Party Guilt

What a weekend! About a gallon and a half of red wine and a pound of cheese later, here I am, just getting through Monday. Tomorrow is Zander's real birthday, so I'm trying to figure out a fun place to go to dinner. As many of you already know, we had people over to celebrate yesterday and Zander REALLY had a great time. I had a great time too, but I'm suffering from day-after guilt. I keep thinking that I didn't get to talk to everyone I wanted to enough AND that maybe people felt weird just pouring themselves a drink and I should have been more hostesserly. So, if I didn't sit down and chat or pour you a drink, please don't think I'm a jerk... Just a little ADD in a big group, and then sorry for it the next day.

FRD

What do these crazy characters have in common? Well, F, R and D! Frodo and Frida had a lovely time at Rob and Amy's reception. Lots of red wine, good pizzas, exceptional dancing, enticing conversations, and an all around fun time. Now, so sweepy. Must go to bed. Zander is putting the meat in the crockpot as I type. Tomorrow's gonna' be fun...

Wowza. It's been quite a day! First hour one of my students came up and said, "Look at my hand." I need to preface this. Usually this type of statement means that the above mentioned student has learned some kind of trick to make their hand LOOK mangled. Like putting a bunch of glue on their hand and then sticking a pin through the glue... Unfortunately that was not the deal this morning. It was a clay needle tool and it went all the way through the "webbing" between his thumb and index finger. It didn't bleed because there was too much flesh. He went into shock. He went to the ER where they made sure it didn't splinter a bone or hit an artery. This needed to happen before they could remove the needle. Oh, and had he taken it out in class, it would have sprayed us all. I'm not going to get into how or why it happened, but needless to say, I'm planning where I'd like to stop and get a bloodymary tonight. Whew.

Last night we made it over to see Minnesota Pro-Wrestling at First Ave. Usually we have to drive all the way out to Maple Grove, but now at long last, we have some true culture in our very own downtown. What a blast! The next show is on November 30th, at 8pm. Put it on your calendars people!

In other news, I need to put up a picture of my newly sewn kimono shirt. It's really pretty cute, but might teeter on the edge of looking a bit pajama-ish. I'll wear it to the next CC meeting and get some opinions. I've also been experimenting with the quilting foot on my new machine. I cut up an old flannel shirt and a pair of sweats and cut them up into skinny, long strips. So now I've been quilting the flannel and sweats into a long and skinny scarf, leaving the edges unfinished. Not exactly high fashion, but a good experiment for me.

Alright folks, I just found out that my insurance will give me $20 off at the YMCA if I go 8 times a month. I'm going there right now to check out their class schedule and see if there are a plethora of classes that will be uber convenient AND so interesting that I'll be eternally enticed into working out all the time.

I'm trying to cram lots of good stuff into my couple o' days off. This morning I had a leisurely coffee and egg, gave Boo and Juno some extra love, did a bit of reading, and then headed out to the new H&M. There was LOTS of interesting stuff there. I really held back so I'll be able to justifly making a return trip out some other time with girlfriends. I did "splurge" (come on, it was under $30) on a cute little sundress that I'll wear with a turtleneck and jeans. Sounds a bit awful, but really looks cute. I also got a cheap pair of dangly earrings to wear to a fancy wedding reception this weekend.

I also met my mom for lunch over on Como Ave. I love it down there right now. The leaves are beautiful, the air is crisp, and I used to wait tables at Muffuletta, so it's filled with some fond memories and funny stories. Next I headed down to the Boy Scout Garage sale in Roseville. Total Boringsville. Eagle scouts keep lots of crap that even I don't want. Next stop, JoAnn Fabric. While it's not my favorite fabric store, I do like their sale bins and 40% off patterns. I got something really simple that I'm hoping to embellish, but really who needs to embellish when you're working with a skunk/squirrel print with a polka dot contrast? I'm pre-washing the fabric as I type. Oh, and keeping an eye on Oprah and how irritating she is. Why isn't Ellen on at 4? She's got ALL the dance moves as far as I'm concerned.

