Posts from October 2008

Today, the Buffalo Board of Ed. held a parent conference at the Convention Center that had a guest speaker (brought in from out-of-town), and various scheduled informative workshops. The outright cost (not including staffing costs for planning, or for today’s workers) was approximately $30,000. Over 600 parents filled out and returned forms indicating they would be attending and that, collectively, they would be bringing approx. 450 children, who would require supervision and/or entertainment. The turnout was a bust and all together there were only about 50 children. Of course, the district had to plan for the 450 so there was a magician, a clown, and some other stuff lined up. Also, catered breakfast was ordered for, I’m guessing, the 500 â€" 600 anticipated attendee parents; and, I would really be surprised if even 300 parents were in attendance.

I can’t understand why so many people would sign up and then not show. Perhaps it’s because it started at 8:00 on a Saturday morning. Or maybe it’s just that when you tell people something’s free they feel compelled to sign up. But 1/2 of them (and maybe more)? Yikes, that seems excessive. Additionally, when you consider the district student population, to get such a low number of registrants, let alone attendees, is pretty pathetic. It’s such a conundrum.

Well, I put in my 3.5 hrs. and will get my OT for the day, yet can’t help but feel just a little bit guilty about taking it. There were so few people I hardly even had to do any work.

A couple of nights ago at the Al Smith Memorial Charity Foundation Dinner, the two presidential candidates were pretty funny. Much funnier than I actually would have ever anticipated of either of them. You can check them out at the following links if you didn't see it. Kind of makes them each a little more human, and in some instances, almost likeable.

McCain the comedian

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/17/obama.mccain.dinner.ap/index.html#cnnSTCVideo

Obama the comedian

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/10/17/sot.obama.dinner.cnn?iref=videosearch


Also, did anyone notice at the debate the other night when McCain repeatedly talked about Autism and how Sara Palin knows about that? Has anyone explained to McCain and/or his note writers that there's a difference between Autism and Down Syndrome? It might have been ok if he'd only made the reference once, but he did it multiple times. Maybe most people didn't notice, and maybe I'm just more aware because I used to work at an agency that served people with disabilities. I don't know, but that whole thing was definitely very weird to me.

Someone at work recommended Marco’s restaurant on Niagara St. They said I could sign up on their website and they’d e-mail me coupons. Has anyone ever eaten there? I’m getting coupons from them and just want to know if it’s worth checking them out. Also, does anyone know where on Niagara they’re located?

...doesn't get any better than that.

Literacy Volunteers is holding their annual Coffee & Chocolate fundraiser on November 6th at 5:30 - 8:00 p.m. It's at the Shea's Smith Theatre & Intermission Lounge, and a $20 donation gets you an evening of goodies from Fowler's Chocolates, coffee from Starbucks and light appetizers from some local fine dining establishments. There's also entertainment, basket raffel & silent auction. I've never attended one before but hear it's a really great event. I think I'll try to make it this year.

Other stuff -

Boss is out of town today and tomorrow so office is a little more at ease than usual. Makes for an easier day - thank god. She's not a bad boss - just causes us all stress - as bosses often do.

Just watched the movie The Visitor. I thought it was depressing but I liked it anyway.

This site is doing weird stuff for me too - my row that's ususally at the top isn't appearing - have to log out though mobil. Also, I can't scroll through some stuff that I used to be able to scroll (i.e. comments list, category list). Computer's too old, beat-up, and has too many problems to load the new flash players - it just keeps freezing and crashing when I try to install upgraded software. It's old enough I think I'm still running windows '98 - yikes!

Think I'll be looking for a new car soon. The stupid belt is squeeling AGAIN - I've replaced it twice already in the last 2 months. Am thinking there might be a problem with the alternator and don't want to start replacing that kind of stuff. The car's not really worth investing in. Might be time - don't want to spend the winter in something unreliable.

Glad tomorrow's Friday - payday - the weekend...

Someone sent this to me at work - it really made me laugh. It was captioned:

"My assessment so far"



Well, you betcha!

Here is the rest of the junk I scored on my trip over the weekend. The fiesta gravy dish is actually really nice and in great shape - no chips. The other two items are for my shadow box - they're each about 2 inches tall. The red barn is the cottage we stayed in. It's not bad for a cottage - 3 bedrooms, 1 1/2 baths, large kitchen and living room, lakefront property, pots and pans and dishes, etc. You just bring your linnens, food, and clothes. It was pretty reasonably priced too.

I have to say, I couldn’t have asked for better get-away weekend weather than this past weekend. PA was beautiful, as was the ride along the 90 into PA. The colors were varied and vibrant - just glorious! The pix below don’t do justice to the actual beauty but they are a small indicator.

