Snowman Lyrics

The last several years my mother has had a singing snowman in her house. We're not exactly sure what he is singing, but we are certain the lyrics aren't exactly what we initially expected.

Comment below with what you hear or you can send me your lyrics to gutshot7@gmail.com.

People, we need your help. Please Participate.

I'll even give you the first part:

Frosty the Snowman, was happy, jolly, soul....

You tell me the rest.


Thanks.

Eclipse

I e-mailed Matt about last night's eclipse.

This was his response:

The orange was a lot more pronounced with the naked eye. Through the telescope the moon was much more distinct, and simply darkened. It was pretty cool. Come over in 350 years and I'll pull out the telescope again.

Water

I went to the movies last night. We each got a hot dog. We got a small popcorn to share, and she got a drink. Our total came to $17, and the girl I was with said to me, “Are you going to get something to drink?”

I grabbed a large water bottle and added that to our items, and our cashier announces, “That will be $22.”

“Really? It was five dollars for my water? This better be the best damn water I’ve ever had.”

I still got the water, because she had paid for the tickets and I didn’t want to look cheap.

“We should not have totaled that separately. There are some things I would just rather not know.”


Click here to see Travolta clip.

Gift

This year I've had two student teachers working with me. Earlier this week they completed their term. As a thank-you gift they gave me two bottles of wine and a gift-certificate to iTunes. Just this week I got iTunes for the first time in my life so it is a really great gift. I wasn't expecting anything.

Quandary

I clicked on link discussing the simplicity of certain TV show's names. Underneath I saw related links:

* The 7 Most Disastrous Typos of All Time
* The Coolest Math Teacher
* Cozy-Crazy Couple Makes Tight All Right In The City's Tiniest Studio

What should I click?

They're good.

Prospering

6 months ago I was driving my same 2000 Toyota Corolla, talking on my basic flip phone, and watching a television that I bought for $40 on Craigslist.

Today, I just ordered a book on my iPad. Yesterday, I drove my Porsche with the top down even though it's winter. I still barely know how to use my smart phone, but I have one, and my flat-panel plasma TV arrives Monday.

What is happening to me?

Russo Rant from 2003

Giants fans, I don't know if you remember this from 2003:



Hey Russo. We won one.

Missing the Point

As a teacher I e-mail the parents of my students on regular basis to keep them abreast on what is happening in my classroom and at the school in general. Overall, the parents are very appreciative of this communication. Last year at the end of the year I wrote them one final e-mail. I said playfully in the e-mail:

I’m sure a few of you are wondering how to nominate me for teacher of the year or something. I don’t have an answer. I have no idea how any of that stuff works. However, if you want the principal’s e-mail address let me know and I will e-mail it to you so you can send her a note. (Hopefully, only to say positive things about me.)

One parent decided to take me up on my offer. She wrote a nice response to me thanking me for my hard work and dedication to the students. She sent the e-mail to both the principal and me.

But she included my initial e-mail at the bottom.

2010 Giants

Part I: A reason to believe:

I had the week off work so I was out taking care of some errands. It was midweek (Wed 8/25/10) and the Giants were trailing 10-1 in the fifth against the Reds so I turned off the game. I had some work done on my car and flipped the radio back on for the drive home. Now the Giants were trailing just 10-8 and threatening. With runners on 1^st and 2^nd and nobody out Boche once again did not bunt the runners over. I was furious, that is until Andres Torres doubled. The Giants took an 11-10 lead into the ninth, and for a brief moment I thought to myself, “This is magic. This is going to be our year.” But instead of finishing the biggest comeback in franchise history the Giants gave up one in the ninth and lost the game in the 12^th. Torture.

On August 29^th in a state of disappointment I e-mailed my faithful Giants friends and said:

“I don’t think the Giants are going to make the postseason. I did. For a moment on Wed. When their pitching is dominant I think not only we could make the postseason, but win it all. Dominant pitching wins in October, right? But now I don’t even know what three starters we would go with in a 5-game set. The Giants have lost Tim’s (Lincecum) last five starts.

I’d like a reason to believe again.”

Lincecum’s next start he pitched 8 innings in a victory over Colorado and he went on to go 5-1 in September with an ERA of 1.94. While I was writing the e-mail the Padres were finally faltering, and in the midst of a 10-game skid. I found my reasons.