It's my last day of school for the week and I'm just giddy happy. Happy to have a few extra days off, happy to have eaten a delicious dinner with good friends last night, happy to have hogged (held) just the cutest, fattest little 12 week girl for the whole dinner, happy to blow off a home improvement project tonight and go see the Wallace and Grommit movie with our very favorite five year old, and happy that Zander doesn't have any stupid conventions this weekend so we can play! Alright, sorry if that rant made you want to puke. Dinner last night was at Rice Paper. It's in the adorable Linden Hills and I guess that it's a fusion of Vietnamese and Thai food. The food was delicious. I had the lettuce cups filled with marinated chicken and toasted coconut. The wine was good and I especially liked that their wine glasses were the traditional shape, but stem-free. We were even lucky enough to be served by the lovely Reuben's cousin.

Our basement sanding project needs to wait a little bit longer than I'd planned. I'll explain why later. Maybe. Other than that, I'm planning on hitting a few thrift stores tomorrow morning and then settling in for some hard-core sewing in the afternoon!

Well, it's the Monday of a three day work week for me, and I must say that I'm pretty psyched for a four day weekend! I hope, hope, hope that the weather stays nice. Normally fall gives me this doom-like feeling that we're all going to be frozen solid on the side of the road waiting for AAA to come by and give us a jump. Strangely enough I don't really feel that way this year. I'm not sure if it's the weather, LOVE, or job happiness, or what... I'm going to ride this good fall feeling as long as I can. Oh yeah, school is great. No more bomb threats lately. The kids are great and I'm especially enjoying my art club. They're funny and smart and especially proud of themselves for thinking up things to shock me. I'm not as easily shocked as I used to be (after being married to Zander for four years), so I do my best to indulge them and ACT shocked. So yeah, I'm still enjoying working with these high school people, yes, even the somewhat LOUD Irondale lovies that read this blog regularly.

On Wednesday night Zander and I are planning on renting a sander to get all of the paint off of our basement floor. What kind of wine goes with home improvement? Maybe some Grateful Red? Anyway, the paint has been peeling like crazy and it's so disgusting to take a shower down there and then have to clean the paint chips off my feet before I can put my socks on. Paint chips stuck in the toe of my tights on regular basis is no way to live. I think it's going to be a really hard and dirty job getting underneath all of the stuff that's accumulated down there already, but hopefully well worth it.

In other news, I'm injured. Somehow (I don't remember falling or anything else that I'd associate with this kind of pain) I hurt my tailbone and now my whole body is paying the price. It sounds like an exaggeration, but seriously, tailbone stuff sucks. It hurts to sit almost as much as it does it stand up, and that hurts almost as much as it does to cough or sneeze. I've been trying to cure myself by doing some yoga stretching, but I'm almost to the point where I'm going to call the doctor. Poor me and poor Zander for having to hear about the status of my butt every time he turns around.

Woah There!

GOVERNOR ANNOUNCES MOUNDS VIEW IS APPROVED FOR Q COMP
Today was an exciting and historic day for Mounds View Public Schools. At a press conference held at Edgewood Middle School, Governor Tim Pawlenty officially announced that our district was approved to participate in the State's new Q Comp program.

Q Comp supports districts that establish alternative compensation plans for teachers. Mounds View's version of Q Comp is called Mounds View Teacher Professional Pay System (MVTPPS). To date, Mounds View is the largest suburban district and among only four districts in the state to be approved to participate in this innovative program.

As Governor Pawlenty said today, "Mounds View has a chance to be a very large leader," and clearly, this unique achievement demonstrates that our district has a progressive spirit. It also represents a shared commitment to doing what's best for students by aligning teacher compensation with teacher performance and student achievement goals.

