Ode to a fish

Shimmery scales and flashing fins, Flairing gills is how it begins. Little face, frowning and mean, Beady blue eyes, bright and clean. Flowing fins, long and lovely, This little guy's far above me. His personality's good, but he's demanding. Watching him move is more than enchanting. Darting here, swimming there, He moves about without a care. Sociable too, he's stole my heart. He took it at the very start. He's my little fishie, my betta-man, He makes me smile when no one else can.

*sigh*

My scaly friend has passed on. He (she?) came into my life on the first day of school (or maybe a few weeks later) of my first teaching job two years ago. That's a long-lived zebra-striped danio, if you ask me. I had noticed lately that he had been getting smaller, less striped, and rather see through. So it's not really a great surprise to find her supine over a bit of gravel at the bottom of the plastic tank.

I haven't unplugged the bubbles yet.

WADDLE, WADDLE

This one's for Anica!

����������� WADDLE, WADDLE������� the penguins fanlisting

can you tell I hate cleaning?

Split personality?

Hmm... apparently they can't make up their minds, or I suffer from MPD...




Take the "Which Friend are you?" Quiz!
by DramaQueenDucky

... or not!

Could you be any more like Chandler Bing? You are
sarcastic and scared of commitment!

cleaning...

I'm Monica Gellar-Bing from Friends!

Take the Friends Quiz here.

created by stomps.

my bank account needs an iv

Hobbes came back home today. He is eating a little on his own now, said Dr. Anderson, but I may still have to force feed him if he eats less than a can a day. I also have to give him two pills, one twice a day, the other in the mornings only. I hope that he will soon be on the mend, because the keeping him healthy will soon make my bank account deathly ill! Still, it's nice to have confidence in one's vet. How do I know I can have faith in this one? Well, for starters, in wanting to encourage Hobbes to eat on his own, he shared is salmon lunch with him! That, to me, means he cares for the pets that people bring in.

Still, this weekend of pet healthcare so far has cost me almost twice what I paid for the poop coloured Volvo. But I like the cat better: it, at least, purrs properly!

I now have no choice but to clean my room: Hobbes needs to be in a stress-free environment, especially at meal times and when I am not home. The way things stand, my room would definitely not qualify... the constant risk of burial in an avalanche of clothes would not be restful for the most docile of cats!

ugh.

Oh. and the other (still fat) cat has puked all over my already shabby rug. not carpet. rug. it doesn't deserve to be called a carpet anymore.

ugh.

Pro-D tomorrow... no kids!

yay.

Diggin my way deeper into China

Well, I took Hobbes to the vet's this afternoon. For the past few days, he's been slow at eating his food, and I've had to chase Coby away from his bowl. Two days ago, he really had to be coaxed into finishing his serving, and since yesterday he's refused to eat at all.

The vet said he's lost almost half his weight (8.56kg down to 4.67kg) since June, when he had a digestion/urinary tract problem that has since required a special brand of cat food. He is concerned about possible liver disease, easily treatable in cats, but evident by such symptoms as jaundice, dehydration, weight loss, and lethargy. Usually comes on when cat's have not eaten in a few days. So I have a very sick kitty who is spending the night in the vet hospital, on IV, and I hope he'll be better after one night only, or my bank account will be on it's deathbed... estimated cost for diagnostic exams, tests, nursing and hospital stay: $600-$700!!! And if he needs a longer stay, I can add about $65/day!

So I guess I've got time to become fond of the poop coloured Volvo... looks like I'll be driving it awhile longer yet.

*sigh*

Where is my sugar daddy?

International Talk-Like-A-Pirate Day!

You are The Cap'n!

Some men are born great, some achieve greatness and some slit the throats of any man that stands between them and the mantle of power. You never met a man you couldn't eviscerate. Not that mindless violence is the only avenue open to you - but why take an avenue when you have complete freeway access? You are the definitive Man of Action. You are James Bond in a blousy shirt and drawstring-fly pants. Your swash was buckled long ago and you have never been so sure of anything in your life as in your ability to bend everyone to your will. You will call anyone out and cut off their head if they show any sign of taking you on or backing down. You cannot be saddled with tedious underlings, but if one of your lieutenants shows an overly developed sense of ambition he may find more suitable accommodations in Davy Jones' locker. That is, of course, IF you notice him. You tend to be self absorbed - a weakness that may keep you from seeing enemies where they are and imagining them where they are not.