Colorado stayed right with the Giants and Padres, and in early September it looked like they had all the momentum. They were unable to keep the pace and when we went into Colorado 9/24 they hoped for a sweep, but needed at least two of three. We took the first one Friday. After a devastating (and quirky) Saturday loss we virtually knocked them out of it on Sunday. It went down to the final weekend series a two-team race with San Diego.

The Giants were just one victory away from making the playoffs. In typical Giants torture we lost the first two, and didn’t clinch the division until the final game of the season. With the win on Sunday the Giants secured the west, and knocked the Padres out of wild-card contention.

The anguish continued in the first two games against the Braves. In game one Lincecum had one of the most brilliant pitching performances in history, but yet the fans had no time to relax as the Giants only put one run on the board. Game 2 the Braves evened the series in an extra-inning thriller.

Then on 10/10/10 we watched one of the greatest games of our lives. My friends and I returned to the local sports bar. As Andres Torres led off with a base-hit to center the crowd went nuts. The televisions were loud, the crowd was loud, the space was small, but it was a group of real fans watching the game with us.

After a triple by Fontenot in the 2^nd the Giants scored their first run on a popup to right that Braves 2^nd baseman Brooks Conrad could not come up with. The way Jonathon Sanchez was pitching you got the feeling that maybe the one run would be enough. The Giants held on to the 1-0 lead until the 8^th. Alex Gonzalez led off the bottom of the 8^th with a base hit. Conrad was unable to bunt him over. With one out the Braves pinch hit with Troy Glaus. The Giants countered with Sergio Romo. Glaus was removed without seeing a pitch in favor of left-handed hitting Erik Hinske. (Major league rules state a pitcher coming into a game must face at least one batter.) Hinske homered off Romo and the Giants went down 2-1. All of our enthusiasm was wiped away.

We sat there stunned. Depressed. Anxious. Bummed. The Braves brought in rookie Craig Kimbel, who not only dominated the Giants earlier in the series, but has been dominant since being called up to the big leagues. Ross popped out. Ishikwa walked. Torres struck out. Then Sanchez looked completely over-matched by the young right-hander. The Giants were just a strike away from losing the game. Sanchez singled to center. They brought in a lefty to face Huff who dumped one in to right. Game tied.

We cheered, screamed, chanted, gave high fives. The mood turned to elation. Then Posey hit a ball up the middle and Conrad booted it for his third error of the game.

Wilson closed the ninth to seal the victory. Giants baseball… torture. That was one of the greatest games I have seen, most excruciating, took years off my life, and in the end the Giants came out victorious.

That game represented the Giants of 2010, and reminded all of us why we love this game and love this team.




Part II: Giants World Series Baseball... Not Torture

Against the Phillies and Braves six of the seven Giants wins came by only one run. Giants fans had come to expect nothing less. So we geared up for another tough series against a Texas team that just dominated the Yankees and boasted a pitcher (Cliff Lee) so good in the postseason that he would be favored over any of our magnificent starters.

This was set to be a close back-and-forth nail-biting series.

That’s not what happened.

Game 1: The Giants got hits in each of the first three innings and put two runs across in the third. Cliff Lee looked far from invincible. Then in the 5^th inning they knocked Lee out and busted the game wide open. They tacked on three more in the eight and took an 11-4 lead into the ninth. Ramirez and Affeldt helped make it interesting in the ninth, but Wilson shut the door without allowing the tying run to ever reach the plate. Giants coast to victory in the opener.

Game2: Cain pitched 7 and 2/3 scoreless innings in a close game. However, in the 8^th with two outs the Giants started to hit. They didn’t stop hitting until seven runs crossed the plate. An inning that went from intense, to fun, to laughable helped the Giants coast to an easy 9-0 victory.

Game 3: The Giants fell behind early 4-0. Despite a couple of solo homeruns to make it closer they never really mounted a legitimate threat to take the lead. Even with a closer final score the game never matched the intensity we saw during the first two rounds of the playoffs.

Doubt still crept into my mind up 2-1 in the series I thought to myself, “What if we lose game four? And game 5? Would Sanchez pitch if it went to seven? I hope it doesn’t go to seven.” Surely the Giants would lose game 4 to make it interesting.

Game 4: The Giants scored two in the third, one in the seventh, and one in the eight. The Rangers had zero runs and only five base runners as they managed few good swings off the Giants rookie Madison Bumgarner. Giants calmly took the game 4-0.

