Well, it's July, which traditionally means I get a crazy fic idea that will consume me until the beginning of school, at least.  (Last year: the madness of "Strays" and its prequels/sequels/tangents, which I am still not done with BTW.)

This year's crazy fic idea is looking pretty good, if I do say so myself.  The instructor of my community ed writing class is gonna be ticked off when I return in the fall with nothing but fanfic... but who cares!

You know, every now and then I'll review old notes for old fics - or fics that were old and that I'm dusting off again, because nothing is more fun than working on a fic for six or seven years - and I'll find myself going, "....the hell was I talking about?"

Like this character description: She has the gift of unobtrusiveness.

...what the hell does that mean??

Tomorrow is the last day of summer school.  I'm happy and sad at the same time, because it's been a lot of fun to work with my bunnies in a totally voluntary capacity, and I'm going to miss them... BUT the break will give me a chance to rearrange the room, which I am looking forward too.  (I have some evil plans for my classroom library that are very exciting.) 

Of course, first I have to wait for the custodians to do the end-of-year Super Ultra Wow Cleaning; they've worked their way through kindergarten, first and second grade, most of third and fifth, and I think fourth also, so my room should be coming up soon.  I can't wait to see my freshly-waxed vinyl floor - the highlight of a new school year!

*is a teacher nerd*

My mom and I painted her dining room/kitchen today - not all of it, just the part beneath the chair rail.  Why the under-chair-rail area isn't paneled with wood, the way it is in the living room/foyer, I have no idea. 

But anyway, we painted over our two-tone blue spongepaint design from, oh, 10 years ago.  With a nice hot red!  "Antique Red", according to Behr.  Barn red, if you ask me.  It looked so awesome, it made me notice how lame her ancient pig-themed key holder was.  And the faux-needlepoint-sampler teddy bear picture.  Yeah.

So then we went shopping for new wall decor.  I felt like I was on Sell This House or something - we completely changed the room with just a coat of paint and some repurposed woven wicker plates. :P

So my brother and his friend have been making a music video, in iMovie, to go with a parody song they made in GarageBand.

Well, he's posted it, and I've seen it, and it's pretty darn good.  Especially the parts where I was working as the off-camera assistant. :)

(My brother, BTW, is the taller dude.)

As the title indicates, this is not entirely work safe.  Or child-appropriate.  But it is funny. :D

Yesterday, suffering from a fit of insanity that I can only blame on the continued crippling heat and humidity*, I rode my bike to the library (7 miles round-trip) at 2:00 in the afternoon. 

I think parts of me melted and dripped off. 

On the plus side: books!

Just for fun, here's a link to the song "Melting in the Sun" by the Electric Light Orchestra from their little-seen (heard?) 2001 album Zoom.






*the Weather Channel kindly points out that even though it feels like 106 degrees today, it's really only 94.

I stubbed my toe on Thursday, and it still hurts.  Huh.  My mom thinks it might be fractured, but it only really hurts when I sing wear sneakers.  And since it's Florida in June, I can solve that problem with sandals.

In other news, I totally kicked butt in the b-day present I bought for my sister-in-law.  Turns out she's been wanting to read it for a while.  (As well she should, because it is awesome.)  So: score!!

I've been trapped for the last two days with the 1st grade team, doing a reading inservice. (Tomorrow is the last day, thank goodness.)

They are lovely nice people, and excellent teachers, and we have crafted some truly awesome reading center materials.

But.

IF I HEAR, ONE MORE TIME, THAT SOMETHING IS "CUTE", I MAY PUT A FORK THROUGH SOMEONE'S EYE.

...and it will not be cute.

...although it will be extremely personally satisfying.

I don't know why I watch the Battlestar series finale as often as I do.  I mean, sure, the second hour is one long, super kickass Crowning Moment of Awesome,  but the very end makes me cry like a little frakkin' human-Cylon baby.  Every time!

Even now, having seen it a bajillion times, Apollo and Starbuck's last scene - oh, oh, it hurts. (Thanks a lot, Jamie Bamber's excellent acting!)  I knew better than to expect a happy shippy ending, and I actually like the unresolved mystery and all... I just wish I could give Apollo a big hug.

Adama on the ridge fairly snatches my breath away.  The sweep of the camera, the music, Eddie Olmos' voice... I blubber.

Aw, frak it, even Baltar's last scene gets me.  And I'd been hoping he'd go out an airlock or something since the miniseries - but this worked so much better.



Whew.  Now I'm going to go try to sleep.

TO DO:
1. Curriculum folders - math tests recorded/filed, writing scores recorded/filed, PMPs/LS inventories filed, old papers pulled
2. EOY checklist
3. OR Fluency scores updated/filed
4. Placement cards - add retention status
5. "Too Good for Drugs" and Career Unit checklists
6. Cumulative folders pre-checked/add report cards


MONDAY: So far the most productive thing I've done is using my hour lunch break (OMFG A WHOLE HOUR *giddy*) to bike to the library and back.  7 miles, 40 minutes, 10 lbs. of books, beeyotches! :D
 

TUESDAY: I'm done!  Done done done done!  Yaaaay!  *runs around rejoicing*

School's out!

