Category Archives: the coffeepot’s on

>Perhaps I should bake this weekend.

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>From the wellness coordinator at my place of employment (my comments are in italics):

1. If you eat a Christmas Cookie, fresh out of the oven, it has no calories because everyone knows that the first cookie is the test and thus calorie free. (Of course. If the baker can’t eat it, who can? Must test.)
2. If you drink a diet soda after eating your second cookie, it also has no calories because the diet soda cancels out the cookie calories. (But what about coffee?)
3. If a friend comes over while you are making your Christmas Cookies and needs to sample, you must sample with your friend. Because your friend’s first cookie is calories free, rule #1, yours is also. It would be rude to let your friend sample alone and being the friend that you are that makes your cookie calorie free. (Oh, heavens, I must be a good friend while baking.)
4. Any cookie calories consumed while walking around will fall to your feet and eventually fall off as you move. This is due to gravity and the density of the caloric mass. (Gravity does enough bad things to my body; this may balance it out. No pun intended.)
5. Any calories consumed during the frosting of the Christmas Cookies will be used up because it takes many calories to lick excess frosting from a knife without cutting your tongue. (Huh? I frost with a small rubber spatula.)
6. Cookies colored red or green have very few calories. Red ones have 3 and Green ones have 5 – one calorie for each letter. Make more red ones! (If they’re plain, does that mean they have five calories or none?)
7. If you eat cookies while watching “Miracle on 34th Street” these also have no calories because they are part of the entertainment package and not part of one’s personal fuel. (I prefer Charlie Brown Christmas. Does that count?)
8. As always, cookie pieces contain no calories because the process of breaking causes calorie leakage. (I thought it was called calorie evaporation. Well, if it works, great. Call it what you will.)
9. Any cookies consumed from someone else’s plate has no calories since the calories rightfully belong to the other person and will cling to their plate. (Have you honestly seen cookies left on another person’s plate? If so, you need a new recipe.) And finally…
10. Any cookies consumed while feeling stressed has no calories because cookies used for medicinal purposes NEVER have calories. It’s a rule! (Does this work for the accompanying beverages as well? I sense a double peppermint mocha on the horizon.)

Disclaimer – This is your humorous stress relief for today and cookies really do have calories!!(Oh, darn it, she would have to add this! Do not eat the rocker. Do not eat the rocker.) Happy Baking!

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>"live" blogging my morning routine

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>This started as an effort to chronicle my day, but real life took over. Here’s as far as I got.

5:30, alarm goes off
5:35, feed rabbit, shower
5:55, showered and dressed, finish setting up breakfast
6:05, back exercises in den
6:15, wonder why Amigo isn’t downstairs yet
6:17, Amigo comes downstairs.
6:20, breakfast, brush teeth
6:25, clear table
6:30, shoes on, coat on, go outside
6:35, wave goodbye to Amigo as he gets on his school bus
6: 38, pick up bags and get in minivan
6:45, return Amigo’s books on tape to the public library
6:50, Jo to Go for 16 oz. hazelnut, no cream or sugar (the usual)
6:57 arrive at school
7:00- 7:15, deal with emails
7:15-7:40, stand at copier and make copies (Is this really a good use of my time?)
7:35, touch base with principal regarding student behavior concern, basically talk at her while she hurriedly took off her coat and ran off down the hall for a meeting
7:45, back at desk, trying to release pettiness of yesterday and focus on today
7:55, in library finding videos for social studies. Checkout computer isn’t on yet, specialist and aide not in yet, left stack for checkout
8:05, reheated remainder of coffee
8:15, posted daily schedule
8:21, welcomed kids into building!

And at this point, I was too busy to list events for blogging the rest of the day. But it was a good kind of busy, the kind of busy that means being involved in teaching and learning and feeling like the day was moving along well. I even managed to get my gradebook nearly up to date.
Teaching is one of those fields where the work is never done. I can feel content when I’ve accomplished most of what is on my to-do list and still managed to teach all day. Today, I think I did that.
And now, the weekend. After this week? TGIF!!

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>Hey, that’s my line!

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>I got up this morning at 5:30 (grudgingly), fed Buttercup the rabbit, took my shower, dressed, did my back exercises, and then on my way back to the kitchen noticed (ominous music) drops of blood on the floor.I checked to make sure I wasn’t bleeding (I was sleepy enough that I felt I couldn’t assume anything), wiped up the spots, checked the bunny (looked fine), and went back into the bathroom. I noticed a bloody napkin or Kleenex in the wastebasket.
Hmmm…did I mention that Husband got home after 3 AM from his weekend train show?Meanwhile, Amigo got up (late), ate, brushed his teeth, put on shoes, and waddled out to the bus stop just in time.
I got in the minivan (still with modular HO scale layout in the back), and headed for my blood test appt. Yes, I was doing all of this after fasting overnight. Hungry, wanted coffee. On my way to the test clinic, I got stopped by a train — at the slowest intersection in town. After the train, the other light turned green first, so I had to wait again. Bleh. Somehow, I made it to the middle school for my appoinment by 6:50. The nurse couldn’t hear my blood pressure, so she presumed it must not be too high. I’ll just have to guess at the numbers.