That’s it. We’re up three games to one and still haven’t experienced the torture in the World Series.

Game 5: Even game five brought a relaxed vibe. The worst thing that could happen is we could lose and still go back home with a 3-2 lead. Despite being a better game it wasn’t nerve-wracking like the rest of the season. With Lincecum dominating as soon as Renteria hit the 3-run homer it just felt like the game was over.

Wilson closed it the ninth. Even Wilson decided to make it easy. He didn’t even let the tying run get to the plate as he held on to the 3-1 lead. Giants win the championship in just five games.

Giants World Series Baseball… not torture.

Personal Necessity

After I chose "religious observation" for my reason for going to the Giants parade. I texted Gio to tell him that is what I selected. He said that he had done the same thing two days earlier.

...

Last Night:


Tonight:

Text Message

So I sent the following text messages on 10/11/10:

My schedule has been pretty busy lately...

So I might have to wait till there is a break in the playoffs till I ask you out.

I actually had this thought:

Last night (the day after we became World Series champions) I was walking the streets of downtown Sacramento wearing my full Giants paraphernalia.

I felt like I was a celebrity that nobody recognized.

Grade Check

I have a student from last year that I invested a lot of energy into. This year I told her to come by and see me to give her a grade check form so I could monitor how she was doing in her classes. She came by at the beginning of the month and I told her to have it filled out by each of her teachers and come back to me before October was over.

She came in today (the last school day of the month) and said, "Mr. Burrill about that grade paper thingy. I couldn't get that done 'cause they like kicked me out of the school and stuff."

She went on to give several vague examples of why her behavior was not conforming to school policy. She mentioned a meeting, a court date, a possibility of being readmitted with a new schedule and a possibility of being on house arrest or in juvenile hall.

I'm proud of her for getting back to me before the end of the month.

Maturity

One of my coworkers told me this week, "I think I'm getting more mature, because now I think you're really funny, and I used to think you were annoying."

I thought that was interesting.

My Night Tonight

So the main sports bar in downtown Sacramento (MVP's) happens to be a block and half from my house. Before tonight I had been there for four of the Giants games this postseason. Twice I sat upstairs and twice downstairs. The upstairs is larger and more open, but both areas were quite loud.

The Giants won all four games I was there, and all four were dramatic, emotional one-run victories.

With a big game six tonight I decided to return to the bar to help the team get a much needed victory. We went to the bar nearly an hour early so we could get a good seat upstairs. However, when we got there we learned the upstairs was reserved for a UFC fight.

We were disappointingly relegated back to our spot downstairs. Near us were these cute young sorority-type girls that were taking up two tables. They seemed like the type more there for a good drinking game with a little bit of baseball mixed in. The other fans in the section were not great either. In fact there was a serious lack of orange and black being worn.

The game started and the Phillies quickly got on the board with two runs. The atmosphere still didn't feel great and our crowd was terrible. The girls continued to not really watch the game.

Then despite my 4-0 record at MVP's I called a major audible. I turned to Gio right there in the 2nd inning and said, "Want to go to your place?" He said without too much thought, "Yeah." We closed out our tab and left with a runner on first, no out, and down by two runs.

On the walk to my house via Gio's I-phone we learned of Torres' single and a sac bunt from Sanchez. We ran up the stairs at my house missing the Giants first run, but seeing a replay of Torres being tagged out at home. We watched them tie the game before jumping in the car and heading to Gio's.

Boche pulled out Sanchez early. We pulled out of MVP's early. Sometimes you have to make tough calls if it could help your team win.

After we left the bar the Phillies didn't score another run.

Bring on Texas!

To Do List

I was cleaning up my desk and I found my to do list from a few weekends ago. Here is the list in the same order as written:

Make Practice Exams
Make Exams
Clean My House
Go to Gym
Write Blog
Buy Porsche
Do AVID Contracts
Do Football Picks
Plan Monday Lesson
Register for AVID thing Tuesday
E-mail Kast about Student Schedule Change


I still need to work on that AVID contract, but I did eveything else.

Change Please

At the beer garden last weekend you had to first purchase tickets and then use your tickets to get the beer. It was $4 for Blue Moon and $3 for Coors Lite.

We got to the front of the line and I ordered:

"I'll take 2 Blue Moons and two Coors Lites."

"Your total is going to be..."

"14 dollars."

"Yeah, 14 dollars."

