Monthly Archives: March 2008

>No-Good Very Bad Days can happen to anyone.

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>Clues that my day wasn’t exactly stellar:

  • Getting out of the driveway was a major challenge (even for me!) because of the sheer size of the snowbanks.
  • I ran a yellow light rather than stop at the Longest Light in Town on the way to buy coffee from Jo to Go. Don’t tell the liaison officer from my school. She thinks I’m a law abiding teacher-citizen.
  • I touched base with five different staff members en route to the lounge to put my lunch in the fridge. At that point, I realized I was no longer holding my coffee.
  • The secretary (she was a bright point in my day!) made an all-call announcement that there was a cup from Jo to Go sitting behind her desk rapidly cooling. Mine!! My hazelnut!!
  • My students came in this morning with a major chip on their collective shoulders, making my work much harder and forcing me to be much meaner. Contrary to popular belief, “mean” is not good teaching.
  • Two computers in the lab were not turned off properly last night, leaving my youngsters to cope and wait. I can troubleshoot, but I can’t speed up the network. Fourth graders do not wait well.
  • Cardboard keyboard covers kept falling apart. I’ve asked and asked for replacements, but I haven’t gotten an answer — not even a definite no. I ran out of tape for repairs in the lab, and I’m doggone tired of fixing them every. single. lesson.
  • Four kids didn’t have their reading homework done, and that’s an improvement over yesterday’s seven. !!!
  • Instead of bringing a concern to the boss as a team, each team member ended up going in separately, therefore making the issue seem much less important.
  • Even though I needed to work at my desk over lunch, I needed the break more. I went to the lounge to vent a little and relax a lot.
  • Several students had put the chips back on their shoulders when they came back from lunch (see above). Not good.
  • I had to threaten detention to get one student to stop clowning around as he blew his nose. You don’t want the details: trust me.
  • A meeting was announced that I wasn’t certain included me, so I turned up just in case. Yes, it included me, but I didn’t have paper and pencil to take notes, so I’m sure I appeared clueless.
  • The coffee I bought at 6:45 and rescued from the school office at 7:30 was still 1/4 full and totally cold when the dismissal bell rang.
  • I drank it anyway.

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>Random pictures and the answer to yesterday’s trivia

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Goal –> to keep my mind off staff meeting this afternoon, which could have been worse, but also left a kind of bad taste in my mouth

Goal –> to avoid repeating what others have already said about Favre, and add my own perspective

I wore my Favre Celebrity Softball Game t-shirt to school today. I posted yesterday’s newspaper with its headlines and photos outside my classroom door along with two rather trivial Favre posters. The posters attracted a lot, and I mean a lot or attention from students. One was the Milk Moustache ad from right after Super Bowl XXXI. He looked like such a kid! No gray, no grin wrinkles, all clean-shaven, big grin. The other poster was an ad for Wisconsin’s champion cheeses. Favre is sitting surrounded by big wheels of various cheeses and flashing that big “I can’t believe they pay me to do this” grin. The students kept asking if the autograph on the poster was authentic. No, it isn’t. It was mass-produced along with the advertisement.

Both posters were discussion-starters, though. It was fun talking with kids who have been alive less time than Brett has been playing football. Oh, my goodness, that sounds scary! But it’s true. There is a whole generation of fans — no, two generations of fans! — who remember only one quarterback on the Packers.

So just for fun, here are a few you won’t see on ESPN.

–warming up before a game on a sunny day

— staying warm during a game on a very snowy day

–and the answers to yesterday’s question. If the picture is too small to read, the numbers retired by the Green Bay Packers are 3, Tony Canadeo; 14, Don Hutson; 15, Bart Starr; 66, Ray Nitschke. Not pictured here: 92, Reggie White. Soon to be added: 4, Brett Favre.

photo credits all go to Husband, who had the opportunity to photograph some memorable moments while working weekends 🙂

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>Forgive me while I ramble on a green and gold theme

