can you peel a tuna? absolutely...and you can have mango on a stick

today was another day in avid paradise...(joke. ing.) it did go smoothly though. i sometimes tend to be cautiously skeptical about new ideas, unless they seem practical to me and i feel that i can implement them without too high a degree of difficulty. today certain pieces of the puzzle began to come together and make a lot of sense. in fact, i wish i'd learned a lot of this stuff that we're learning to teach before i got to high school. basically learning how to take notes and be organized-

we went out for lunch and had delicious hamburgers at...hunkys? anyhoo-it was really good and i am still full! then we stopped at a little fruit store where i got to finally see and try a tuna-not the kind of tuna you might be thinking either. it's a fruit from a cactus. one of my students once wrote a story about going hiking with her family in mexico and seeing a red tuna on a cactus and eating it...i was incredibly confused and i had to get clarification from her and even after she told me what it was, i still thought she must be mistaken about the name. i should've gotten a picture of them, but instead, i got this pic of the carved mango.

eventually we finished our segment and left for the afternoon-dart rail, here i come again! almost uneventful ride home..until we got to love field. then there were stops at almost every light. the lady conductor came on the intercom and let us know that the inconvenience  was due to the storm last night...something about something getting struck by lightning (?) she had a thick accent, so we weren't sure what she was talking about, but she felt the need to come on at almost every stop to thank us for understanding (but we really didn't understand). and about that time, a young man began to make his way toward the front and had a goofy grin on his face. i'm pretty sure from his actions and demeanor that he had some sort of learning disability. but after he made his way up front to look out and see what was going on, he sat diagonally behind me next to a gal 1 seat back, so i was privy to the entire conversation. it was really cute. the guy had no inhibitions. first he asked the girl if the seat was taken (she was the typical rider who was enjoying a little space now that the train was thinning out and she was engrossed in her book). after taking the seat, he proceeded to ask what she was reading, she answered and continued reading,and he didn't pick up on some of the nonverbal cues, so he then told her his name was eric and asked her name. he let her know that he was 21, and then he told her she was beautiful. how precious is that? unfortunately this is where i had to get off for my stop because i would've enjoyed hearing more.

when i got to my car, i was reminded of an old depeche mode song-see if you can guess which one:

hint-that's the window of my car, and that is a fly-type insect

if you guessed 'flies on the windscreen,' YOU ARE CORRECT! pat yourself on the back, but don't throw out your shoulder! you cannot see it from this view, but about an inch to the right, there was another tiny gnat-like insect dead by the fly..hot day. so i just pretended they were resting and once my car got up to speed, the 'flew' away of their own accord.

and when i finally got home, chaco was so ready to play, so i let him out of his kennel and threw his squeaky toy, which got caught in the kennel after a few throws, and he was a little distressed about the whole situation.

can't you just hear the gears working in his head as he tries to figure out how to remedy this situation?

chaco is currently in the other room just squeaking his toy. over...and over...and over. strategic extraction may be in order.

blessings,
julie

my guard plays with a squeaky toy over and over and over

so today i decided to try to leave chaco out of his kennel and see if he did any better and it was so good to see both little faces at the window-here's what their view is:

the best part was that i didn't hear chaco barking all the way up the stairs (when he's kenneled he does because he can tell bruno's excited, and he just wants to be part of it all). the worst part was that he took to the carpet again. i guess he's not ready to be out.

bruno is the ever faithful, ever loyal eldest dog. he heard the neighbor's door, and bolted to the door barking. good boy. chaco on the other hand had been trying to get me to throw his squeaky toy, and when he heard and saw bruno bolt, he looked at the door, looked at the squeaky toy, looked at the door...and was torn between the two. about a split second later, he did the right thing and protected me. (as much as a 3 pound dog can protect).

we found his squeaky toy while i was vacuuming. since we found it, he has been squeaking it incessantly. and he just doesn't get tired of it. and like bruno used to, he doesn't get tired of the fetch game. he's very insistent. it reminds me of something i read by g.k. chesterton, which stuck with me:

“A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, ‘Do it again’; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, ‘Do it again’ to the sun; and every evening, ‘Do it again’ to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we. The repetition in Nature may not be a mere recurrence; it may be a theatrical encore.” From Orthodoxy chapter The Ethics of Elfland.

 this morning, i stopped at walmart before school because i needed me some diet coke -that means i had to get up early. i also looked for a skin-colored bra and camisole; of course they didn't have my skin color-pasty white, so i opted for biscotti...go figure they'd name it after food! when i got up to the cash register, the cashier looked at the camisole and said, "oh! i just got one of those!" and proceeded to show me the camisole she had on. well, it wasn't skin color for her either as she was much darker. just smile and say have a good day.

and on the way home i had to stop at dollar general for fabric softener. oh and perhaps some berry colossal crunch because it said try me, and there was a purple kangaroo...plus it's a resealable bag, hellloooo.

love love captain crunch! i'm sure i'll love his cousin!

pretty sure that's all i got! oh, i forgot something at school which i was going to include-guess it'll just have to wait until tomorrow!

have a berry colossally wonderful evening!
julie

bruno, it couln't have been professor plum-he's not on csi

i have become such a 'non-fan' of special reports on the news. i mean, seriously! last night i was in the middle of a show when they cut in to talk for approximately 30 minutes about the fact that the president was going to tell us that bin laden is dead. ok...why do you need 30 minutes to tell us what he's going to tell us in 5? ruining the moment..that's like the blabbermouth friend that steals your thunder by telling everyone that you got engaged or that you're having a baby before you get a chance. and really? must we hash it out from every person's point of view? this ambassador, that terrorism correspondent, a white house correspondent...housewife correspondent...butcher...baker...candlestick maker...i didn't really even need to keep watching to find out what the president was going to say. and now to add to that, i have no idea who killed the lady on the fake show and if i really want to know, i'll have to watch it on the internet! (bruno said it was Professor Plum in the conservatory with the rope-which makes sense because he likes purple, he is a reagan conservative, and he calls his leash a rope...)

he's a patriot...and he said that the whole bin laden thing reminds him a little of the ancient undercover combat forces...ehud ridding the israelites of the reign of eglon, the moab king in judges 3. he would make that comparison.

and then afterward, i don't think more people could have commented about the whole ordeal...may i make a comparison with one of my favorite movies? yes, the wizard of oz, thank you. first the proclamation by glinda, how great that dorothy had killed the wicked witch...(of course killing a terrorist wasn't an accident like a house falling), but courageous dorothy killed her none-the-less.. and then of course the munchkins couldn't stop singing, "ding dong the witch is dead, the witch is dead!"(which is what all the fb comments reminded me of) but then, if you remember the wicked witch of the west came along and was much worse and more feared than the one who was killed. hopefully such is not the case here--that's where the similarities end really...(hopefully because i don't want to fall into a deep sleep in a poppy field with an incredible emerald city just out of reach!)

chaco is getting restless. he's squeaking his toy and getting closer and dropping it, squeaking it again, dropping it on my arm, squeaking it again and climbing even further up my arm to leave it where i can see and hear it better...incredible.

pretty sure he might've just said if i don't play with him he's going to start making guttural noises and get a crazy look in his eyes...because he just did.

it was raining when i drove to work this morning, and as i was driving, the tire pressure light was on, so i stopped at the station to get air..in the rain. but i didn't have my tire gauge with me and it was still low when i got back into the car...but i filled the tire it was telling me to fill, and now it's reading that the rear left tire has too much and the right front has too little...i think it might be a dyslexic computer. so i need to take my tire gauge out and check it manually. you just can't trust these computers!

this morning i walked into school and a little boy asked if i had a good rain. he's the younger brother of one of my students (i think) and i'm pretty sure translated he meant: did i enjoy the storm last night, but in my head i was thinking, 'hmm...did i have a good reign? i am the queen of my own little world, so yes, it has been a good reign, but it's not over..is this little boy suggesting that it is? he's using past tense...perhaps i should set up protection around the perimeter!'

ok, bin laden's dead, now let that be a lesson to you: don't be a terrorist.
julie