I was just trying to help her out with the math. So I hand her a $20. Then as she is getting the change she says something to her partner about not having enough ones. I wasn't sure exactly what she was doing. Then she hands me a $10 bill and four ones.

"You gave me too much change. I don't have a problem with it, but..."

She was flustered at this point and responds by asking her partner to straighten out the line so it wasn't so unorganized getting to the table. She didn't say anything about my change.

2 Blue Moons, and 2 Coors Lites. For me: $6.

Membership

Monday, for the first time, I was driving home from work in my Porsche. I had the top down and I stopped at stop sign near my house. There was a guy in a Porsche going the other way. We made eye-contact. He waved. I waved back.

I'm in the club.

Pimp, Cop, Hoe

At practice before our season started our ultimate team agreed to wear yellow for the games. Week 1 we showed up and found another team also wearing yellow shirts. The schedule showed the two teams would meet week 5 so I told Jeremy, their captain, we would wear white for the match. When I relayed this information to my team after our week 4 game they were quite upset that I did not fight to keep our yellows. So I told my team I would contact Jeremy and challenge him to a battle of pimp, cop, hoe.

When he didn’t respond immediately I wrote him the following the e-mail:

Jeremy,

I didn't hear back from you. Do you want to roe sham boe for jersey color or no?

Maybe I should have explained:

Cop beats pimp
Pimp beats hoe
Hoe beats cop

What is your phone number and I'll give you a call?

--Kevin

Now, I don't know Jeremy well, but I have played with him a couple times before. I also assumed it was his first time playing pimp, cop, hoe. Considering he was a pimp, cop, hoe rookie, combined with what little I knew of his personality I figured he wouldn't be aggressive enough to choose "hoe" on his first try. So I decided to play it safe and go with cop. (Yeah, I actually thought about all this.)

We squared off over the phone. But Jeremy went with cop too. After the push he was ready to go again immediately. Despite spending two days thinking of contingency plans I couldn’t immediately remember, and I just reacted and went with cop a second time. Jeremy came in with…

Pimp.

We wore the yellows, and went on to win the game.

Nobody likes the whites anyway.

Car

My Car:

Blog Hits

Unlike my main blog which boasts hundreds of hits each month this blog does not get the same readership. When I do examine the few visitors I have about half of them enter because of this blog post. They are searching "Tertiary War" and coming across my post spoofing the World of War Craft game. At first I thought it was some way of saying "World War III," but now I believe they are searching for this.

My Auto Insurance

I went on-line and found some reviews about the company. My insurance is cheap:

This is what I found.

Today

Today the Giants won the western division, I sang happy birthday to a church, and I bought a Porsche. Yeah, that all happened.

Honduras

Our trip to the waterfall was one of our best days of trip. Learning the bus system of the country and doing the waterfall tour were both experiences we couldn’t get anywhere else.

Each of our excursions ended up being highlights. We had an amazing day rafting even though we didn’t even know we were going rafting that day. Our guide was a lot of fun as he initially gave us our instructions in broken English. Gio explained to me that when he said "estoy-op"that he was actually saying “stop.” Then I asked him to switch to Spanish, and we were more cohesive and it was a little more fun.

“Adalante! Adalante! Adalante! Pisooooo!”

Our guide and the Asian couple from the Bay Area that rafted with us.


Before we went on the rapid that was most likely to end up with us outside the raft he pulled over and we hiked past it so we could make the choice to go down or not. We elected to do it. I asked him if it was better with three people or four and our guide said that four was preferable. So we told the guy with us he need to come too, and his wife stayed on the side, but recorded this video:

It looked more intense in person.

Another highlight of our trip was our visit to the island of Cayos Cochinos. We snorkeled. It was beautiful. So was the Asian girl with us that despite spending four days hanging out with us never mentioned her boyfriend.

Doesn't really look like she has a boyfriend in this picture. She was adorable, and I think we look cute together.

We had one week of Spanish class. Gio managed to get the hot teacher, but I had quite a good time my instructor too. At one point in class I asked Maria which example to do next and she said, “Go ahead and pick. I’m sure you’ll do whatever one you want anyway.” She never had a student quite like me.


Gio's hot teacher on the left (my right).


In class with Maria.

During our week of language classes we lived in a nice house, shared a room with an AC, and lived with a very nice woman that despite consistently hosting students that were not native speakers never managed to slow down her speech. We also lived with a dog named Taco Bell.



