depeche mode coffee and wookies in the restroom?

I learned today that flies in missouri are caffeine addicts. how did i come to this epiphany, you might ask. well. i left an unfinished cup of coffee on the table and came back to it later. the one drawback of being in the country is that there are flies...it's like they all gravitated toward buffalo missouri, curious about the visitor from tx...they must've seen my car plates and registration on the way in...

so, i've been practicing my fly swatting skills-i knock 'em silly and then chaco plays with them until they stop moving. i'm pretty sure he swallowed one or two. but i digress...upon returning to my lukewarm coffee (which is still better than no coffee...), i felt a little chunk pass my lips and spit it back into the cup...it wasn't like grounds that had gotten past the filter, it had legs! so i went to the sink to dump it out, and there was another one! NASTY. it did make me think of the old depeche mode song: fly on the windscreen.

in the beginning, the flies kinda drove chaco crazy...he'd see them flying around and hear them, and get the anxious shivers as he started looking around in his all-vigilant-mode, ready to pounce. by the end, i'm pretty certain that he was actively seeking the flies out.

any time a car slowed down or pulled into the drive, they were at the window...thyey loved it.

i'm not complaining that it was raining...every day while i was in missouri, just stating the facts. yep, it was a wet one-which also made it cooler. when i left, it was 75 degreees, and by the time we'd travelled into oklahoma and just south of the clouds, it had rapidly reached 98. boo. then when we hit texas, it was triple diigits. no flies. i'm pretty sure they don't dig the heat....nor the traffic.

on the way home, i slowed down enough to get a pic of the local park restrooms.this particular one always catches my eye.

 so, here's the story. the first time i saw it i thought, 'hmm. f for female. m for male..what is the w for? wookies?' (pause) 'WAIT A MINUTE! m is for men, w is for women....f is for farmers...er...family' 

this morning i had to wake up earlier than i liked, but i did it. i had a conference for coaches. it was interesting. in the first session i went to, one of the traininers told us to turn to our neighbor and give them the finger...which if you had your back to her and weren't watching her, you might get the wrong idea. poor word choice. she was waving her pointer finger back and forth as if to say no,no,no. i wouldn't really call that giving someone the finger. (and she's not a foreigner or anything, no excuse for poor phrasing).

in another session, they laid out chart paper on our desks, and i may of may not have been doodling cartoon characters. as i was walking out, the trainer said, "i could've watched you all day!"

anyhoo, i definitely got a lot of valuable information from the conferences.

the phrase i am growing a little weary of is: let's put the right tools in our toolbox. i'm not a carpenter...not a plumber...not an electrician. i don't carry a toolbox (even though i own tools)...

so-i was up at my school preparing for the schoolyear today and this guy caught me off guard as i rounded the corner a little too quickly:

i'm guessing that marlon probably put him there as a joke...and to wax the floor.

and after about an hour and a half, i went into the bathroom, and noticed that my hair was pulling an alfalfa. (little rascals)


it's a good look. for norms from now on, instead of taming technology, more importantly will be taming hair.

all in a day.

but the best part of my day to this point has been the zucchini fries that i made! woah. side by side, i would eat these over potato chips or fries every time! and they are super easy! (shake and bake, parmesan cheese in a bag, sliced zucchini dipped in egg, 15 minutes at 450) yummers!

like i said, the best part of my day to this point...only because i did not get to come straight home for a nap! when we were in branson, bmayes suggested a foam topper from amazon for my mattress because i was telling her how uncomfortable i've been recently. so i ordered it while i was at my parents', and it came the day i got back from my vacation! all i could think of all day during my conference trainings was getting back to nap on that mattress!! i wasn't even tired, i just wanted to enjoy laying on it! i can't wait to go to sleep tonight!

on that note, i will be going to bed early tonight!
julie

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