Completion grades...

I've decided to give my students completion grades for their Treasure Island study guides. It's an act of self-preservation on my part. Normally I am all about accountability for quality work, but there are 25 days left in the year and I have a gazillion papers to grade and two, no three, new units to write, complete with handouts and tests.

Yep, 25 and counting.

My favorite book...

...when I was five.

And it WAS weird...

...to see Captain Phil again, knowing he isn't really here anymore.

I loved seeing the Jake and Jake switch. Cornelia Marie and Northwestern. Can't go wrong with that combination.

And I am SO over the Time Bandit and the Wizard. Never heard so much bleeping on one show in all my life.

Deadliest Catch...

I love watching TV shows about crab fishing in the Bering Sea. I know Alaskan King Crab bring in the bucks. They are HUGE. It's the fall season of crab fishing. Opilio (Opi) are smaller, spidery-looking crab, caught during the winter months when the fishermen have to break from dropping pots to knock ice off the boats so that they don't sink in rough seas. It's harsh. And I love it.

This year starts the sixth season of Deadliest Catch. I'm a Northwestern girl, but anyone who knows anything at all about these guys knows that this season all eyes are on the Cornelia Marie. The guy in the picture above is Phil Harris, captain of the Cornelia Marie. A couple of seasons ago, Captain Phil had a blood clot travel from his leg through his heart and land in his lung. By all accounts it should have killed him; few people survive a pulmonary embolism. But it didn't get Captain Phil that time. Throughout season 5 of the show, Captain Phil and his sons, Josh and Jake, struggled with his condition. He ended up back on the boat and actually did well.

But this year, things went very wrong again. During an offload at St. Paul, Captain Phil suffered a massive stroke. He ended up in a hospital in Anchorage, where he underwent intense surgery and stayed in a medically-induced coma for a few days. Then he started waking up. For several days he rallied. Everyone was hopeful. Then he took a turn for the worse, and on February 9, Captain Phil died. That makes me very, very sad.

It will be a strange season. No one knows right now the long-term fate of the Cornelia Marie. Jake is 24 and Josh is 26. They are awfully young to take over the family business. My prayers go out to them.

The me I never knew...

spokeo.com is a little bit of a scary place. They compile lots of personal information on folks using (as best as I can tell) public records and maybe a little Internet cookie-tracking.

I learned about this website on Facebook, and I've since had them delete me from their database.

However, before I did, I learned a lot about myself. For example, I am in my LATE 40's (not). I am Hispanic (not). I live in a $1M+ house (definitely not). I am a technology professional (not). And I do not particularly care about politics. (How did they totally miss my Drudge Report obsession?!)

Crazy place, that Internet.

Stuckey's - Ten Miles...

Yes, well, camera issues continue in our house. So here's a pic from my BlackBerry, which isn't uploading much.

We just spent a few days at our little home on the coast, opening it up after winter and waiting around for repairmen. :) The hot water heater is possibly possessed. When we got the new one, they installed the "Smart box" system that regulates how much hot water you actually get. While we were there, it decided we needed pretty close to none. Brrrr....

[I anticipate more of this nonsense as the government gets increasingly involved in our households. Can't blame it on the current administration, though. The hot water heater is about a year and a half old.]

We also waited around for the HVAC repairman. Slow leak in the copper line. One little bit of welding and charge of freon and a bill for $$$ later, and we weren't feeling quite so humid. What saved us on that one was that the pollen wasn't nearly as bad there as it has been at home. We were able to sleep with the windows open. It was nice.

I am excited about this summer. We hope to be at the beach more than we have before. Last year, of course, our condo was rented out from April through October.

[Recap about the condo rental... skip it if you know it: We loved CJ, our little tenant. She was supposed to stay a year, but she fell in love and moved out. We didn't have the heart to get ugly about her breaking the lease. We tried to find another long-term renter. Sweet CJ told us she had two different friends who were interested in it, but we waited a couple of months and didn't hear from either of them directly, so we decided we're taking as much time as we can this summer and hanging out down there ourselves. ]

After three years of having a vacation property and one year of having a rental property, we are back to having a vacation property again. And vacation is what we did in between repair calls.

We got to hang out on a huge sailing ship docked in Wilmington. Very cool. Also got to walk along the Wilmington waterfront at sunset. I got some great pictures. They are stuck on my BlackBerry. Feel free to ask me to show them to you if you see me. They are really cool, in all their 1" x 1" glory.

We took a long walk down the beach, all five of us. That was fun.

We slept late and read by the pool. We read on the balcony too.

We watched movies and TV and built fortresses out of Dominoes.

It was a pretty laid-back trip, for which I am exceedingly grateful.

On Monday we head back to school for the final stretch of the year. Thirty-five straight days with no breaks left. Finish strong, finish strong is what I'm hearing in my head. It's my prayer, as exactly what my job will be next year is still a mystery to me. I have to finish this year the only way I know how... as unto the Lord. Where I am weak, there He is strong. He's going to be REALLY strong in this home stretch.

Spring Break 2010!

It is Spring Break! Finally!

So here's the quick update:

1. The picture is old, but pretty... yes? I love the beach.

2. My USB cable for uploading pics is MIA. I have good new pics, but...sigh... they are stuck on the camera.

3. My job almost ate me alive again. Back down to 4-5 hours sleep a night for 3+ weeks straight... including weekends.

4. Due to #3, most everything else in the world went on hold, including laundry, cooking meals, cleaning house, and (sadly) family time. Our house is a very scary place right now. Eek.

5. I still love working with teenagers, but I've discovered I'm not really called or cut out for teaching middle schoolers all day long. There will be a post in a couple of weeks; I can't 'splain it more yet.

6. I simply adore my journalism class, from my teaching partner to our editors to each and every student in the class.

7. I simply adore my fifth period class... freshman English. I spent April 1st hiding my cart from them and their duct tape. :) Yet they are learning to write and "getting" the literature. I am proud of them. They make me smile.

8. Parenting a teen girl is WAY harder than I imagined. Her disappointments filter through my own memories. It's like a megaphone for emotion. I pray a lot.

9. As a result of doing Beth Moore's Stepping Up, I am finding that the best place for me to pray is on my face.

10. Jimmy decided shortly before the SuperBowl that we needed digital TV. Now no one can figure out how to work the remote. It's been nicely quiet in the house.

11. I am going to paint furniture like a crazy lady over this break. Kitchen table and chairs. Chairs that once belonged to my Granny. A bunch of picture frames.

12. Our pool looks like a biology experiment gone horribly wrong. Ick.

13. Working on getting taxes together. Yeah... we're a little behind where we usually are. See #3.

14. I am trying to figure out what Bible study to do over the summer: host study for teens, do study with my friends, go to whatever study they have a church... ???... I NEED a Bible study group this summer. I desperately miss the fellowship and depth of discussion.

15. Zack and I have watched specials on the lost city of Atlantis, the lost City of Gold, and the lost Ark of the Covenant this morning. The Ark special is sparking some pretty cool theological discussions with the eight-year-old. I love Jesus. He is doing awesome things!

16. We've gotta help Gramma get her garden space set up. Zane is her landscape maintenance specialist this year (mowing her lawn... ftw).

17. Oh goodness... I have Sweet Sixteen party to plan this summer. Yowza!

18. I like to vacation in two places: home and Carolina Beach. My world is small, and I am good with that. Unfortunately, the rest of the family doesn't feel the same.

19. Our summer hasn't even started and we have already maxed it out with camps and mission trips and sports. Sigh...

20. I am waiting for some news about next year. See #3.

And that is all for now. That's quite enough, don't you think?

Grace and peace, friends! And much, much love...