Our bedroom.

Taco Bell.


Gio maintained his sense of humor and sarcasm regardless of what language we were speaking. Occasionally, people didn’t understand him, but that happens here too. One time it resulted in me accidentally ordering this drink:

There were often random rain showers while we were there. It was weird. One moment it would be hot and pleasant and one minute later it would be pouring rain, and five minutes later it would stop. One night it didn't stop. It rained so hard we didn't know how to make it from the bar back home. The taxi took us as far as he could go. Then we had to wade through the flooded streets.

Good trip.

Happy Ending

I'm reading a book and I'm almost to the end. The main character's wife cheated on him, but shortly after they separated, she learned she was pregnant with his baby. Part of him (the biggest part of him) wants to return to his life with her and live happily ever after.

I don't know how it is going to turn out. I don't even know how I want it to turn out. But it has been a fun ride. I definitely plan to write about this one.

Psychoanalysis

My dishes from the weekend:

5 plates, 7 bowls, 2 plastic Tupperware containers, 4 glasses, 2 wood spoons, 1 glass measuring cup, 1 pot, 1 frying pan, 9 forks, 3 spoons, and only one knife.

This was mostly in just two days, and seemed like a pretty typical load for me. Sometimes I don't have that many knives.

What does that say about me?

Hockey

I have hockey tonight. It is the playoffs. It is amazing how much if affects my day. I plan on my eating schedule way in advance so when I get to the game I'm not hungry, nor did I recently eat. First game is at 7:30pm. I honestly don't know which team is favored for the match, but if we win we play again at 9:30. I'm certain we will be the underdogs there. I want to win.

Jon Miller

I'm watching the Giants/Dodgers right now on ESPN and with one out and runners on the corners Sandoval hits a fly ball to right. Jon Miller comments that Either's throw was too high to be cutoff and Joe Morgan adds that the high throw is okay "if there are already two out."

Um... what? If there were already too out then when he catches it the inning is over. If he means there was one out and the catch makes two outs than that is exactly what happened. Why would that be a situation where you would be more willing to give up the 90 feet to the runner on first?

What I want to know is how Jon Miller can just go on describing the play without saying, "Joe, what are you talking about?"

Miller is brilliant.

TV on Craigslist

The other day I was shopping for a used TV and came across a post that roughly read:

I BOUGHT TV FOR MY BABY MAMA, BUT THE BABY ISN'T MINE. ITS GOT TO GO.

Comcast

I just found out I've been paying for STARZ for a year and didn't know it.

How do I start getting a service I never asked for?

Gender Roles

The groom left his tuxedo jacket in my car last night. His wife asked me to remove the flower and save it before I returned it. He asked me to make sure to get the flask from the inside pocket before I returned it.

Tomorrow

Brian is getting married tomorrow. Tonight as his brother (who is in the wedding) was heading out to his hotel he asked him, "What do you got going on tomorrow."

His brother answered, "I'm going to a wedding."

Wallet

When my gym card is in front of my credit card I feel like this is a sign that I'm at a healthy point in my life.

Phone Plan

I called in to see about using my phone while in Honduras.

It costs $2.30/minute and 50 cents to send a text.

But for only $6 I can reduce my rate to $2 a minute.

And that's not all folks. That's not all.

If I want to sign up for the 50-g plan I get 100 texts for just $50.

Grandma

I don't know if those of you that read my blog today reacted emotionally when hearing that Grandma read my card before she died, but I do know I cried quite a bit when I wrote that yesterday. I did not cry proof-reading it today.

Previously on my blog I have posted a couple comments from grandma.

Last June she said this about her dress. She was wearing that in her open casket last Sunday.

Here she summed up our entire education system.

When I was out there for grandpa's funeral she handed me my 30th birthday card and said, "This is your last one with money it. I stop at 30. It might be your last one anyway."

She lived one more.

Grandma was a very special woman.

Vickie and Craig put together a fantastic video that was played at her viewing and funeral.

Plane Flight

On my return flight left St. Louis at 3pm, and my parents flew out at 3:30pm. They gave me a call from the airport just as Luke and I were loading up the car. It made me laugh that they were already there as we were heading there even thought there flight was later.

Plus I landed in San Jose about 2.5 hours ahead of them. I travel well.