Wow. This seems like good news, doesn't it? (Insert stressed out maniacal sarcasm here) I mean, don't get me wrong, I want to get paid for my outstanding work with student achievement. I work hard and I really like my job. I'm really quite good at it. But, in order to get paid, I will now have to give my art students tests that can ONLY be answered by marking letters A-E with a good old #2 pencil. Student achievement must now be measured by a very precise little machine that scores these little A-E beauties and then barfs out the data for us. Data is very important you know. Data is the wave of the future is what I'm told. OH, and will ONE of these tests per semester truly measure my job performance and my students abilities? Probably not. So, I'll just test some more and gather more data, and many of my students will shrivel up right before my very eyes. Then I'll truly deserve the pitiful check that I live month to month for. I CALL BULLSHIT. Thank you Mr. Pawlenty for allowing me, my art students, and my entire school district the unique opportunity to become your own unique opportunity to put something (data) in your file set aside for education. Why don't you pick on the elderly next time???

This is yummy ya'll!

Tomorrow I've got double duty in the potluck area. At school the art dept is in charge of this month's "Wednesday is Treat Day," and it's also the second Thursday of the month, so that means it's time for the Minnesota Mosaic Guild meeting. I usually just buy something for the guild, but since I'm already cookin', I thought I'd make a double batch.

Cheryl's Pumpkin Bars that She's Been Making for Thirty-Three Years

4 eggs
2 C sugar
1 C oil
2 1/2 C flour
1 can pumpkin guts
1 TBL cinnamon
2 tsp soda
1/2 tsp salt

bake at 350 in a cookie sheet, when it's cool frost it with...

The Best Frosting Ever that Cheryl has Been Frosting the Pumpkin Bars with for Thirty-Three Years

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3/4 stick of butter
1 tsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
4 oz cream cheese

Tonight Zander and I are baking Mom's pumpkin bars, listening to Death Cab for Cutie, and I even talked him into doing some T-shirt stenciling with me.

Mike Joyce is officially titled, "Da Bomb."

After a VERY productive day inside yesterday, I'm ready to get outside and enjoy this sunshine. How productive was yesterday, you ask? Well, my Mom and Mike came over and bailed me out BIG TIME. We had maintenance on our furnace last week, only to wake up yesterday to a brisk 58 degrees inside. After trying to get through to Centerpoint Energy for 30 minutes straight, I found out that we couldn't get a service call until Thursday! The woman on the other end eventually realized that was shite and pulled some strings to get someone out to us on Monday. Well Mike to the rescue! He fixed it by pulling a DEAD BIRD out of the blower and replacing the old one. How does a bird get inside the furnace? How did the maintenance guy miss the dead bird last week? Why do you have to read about it now? Anyway, 68 degrees feels perfectly balmy now. I appreciate his work so much, I mean, all I could do was hide in the stairway, afraid that something was going to blow up. (While I was watching in fear, I did plan out how I'd save everyone involved.) Oh, he also drilled a hole behind my beloved fridge and connected a pipe to our cold water pipe downstairs. This is a project that the Home Depot guy told me that I could totally do all by myself if I only bought a fridge from him. I believed him at the time. Luckily I didn't run with that belief. I've now learned that copper tubing is a sensitive little beyotch, and our hammer and phillips screwdriver set are no match for these kinds of projects. Thanks again to Mike, we've now hatched our first litter of adorable little ice cubes AND we can drink cold filtered water from the little thingy inside the door.

Today Zander and the boys are at the show, so I'm thinking that I'll stop in for a FEW minutes and see what's up. My motivation for going to the show isn't really based on my souls love for comics, but to see the BTA guys all dressed up in their work outfits/costumes/uniforms. Or whatever you want to call them. They're jumpsuits with a shirt and tie. They look cute. I want Zander to wear his to parties or at least around the house, but he's still refusing at this point.



I love looking for cutsie t-shirts at these comic conventions, but mercy me, we made some pretty cute ones ourselves at the last CC meeting.

Oh and really, the night is not over until the three grouchy owls fly in and break up the party.