What's Yer Inner Pirate?
brought to you by The Official Talk Like A Pirate Web Site. Arrrrr!

My blogging idol wrote about a crazy dream she had, and that reminds me that I had a dream last night that was marking... Actually, it's not until about an hour after getting up that the thought occured to me that the whole thing was a dream, and had not in fact happened!

I found out last night that a friend of mine (married 7 years) is pregnant (yay her!). In my dream, I received an email saying that she and her husband were killed in a car accident. Then I received another email explaining that in fact it was her husband and her sister's husband who were in the car, so the two sisters were now widows, and my friend just pregnant. I rushed to her house, where she cried on my shoulder (was my pillow damp this morning?)... I think then the dream kind of petered out or faded... but when I woke up this morning, I was so convinced that it was real, and that it was in fact old news. I only registered surprise when I realised that the only real part was that she is pregnant... no one crashed, no one died, no one cried!

I think in a way the realistic dreams are the scariest, because we don't seem to even clue in that we were dreaming. On some occasions it took days for the fact to hit that an event I "remembered" was only a dream!

So now, when I relate news, I always try to check in my crazy head whether it's all true, first!

The beast is awakening!

After two successive weekends tinkering in the [poop coloured] Volvo with my neighbor (well, truthfully, he did most of the tinkering - I was the tool gopher!), it is finally starting to sound a little better. Last Sunday we replaced the aquarium tube with a real fuel line (I am dead serious!! Gasoline eats through normal plastic. Eventually, had this happened, a fuel leak on a hot engine would have caused my car to spontaneously combust!). Greg checked and cleaned the spark plugs, as well as the rotor and distributor cap, to make sure that the engine does misfire. (See how much I am learning? Greg promises to turn me into a mechanic yet!)

Then we (well, he) tried to adjust the timing so that it would idle properly... that took most of the afternoon, cuz the stupid car doesn't want to do what the manual says it should! First of all we coudn't see the notch in the pulley to get the strobe light set. When we found what looked/felt like a notch, we saw that while the car should, according to the manual, idle at 10 or so, but we had to set it at 8, by ear (we didn't entirely trust the notch!), because it was idling way to high on the tachometer (instument that measures your rpm). When we realised that changing the rear break light could have been done in 10 minutes instead of 40 had we done it in daylight, we called it quits.

That was last weekend.

Today we changed the spark plugs, rotor, and distributor cap, replaced the burned out headlights (two of them - and I did it all by myself, having had practice on the Audi, and in the dark at that!), checked the wires going from the distributor to the spark plugs to make sure their resistance is what it should be, got a new coil (like transformer to increase oomph from a standard 12V battery), retimed the engine once we found the real notch in the pulley, added ATF (Automatic Transmission Fluid) into the power steering (who knows why, but that's what they ask for!) as well as in the carburator (one so old it needs oil!).

The car sounds quieter, runs smoother, starts nicer (new distributor cap means no chance of moisture in electrical lines leading to spark plugs). It still likes to kachunk-kachunk when the engine is cold, but not as long, and not as hard... probably a carburator problem, but it costs too much to get it rebuilt, even buying a kit.

Having eliminated the potential explosions (I hope), and all electrical reasons for slowness, for sluggishness, for sheer cussed gutlessness, we figure the next thing to replace is the fuel pump, since the fuel filter should be filled with fuel, and isn't. That means that the carburator is being starved, and hence the engine has little power, especially at low rpm. So when I get a new fuel pump, we can readjust the fuel mixture and see if that solves the kachunk-kachunking, or whether it is a carb problem too.

Did I loose you? I think I lost myself! But this way, perhaps I won't forget what I learned?

Hmmm... 5 days since the last post, and I do admit, it was a lame one. Ten months of no time, no life, no energy, no social life, no daylight or sunshine (until the days get longer again)...

But, chances are I will not have a 4/5 past tomorrow, it looks like we'll be able to reoganize and swing a straight 4 and a straight 5.... So next week, if all goes well, I will be a grade 5 teacher! I am glad because it means I will not have three big problem children plus two chatty ones all together. I am glad because it means sticking to a single curriculum and grade level. I am glad because most of the grade 5's in my class so far are very nice children (most, not all, but still... most is pretty good!). I am glad because the other grade 5 teachers (they job share) are very nice and seem very willing to share ideas and units.