She got it

Last week I sent grandma a card. I spoke at her funeral today. I held it together real well until I talked about the card I got her. I said, "I don't know if she got it." My aunt and uncle said, "she did."

That's when I started crying.

It was a nice service for grandma.

Business Ethics

An article discussing how big business can learn from ultimate (Frisbee).

15%

If my gratuity is written in on my check out of principle I usually do not leave any more than the stated amount even if the service was good.

Price of a Stamp

I don't know the current price of a stamp, but I do know I just put two .39 stamps on an envelope.

Visit with Eugene

Last Saturday I was eating lunch on the patio at Cafe Bernardo on Capitol. Eugene came by and started talking to us. He has been living in Sacramento since '35 and currently lives downtown. He retired from carpentry 33 years ago, and his wife has been dead 15. The only thing he does now is make is own bed. (He told us that several times). However, he also multiple times a day makes it out of the house and uses his walker to take his 93-year-old body down to the end of the block and back.

And sometimes he stops and talks to strangers.

AVID

Several people recently have asked me what AVID is. Avid is currently in 4,500 schools in 45 states and multiple countries, yet people are still not familiar with the program. Every year it grows in popularity and the success is evident.

AVID stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination. The idea is that if a student has individual determination we can teach them the rest of the skills they need to be successful in high school and college.

It targets students that are in the academic middle, particularly those that may lack support from home, or come from traditionally under-served populations. It has given me the opportunity get involved in the lives of these kids beyond what I can do in my math class.

To learn more about avid you can visit their website, avid.org.

Click here to see the Cold Hard Truths With Mr. B. The ones in blue I have already taught and the ones in black are ideas I am contemplating. I have a powerpoint I made with subpoints I could send via e-mail if either of you reading this are curious to see that.

A few years ago I wrote down my goals for my students. That was when I was only teaching math. It is more interesting now that I am teaching AVID as well.

New Desk

I'm getting this desk with the file cabinet. You can see the file cabinet in the picture below.

Jokes

This Joke:

Texan: “Where are you from?”
Harvard grad: “I come from a place where we do not end our sentences with prepositions.”
Texan: “Okay – where are you from, jackass?”

I first heard from Joe Demers back in 2002. He told me it the same night he told me the Freudian slip joke.



Here is another one:

A man and a friend are playing golf one day at their local golf course. One of the guys is about to chip onto the green when he sees a long funeral procession on the road next to the course. He stops in mid-swing, takes off his golf cap, closes his eyes, and bows down in prayer.

His friend says: “Wow, that is the most thoughtful and touching thing I have ever seen. You truly are a kind man.”

The man then replies: “Yeah, well we were married 35 years.”

Lincecum

If our guy makes a commercial. We'll watch.

Priority Mail

I got a notice in my mailbox the other day that said: You're mailbox is so full we're not going to deliver you mail anymore come by the post office and pick it up.

Today I took a different way home from work and was near the post office so I stopped by. They didn't have my mail and the guy said that it had probably been too long since I got the notice. "We only hold the mail ten days."

Then it gets returned to the sender, except for the junk mail (which is pretty much all of my mail).

Also, I asked them to not deliver mail that didn't have my name on it, but they wouldn't do that.

Web Gems

I already posted one baseball highlight on my main blog with Buehrle's flip so I'll refrain from posting another play there. However, for both of you that are reading this, check out this play made against the Giants tonight.

How does he manage to do that?

Running on E

I went to the wrong field for Frisbee. I was almost out of gas and I didn't bring my wallet. I pulled open the change compartment, but didn't have any change either, because last week I spent it all when I got to Jamba Juice without my wallet.

I made it to the game, home and to the gas station without running out of gas. I put 11.754 gallons into my 12-gallon tank. I think that is a new personal record.

Being Single

A single man writes an article about being a single man.

Quiet Me

Recently my principal did my yearly review. When discussing how much stuff I did on the campus she commented that I "flew under the radar."

Cool. I don't think people have said that about me very often.

Random Fail Photos

Bad Dreams

I have a reoccurring a nightmare. I've talked to other teachers and I guess it is pretty common among teachers. It seemed to stop for a while, and then it was infrequent-- until this week.

Each time it is different. The setting, people, and events are always different, but the general idea is that I'm teaching a class and the students are not listening to me. Usually it involves a room that is way too big, a class that has too many students (some that I recognize, some that I don't) and me running a round like a crazy man trying to get them under control.

