whew

The last couple of days have been super busy as I finished up the marking of the essays and got them all handed back to the students. Except for the late ones.

We had a big meeting today that I had to do quite a bit of prep for.

Tomorrow I start working on the timetable submission. I may do a showcase schedule first. And I have to make a questionnaire. And I have to load the breakdown of the grades for the essays. So I'll be lucky if I crack open the timetable file, but I'll try!

James' current favorite song is this one by Kelly Clarkson.

Yesterday, Kim stayed over because of the snow- we had a good time catching up!

Loud precipitation

I woke up at 4:30am to some very loud precipitation. I realized on waking that I hadn't taken the garbage and recycling out. The road looks like a sheet of ice, but I won't find out how bad it is until I go out. Just eating my breakfast now, then will venture out.

The eves in the garage are plugged, I think, so probably that's not going well no matter what type of precipitation it is.

I have the school info, bus info and queen's info open but noone appears to be up and tweeting yet!

6:04 all the buses are cancelled. Just went out for the garbage and it isn't icy now, just sloppy as the temp has risen. Looks like it was freezing rain earlier though.

indeed

I expected a difficult day, and it did not fail to deliver. Nothing like planning for the right day.

Tomorrow should go better- I need to run a midterm conflict report for next weeks midterm and send them off and then I need to spend a lot of time loading the graded essays on to the course website to get them back to the students.

There is a storm that is to blow in this evening so we'll see if the kids get a snow day tomorrow. Not the university, of course. Apparently twitter indicates that the snow has started in Burlington so in a few hours it should be here.

I got Mike an apple pie for all the counseling he has been doing for us. When I worked at the Registrar, I always felt very honoured to be the only person from the Registrar invited to the goodbye parties and such that they had over there. I fit in better there than at the Registrar. Though who can't fit in a room of counselors? Now I don't see Mike and his team very much anymore as this job doesn't have the same connection.

I am not great about getting people gifts as I find it difficult to pick things out without knowing what people like. I never want to get the wrong thing so I generally just don't get anything at all unless I really know the person or the person tells me what they like. Mike told me he likes apple pies, so that helps me immensely. Some people are gifted at giving gifts but that is not me.

Fruity

James' shampoo ran out. It was this nasty strawberry shampoo that didn't smell like strawberries at all really and the smell just drove me crazy but he finished it because James didn't mind it and it was (allegedly) cleaning his hair. So when I went out to buy him new shampoo I said to myself- no fruit! I'll get him something more manly than fruit. But it still needs to be the no tears ones because otherwise he'll complain. So he is stuck in the region of not quite ready for adult shampoos and too old for fruit. Kind of like his life- he's entering that half-baked world of being half-child half-adult.

But seriously children's shampoos are all fruit! I found a bottle of cars shampoo- berry blend. Cars seriously - it should be diesel blend and I would have bought it. I ended up with orange-mango flavor which is overall relatively decent and will certainly do, but I found it amusing that it was ALL fruit.

I don't think there was that sort of choice when I was a kid- I just remember that yellow no more tears kind. I always had a huge problem with tangles, but James doesn't have that as his hair is too short.

Today was indeed a difficult day. I don't actually think tomorrow will be better. Sometimes I am hopeful for things and sometimes I am just realistic.

slug

I woke up at 4:30am and have been dragging myself through the day. I got all the marking done!
Had to send some really difficult emails.
I felt pretty lousy the whole day. Hopefully, will feel better tomorrow. Tomorrow is going to be a challenging day though.

Amy says that her twins swim instructor looks just like me. Michelle also said she saw me at the ARC. Apparently, I never go to the ARC so I can't see my look alike. Lucky that. We have to live in different universes.

S for silly!

I made it through S! Still have T-Z to go and all the late ones and then load them all onto Moodle (which takes some hours) so still a long way to go, baby!

Here's a clip of goats helping to sing a popular song. I suppose it is funnier if you know the song.

Up to R for Rochester

I've got the marking done up to R but S is pretty huge, so I've still got a long way to go!

Dave G. sent this championship photo from Rochester!


Making pizza now and then back to more marking. My hope would be to get through S tonight if I can! The end is in sight anyway.

heartbeat

One of our students passed away on Wednesday :( Made for a very sad and difficult day yesterday. I can't imagine how the parents are feeling. There are grief counselors at the residence and we are working on getting counseling in place for when the students return from the reading break next week.