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>Yes, the news came out today. It’s official.
We knew he couldn’t play 4-ever, but we hoped. We cheered “One more year!” one more time, and hoped he heard us. Fans all over wore the green and gold and sported their #4 jerseys. They’ll wear those forever. It’ll be a classic jersey, since there’s not a chance in the NFL that another Green Bay Packer will ever wear number four again. It’ll be up there with 15 and 66 and only a few more. For ten trivial points — can you name the two players I just identified by number? For bonus points, can you name the other GB Packer players whose numbers have been retired?
My husband emailed me this morning as it unfolded. Apparently one of the big networks broke the news, but it hadn’t been independently confirmed yet. Minutes later, after a phone call to the team’s PR department, his station also aired the story.
I announced it to my class shortly after receiving the email. Many of my little darlings are also fans, and they were shocked and surprised. Consider that they’ve never known Green Bay with another quarterback; Ironman Favre was always, always, there.
He livened up the game with his gunslinger attitude and his dramatic play. He made mistakes, but he more than made up for them. For a southern guy, he sure played well in the cold. I’ll never forget the time he blocked on a running play and got called for a personal foul: unnecessary roughness. A quarterback? Only Favre.
He faced major personal tragedies while in the public eye, and handled them with class. Hurricane Katrina destroyed his childhood home. His wife developed breast cancer. His father died the night before a major game on national television. He battled addiction to a prescription painkiller. He faced fair-weather fans who said he was washed up, too old to play well.
Through it all he continued to inspire fans and foes alike. Anyone who couldn’t laugh when he instigated a snowball fight on the sidelines had to be a bah-humbug or a Seahawks fan. But when he came running out of the tunnel, the crowd roared.
I have many memories, including watching him lead the team to victory in Super Bowl XXXI, being in the same (large) room with him when he appeared on Larry McCarren’s Locker Room show, and rejoicing in his many records established and re-established.
What can I say? Good luck, Brett Favre, the Packers won’t be the same without you. And neither will Wisconsin. Thanks for everything — and mostly, thanks for the memories.

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>Seven Reasons I Wouldn’t Survive Survivor

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>I’ve been tagged! Dorit at Pieces of Me tagged me for the Seven Random Facts meme. The last time I shared seven random facts about me, I shared Green Bay Packer playoff tidbits. This time, I’ll share seven random facts on another rather random theme.

Husband is a big fan of the show Survivor. I’ve watched it with him occasionally, but I rarely get attached to the players the way he does. Early on, I knew I wouldn’t be a good player in this game. So in answer to the latest tag for seven random things, I offer seven reasons why I wouldn’t be a good contestant on the show Survivor.

7. I don’t have a tattoo. It certainly seems like everyone on the show, and I do mean everyone, has a tattoo of some sort, somewhere. Motherly stretch marks don’t count.

6. I’d probably insult the others inadvertently. When I watched the early shows, Australia especially, I kept wondering why these people were so uninformed. They were completely unable to forage food for their tribes. I kept wanting to say, “Haven’t you people read My Side of the Mountain? Or Hatchet? Or any wilderness survival stories? Do you read, period?!

5. I’ve never, ever been good at group sports. I’d fail the physical challenges, and my tribe would say, “Out!”

4. Hearing aids like mine don’t work well in warm, damp climates. If they do Survivor UP (Michigan’s Upper Peninsula), I’m ready!

3. I don’t look good in a bikini. That’s not a put-down or negative self-talk; it’s simply true.

2. I’m a peacemaker, not a backstabber. I couldn’t handle the suspicion and the alliances that lead to tribal council. I’m much more likely to be a go-between, a mediator. Can’t you see it? “Daisy, you’ve ruined the intrigue! Everyone gets along now! They’re not willing to vote each other out of the tribe!”

1. And last, but not least, I’ve never seen them making coffee. For me, doing without coffee for 36 days would be the true test of Survival.

Here are the rules…
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Tagging seven is the hard part. I read soooo many blogs, and I’ve tagged most of them already or they’ve tagged me. I’ll leave this one open: if you’d like to be tagged, go for it! Drop a comment here telling us where we can read your post.

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>Swag in a lunch bag

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>One thing that keeps me judging music festivals is this: festival managers treat their adjudicators (judges) like gold. They provide coffee, snacks, water, and more. Even when I’ve had a rough week at my regular teaching job, when I judge I feel like my time and my expertise is valued. This weekend was unusual even by those standards. At my most recent festival, there was a gift bag donated by one of our local music stores. Advertising aside (I’m already a faithful customer!), it outdid anything I’ve ever seen. In fact, it was almost overboard.

Here’s the basic inventory.
insulated lunch bag sporting name of music store
glass candy dish sporting store logo
tiny chocolate bars to fill dish (see above)
water bottle displaying logo and motto for store
week at-a-glance calendar with logo on cover
faux leather CD case, also with logo embossed on cover
several pencils and a ballpoint pen (suitably identifying their sponsor)
small notepad with logo watermark
folder boldly proclaiming store’s name, featuring young musicians enjoying their craft

I can’t complain about advertising when it’s on free and usable supplies. Most of the above will go to school with me or find a use at home (the chocolate? ahem). I must admit, though, even though I laughed out loud at the huge batch of goodies, it sure was nice to know they appreciated my work.

Photo from my new cell phone. Please excuse the blurriness; I’m still learning the ins and outs of the new phone and its camera.

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