Today's was a different. My kids were fine at first, but they were using my room as the hallway to prepare for the rally. It climaxed when they drove a car through the classroom and my coworker told my students, "Don't mind us; you guys just focus on your math problems."

Tuesday, I I even swore directly at a kid. Not just like a case when profanity is used casually. I was yelling at him.

It happened Monday morning, Tuesday morning, and this morning. All three times it was the very end of the morning after I had woken up once and had fallen back asleep.

And I'm on Spring Break.

What's up with this?

Measuring Stick

I met one our our student's fathers in a restraunt last week and I called him today on the phone.

"How you doing young man? Just how old are you anyway?"

"I'm 31."

"Wow, I'm getting old. I'm 35. I'm older than the teacher now."

25-Man Roster

Case Ace (12 Team League)

View All

Round	Pick	Player	Position
1.	(7)	Evan Longoria	3B
2.	(18)	Miguel Cabrera	1B
3.	(31)	Ben Zobrist	2B,SS,OF
4.	(42)	Johan Santana	SP
5.	(55)	Adam Lind	OF
6.	(66)	Josh Johnson	SP
7.	(79)	Andre Ethier	OF
8.	(90)	Clayton Kershaw	SP
9.	(103)	Lance Berkman	1B
10.	(114)	Gordon Beckham	3B
11.	(127)	Carlos González	OF
12.	(138)	Brett Anderson	SP
13.	(151)	Roy Oswalt	SP
14.	(162)	Julio Borbón	OF
15.	(175)	Frank Francisco	RP
16.	(186)	Francisco Liriano	SP,RP
17.	(199)	Mike González	RP
18.	(210)	Kerry Wood	RP
19.	(223)	Chris Davis	1B,3B
20.	(234)	Fausto Carmona	SP
21.	(247)	Milton Bradley	OF
22.	(258)	Octavio Dotel	RP
23.	(271)	A.J. Pierzynski	C
24.	(282)	Scott Sizemore	2B
25.	(295)	Brian Matusz	SP

Love, Mom and Dad

My parents picked out this Hallmark card for me for birthday:

Sometimes things work out well.
Sometimes life is good.
Like you're given a son
to care for and love.
So you try to bring him up well,
to let him know
how important he is to you...

And before you know it, he's an adult,
looking you in the eye
and grinning with that smile
that comes straight
from the heart...

And you think to yourself,
"Hey, he turned out good."
And your own heart
fills up with love... again.

Happy Birthday
to a good man...
and a wonderful son.

Winning

There is an old poker maxim that goes like this:

Poker players like winning more than losing, but playing most of all.

If I recall correctly I first read this in a book that was advising players to keep the mood happy at the table, because if people are happy they won't notice losing their money to you.

I just got back from my hockey game and I like losing way more than winning. Maybe my order is winning, playing, losing.

Part II, The Aftermath

I posted the story about my dad nearly drowning and this is the rest of the story.

Part II:

One regret I have is not notifying the people in the boat when I got his head above the water and knew he was alive. While struggling to get his suit off I yelled to the boat for a knife. Later Shelley jumped into the water carrying a screwdriver and whatever else she dug up on the boat that she thought might help. When I saw the frightened look on her face I realized that she didn’t know that we had made it. Paul and I were still struggling to get my dad off the motor so I didn’t think to tell the boat that we knew he was alive. It was pretty traumatic for everyone involved.

Dad came out of the boat with some minor bleeding, but it turned out he was in worse shape than I initially thought. His body went into shock, and he was cut up in areas we don’t like to talk about. Also, his legs were more bruised than anything I had ever seen. Dave, Mom and I took him to the hospital.

The nurse asked me some questions about what had happened. She asked me how long he was under, and I replied, “Well, he didn’t die.” I don’t think I was ready to talk about it until I knew my dad was hooked up to an IV and being treated. I later estimated it at 90 seconds, but after discussing it with Paul we think it may have been closer to 60. Either way he was under quite a while.

Dad still didn’t look good that evening, and it wasn’t until I saw him the next day that he looked okay again. He ended up with 40 stitches, and it took him several weeks to recover.