James has a project due tomorrow and AJ was thinking of coming over so James was trying to rush to get it done. But you know how things look when a 10 year old rushes? Not great. But then AJ couldn't come over and James was very disappointed so he was in a bit of a snit when I took him to karate. He just wasn't into it at all thanks to his poor attitude. Normally when he does karate we have this code with our eyebrows to communicate (which I am sure his sensei loves) but he was not even up to that last night.
He had to redo the project when he got home.

The snowbank sucker came by at 5am so it has been a long morning already. Snowbank suckers are pretty loud!

I am still stagnated at 40% on my marking but hopefully this weekend will be a good marking weekend!

further along

Today I thought I could do my regular work in the morning and marking in the afternoon. But my regular work seeped completely through the afternoon and I ended up working some overtime. So much for that plan. Maybe tomorrow. Right now I am stagnated at 40% done the marking.

During the day we had snow and some ice. The sidewalks had ice with a layer of water on top. My boots started to leak. I wore the cold weather boots not the warm rain boots. My mistake. It was 1 degree when I went home and slushy. When that freezes it probably won't be nice. It is -1 out now and I'm going out to shovel some before the Bach is on tonight. A non marking day.

James' team got back from Rochester about 11pm last night. The won the tournament!

Love bat

I mentioned bats in the previous post, but I have now found my favorite bat. I don't like them in my house but Lil Drac was orphaned as a baby and is adorably cute in this video. I just love 3:35-3:50, for some reason.

James' team made the final in Rochester tournament which means he won't be back until late tonight. And he has a math test tomorrow. His last math test was a bit of a disaster as he didn't study before hand. I'm thinking that the math mark on the report card won't be too good upcoming.

Marking is at 33%. I'm not pushing myself as hard as I could. I'm making good progress but not excellent progress.

ICEEE

I did some marking in the morning, then to Rustle and to work. I got through our summer application and got the papers that I had marked so far (23%) ready for upload.
When I got out things had started to get pretty icy.
I went by the Darbar for dinner. They had 2 tables in the restaurant in use but a whole heap of take out orders. Good food anyway.

Watch this video of a ball pit- very sweet.

St. C got snow but we did not- worked again this alleged thief there.

There was a headline today in the Star that said "Bloodied bat found at scene after murder of Oscar Pistorius' girlfriend". So I thought that explained the accident- he was shooting at a bat, not his girlfriend. However, in reading the article, it was a cricket bat :(

Off to do some more marking now!

Videos for a smile

Grandpa shuffling- Love it!

59 year old woman shooting the winning puck- who would have thought?

Cat soothing baby- I am not a big fan of cats but this one is a keeper

Bus 62 gets everywhere on time, even in a flood

15%

My lofty goal was to get 60 essays marked today. I'm only at 30 so far and I've been marking all day. Except for the wee nap I took. Going to take a short break now to do some cleaning. Then marks some more. Then some Gillian and a bath and maybe mark some more if I'm up for it. Iterating toward success!

3 down

I forgot how slow the start of marking essays is. I marked the first 3 and got tired out and went and washed the dishes. I can only mark for a certain amount of time before I need to do something else. I just thought I would make it through more than 3!

I went to SDM at 8am to see if there were any good after-valentines sales but there weren't. Good brisk walk though!

Back to the marking - 197 to go!

zinging through the sky

A lot of space traffic today. A meteor in Russia, an asteroid. The Ides of February.

I was able to get on top of my email today, but there is a still a long way to go. I'm afraid things will slip again this week as it is essay marking week.

Lots of things due in tonight and Moodle is going down tomorrow morning. So I've printed off a bunch of the essays to mark hard copies so I'm not dependent on the internet.

Also today, applications for our summer jobs are due in, so I'll probably try to retrieve them tomorrow as well.

But mainly essay marking!

shake!

The sidewalks were clear as I walked home! Very impressive. However, they aren't treated so as the temp is dropping tonight it will probably be a slippery walk tomorrow.

Queen's has now done their version of the Harlem Shake. Took quite a bit of organization from the students.

There is also some shake in the Catholic Church as they look for a new pope. You can join the pope madness here.