Zander's Mom, Betsy, just sent me the new magazine called Cloth, Paper, Scissors. It's so awesome. This issue shows how to transfer photo images onto metal (even from the inside of a pop can), and I'm completely psyched to try it out. I'm kind of on project-wanna-do-overload. Especially because I re-discovered the Public Library recently. Browsing through the stacks of sewing books just gets me excited to make, make, make. I totally want to make these culots (can I make them even if I can't spell them?) from a pattern that Messica is letting me borrow. I'm working on a pottie humored mosaic entrance to our bathroom. It's all pieced, but needs to get glued and grouted. I also have about 3 other mosaic things that need to get grouted. And hello, Christmas is coming and I want to make people stuff. Like maybe a quilt sewn together from felted sweaters, or a dirty cross-stitch...

I'm a bit obsessed this week about if our Gnome has had her own little Gnome yet. I'm checking my email about every forty seconds!

Water in our basement again this morning! Rain, rain go AWAY! Poor Zander got stuck hearing me bitching about it AND having to clean it up. Henceforth, he's way into our wet/dry shop vac right now! I called the CEE about it and they suggested an energy evaluation. They're coming in with lazers and fake smoke on the 21st to check where our warm air escapes to and where the nasty rain water comes in. The audit takes three hours and then they need another hour to discuss the results and prioritize what needs to be done. While the possibilty of hearing that our house is broken and can't be fixed and we got hosed on buying it in the first place doesn't really thrill me, I am proud of myself for taking care of business instead of just trying to forget about it, which is what I normally do. Wow, run-on-sentence-o-rama.

Zander and the guys at BTA seem to be loving their new studio. Since my house is full and I love shopping the thrifty way, I'm on the lookout for cute chairs or couches for their place. I'm back on Craigslist with a vengence now. If you run across something cool at a sale, give them (or me) a call!

I'll spare you the details, but this weekend has put me into a bit of a funk. But luckily, how can I look at these faces and not feel all squishy and happy and... better?



This is Juno our new cat. Some friends gave him to us and I'm still thinking of how to really thank them. He's cute and sweet and still pretty scared of us. He mostly likes hanging out in the basement where he can hide. But when he's brave enough to snuggle, he's a purr machine, especially when you scratch right behind his ears. Oh, and he LOVES Boo. Boo is used to ALL the attention, so naturally when I'm dancing in the livingroom with Juno, he gets a little bit jealous. But mostly the two of them chase each other around, bite each other, and then have a lick fest. I'm starting to think that they're gay for each other.



Despite the funk, I'm disturbingly thrilled about getting a new fridge. I'm thrifty. I buy used. I shop alley ways. I could buy a couple more trucks for Zander if I hadn't bought this little Maytag, but gosh darn it, it's so nice. It fits right in its spot instead of sticking out a foot too far, which in turn allows us to open the basement door all of the way. Until now, the basement door has NEVER opened all the way. It also has a freezer on the bottom, which I think is pretty nifty. It's also pretty. I didn't really want to put food inside, because I know my jelly jar is sticky and I just hated to mess it up.

Two Things

1. Bomb threat at school yesterday. At 10:30 we went into lockdown. Locked our classroom doors, turned off the lights, and hid in a corner. Waited for the OK, and then "hustled" 1,600+ students out of the building and onto busses. Busses that took us to a safe parking lot where we all sat for 2 hours until the police dogs were sure that it was a false alarm. Best quote of the day, "I bet a f---ing freshman did this."

2. Just as I was about to take a shower, 10 minutes ago, a woman started knocking on our back door. Before I asked her (through the closed door) what she wanted, I saw that she was counting out a huge wad of cash. Hey, usually people at the door are asking us for money! I'm not sure what it was about me, but she immediately knew that I wasn't the chick she was supposed to give her money to. I asked her if she was lost, and she just needed our same address, but on Lyndale. Maybe I should go introduce myself and find out if they sell Tupperware, or something.

