Catch Of The Day

Tis the season of the FISH FRY!  I'm not Catholic, but I LOVE a good fish fry.  So I always look forward to the Lent season!!  Last night, Laura and I hit up Holy Family's fish fry, which may be one of the best in the area in the church category.  They had all-you-can-eat Walleye for only 6 bucks!  Their batter is amazing and they have those awesome crinkle cut fries! I also saw on stltoday.com that they have a fish fry map this year!  I'm definitely going to have to check that out for some new finds.  

After the fish madness, Laura and I decided we'd hit up the St. Louis Art Museum for the Free Friday's.  I really wanted to see the special Ming Dynasty exhibit and you can't beat FREE!  The artifacts that they had in there were amazing.  Some of these bowls and outfits were from the 1300's and they were very well preserved.  If you have a chance you should definitely go and take a look - it's worth it! The jade carvings, wood lacquer carvings, paintings on silk - simply breathtaking!  Here's the link - http://saintlouis.art.museum/ming_dynasty/

Since we were in the area after the art museum, we decided to hit up The Cupcakery.  I'm a sucker for these huge cupcakes - they are delicious!  They had a bunch of new flavors that I'm anxious to try!  

After all the exciting art and cupcakes, Laura and I decided to rent a movie at her house.  We decided to watch W. starring Josh Brolin.  I sort of feel sorry for the real W. after this movie. They really portrayed him as a simple man who all the others could use as a puppet mouthpiece to further their agendas.  All in all, I liked the movie and it kept my attention for the most part. 

Next week starts ISAT testing at school - which means extra free time to catch up and get stuff done without kids!  YEAH!  This school year is flying by - they actually just e-mailed us a few calendar mock-ups for next year to vote on!  I guess we aren't going to a 4-day school week like some other places are doing.  I would have been okay with a 3-day weekend all the time!  

Here Kitty Kitty

Oh where to start...  how about at the beginning (of the work week?)

Monday was a lot of fun!  After yoga, Laura, Julie, Carla, Joyce, and I went over to a little place called Vito's in St. Louis for $5.00 pizza.  They thought it would be good to get some dinner before Carla, Julie, and Joyce had their physical test at the Fox Theatre to be ushers.  We thought wine was included in the $5.00, but their advertisement was tricky and the wine was only included before/after a Billikins game. SNEAKY!!!  Instead of sobbing over the no wine with our $5.00 pizza - we had gelato for dessert. Laura and I split the tiramisu (which tasted more like cinnamon), while Carla and Julie had some really good strawberry.  Also, we were right next to the place where Dave rehearses for chorus, so he came over to say hello. 

Tuesday, was FREE TACO DAY at Jack In The Box!  And boy did I get some free tacos.  Since I was in Edwardsville to get my computer worked on, I stopped at their two Jack In The Boxes to get my free tacos, then I headed home and my mom and I went to get her some free tacos for dinner too!  I LOVE those greasy little deep fried tacos! YUM!  Side note: What's up with Jack being hit by a bus?  Really?  Where are they going with this?

Well, that brings us to present day.  Our time study started at work and that mean a lot more computer work, fun fun!  Though on a brighter note, I got my computer back and I'm loving the upgraded Mac - Goodbye Tiger - HELLO LEOPARD! What a machine!  I'm looking forward to playing with it and loading the new programs that go with it!  

We also had agility tonight, but our trainer had a sub.  It's always different when she's not there, but we did much better than the last time she was out for the evening.  Scout is now nick-named "The Flyer" because he jumped off the end of the teeter before it even pivoted and kept running in the air until he hit the floor! He's crazy! 

It's so nice out tonight we decided to grill.  We are making the spinach and asiago sausage/grilled peppers and onions combo again because it was so good the last time.  This time however, we are making extra for some yummy leftovers.  Well the grill is beckoning - until next time!

And The Winner Is...

Slumdog Millionaire!!!  I loved that movie and I'm sooo glad it won Best Picture!  The new Oscars format was neat and I really enjoyed it.  Now for my super fast recap of the night:  Highlight of the Oscars - Kate Winslet finally winning.  Lowlight of the night - trying to figure out what the heck happened to Sophia Loren.  Also, I would like to thank Laura, Brad, Dave, and J.J. for coming over and trying to beat me at the Oscar ballot game, (that's 2 years in a row - better luck next year!) Oh and next year remember you can "research" ahead of time guys! :) My other favorite part of the evening was when J.J. showed us this: 

How great is this old add!  It's too funny!

Today we also had our last Winter Fun League agility event.  I do have to say we've come A LONG WAY since 3 weeks ago! Roxie and Scout both weaved AND did the teeter-totter today!  Hooray!  We ended on a good note and look forward to taking our new skills to class on Wed!  

After fun league we went to the Wonder Bread store and every time I'm in there I'm so amazed at all the stuff you can get for like under $10.00!  I walked in with my Mom to get my free loaf of bread (I had a coupon!) and ended up walking out with the free loaf, and 2 packs of bagels.  I had to stop myself before I took hostage a carton of those yummy, yet a little too firm, chocolate donettes.  Of course since I got bagels, now I needed special cream cheese - I don't like just plain cream cheese (too plain!).   So off we go to Panera aka St. Louis Bread Company to get honey walnut for my Mom and sun-dried tomato basil for me.  They told me they never sell enough of the sun-dried tomato basil to keep it in a big tub, so I had to get 4 individual 2 oz servings.  With that, I have to put my math rationing skills to use to make sure I get the right amount out of the little cup so I don't have to open another one.  So much work!  Math + Bagels = Delicious?  

Special Edition

Something really funny happened today at work - 3 different kids pronounced 3 different games in a new and exciting way and I thought I'd share them with you in a special edition of

Kid 1 - "Let's play the monkeynuts game!"  He's pointing to this game - 

Kid 2 - "Can we play OON?"  He's pointing to this game - 

Kid 3 - "Hey do you want to play Toe-po-lee?" He's grabbing this game - 

I love when kids have their own names for games - it keeps the job fun and interesting!  Have you heard of any "new and interesting" names for games?  Let me know! 

Splish Splash I Was Taking A Bath...

The last time I took my dogs to the groomers, Scout refused to get into the bath.  Well, he's going to have to go back in a few months when the weather gets warmer to get shaved and I thought we should practice getting in the bath tub here.  I've sorta done a sneaky thing and call the bath tub an obstacle like in agility.  So when I tell them "over" he just jumps right in now (along with Roxie).  From the looks of that picture you'd never think he hates baths!  Maybe this will calm him down a bit the next time we visit the groomers.  I feel bad for the lady who has to bathe him, I'm sure he's a handful! 

We also had agility class tonight, which went really well!  Roxie tried to teeter again,  but wasn't as fearless as on Sunday, so we'll take it slow.  Scout is a weave machine - he's sooo fast!   I also looked into herding for Scout, so that maybe one of our next adventures.  Can you picture it - me, Scout, and sheep?!??!  Anyway.... enough about the pups for tonight. 

The Oscars are coming up on Sunday - are you going to watch? have some favorites?  Take my Oscar poll and let's see if we can predict the big winner!  I always like trying to predict the winners - some years are better than others, especially if I've seen some of the nominated movies.  This year I did get to see Benjamin Button, Doubt, and Slumdog Millionaire.  All of them were really good - though I think Slumdog Millionaire was my favorite out of those three.  If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it!

So, I've been pondering writing the Garmin company about my GPS and it's map.  It gets me most anywhere about 99% of the time correctly, though the one place it constantly gets wrong is my place of work.  Yes, I know how to get to my job without my machine, but sometimes it's just on and I think it's fun to play with so I let it drive me places!!  It always tells me my school is on the wrong side of the street and about 1 block up... HMMMM!!!  I'm not sure what the process of telling Garmin about this would be, but it's bugging me enough that I might just do something about it - I'll keep you posted! 

We went over to my friend Laura's house for lunch (as usual on Wed) and she was kind enough to share her Valentine's Day Edible Arrangement with me and the others.  Those things are so darn cute and yummy!  Tomorrow is Subway day for speech lunch!!  Ohhhh and the 5 dollar any sub is back!!!!  Sweet onion chicken teryaki here I come!  

Happy President's Day!

I'm excited it's President's Day - to a teacher that means one thing - NO SCHOOL!!!  I'm enjoying the 3-day weekend.  I just got done grilling some asiago spinach sausages along with some peppers and onions.  What a great meal that was and it was really nice to be outside for a bit.  

President's Day weekend marks Roxie's 2-year anniversary of coming to live with me from the MO-KAN BC rescue.  I can't believe I've had her for 2 years already!  Since it's her "adoption day" I'm going to brag on her a bit.  Yesterday at winter league Roxie did the unbelievable - she teeter-tottered all by herself!!!!  The teeter is something we've been working on but with lots of assistance.  I don't think Roxie really realized what she had done (I think she thought she was just climbing the dog walk) and it was too late when the teeter decided to totter and down she went. Although it didn't seem to phase her at all, but I was totally shocked and had to take a moment to comprehend what had just happened!   Now, I must brag on Scout - he did all 12 weave poles with no gates and no wires yesterday!   We are having a lot of fun in winter league and it's not all about the dogs - the gossip is fun too! 

My orchid has decided to finally to sprout a new branch - so hopefully that will mean a new bloom by spring/summer!  I was worried once I cut it down last year I didn't do it right and it would never bloom again, but apparently something went right.  I also found out you can use Miracle Grow African Violet food that is 7-7-7 and just double the amount to make it 14-14-14 for orchid food.  

I must start cleaning for the termite inspector's annual lookie-loo.  Terminix is coming on next Monday and I know them if they even find a cobweb they will try to sell me some bug plan that I can't afford and don't really need!  

Busy Bee

So the last few days have pretty much been non-stop, and I'm excited just to sit at home tonight and have some time to breathe!  Monday evening I went and helped out at SIUE with a friend's class with her Experiencing Aphasia night.  It was a big shocker to all her students who walked in expecting to get a lecture.  Instead they have "aphasia" and have to go to speech therapy all night.  It's a pretty eye-opening experience for those students. 

Last night I got some free passes from the school's tech guy, Patrick, that he got from another tech guy to go see Friday the 13th remake.  I've never seen the original movie, but I thought this was a pretty good movie for a horror flick.  Too bad we had to drive over to St. Louis for the free passes, but they never have screener passes in Illinois.  Laura and I plan on going to see another screener on Thursday called I Love You Man after the special ed. dept BBQ gathering at Bandanas.  That should be pretty funny and I love that Paul Rudd and Jason Segal from How I Met Your Mother (that's one of those CBS shows you should be watching!) 

I've also decided to venture out and become a survey taker online for a little extra cash.  Quick cash it is not, but maybe someday I'll get enough for a little pay off!  Besides what else am I doing in my free time!?!?!  

I'm going to post a few of my favorite pictures of Scout & Roxie that Patti took at Sunday's Winter Fun League.  All and all I'm glad we've signed up - it's not a total disaster and I am learning some stuff about agility!  

Cheddar Bay Birthday Biscuits

Today is my Dad's birthday and of course the original plan to go to the Dreamland Palace (German food) for dinner gets switch-a-roo'd, so we ended up going to lunch at Red Lobster! Well, I took some cold medicine earlier on in the morning thinking my parents would call before then came to pick me up, but NOPE!  I had fallen back asleep for hours then Laura had called me about 2 minutes before I heard that "ding-dong" at the door and realized what time it was as my stomach sank and I knew I was in trouble!!!  After 10 minutes zooming around the house and trying to explain why I fell back asleep, I was ready and off we went to the Red Lobster or RL as my friend Melissa calls it (she used to work there).  I LOVE those little greasy, garlicy, balls of dough they call their cheddar bay biscuits.  Anyway, after much debate, we all ended up getting the same thing - The Admiral's Feast - which is basically any kind of seafood they can dip batter on and fry up, slapped on a platter with one of those salty potatoes. So after all is said an done, I'm stuffed like a flounder.  

Last night I finally got some new phones for the house - 5 to be exact.  I had been having issues with my old V-Tech's and it was time to do some research and get a new system.  My old set was a 5.8GHz and had lasted five years, so I thought it was ok to upgrade to the DECT 6.0 digital technology.  I only had 2 phones in the old V-Tech system.  I wanted at least 4 in the new one, but no one has the 4 set, but they have a 5-set bundle.  You'll come to find out, I'm an impulsive buyer and I can reason myself thru any purchase, so I now have a 5-phone bundled answering system.  Here a phone, there a phone, everywhere a phone-phone!! I really do like them though, so I guess it was worth it. 

Tomorrow is my first winter dog league event for agility.  I'm really excited and really nervous about it.  This will be the 1st time I "show" my dogs and don't really get make-up chances to fix faults on the course.  We'll see how we do, and that will sort of determine if I sign up for the April agility show which I was aiming for.  We still need to work on a few things, and this will be good for us! 

I have a lot of TV watching to catch up on, ER, Friday Night Lights, last week's SNL.  So, I think I'll do that instead of chopping up the rest of the snow outside.  I'll let it melt a little more and maybe I won't have to do it at all!  

Taxes, Nuggets, and ABC

First off, let me extend thank-you to my friend Patti for giving me the Celine Dion concert tickets that I went to last night!  It was an awesome concert and I had no idea how much I really liked Celine's songs until I found myself clapping and singing along with all the crazies.  

Tonight I believe it's time to do those dreaded taxes.  I am thinking I should get at least a little something back from the good old government.  I also want to look into e-file, I think my refund will be quicker that way.  So while I sit here eating my Tyson chicken nuggets (that are way too salty for some reason) I shall get started on the taxes.  Thank goodness for the DVR though because all the good shows on ABC (Ugly Betty, Grey's Anatomy, and Private Practice) are on tonight AND it's the big Grey's Anatomy/Private Practice cross over episode "we've all been waiting for." 

Oh I'm bringing you a very special Kidz Korner today.  I went thru a lot of work to get this on here, so I hope you get a kick out of it.   

This is one of my speech kids that wanted to sing us a song in therapy!  

TWINKLE, TWINKLE LITTLE STAR (click title for link)

02.03.09

Ok, so I thought I'd try out this blogging thing finally before it goes out of style!  Before I begin, I must give a blog-out (ok yeah that's cheesy) to my friend Brad - it's his b-day today!  Happy Birthday Bradfordly!  I'm going to dedicate a section of each blog (if needed) to a funny happening at school or thought pondering kids actions and I'm calling it Kidz Korner - look for it later on in today's edition! Also, look for pic, videos, and other exciting things on my new blog! 

I have to gush a little about how exciting it was to see Legally Blonde and meet some of the cast last Friday!  I felt like a 5-year-old kid at a candy store!  I seriously need to get to New York some day sooner than later! I also want to say thank you to Laura, Dave, Brad, and JJ for waiting around 2 hours in the freezing cold to stage door.  You guys are amazing friends! Not only was Friday awesome, but Saturday was Brad's Faux B-day event!  I had a blast and I hope everyone else did too.  We took an awesome tour of Busch Stadium (I'll post the pics at the end) and did a murder mystery dinner at night.  Note to others:  If one was planning a trip to the St. Louis Wax Museum on Lacledes Landing this winter - think again. On the window, a tiny index card "closed for the winter" was taped, even though the website says they are open.  I think economic hard times have hit at the wax museum - sad, but true.  

Tomorrow is agility class with the dogs, hopefully we'll make progress on the teeter-totter! Maybe I'll get my "paprika" sweatshirt for winter league tomorrow night too!  It's also Celine Dion make-up concert night - about time!   

Also, for anyone not watching The Big Bang Theory on CBS on Monday's at 7:00 - give it a try - I think it may be one of THE funniest shows on television lately. 

Alright, that's all for now!  Oh don't think I forgot about the Kidz Korner it's right below! 

I believe kids pick out games that they don't actually know how to play on purpose just to mess with you and slowly drive you crazy.  

Here are the Busch Stadium pics!