Got to school, text-messaged Husband RU OK? Checked my mail, got coffee, found the credit union’s free calendar for 2008 in my box. Its theme? Never a Dull Moment. Hey, where’s the camera? They know me too, too well.

Update: husband is tired, but fine. He wasn’t bleeding. Now we’re wondering — what was in those red spots on the floor? Ketchup? Fruit juice? Tropicana fruit punch flavored soda? Modeling paint? The drops were still partly liquid when I found them, just drying around the edges. It’s a mystery. Never a dull moment, indeed.

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>Sing it with me: It’s a small world after all —

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>Blogging has expanded my worlds, er, world in ways I never expected. I started blogging as inexpensive therapy. As I surfed through other blogs, I developed networks of acquaintances and (dare I say it?) new friends. One of the great things about blogging and reading blogs is the networking. I’ve discovered so many people with whom I share so much.
Other parents of teens.
Other parents of college kids.
Working moms with many different experiences.
Parents of children with autism and Asperger’s. (Too many to link!)
Other teachers.
Other gardeners.
Other coffee lovers.
Other Green Bay Packer fans (Okay, maybe not, but I know they’re out there!)
Other women of my age (and not) with the same sense of humor. (Again, too many to link, snicker)

I took a leap, despite my relatively low readership, and added BlogHer ads. This network has the added advantage of seeing links to other enjoyable blog posts and discovering more favorites.
Well, a few days ago, I got an email from a favorite local coffee drive-through kiosk. Upon seeing my post mentioning their lovely beverages, they offered me a sweatshirt for the positive word-of-mouth PR. Word of keyboard? Well, customer relations. I will wear it with pride! My coffee-fiend friends will be jealous.
Today I received more good news. My blog blast post about our LoveSac Rocker and its wonderfully funny warning tag won honorable mention from the Parent Bloggers Network. Fun! Now I like the rocker even more.

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>Are you sneaking snacks from your child’s Halloween candy?

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>

Halloween Candy Quiz
(courtesy of the Wellness Coordinator at my place of employment)

Which of the mini version is lowest in calories & fat — Milky Way, 3 Musketeers or Snickers?

Answer: 3 Musketeers has 24 cal. & less than 1 g. of fat/mini, Milky Way has 38 cal. & 1.6g of fat/mini & Snickers has 42.5 cal. & 2.25g of fat/mini.

Which has fewer calories — 2 Twix Fun Size or 1 Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup?

Answer: 2 Twix Fun Size has 80 cal./cookie, so 2 Twix bars have 160 cal. One little Peanut Butter Cup has 180 cal. – 11g. total fat; 3.5g.. saturated fat!

Which is highest in calories & saturated fat — Mounds, Almond Joy or 2 packs of Fun-size M&Ms?

Answer: Almond Joy & Mounds tie for highest calories at 200cal. each. The 2 packs of Fun-size M&Ms has 180 cal. Mounds and Almond Joy also tie for highest in sat. fat with 8g/serving which is more fattening than a Quarter Pounder at 7g. of sat. fat. Who knew! The 2 packs of M&Ms also has 8g. total fat with 5of those grams being sat. fat.

Which has more calories 5 mini Kit-Kats or 35 pieces of Candy Corn?

Answer: 35 pieces of Candy Corn have 12 more calories than 5 mini Kit-Kat bars. One Candy Corn = 6.36 calories each. But the Kit-Kats have 8g of sat. fat/serving.

Which has more calories — 20 peanut M&Ms or 7 Hershey Kisses?

Answer: Each Hershey Kiss has 22 calories each, so 7 kisses add up to 155 total calories. 20 Peanut M&Ms has 220 calories. However, the peanut M&Ms have a little more nutritional value with 4g of protein and less sat. fat.

And then she adds this disclaimer: “Remember that one occasional mini candy is always an okay treat. Occasionally is the key!”

All I know is that they all taste better with a cup of good coffee on the side.

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>The license plate game: it’s not what you think.

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>Ah, road trips. It’s amazing how much you can glean from a few license plates. It’s not the child’s ABC game or List the States game, either.

