afternoon class is poetry? Tomorrow we'll go over the poem "In Flanders Field", which is a poem I happen to really like. I still remember most of it from when I had to memorize it in sixth grade (typed as I would say it):

In Flanders Field the poppies blow between the crosses row on row that mark our place and in the sky the larks still bravely singing fly scarce heard amidst the guns below we are the dead short days ago we lived felt dawn saw sunset's glow take up our quarrel with the foe to you from failing hands we throw the torch be yours to hold up high and . . .

Just for reference, here's the actual poem:

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

(Turns out my memory ain't all that bad after all!)

Ugh

I have a dentist's appointment today. When I was younger going to the dentist never bothered me, but now . . . I'm sure it was the cause of last night's mild insomnia. I'm sure the constant rain isn't helping either. It's pretty much supposed to rain all week, which is too depressing to really put into words. So let me just say again, "Ugh!"

Can I get a "woot woot?"

It's a snow day! I managed to get halfway to work (walking) before I got the call telling me that school was closed today. Really, it's for the best. I was awake until about 4am last night (this morning), and during that time I watched two cars try to drive down my back alley. It took one car about twenty minutes to drive approximately thirty feet! I don't know where that person was going, but they were very determined to get there!

I'm off to take a much-needed nap. Enjoy the day!

SNOW!

I don't think these pictures do it justice, but it's snowing like crazy outside! This is the scene I can see out my window. That's not a major street, in case you're wondering. It's more like a back alley if anything. It's been snowing here since yesterday afternoon. Last week when people said it was going to snow on the weekend, I actually scoffed at them. I didn't think there was any way it was going to snow before December. Boy, was I wrong! If it continues like this all day, we're going to have a massive accumulation (massive by our westcoast standards, anyway). I'm starting to wonder what's going to happen in terms of work tomorrow. We've got people coming in from as far away as Abbotsford and Langley. What happens if they can't come in to work? What happens if our students can't come in? How much snow has to fall before we officially call tomorrow a snow day? Interesting question to ponder.

This is another picture of the snow outside. Actually, I was trying to take a picture of the snow falling, but I guess that part of it didn't turn out. To be honest, I don't particularly like snow all that much. It really throws people for a loop and it's wet and cold and difficult to walk through. One thing I do like about the snow is how beautiful and peaceful it makes things look. I also like how quiet it makes things seem. All the usual noises are muffled and it feels really calm. It's like nothing can get through the insulation. It'll be a different story after a few days when the snow looks more gray than white (or yellow in some areas, if you get my meaning).

On Friday when it became more and more apparent that we actually would get some snow, I taught my students a very valuable expression. I was asking them what kinds of things they could do in the snow and one of them said they could eat the snow. So I had to teach them "never eat yellow snow!" I thought I'd have to explain the meaning of the expression, but they got it right away ;-)

I LOVE Electricity!

My power is back on now - woot woot! It was out yesterday night when I got home and it stayed out until shortly before midnight. After I got all my clocks reset at 2:30 in the morning (what can I say, I was awake and it needed to be done!) I lay awake in bed until nearly 4 in the morning. Sigh. I left the house early this morning to deal with all the early morning "is school open?" phone calls at work and as I was walking down the stairs towards the door, the power went out again! Grrrr!

My power didn't come back on until two minutes before I arrived home. Yeah! Even though we had electricity all day at work, it was still nice to come home to a house full of electricity :-)

I think I've caught up on all your blogs now my friends. Have a good (outage free) evening!