PS: Last night was wonderfully spent, huddled up with friends sitting around our fire pit drinking wine. I feel cozy today just thinking about it.

PPS: Way to go Ugly!

Rebecca

Rebecca has been sending home email from her bike trip for MS and I've been glued to the computer waiting for the newest updates. I'm always proud of her, but reading her letters has reinforced that once again. Way to go biker chic.

Guess what? I'm home again, except that today I'm not sick! Our school secretary called at 5:45 to tell me that school is closed today due to some debris damage from the storm last night.



When it calmed down a little bit last night, we headed outside only to see this just a few doors down and not far from the car that I'd left parked outside. The tree fell directly into the next door neighbor's yard, and just barely missed the house. Luckily everyone was safe, and the tree owner wasn't even home. What a nasty surprise to come home to.

Sniff, sniff, I've got a drippy cold that's left me with a charming hack. I'm home sick today. Those damn high school kids can fend for themselves, 'cause I'm drinking hot tea and watching Ellen. And sleeping. I'm really not adjusting to my new schedule. I want to be out of bed at 5 so I can do a 1/2 hour of yoga, shower, pack a lunch and be out of the house by 6:30. It's not working for me. I'm so tired! Must go to bed earlier!

Last weekend Betsy and Laurie flew in to surprise Zander for all of the Dinosaur parties. He's so fun to surprise because he's the least suspicious person I know. We drove right by him all slumped down, hoping not to be seen, and he didn't even blink.



We also made it over to the tile show at the Swedish Institute, had breakfast at Mill City Coffee and even made it out to the new mall like place out in Woodbury to see Kevin's sidewalk chalk event.

This weekend I'm hoping to take a sculpture class. Technically the class is full, but the instructor said that if the weather is really nice she might increase the class size and let people work outside too. The class is a bit spendie, but it gets great reviews from people that've taken it. In fact, I don't think classes should count for things to feel guilty about spending money on. I know a couple that don't count books in the guilt factor, and I have another friend that doesn't count things that make her healthy, or maybe happy, I can't remember which one. I'm pretty thrifty about things, it's nice to cut myself a break about this.

Speaking of being thrifty, I scored some tiki lanterns at Target for CHEAP, only to find out that they're out of the oil! Has anyone seen it anywhere else?

Happy 100 to me!

Yeah, this is my 100th post. Chikabow-beh-beh! It's been fun for me to keep this little here journal, but more than anything, I just love all the comments from you all, ya'll. I'm not sure this whole blogger thing would keep me interested if it weren't for that.



If you haven't had a chance to see the Chuck Close exhibit at the Walker, check it out. He's amazing. We saw these sculptures on the way out of the museum, and they remind me of just about everything we saw in Japan. The artist is Japanese, but I can't remember who he is. Aren't they cute?

Today Zander's at a convention in Wisconsin and so far I'm just chilling at home. Well, not really chilling I guess. I did mow the lawn because our place was starting to look like a crack house and I'm worried that the 5-O are going to raid our garage and find all the catnip drying upside-down. "Mam, aren't you a teacher?" "Yes sir, I am, but you see, it's all for my kitty." "Cuff her and stuff her Barney, we've got to get this stuff down to the lab." Other than mowing and indulging in my sick fantasies, I started reading The Kite Runner this morning. So far, so good. I've also been cleaning our dirty-gross house and am thinking about sewing together a little curtain for the bathroom. The one that's in there is from the previous owners and I'm not sure what they were trying to match. But jeesh, it says Pottery Barn on the label, so slap it up already! We've been collecting big sticks for a bonfire in our backyard this fall, I bet Pottery Barn sheers burn up real nice. Right now I'm imagining about three of you frequent readers gasping. Really, I'm not going to burn them. ARC is coming next week, and they'll be in the box out front.