Monday-Tuesday is post-planning - shorter hours, no kids.  Then Wednesday is the start of summer school, but I'm just a volunteer then.

And tonight I get to have pizza and tomorrow I'm shampooing my carpets and Sunday I'm watching BSG for five hours.

Life!  It is good!

Okay, go see Up.  

You will be bawling about ten minutes in, and then again at the end, but in between it's so funny and clever and enjoyable that I wholeheartedly forgive it for all of the blubbering I did. :P

AND OMG THE TALKING DOGS.  They are the most perfect talking dogs ever.

Also I think I might have Russell in my class.

And I want one of the baby birds.

I attempted to go hand in my passport application today, which meant driving downtown and finding a parking spot, which is impossible, since the library HQ is right next door to the post office, and the library patrons (illegally) use the PO lot as overflow parking.  I left school forty-five minutes early for this.  Now, it is the second-to-last week of school and I have a LOT of stuff I should be doing instead of applying for a passport.  However, they're changing travel requirements and stuff in 5 days, and that always means a backlog, and I want my passport in less than a year, darn it!  I have big honkin' prehistoric rocks to see!!

So anyway, it was a disaster, and I have to go back to the post office tomorrow and try again.

And then I almost got struck by lightning as I got back into my car - it hit something maybe a block away.  Lightning-strike capital of North America, we are.

But I did see someone from my old AP art class, so that was kind of fun.

Is it sad that the highlight of my weekend so far has been grocery shopping at the swanky new Publix?

Because it was both swanky and new, and I had a lot of fun. LOL

I didn't get hired for summer school...

...and I am TOTALLY PSYCHED!!

Seriously, this is awesome.  Yes, I will be comprehensively broke by August, but I can finally stop with the planbook and the grade recording and the official pressure and just relax, and chill... and volunteer in my mom's classroom... teaching for free again...

Oh, and repaint the mural in the front office, which is like 5 years old and looking kind of raggedy.  

Oh, and go to WV for my grandma's 81st birthday.

So I am pretty well hyped.  *bounces*

Jack Reacher vs. Batman.

I would not put money on either of them, because it would be a very, very near thing.  Because Batman is Batman, but Reacher is Reacher. 

(He'll use guns, but if you really piss him off, he may just ( SPOILER )  But only if you deserve it.  He's that guy in the Old West saloon fight who doesn't care until a bottle gets smashed over his head, and then he mops the floor with everyone.)

In other words: I tremendously enjoyed Gone Tomorrow.  Read it!

10 days left in the school year!

3 of my most disruptive kids were absent!

(1 of them is suspended until Monday!)

There were mini-doughnuts in the office!

And it was Early Day!

Zelda and Dashti - henceforth to be known as the Bad Dogs - were at my mom's house with me today.  She leashed up the other dogs and opened the front door... and the Bad Dogs slipped out.  And ran. 

And ran and ran. 

In the rain.

And then they ran some more.

And I ran after them.  In the rain.  For about, oh, fifteen minutes or so.  Meanwhile, my mom brought the other dogs out in the hopes of luring the Bad Dogs back.  This did not work.

There was more running.

Many cars helpfully stopped and/or slowed down to avoid running over the Bad Dogs and myself.  I appreciate that.  Very neighborly.

At one point I looked over my shoulder and saw my mom standing at the foot of the driveway, doing nothing that was helping me catch my dogs.  I had a stroke of inspiration (maybe it was just a stroke) and yelled "GET THE CAR!  THE CAR!!" 

She had to go into the house, find my keys, and start the car - but she did it, and my Stupid Bad Dogs totally fell for the ol' "let's go for a ride!" trick.  At that point I said, "Screw it, they're in the car, they're being bad, let's go home."

*headdesk*

*buries face in hands*

Not only is it crack, but for some reason it wanted to be written in a funky style.  I also can't come up with a title.  Ideas?


( She says to him, all right, Captain; maybe you're not so tough after all. Takes the cigar out of her mouth. Pours two identical shots. Slides one over to him and raises hers.  )


.....And why am I hearing Zapp Brannigan in my head as I post this?  

"We have failed to uphold Brannigan's Law. However, I did make it with a hot alien babe. And in the end, is that not what man has dreamt of since first he looked up at the stars?"

Well, I've seen Star Trek twice.

And I'm now craving some new!Battlestar/new!Trek fic... in a very specific flavor.

Can I ship Starbuck/Kirk even if there's no fic for it? :P







EDIT: Lords of Kobol, have mercy on my soul: I wrote some. 

*headdesk*

I'll spare you guys unless someone indicates they actually want to see it. :P