But I will miss many of these grade 4's, and it seems they are very sad to be leaving my class. Many of them (and their parents) have been telling me how much they have enjoyed being in my class even for only two weeks. And they are consoling themselves with the fact that if I take the grade 5 class, that means I will have their children as students next year!

It is an amazing complement to get such praise so soon. Last year the same thing happened, and I kept waiting for the parents to really get to know me and for all that good feeling to evaporate as reality set in. But the year came and went, and - other than a few small wrinkles now and then - I ended up leaving behind a devoted fan club! Not only did they rally up to try and get me to stay on there (I was laid off, rehired, and then bumped), but they helped me pack and move all my stuff to the new school, kept in touch over the summer, and so publicised their praise of me to their friends that the PAC chair (Parent Advisory Council) of the school where I am this year told me that her son cried when he found out he was not going to have the "cool teacher from Tennyson"!!

Well, I only hope I can live up to the legend these people have created... might turn out to be even harder than to live down a bad rep!

Will you look at that? Now it works!

Yay!

Hmmmmm... funny, I can get the BlogThis! window to pop up, but when I try to access my or anyone else's blog, all I get is "This page cannot be displayed!" So even if I can get this posted, no one will be able to read it!

Well that just sucks now, doesn't it?

6:00 am - alarm rings
6:10 am - alarm rings
6:20 am - alarm rings
6:30 am - alarm rings
6:40 am - phone rings..... I am up! I am up!
7:00 am - should be at Lesley's to pick her up for work... actually painting my eyes open with makeup, since they will not stay open on their own
7:10 am - still not gone
7:20 am - almost out the door
7:40 am - Lesley is still smiling, even though I am late!
8:00 am - here we are at school... less than an hour before the stampede begins!
8:50 am - here they come! here they come!
9:50 am - the longest hour at school is now over. I am brain dead already!
10:15 am - staff meeting... nap time!

I spent the rest of the day - literally - at school planning and looking for books and stuff... I am in a brand new class, with nothing but furniture and air. Tomorrow I will have to wing the math lesson, because there are no math textbooks for the grade fours (and the books for the grade fives are pretty dog eared)

8:00 pm - finally got home (told you it was the whole day)
9:00 pm - brain death is not helping me write that letter to parents
11:00 pm - letter is finished, sort of... I forgot the notes I had written in brainstorm on my desk, and I'll be damned if I remember what I wanted to say!

The class seems very nice, the kids are cute, for the most part... one little guy seems to have problems with basic social skills ( he spent the first 15 minutes crouching hidden behind the chart stand, and then migrated to the cloakroom until one of the other boys invited him (with mom's hint) to sit at his table. Then, after school, I was cleaning up, alone (I thought) when a metal carabiner fell inches from where I was standing... turns out that little monkey was in the cloakroom again, and thought it might be fun to thow his padlock over the wall, then claim it was an accident!

Many of the kids are really polite, adorable, still short and cute, and speak great French. One child named Sean is listed as a boy, though with his long, layered, flowing hair, I was so sure he was a she that I changed the info on the attendance sheet! But after noticing that "she" was rather noisy and tended to group with the boys, I started to wonder if perhaps the info sheet was right..... it was, as I confirmed with the previous teacher.

Oh this year is bound to be interesting alright!

Bought a scanner today.

Returned mom's scanner.

Went to see Jill, Erin and fam.

Went to see Carly, who was my sanity in tough times, and whom I haven't seen in months. Man did I get some gossip today! She went to Edmonton for 10 days, and got news about my ex... apparently the con man got conned! He met a russian chick online, travelled to Russia to meet and marry her, and ended up marrying someone else!! I guess she didn't like what she saw, and got her friend to take her place! Anything for a shot at canadian citizenship, I guess... but talk about poetic justice!

It's hard not to smile...

Back to school tomorrow... why am I still up???

I am not alone!!!

I was driving the poop coloured Volvo that you all know I love so much, when lo and behold, behind me at a red light, was another poop coloured Volvo! The man at the wheel, when he saw me readjust my rearview mirror and rub my eyes in disbelief, gave me a big grin and a cheerful thumbs up before the light turned green and I continued on my merry way!

I am not sure if it's a relief or not to know that there is more than one such ugly car loose in the streets of Vancouver!