I got on the road early this morning, drove through Jo to Go (she knew my order again — must be going there too often), and hit the highway for my training workshop in Mad City. As I moved from the main highway to the smaller, two-lane road, I noticed I was not alone. What the heck were all these cars doing on this not-so-major byway at 6:30 on a Saturday morning?
The answer: the car ahead of me had a UW-Madison license plate. Ah-ha! Badger game kicks off at 11:00 a.m. This line of traffic is headed for Camp Randall. Parking is limited, and of course, they needed to allow time for tailgate parties.
I arrived at my destination. On the way into the parking lot, I noticed several personalized plates. HARP 1. TUBA 1. ISING 4U. DRUM LDY. MUSCPWR. And these, a little more challenging to decipher: BZASAB* and ROA ROE*. If I hadn’t known I was going to the School Music Association building, the cars around it would have clued me in.
It was a great workshop, both informative and validating. When we were in discussions and I heard an expert make the same comment that was in my head, I felt reassured that I really, really do know what I’m doing. When I learned statistics that show how many students participated in the types of festivals that I judged last year, I knew my work was and continued to be important. For example: 250,000 students nationwide play football. 219,000 students participated in music festivals in my state: that’s statewide, not national. And the best part? None of these student musicians sat on the bench. Every one was an active participant.
So if I moaned a little when my alarm went off early, if I doubted my wisdom in spending the day on the road, now I know it was worthwhile.
And that’s OKBYME.

The two more challenging plates? BZASAB = Busy as a bee ROA ROE = Row, row, as in Row, row, row your Boat, Gently down the stream…

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>Busy Day in Busytown

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>Didn’t sleep well — restless dreams.
Up just before 7:00.
Realized we’d missed garbage pickup.
Helped husband pack up rabbit so he could drop her at the vet.
Showered
Had breakfast (oatmeal) with Amigo
Ran dishwasher
Took Amigo to doctor for his teenage acne
Complimented Amigo on his grown-up attitude toward three (yes, 3) vaccinations. Ouch!
Came home, made coffee
Vacuumed den and love seat, bunny’s favorite places
Welcomed plumber into the house to fix toilet
Made lunch for me and for Amigo
Paid plumber
Packed up a bag to keep Amigo busy and happy during PT appt
Went to PT (Physical Therapy), stretched, stretched, and more stretched
Left PT to pick up rabbit
Brought rabbit home
Found snacks for Amigo and rabbit

Now I only need to:
empty dishwasher
make supper
serve supper
clean up supper
go to pharmacy to pick up Amigo’s new meds (see morning appointment)
Watch Baseball! Woo-hoo!!
Go to bed. Sleep.

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>If you can read this, well, you can read between the lines.

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>I could tell it had been a long, busy week at school. All the signs were there.

On Friday:
I pulled into the Jo to Go drive-thru at 6:45 a.m. and the barista knew what I wanted (16 oz. hazelnut, black, keep the change).
I pulled into the school parking lot and realized I’d gotten my coffee, but forgotten my ID (smart card for building entry) and room key.
I reached for my coffee and realized that my ID was sitting on the dashboard of the car from the night before.
More teachers were in jeans and casual, comfortable clothing than I’ve ever seen in this building. Even the principal was in a (stylish) workout suit.

Can you tell it was parent-teacher conference week? Busy, productive, and exhausting. I’m ready for a nap.
And I still have one more night of conferences to go.
Thank goodness for the long weekend coming up.

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>shoulds, once again, are bogus

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>Should: Appointments, especially early morning appointments, should never be cancelled.
Reality: The phone rang at 6:25 a.m. to cancel my 7:00 physical therapy appointment
End result: I had a morning off (half a sick day) that I didn’t need.

Should: I should have cancelled the sick day. It was early enough in the morning, and I didn’t need the time off any more.
Reality: I had brought home a bag full of work to do after the appointment.
End result: I stayed home anyway. I waded through four piles of papers, cleaned the kitchen, and blogged.

Should: Cancelled appointments should be rescheduled easily and conveniently.
Reality: I’m a teacher, people. My work schedule is NOT flexible! And I have parent-teacher conferences next week in the evenings, so I’m not free after school, either!
End result: I took an afternoon appointment on a day between conferences. I’ll blow another half sick day. Bleh.

Shoulds: I should drink less coffee.
Reality: I like my coffee.
End result: After the appointment was cancelled and I put Amigo on his school bus, I made a pot of Sumatran and started in to work on my school papers. Math tests, vocabulary sheets, penmanship, and more, met with my green pen while the Early Show played softly in the background.

Ah,well, I’ll be ready for conferences next week. I’ll be rested and relaxed (and caffeinated) this afternoon, too. No crabby teaching in Social Studies. Nuh-uh.

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>Compost is Something Good, or I’m the Honored Guest!

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>Lorna from Something Good and The Freelance Parent asked me to write a guest post on compost. It’s up here.

To see more day-to-day compost adventures, you can look to these earlier posts.

When neighbors’ fences attack
Compost can be beautiful!
Husband’s role in the process (besides eating the produce)
Oh, the compost, it happens.

Meanwhile, I’m going to make a cup of coffee. I know where the grounds will go.

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