Andy and I are watching Short Circuit--it's still brilliant!!!

The main event for my 30th birthday celebration in two weeks is an 80's Prom (if I can find a place to hold it...)
I've had questions from a few different people about what to wear, so let me help you out:

For the guys:

#1: The Miami Vice Look...



#2: The Wedding Singer


#3: The Lead Singer of a Big Hair Band



For the Women:

#1: Designing Women (shoulder pads, anyone?)


#2: Let's Get Physical


And, a consummate favorite, the Madonna/Cyndi Lauper/any variation thereupon:


Happy 80's-ing!!
:)

Last night I went to my first yoga class--YOGA! It was fun but more intense than I thought--downward dog kicked my butt! And I am super sore today, wasn't expecting that. But it was good. I'll keep going and will hopefully increase my armstrength so that it is I who will kick the dog's butt downward. Yeah, that didn't come out like I expected it to...
Ironically enough, my favorite pose was a cooldown one near the end called "Happy Baby" Pose (see my userpic).
Stay limber, FList!

"This movie is horrible," says Andy of "Zardoz." He's right. It's quite terrifying.
Run, don't walk. Get as far away from this movie if you can.
It explains so much about Sean Connery's awesomeness in all of his other movies and in general: He's had a lot to make up for.
Yikes.

So, there's this cute little garden behind my school:



...And since I harvested a head of lettuce, a few leaves of Romaine, 2 cups of sugar snap peas and the last 2 ripe cherry tomatoes, I now must join in weeding the garden. I can't wait to taste the leafy green wares!
:)

My students introduced me to this video yesterday. The Black Eyed Peas kick off Oprah's 24 Season with a big surprise...



This little gem is something I stumbled across on my own. If you've been keeping up with current events, you'll get a giggle out of this one.




Enjoy!
:)

David and I just got back from an AWESOME evening: we attended the Michael Jackson Sing-Along at Central Cinema.
Along with the best of the classic videos--complete with sing-along subtitles--there were old performances with and of the Jacksons, tv ads, etc. David even danced with me which, if you know David, is a rarity. The host handed out flashlights as we danced to Billie jean (we also danced to "Rock with You" and "Don't Stop ['Til You Get Enough]"). He handed out tealight candles for Michael's performance of "Man in the Mirror" at the '88 Grammys--it was magical! We thought this was the highlight of the night--until he showed the entire 15-minute video of "Thriller." We did the zombie dance, or tried, at least. It was so freaking awesome.

The rest of the day was pretty good, too.
Yesterday, the first "real" day of school, was kind of a downer. The students obviously did not want to be there and I felt lame and boring. However, thankfully, it was apparently a first-day phenomenon--things were much, much better today. It helps that it was Friday and that on Fridays, periods are only 25 minutes. We played "2 Truths and a Lie" to start with. They all seemed to have fun. Those who wouldn't participate ("I can't think of anything!") were subjected to my lame guesses about them, which helped us learned something about them, anyway. With the last 10 minutes, we played Electronic Catchphrase to practice vocabulary review. Again, they seemed to have fun. Then, we had an all-school, beginning-of-the-year barbecue. I helped serve and it was so great to be able to address the majority of my students by name on the second day of school. Also, the genii at the Tech Desk fixed my computer--well, kind of. They were supposed to replace my motherboard, since I've been having trouble with my laptop, but they did me one better and put my hard drive in another computer.

I have to say, it was a good day. Bowchickawowow.

We got up and had a delicious breakfast. In fact, the Globetrotters Hostel (where we stayed the first two nights, in Dublin), had, by far, the best breakfast of any other hostel we stayed at in Ireland. It was a full Irish breakfast.
When we left Globetrotters, it was still too early to visit any sites, so we walked down Grafton Street, the main shopping thoroughfare in Dublin. Grafton Street ends across the street from the main entrance to St. Stephen's Green, a large park. Here we saw statues in tribute to James Joyce and Lord Ardilaun, who gifted St. Stephen's Green to Dublin and was great-grandson to the founder of Guinness. In this park, there was also a little island paradise in the middle of a lake, gorgeous flowers and fountains, swans, and a "tribute in bronze to W. B. Yeats."

