flying dreams and the burning spoon

today has been a reading day- got through book one of my trilogy! (did i mention that i need to finish it before thanksgiving so that i can pass it on to mom? we share similar literary taste).

strangely my dream from last night had nothing to do really with anything t.v. or reading. i had a very cool flying suit, but it was not super powerful-it wasn't a machine, it was the suit itself, and it depended on the currents of the wind. and i only used it because the traffic was so bad on the way out of town. not sure exactly where i was going, but i went off toward an exit. i remember it was a country road that curved around in a  big u and i saw ms. santiago's house and went past about 1/2 a mile and there was blanca's house. only i didn't know it was her house. i only wanted to stop and see it because there was snow in the yard and Christmas trees and snowmen...and it was the middle of fall and still warm out. so when i slowed and touched down, i realized that the snow was fake and that's when blanca and the kids were coming out the back door. we chatted and she explained that her daughter was super creative and thought it would be a great yard decoration. after a bit, i flew off again.

i stopped in yesterday and picked up a little easy reading to start on when i need a break from the trilogy....now i just need to go to the meeting and find a time to set up to take the gre..woo.hoo.

barron's, i'm in your hands, teach me, oh guide.

well, my apartment smells like burnt rubber. as we were sitting here (me typing and casting a glance toward murder she wrote-there is a cozy happiness in my heart because it is a murder she wrote marathon weekend and i have it recording to slowly go through them when i'm not reading or studying or grading....so hopefully i'll get to it by Christmas!), and chaco stuck his head out from under the throw and started sniffing pretty vigorously. so i got up to try to see what he was smelling. i opened the sliding door to see if perhaps someone else was cooking something, but that wasn't it. when i went into the kitchen, i got closer to the dishwasher, which i had just run and that's where it was coming from. i opened it up and the stench of burnt rubber invaded the rest of the apartment and chaco went to hid in my room.

see the hole in it? i guess that makes it a 'sprainer'...spoon/strainer

 i'm so glad he has such a sensitive nose! it makes me feel a bit more secure-he is especially sensitive with burning smells, hot oil, etc.

i almost forgot, yesterday when i went to target, i noticed that the cashier had a raccoon tail attached to his keys.

i know, not super clear, but trying to be discreet.

it reminded me a little of the raccoons we had around here, but we haven't had any incidents in several months! remember, the ones that look like midgets? perhaps young buck has one of our raccoons in his pocket, although that tail looks too small to be one of our raccoons- looks more like a cat tail.

well, still smells like burnt stuff around here, off to clear the air!
julie

the cat must've told the raccoon to do it

i couldn't get into blogspot to post yesterday-it was in a read-only mode. which was probably good because i had so much work to do last night! yesterday after school in my story-writing class, one of the girls very seriously informed me that there are talking cats in mexico and they have red eyes (must be the tequila). i let her know that there is no such thing, and it made me wonder, should i expose these truths to them, or let them keep believing in fairytales and myths? at what age do you tell them to stop being gullible?

and today i was reading through some expository books my kids wrote; it's the first time they've done much research, exploration. in fact, it was not on purpose that i read the page i read-it fell while i was binding them! and it was about a raccoon. hmm..interesting. did you know that raccoons can ruin things? like your house and your computer. maybe that's my problem. those raccoons that the neighbor was talking about (the ones that are the size of midgets-her words not mine) they've somehow managed to get in and ruin my computers (the boys must have been fighting in my room while all of that was going on!)

i'm thinking i might need to go around the complex and see if i can find the maintenance guys pulling carpet from an apt and snip a few pieces off of the discarded roll to try to do an patch job. it bothers me more and more; i wonder if i can get them to spring for a new flooring; i've been here a long time. too long.

oh, by the way did you catch the fact that it's friday afternoon and i came home and bound 40 plus books for my class?

strangely i really enjoy binding books...that's actually gigi's binding machine in the background-she's allowed me to use it because we do books.

i do love binding, i don't know why. that's why i try to get my kiddos to do so many books! i might even get bruno and chaco to make one. i'm guessing chaco will write about the time he saw the raccoon sneak in and he pretended not to see the pest and instead distracted bruno in the bedroom by fighting over a chew toy while the raccoon put a spell on my computer and ruined it.

alright, it's 'bound' to be a great weekend! one of my dear friends is getting married tomorrow!

jules

smells like salchichas

last call for saturday school...going once...gone!
just in the nick of time too, because it's starting to get warm and someone walked in this morning smelling like b.o. or salchichas, i'm not quite sure which, and i wasn't about to try to differentiate with my senses!

i'm certain that the kids were really sad that today was the last day; i think i saw a tear in one of the girl's eyes. but alas, i do believe that was merely because i stepped on her toe while jumping up and down doing fist pumps shouting, "WE'RE DONE!! WE'RE DONE!!" ok, none of that really happened. and even if there had been tears, i might not have noticed for the stifled tears of joy falling in my own mind!

when i got home, the boys were waiting. they said they were going to have a surprise party for me later on. i explained to them that since they told me, it would not be a surprise. they got mad at me for correcting them and said, "fine then, just for that, we're not going to have one! you think you're so much smarter than us!"

a little later, there was chaco, just laying on the floor. whatever could he want?

so we went for a walk and at one point, we came across a man who had his chihuahua and a border collie out by the pond off leash. the chihuahua went when he called him, but the other came running up and as the man chased behind he said, "he's harmless." and under his breath, bruno said,"oh yeah? well then maybe he needs to be harmless on his leash, dummy!" the man looked at me and asked, "what did you say?"  i turned around and gave him the ol' switcheroo..."i said, i think there's an armless leach on his tummy..." then i turned and gave bruno the look. he just grinned.

and then we went to the fenced in dog park and they ran around a bit. while we were out there, we met susan. she lives right there next to the park. she has a boxer, and they came out while i was trying to get bruno and chaco to use the agility equipment. chaco is pretty good on the seesaw. bruno knows how to go just far enough to get the treat and get off. but of course, when anyone is watching, they get distracted. susan proceded to let me know that her boxer likes little dogs. you mean likes them with ketchup and mustard like? anyhoo, she told me that last night she came home and there was a raccoon the size of a midget small person on its hind legs (not a small person on it's hind legs, the raccoon was on its hind legs) and she was scared of it, but it finally scampered away and got in a fight with a rat or something in the back. which confirms the suspicions i had. it wasn't my neighbor ripping my garbage bag open like a wild animal, it was probably a raccoon. good to know. i don't know which would be more disturbing to open my door to...

while we were on our walk, i could smell the honeysuckle and it was amazing!!

the first time i ever smelled this beautiful treat of a flower was around graduation time from college of the ozarks, when my dear friend laura showed them to me-what a fragrant, fresh flower! for the longest time, i merely thought it was a plant that grew oversees somewhere.

 i thawed some fish because i was thinking about having a healthy dinner, but i got a flier on my door today from people who deliver from bennigans. and there you have it, i knew it was a sign. i am a sucker for a monte cristo sandwich. therefore i looked up recipes and found what i was looking for, looked back at the flier and burst into song, "anything you can do, i can do better...i can do anything better than you..." of course i didn't have anything i needed, so i had to go to the walmart neighborhood grocery to get the necessities. so i am excited to get the fry daddy out and see how they turn out! i don't mind stinkin' a little bit (i'll shower tomorrow morning!)...as long as i don't smell like that kid this morning, it'll be all good.

what restaurant food do you crave enough that you have to satisfy the craving?

blessings!
julie