This trip was a little unusual in that the lake we stay at is dropped every year by about 2.5 feet around the 1st of November. This year they dropped the lake early so they could conduct some repairs on the dam. It was the first time we’ve been there after the lake was dropped - it was kind of cool. My brother, nonetheless, found a way to get his little sailboat into the lake for his maiden voyage. He was so excited. There wasn’t much wind but he did manage to catch just enough breeze to make it work.

My family members are all pretty avid thrifters so we had to take the obligatory trip into town to hit the thrift stores, and the rinky-dink flee market. I wasn’t too enthusiastic (more interested in hanging out relaxing) but it actually turned out ok for me. I found a shadow box, a 6 qt. pressure cooker, and a Fiesta gravy boat. The first two were very reasonable, the last, not quite as much.

It was hard going back to work today. Should have taken one extra day off to get myself re-settled. Trying to decide if I want to watch the last debate or not - inclined toward not at this point - just plain sick of all the rhetoric and talking heads. With things the way they are right now, it’s hard to imagine anyone actually even wanting the job. Kind of makes you have to wonder a little about anyone who wants it.

Work sucked, the house still needs to be cleaned, laundry to get done, kid bullshit to deal with, retirement account down 16 percent with the finance mess, blah, blah, blah...

I want to go on vacation again!


Our Campfire


The view right out our back door


Lots of geese


My mom and sister digging up rocks to take home for the garden - they're a little strange sometimes - but they got cool rocks


My brother's sail boat


Maiden voyage - he was so happy


My pressure cooker find - good deal


My shadow box - another good deal

OK - I don't want to jinx myself, but the weather for this weekend looks like it's going to be fabulous. I don't think I could wish for any better. My mom has decided she's going to come with me and my sister for the weekend getaway, which is really cool because the lake is near the little town where she grew up in PA. She's not so keen on my brother's lady friend but that's ok, they're in another cottage - we can always escape.

MrMike - I hope your dad has a happy birthday, and thanks for dragging my kid along, I appreciate it.

Enjoy your weekend everyone - I'll post pix of my trip when I get back.

Whenever I’m getting ready for a trip, my dog acts strange. Everywhere I go she’s right on my heels. And she looks at me differently. It’s like she knows I’m going somewhere and she’s afraid I’m going to leave her behind. I find it very odd. She doesn’t act like that in the morning when I’m getting ready to go to work. Freaky little animal. She is really cute though.

I received the below e-mail from one of my (very conservative Republican... or in this case maybe Fascist) uncles today. Normally, I just delete the political crap they (he and my other uncle) send me because it usually burns my ass to read it, and ALMOST makes me love them just a little less. Even just the first (well second) statement “These are NOT taken out of context…” is nonsense. Of course they’re out of context... if they were in context, they would be surrounded by the rest of the book ... duh! Anyway, it is totally this kind of BULLSHIT that perpetuates racism, ignorance, fear, and hate. It makes me want to SCREAM!! The really horrible part is that there are a bunch of whack-jobs out there who will send this CRAP to a bunch of other whack-jobs and it eventually will end up in the hands of the masses, many of whom aren’t really too bright themselves and could possible be influenced by this STUPIDITY! Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh (that’s me screaming)!

[box]Hi, DIRECT QUOTES from Obama from his books. These are NOT taken out of context--but his own words.

From Dreams of My Father: 'I ceased to advertise my mother's race at the age of 12 or 13, when I began to suspect that by doing so I was ingratiating myself to whites.'

From Dreams of My Father: 'I found a solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against my mother's race.'

From Dreams of My Father: 'There was something about him that made me wary, a little too sure of himself, maybe. And white.'

From Dreams of My Father: 'It remained necessary to prove which side you were on, to show your loyalty to the black masses, to strike out and name names.'

From Dreams of My Father: 'I never emulate white men and brown men whose fates didn't speak to my own. It was into my father's image, the black man, son of Africa , that I'd packed all the attributes I sought in myself , the attributes of Martin and Malcolm, DuBois and Mandela.'

And FINALLY the Most Damning one of ALL of them!!!

From Audacity of Hope: 'I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.'

• If you have never forwarded an e-mail, now is the time to Do so!!! We CANNOT have someone with this type of mentality running our GREAT nation!! I don't care whether you are Democrat or a Conservative. We CANNOT turn ourselves over to this type of character in a President. PLEASE help spread the word!!!![/box]

My god, I sometimes can't even fathom how we remotely came out of the same gene pool - WTF!!!!