Just off the main path, near the heart of St. Stephen's Green, is a garden set aside specifically for blind patrons, where placards for the plants are in Braille. Unfortunately, is seems little more than a polite afterthought. You'd never know it was there, if you weren't already going that direction, and is steadily falling into disrepair.
After St. Stephen's Green, we walked back up Grafton Street to Trinity College. We decided against taking a formal, guided (money-costing) tour, but we did decide to see the Book of Kells. On display at the library at the college, the Book of Kells, and several other ancient texts, guide visitors through Ireland's written past and demonstrate how the Irish, through their writing, "saved civilization. It was quite fascinating but overpriced at 9 euro.
This page, from Folio 34r, shows the Chi Rho insignia (the "x" and "p"), which are the first two letters of the word "Christ," from the Greek.
After the Trinity College Library, the Tourist Information Centre was finally open. Here, we bought a good road map to guide the rest of our journey  and we bought a "Heritage Guide," that gave us discounts (usually "2 for the price of 1") on admissions to many sites around the country.
Next, we made our way west and walked through the courtyard and gardens at Dublin Castle--we opted not to take the tour because it is also pricey and all the tours were filled up for the next couple of hours. There was a lot to see without going in, though. For some reason, there were sand sculptures in the middle of courtyard. There is also a statue of lady justice that stands looking in toward the courtyard, at the main building of the castle. (Sidebar: Historically, the British used Dublin Castle for government business and there is an old saying referring to the positioning of the statue of justice: "There she stand, above her station, with her face to the palace and her arse to the nation.") Standing off to the side of the main building is a 13th century Norman tower.
              
Behind these lies the Dubhlinn Garden, the Carriage House, and the Chester Beatty Library. There is an interesting footpath winding through the middle of the gardens.
Next we took a self-guided tour of Christ Church Cathedral. Viking Dublin's first cathedral, built in 1030, CCC is full of history and beauty. Strongbow, leader of the Anglo-Normans who captured Dublin in 1170, is buried here. This is also the location of tombs of several other Dublin notables. The stained glass and wood-working are intricate, yet profound. My favorite site at CCC is the crypt. Located below the cathedral, the crypt dates back to the 11th century and has become a museum itself of ancient statues, pillars, monuments, relics, even some stocks and the original foundations of the cathedral (which you can view under glass). CCC was the first site we visited where we were able to use our "2 for the price of 1" admission discount and in doing so we recovered the cost of the discount booklet!
Leaving CCC, we continued west. We walked past the Guinness Storehouse, where you can also take a tour, learn the history of Guinness (which is celebrating its 250th anniversary this year) and sample its wares, but at 15 euros (about $22) a person, this tour was also too pricey for us.

We walked all the way to Kilmainham Gaol (pronounced jail), which, according to Google Maps, is 4.5 km (almost 3 miles) from Trinity College. I LOVED Kilmainham Gaol. It is such an important part of history in Ireland's fight to become a free and independent state.
It was here where 14 leaders of the Easter Uprising were held and executed in early May of 1916. One of these men, Joseph Plunkett, was married to his sweetheart, Grace Gifford (pictured below), in the gaol's chapel, hours before his execution. They were married around midnight, allowed about 10 minutes together as a married couple (supervised, of course), and then Grace was escorted to the front door and was assumed to have gone home but, as legend has it, she circled back and lingered around the front door, just on the other side of the wall from where Joseph was executed, in the wee hours of May 4th, 1916.
All but one of the revolutionaries were executed at the east end of the yard. James Connolly was executed at the west end of the yard, near the gate. He had been shot in the leg early on in the fighting and spend most of the uprising in hospital. However, the authorities still wanted to execute him. He was brought into the yard but could only make it into that corner and had to be tied to a chair for them to be able to shoot him. The public was in such an uproar after hearing of such inhumane actions that Connolly was the last leader of the Easter Uprising to be executed.
Another man who paved the way for "home rule" was Charles Stuart Parnell. Since he was such a well-known figure, he was afforded a much larger cell than the others and was also allowed many "creature comforts." Parnell was even allowed a 2 week furlough during his incarceration to attend his nephew's funeral in France. However, shortly after he was release, Parnell fell into disfavor with the public, owing to a scandal involving the fact that he had a mistress.
The cells at the gaol, measuring about 4 or 5 feet wide and about 8 or 10 feet long, were intended to hold one prisoner at a time; there are about 150 cells in all. The men in charge of the gaol routinely kept 2, 3, even 5 people at a time in these cells but in 1850, during the Irish famine, over 9,000 prisoners were held in the gaol over a 12-month period. People were committing crimes on purpose because they knew that they were guaranteed at least one meal a day while under incarceration.
The Victorian Wing of the gaol will look familiar to many. Its oval design allowed guards wide visibility and this feature of the gaol has been repeated in many other prisons and in many movies, as well. On of my favorite features of the gaol are the "one-way peepholes" used in the cells in the Victorian Wing. These peepholes are specifically designed so that guards could see in but prisoners could not see out, which lead to better behavior, since prisoners could never know when a guard was nearby, keeping watch.
       
After our tour of the gaol, we bussed back east and strolled again through Temple Bar. After finding a jacket for David in a second-hand store, we ate at Cafe Irie. We then headed to Oliver St. John Gogarty's Pub (also in Temple Bar), where we eagerly waited for the Traditional Irish Musical Pub Crawl to start (another Rick Steves recommendation).
Our hosts, Tricia and Mark, lead us through the history of Traditional Irish music (aka "trad") while we enjoyed drinks at Gogarty's, Ha'Penny Bridge Bar, and Branigan's by the Spire (which was actually quite close to our hostel). Over 2 and a half hours, we learned the difference between a jig (6/8 time, "butt-er-fly") and a reel (4/4 time, "cat-er-pill-er"), a fiddle and a violin (they're the same, depending on whom you ask), and we learned about the various instruments used in trad music. There are only 3 native Irish instruments: the Clàrsach (pronounced "clairshock"), the uilleann (pronounced "illin") pipes, and the bodhrán. The clarsach is the little harp you'll see on the Guinness logo. A real clarsach sits on the knee and has steel strings, rather than the larger harps you'll see with nylon strings. The uilleann pipes are somewhat reminiscent of the Scottish pipes (bagpipes), but differ in significant ways. I don't know how you'd play the uilleann pipes standing up because you have to attach a bellows under one arm that shuttle air into the "bladder" you hold under the other arms and you must also play keys with your fingers AND press clappers with the palm of your hand. They are lovely and nostalgic to listen to but incredibly difficult to play and therefore scarce. The bodhran is perhaps the most recognizable of the traditional Irish instruments. It is a round drum that can be held by crossbars in the back or simply held with your arm and hand. Players also often use a little stick, called a tipper, to tap out a cadence. Of course, guitars, banjos, tin flutes and whistles, fiddles and other instruments are quite common in trad music, but they are not native to Ireland.

We finally returned to Globetrotters around 10:30 pm, but we did buy a cd after the pub crawl, so that we can always take that trad music with us.

We arrived at Dublin International Airport shortly after 11 am (from our connection in Paris!!--I didn't realize how much I missed it!). We picked up our car and drove to our hostel on the outskirts of Dublin city centre. There must have been a soccer game because traffic was horrible and there were people walking all over in jerseys. Luckily, our hostel, Globetrotters, had a car park (parking garage) where we were able to leave our car the next couple of days; since we were right by downtown, we just walked everywhere.
Even though we only had half a day that first day, we still saw a lot.
First, we walked to the city centre via O'Connell street, Dublin's main thoroughfare, named for a nationalist leader of the early 19th century. In the middle of O'Connell street stands the Millennium Spire, the world's tallest sculpture (390 ft.), a monument to nothing (literally).
 
Also on O'Connell Street, just down from the Spire, stands the GPO (General Post Office). There are still bullet holes in the columns from the Easter Uprising in 1916.

O'Connell Street ends in O'Connell Bridge, which spans the River Liffey, running through Dublin's city centre. Continue south and you will run into Trinity College. We decided just to walk through it, rather than take the tour just yet. It's a beautiful campus.
After Trinity College, we took a self-guided tour of the Archaeology and History branch of the National Museum of Ireland. It was fascinating! The most interesting part, to me, was the peat bogs and how well they have preserved Ireland's history. For example, several bodies have been found, deposited long ago, sometimes in murder and sometimes in ritual sacrifice. Like I said--fascinating!
After the museum, we toured No. 29 (Lower Fitzwilliam Street), a Georgian-period house that has been preserved and turned into a museum. It was also quite interesting.
On our way back north, we walked through Merrion Square, the park containing a statue of Oscar Wilde. David posed with him. :)

Merrion Square was beautiful!!
We also walked through Temple Bar, which is the hippest place in Dublin, maybe all of Ireland! We tried to go to the Tourist Information Centre (which is housed in this cool, old church), but it had already closed, so we found dinner instead. We ate at O'Neill's Pub (just across the street from the Tourist Info Centre). This was one of the only nights I had traditional food; I ate a stew, with thick chunks of meat, potatoes and carrots. It was delicious and very filling.
After dinner, we walked back across the river on the Ha'Penny Footbridge and rounded out the day with some live, traditional Irish music at O'Shea's Pub.
G'night, FList!

P.S. There are tons more pictures on my Facebook page. :)

Okay, we're not actually in Ireland anymore, but we were there last week!

David and I took a wonderful trip to Ireland from Aug. 22nd-30th. We decided that we wanted one big trip, just the two of us, before we start having kids, especially since we've never done that. We discussed Italy, Japan, and Ireland. Since we decided at the beginning of the summer, it seemed too short of time to make such a big shift culturally and linguistically as Japan. Since the last week of August was when we could go, we decided against Italy, since it's hot during that time and that's when many of them are traveling, as well. So, we settled on Ireland and we're so glad we did! We rented a car while we were there so we could be freer to see everything we wanted to. We also got hold of a copy of a Rick Steves guide (from 2008), which was so helpful--we would have missed so many great attractions if we hadn't had it! I did miss getting a tee-shirt from the Hard Rock in Dublin, to go with the collection I already have (I thought about it too late), but we saw so many other great things that it was well worth it!

For now, I'll give a quick overview of where we went and what we saw each day and then I'll be putting in more detailed installments.
Aug. 22--All travel
Aug. 23 & 24: Dublin
Aug. 25: Dublin-->Cork (sight-seeing along the way)
Aug. 26: Cork-->Ring of Kerry-->Dingle (best day!!)
Aug. 27: Dingle Loop
Aug. 28: Dingle-->The Burren-->Galway
Aug. 29: Galway-->Connemara-->Valley of the Boyne-->Dublin
Aug. 30: Home!

Happy reading, FList! :)

David was surfing for something to watch at 10:30 at night in our hotel room in Powell, WY. He went around and didn't find anything, so he turned it over to me. The channel he left it on was CNN and it's my new fav because I'm watching "Black in America 2," which is really good, and now I'm looking forward to anything else Soledad O'Brien does, like "Black in America," "Reclaiming the Dream," and "Latino in America."

I also have had a great week in and around Cody and Yellowstone, with David and his family.
Firsts for me:
Attending the rodeo and a demolition derby:
Cody holds a rodeo every evening. I never had an interest in attending a rodeo, because of the mistreatment of animals and human bodies, which I still don't feel good about, but it wasn't just that. In fact, riding the "bucking broncos," came right at the end and there were only maybe half a dozen of them and there were no serious injuries. I also didn't like the roping a calf competition, but there were several other competitions, including a junior barrel run--the youngest competitor was 5! There was also an amazing rope trick demonstration by a world-renown rope trick artist who was all of 17.
The demolition derby was another thing I didn't really have an interest in, especially at the end of a long day and a long week and the last chance David and I would have to spend with his immediate family, but some of his extended family were there and it was also pretty fun. People (mostly guys) don helmets and climb into old, beat-up cars--through the window, because the doors have been welded shut. Then about 10 cars enter the ring (basically a mud pit) and drive around hitting each other until only one or two cars are still running. When drivers can no longer make their cars go, they pull a stick off of the outside of their cars to let the other drivers know they're out. Also, they usually drive in reverse, to protect the front end, since that's where the engine is. There are 3 or 4 heats and the 2 top winners from each heat get to spend the next hour or two fixing up their cars the best they can for the grand finale. The other cars get hauled out, usually by friends with big trucks, although there are a few actual tow trucks, as well. After the heats, there's a 15-minute break and then any of the losers whose cars are still running can come back to the ring for a grudge match. We had 18 cars--it was chaos! The grudge match lasted over an hour because one guy got pinned in his car and they had to extract him by cutting the top of his car of and using the jaws of life. They took him out on one of those back boards (?), but I think he'll be okay. Then, 6 smaller cars had a quick match; one kept catching fire under the hood so they made him stop. The final match went on quite a while because the last two cars just wouldn't die! Funnily enough, they were both the same kind of car and they just kept going! There was one more round after that, a powderpuff round where women drove the cars that were still running, but it was already 9:30 by that time and I was just done, so David and I wandered the fair grounds for a bit and found some food and returned to our hotel.
Another really fun thing I did this week was a trail ride on a horse, but we did do that last year. James took me, Jimmy, and Ben to Cedar Mtn (formerly Spirit Mtn) just outside of Cody towards Yellowstone. It was so much fun! It was a great trail, not too challening and there was a great view of the whole valley. Jimmy freaked out a bit at first (he's been acting kind of traumatized this week), but the guides were able to calm him down a bit; it helped that they let him wear a cowboy hat during the ride. Also, the guide who took us out--Julia, she was awesome--led his horse by a rope on the way up. He came down all by himself; at one point, it was so windy that he had to hold his hat with one hand and the reins with his other. It was lots of fun. Well, except for the part where James was in front of me, at least on the way up, and his horse had really bad gas!
(Maybe) more to come...must sleep now!!
:)

I never thought of Sylvester Stallone as an attractive man. I was wrong.

We're watching "Rocky" for the first time (well, for me, David, and Lesley, anyway). It's pretty good. I didn't realize Sly wrote the script. He looks a hell of a lot like Milo Ventimiglia ("Gilmore Girls," "Heroes"), very attractive this young--I can see why they chose Milo to play Rocky Jr. in the recent "Rocky Balboa".

Wow. Apollo Creed's entry is ridiculous.  Ri-dic-u-lous.

This fall I will be turning 30. Crazy, I know. I'm trying to think of something FABULOUS to do. Sure, inviting people over, providing some tasty treats, chatting and watching a fun movie is all well and good, but we always do that. I want to do something unique that will hold me over for the next ten years (but that won't break the bank, either). My brain is fried from 2 1/2 hours of reading (homework for grad school), so I need your help!
Thanks in advance.    :)
One caveat: I'd like for it to be something flexible enough for families with **young** children to participate.

It has been quite a day.
I changed the battery in the Metro (a task which required two 16-mile round-trip...trips to Lake City).
I saw one of my former seniors and her sisters perform in Snohomish, right on the river...it was beautiful.
I made cinnamon applesauce with honey and vanilla extract from scratch.
I attempted to make coffee cookies with butterscotch chips. They did not turn out so well. They taste okay, but the consistency is all messed up. The recipe didn't call for enough flour but when I added what looked like enough, it was too much. Oh, well. Maybe next time.
:)

 I just finished my procert portfolio--I'M SO JAZZED!!!!
50 hours of work is finally over. ROCK, ROCK ON!

This video clip from "Seinfeld" quite eloquently expresses how I feel...

WOOT! :)

Where does that saying come from? Do a lot of evil-doers actually have red hands?

Anyway, this will give all the educators out there a big giggle.

So, I'm trying to get my students' grades updated since they're due tomorrow and I'm reading this senior's revisions on his essay over "Othello" and I keep coming across phrases and words I can't imagine he would use on his own ("avenge," "lieutenancy," etc), so I do some cross-checking on Google. It takes me almost half an hour, but I finally track down the essay he's plagiarized from, from one of those websites like "1-2-3 Free Essays!.com" or something ridiculous like that.
It looks like this kid paid $30 to get out of having to write his own essay and he still got caught!
Justice is so sweet sometimes...although I do feel a little bad for this kid. Apparently he's had a pretty tough time lately, made some bad choices, but hopefully he can pull it together over the next 5 weeks...

One of my seniors totally gave me strep. So now I have strep. On my Spring Break.

Also also, God played the ultimate April Fool's Day on us: It snowed this morning--SNOWED!!

You are ....

Result: Dean

You are very protective of the things you love which can sometimes get you into trouble. You are always willing to help when someone is in need. You will fight for what you want but you also know when to let something or someone go.

Result For Which Gilmore Girls Character are you?

I collected almost 40 essays on Friday. I have graded zero of them. I should have graded them all. Instead, I decided to have a weekend.

Spring has (more or less) finally sprung in the great Northwest.


Friday night was (finally) Andy and Justin's birthday party. I bought them Snuggies. It was HILARIOUS!


I also got to eat sushi and Vietnamese and I got to spend time with my husband and with my friend, Allison and her cute, cute baby!!

Of course, now I'm watching House and loving it!

Cheers, FList.