I watched survivor tonight and that's a pretty shaky scene as well. There seem to be the classic problems of making huge alliances too early in the game?

sidewalks

Well, here is the explanation of why the sidewalks haven't been cleared. Apparently when the sidewalk plows are outfitted with blowers they are slower than normal.
The sidewalks in our area haven't seen a plow but around James school a private plow had come and cleared the sidewalks. They were still pretty slippery underneath. The sidewalks that were plowed early after the storm from Victoria on were ok today but yesterday they were very slippery!

incoming

Yesterday when I walked in big fluffy flakes were falling. When I left the building a few hours later it was rain. When I walked home it was clear any relatively easy to walk, though with large puddles. I was glad I wore my winter rain boots.
Today was a lot more icy but again very happy with the winter rain boots.
The sidewalks aren't plowed until you get to Victoria. It's not such a big deal for our road, but by the school? You have lots of wee people all over the roads. Not a safe idea really.
They say it will take a week to plow all the sidewalks.
The city twitter has quite a number of snarky posts.
I am gearing up for my 400 essay marking binge.

looking for peace

I remembered I had to write some emails before I left for Rustle but they took me longer than I planned so I was running late as I shot out the door. I was moving at double time because I knew I had a lot of time to make up.
I get one block and there is Peggy standing on a street corner looking more than a little frozen. She's been waiting a while for her ride. I tell her if I get there first I will send someone for her.
I had carefully planned out my route due to missing sidewalks but I made multiple errors in my plan and it took me longer than I planned.
Concession was in better shape than usual though.
At Rustle, babies that never cry, cried. Things fell over, children were distracting.
And the day just continued this way.
Looking for peace and it just being a step away.

The closest that peace came was in the song Sam played "Walk with me"

They haven't caught the LA police guy they have been on a manhunt for. I think he's winning in what his goal was at least.

There is a space rock that is going to come close to the Earth on Friday. Nothing to worry about NASA says. But has NASA been wrong before? I can think of 3 times off the top of my head.

first foray

My first walk in the storm aftermath. It was actually quite a nice walk. Enviro Can said it was -21 but it didn't feel very cold to me. Park St. had no sidewalks (except for in front of Bob and Karen's house) but Palace had a sidewalk. However, they had plowed over the pedestrian buttons to get the lights to change so I walked another block to get the lights to change. The Kingston Center had sidewalks and Loblaws was quiet so I got my shopping done quickly. The key to enjoying the walk back is not to buy too much or too heavy things!

I have carefully planned my route to Rustle this time in case there are missing sidewalks like after the last storm. Not so good to be on Concession without sidewalks. I need an app for knowing which sidewalks are cleared.

This is a cute video on learning to walk.

This Martin Smith video is what I have been listening to on repeat.

responses

I have been following a couple of stories in the news - one of the guy in LA who is on a killing spree and the police are hunting for him.
He was an LAPD and the story given for his dismissal seems to be that he said another cop kicked a person they were arresting. She said she didn't and he ended up charged with making up the story.

So, if I put myself in his shoes and if it was true that I saw another cop kick a person and I reported it and they said I was lying, my reaction would be - I don't think I want to work here anymore and I would look for another job! But I guess it is all more complicated than that and it seems to have driven him off the deep end, so to speak. I hope he is able to find some peace.

James wasn't feeling well last night, so he went to bed early. He got up at 5:30am to use the bathroom then went back to bed. I got up though and shoveled as the sun rose. Quite nice really. The sidewalk plow never came so there may be more ridges to take care of tomorrow morning as the sidewalk here appears to be waist deep. But for right now, everything is clear. Need to sleep now- early hockey practice tomorrow!

digging out

I'm thinking the worst is over because the driveway that I dug out hasn't completely filled back up. I think there was a foot of snow when I shoveled around 5pm and now there is only about 1/2 foot. There's a lot of drifting going on too. So, we'll see in the morning if my digging was for any use. I need the sidewalk plow to go by before I dig further otherwise it will mess up my work. Hopefully, we are early on the sidewalk plow route. Before it breaks down, you know.

James isn't feeling well so has gone to bed early.

Canada

is snow.

(MTO traffic cam)

This icicle I took yesterday

I shoveled to the sidewalk and didn't bother with that until the sidewalk plow comes by. