Drinking on the job

So, it is in the news tonight that a substitute in Richardson went to lunch, had a couple of drinks and then showed up for work to sub. A teacher noticed that he was slurring his words and he was taken by the police and booked. He, of course, declares himself innocent. I, of course, think this is why teachers should never leave campus for lunch. Temptation is a dangerous thing. That's all I'm saying.

The book in all its glory

I've had a stupid headache for the last four days. I hardly slept last night because I kept waking up with a headache. Work continues on the real estate book. In the meantime, I thought I would share what the yearbook looks like. It is beautiful. Then I thought it would be nice to see the room chock full of boxes, and then more boxes, and then more boxes. The kids have done a great job of getting everything organized. The spring mags haven't arrived yet, but when they do, we'll stick one in every book. Happy, happy, joy, joy.

Save me from the hellion and her little companion

I now have a massive headache and another black eye. I was leaning down to pick something up, and Buddy was leaping to the sofa when we cracked skulls. So, my gift on mother's day is a shiner and a headache. Here, here to parent hood ; )

I headed out with the little monsters on our walk this morning when I realized it is the Swiss Avenue Mother's Day weekend tour. They behaved amazingly well. Of course, it helps that there were lots of people but, thankfully, few dogs.

I have been working on real estate pages today. (Yes, I know, big surprise there.) I'll go through the last of the spreads tomorrow and hopefully Kim can finish proofing. Then I'll print and send everything to Helen, the amazing, to final proof everything.

I still have a few more random spreads to work on, but I think I may actually pull this off. Singing Glory, glory Hallelujah.

Holy Cow Sink Hole?!

I'm watching the news, and there appears to be what can only be referred to as a big *ss sink hole outside of Houston. 900 feet wide and 250 feet deep. Thing is freaking huge. I tried to look it up online to see if there are any good explanations for how that happens, but I have to say there is nothing clear offered up. They pull out the oil and replace it with salt water? but what is the deal? What suddenly causes it to collapse. There are only about 1,000 people in the town, but they must be freaking.

29 days till Europe

And it is getting crazy around here. Came walking down the hallway and I see toilet paper coming out of the bathroom. Had to include a photo for your enjoyment. Buddy the little shit has a new trick. Actually the two dogs have an even better trick. I walk into the kitchen to discover that they have begun pulling up the linoleum. I might get really upset and say bad dogs but I have pulled up linoleum and there are three freaking layers . . . it's about time that they earned their keep.

In the meantime, Cat woke me up in the middle of the night recently chasing a squeaky toy. Only problem, as I'm popping up, I realize that Cat doesn't have a squeaky toy. He looks pretty shocked when I managed to get the lights on, he lifts a paw, and boom mouse runs out from under his paw. Hides behind the armoire. Doesn't come out all night. Totally freaked me out. Exterminator came out today. They can take care of the mice, but it requires someone else to take care of the squirrels that they are fairly certain I have. And let me tell you, turns out taking care of squirrels is really expensive. Crud.

Then the tree guy came by the house. I have a tree that has to come down, and another that needs to be trimmed. Sigh.

Oh, and work on the real estate book continues. Of course. Night after night.

The spring mag for the yearbook should be done tomorrow. We'll get it back in about a week. The yearbooks themselves should be arriving Friday afternoon. All 326 boxes of 2000 books. (They are so big only 6 fit in a box.) Should be lots of fun to unload the truck this year.

Tomorrow night is the big real estate annual event. So, that should be interesting. I'll try to be better about writing again. TaTaForNow

32 days till Europe

I say this because my life is now about finishing the book, the school year and then getting my butt to Europe.

Last week was TAKS which totally jacked with my week. On the upside we got the room organized and ready for the yearbooks to arrive. We got proofs on the spring mag, but Lord what a mess. Apparently the editors-in-chief have lost their edge cause there were lots and lots of mistakes.

In the meantime, I got the first five spreads done. (Ok, one is still waiting on Helen to proof, but it is practically done.)

I just sent the next 20 to be proofed. With any luck I'll get those back and turn them around this week while also getting another 20 done. (momentary pause to hyperventilate)

I got to talk to my friend Pam in Florida this weekend. She is pregnant with baby #2!! How much fun is that.

At any rate, I thought I'd take a quick moment before going back to work on the book. No rest for the weary.

Once again, to hell in a handbasket

I can't believe how long it has been since I last blogged, however, since things are falling apart and I'm alittle strung out and can't sleep, figured I'd catch everyone up.

My little tale of woe begins on Saturday afternoon. I was working on The Book. I was converting my finaled indesign spreads into pdfs. I had old pdfs that I decided I needed to delete. So, I grabbed them all and threw them into the trashcan. . . only I didn't throw the pdfs out, I threw the Indesign files out. Yup. I'm a dumbass.

As soon as I realized what I'd done, I opened up the trash. BUT because the files were so huge, the trash automatically deleted them.

I become mildly hysterical, call Chuck my very favorite techie and Shelly, who works in the building on technology. Chuck tells me to turn the computer off immediately and take it to school on Monday.

I then proceeded out to the back yard and worked on yard stuff. I thought I would sweat my misery out. While doing that I also broke/seriously damaged my right pinkie finger.

Monday morning Chuck starts working. He worked all day. We left the school at 9:30pm. He worked all day today - left at about 9:30pm. He finally gave up and we called a company in California. For a mere $3,000, they will resuscitate all of the files.

Of course, if they don't save anything then I pay nothing, but, of course, what I need is EVERYTHING.

In the meantime, in the morning I have to send an email to the book committee some how explaining that I'm a total dumbass and that all is not lost, I hope.

Deep sigh goes here.

Oh, and in the middle of this, I ain't sleepin'. Last night I had a hard time going to sleep, hard time staying asleep. Woke up at about 3am, had a horrible nightmare that a big fat cat KILLED Cat. I found him dead. I was so upset that I had to get up and find Cat to make sure he was ok. He was. But I didn't really go back to sleep. Misery.

It was also really hot in the house, and I didn't turn the air on last night. Probably won't turn it on tonight either because I'm even more poor than I was last night.

Will also comment on how much I love (most) of my neighbors. Both last night and tonight, Gene and Linda fed the dogs and Emily checked on Cat (who happened to be out of food.)

I am so stressed and miserable.

Oh, it is also THEME week. You know the week I force all of the sweet children to start working on themes for next year's yearbook. Means I have to actually be in front of the classes all day talking and harassing.

Oh, and the English class as always requires that.

OK, that sums up my life.