That night I replayed the situation in my mind. I replayed how close it was, and how little I was able to do. Dad may have died had I not been in the water. So maybe I should consider myself a hero, but it didn’t feel like that. I felt helpless. With everyone else in bed I walked to the bathroom crying and I looked at my face in the mirror. I saw a face of complete terror that I’ve never seen on me before or since. I was shaking and crying. The next day I was better. I’ve been fine since. I was not traumatized by the event, nor was my dad. I just know he felt bad to have to put people through that situation. I know it was tough on my uncle as he feels it is his responsibility to run the operation at his place.

I know no one lives forever, but I’m glad we still have Dad for some more years. It is important for my family to still have him around.

Spirits

As I wrote my thought of the week today "high spirits sans spirits" I thought of how quickly I came up with three very distinct meanings for the same word. So I typed in "spirits" to dictionary.com.

25 definitions just for the noun. 24 for the common noun.

Spirit:

–noun

1.

the principle of conscious life; the vital principle in humans, animating the body or mediating between body and soul.

2.

the incorporeal part of humans: present in spirit though absent in body.

3.

the soul regarded as separating from the body at death.

4.

conscious, incorporeal being, as opposed to matter: the world of spirit.

5.

a supernatural, incorporeal being, esp. one inhabiting a place, object, etc., or having a particular character: evil spirits.

6.

a fairy, sprite, or elf.

7.

an angel or demon.

8.

an attitude or principle that inspires, animates, or pervades thought, feeling, or action: the spirit of reform.

9.

(initial capital letter) the divine influence as an agency working in the human heart.

10.

a divine, inspiring, or animating being or influence. Num. 11:25; Is. 32:15.

11.

(initial capital letter) the third person of the Trinity; Holy Spirit.

12.

the soul or heart as the seat of feelings or sentiments, or as prompting to action: a man of broken spirit.

13.

spirits, feelings or mood with regard to exaltation or depression: low spirits; good spirits.

14.

excellent disposition or attitude in terms of vigor, courage, firmness of intent, etc.; mettle: That's the spirit!

15.

temper or disposition: meek in spirit.

16.

an individual as characterized by a given attitude, disposition, character, action, etc.: A few brave spirits remained to face the danger.

17.

the dominant tendency or character of anything: the spirit of the age.

18.

vigorous sense of membership in a group: college spirit.

19.

the general meaning or intent of a statement, document, etc. (opposed to letter): the spirit of the law.

20.

Chemistry. the essence or active principle of a substance as extracted in liquid form, esp. by distillation.

21.

Often, spirits. a strong distilled alcoholic liquor.

22.

Chiefly British. alcohol.

23.

Pharmacology. a solution in alcohol of an essential or volatile principle; essence.

24.

any of certain subtle fluids formerly supposed to permeate the body.

25.

the Spirit, God.

–adjective

26.

pertaining to something that works by burning alcoholic spirits: a spirit stove.

27.

of or pertaining to spiritualist bodies or activities.

–verb (used with object)

28.

to animate with fresh ardor or courage; inspirit.

29.

to encourage; urge on or stir up, as to action.

30.

to carry off mysteriously or secretly (often fol. by away or off): His captors spirited him away.

—Idiom

31.

out of spirits, in low spirits; depressed: We were feeling out of spirits after so many days of rain.

Serendiptous Life Bargains

In March of 2009 I deposited $2000 into to E-trade to buy some stocks. I tried to purchase some shares immediately, but there was a waiting period before I could buy. 7-10 days later I was not feeling as adventurous. I let my money sit in that account until today.

Now, only 12 months later, I cashed out for $2001.28. To think, I didn't even know this was an interest bearing account.

Cell Phones

On the way home from work today the guy in the pickup in front of me had the following bumper sticker on his back window:

Guns Don't Kill People. Driving While Talking on Cell Phones Does. (Cell Phones was underlined for emphasis).

Yeah, he was on his cell phone.

Round Table

When Gio asked the lady on the phone for a side of pineapples she was not the least bit amused by Gio. So his next line was something like this, “Oh, I was just making a joke ma’am. I can see you did not think that was funny. I apologize.” Then we asked for delivery and she told us it would be an hour and half. So we went and picked it up. When we got there the girl behind the counter was very happy and friendly. We asked her if she also answers the phone there. She said sometimes, but doesn’t remember taking an order for a double pepperoni. I responded, “You’d remember.” Gio told her that he was obnoxious on the phone and wanted to make sure our food wasn’t tampered with. She laughed and assured us everything was proper.

We bought a can of pineapples from the grocery store.

(Ask me sometime about the time Gio got a call for his son to play in the youth basketball league.)