Oh, here are the colors that we painted. I love the pink in the hallway, but the bathroom blue color is going to go. I'd like a brownish color, but it might end up a purplish color instead.



Here's the green bedroom.



Last weekend I found yet another quilt at an estate sale. I bet if I would go every week (as if I don't) at the same time, I'd see the exact same people at all the sales. I'd also have way too much stuff. Sometimes I wish I could just have a little store front to sell all my goodies. Maybe when things on our end of North start to get swank I'll think about it.

Have a good weekend everyone!

Schools on and that means slacker blogging for me. Sorry folks. Things here are good. Much better than I psyched myself out for ALL SUMMER LONG. My students are fun. I was afraid that I'd forgotten how to interact with the older ones that are too cool for school, but it's a lot like that old saying about riding a bike. It all works out. So far, I have a few intense girls in my classes that absolutely want being an art student to define them. I could just eat them up. Another bonus from the day: a sort of stern looking woman asked me what I was doing out in the hall and where is my pass for that matter?!

Things on the homefront are a bit sloppy now that we're both working extra hours... Especially because we just painted the bedroom and the hallway and had to take everything down to do it. I love how everthing turned out, but now I don't like how the blue bathroom looks next to the pink hallway. It looks like we just need some little wooden geese with plaid ribbons around their necks and we'll be all set for 1995. Speaking of home, we're on the lookout for a friend for Boo. We've been feeding a stray and just waiting to get her to the Vet. But before I knew it was bad to let Boo play with any old mangy cat off the street, they had an afternoon in the sun together. They tried to bite each other's face off. We named her Suzie GraySkull. Our neighbor boys want her and Boo is boo-hooing all over town. Anyone know of any social young-adult cats or kittens out there? I know we can go to the humane society, but I'd like to put the word out first.

I just found these free patterns and am thinking about making the wrap skirt. I love the pouch in the front.

Things with school are going alright. I'm frantically getting everything ready for the first day. My classroom is getting cute, I've got my syllabus ready, I've got Pictionary for the first day, I've got seating charts, and I had a first day of school cute outfit all picked out until... I received an over-sized polo type school shirt that we're HAVE to wear on the first day. How can I demand respect from these people when my shirt touches my knees AND it's a little tight on the hips???

In other news, LA brought me some paint and cookies last night. The cookies are gone and the paint (lovely pinky mellon color) will soon be up in the bathroom or in the hall on the way into the bathroom/bedrooms. I'm not sure why I'm so hot to paint these days, but I figure I should just go with it. I've also got to finish painting our bedroom. I also plan on spending lots of time outside frolicking with Zander. He doesn't really frolic, but it's fun anyway. We've got loose plans for dinner tonight. I want to try somewhere new and something healthy. Any ideas?

Well, today was my first day back to work and they surely didn't ease us back into it. Jeesh. Meetings started at 7:30 and I was busy pretty much all day. I wish there was more time in the day to spend in my classroom. And when I say time in the day, I mean time in the day before 3pm because it is just too nice to be inside for too long today. As you can tell, my good old artroom needs some charm sprinkled onto it. Right now it is vomitiously (yes that is so a word) filthy and there is clutter everywhere, BUT it isn't the room that I thought it was... and that's a good thing. Yes, I'm definitely happier about this job switch than I have been, but there's still a long way to go.



Oh, and we did make it out to the fair on Saturday. This picture is from The Dark Side ride in the midway. It was totally sweet and awesome. The cheesecurds were delightful, but so were the baby animals, and the cool artwork, and of course the cookies. The only thing we couldn't find was the butter sculpture of Princess K!



Here's Boo. I haven't posted a picture of him lately, and I think he's looking especially cute. Lately he's taken to giving this rug a running jump and leaping underneath of it... WHERE WE CAN'T SEE HIM! It's a terribly fun game over here at the Cannon household.

Oooh, Ahhh... I just found this necklace here, and gosh, I want it. The price tag prohibits, but have any of you seen something similiar for a girl on the cheap?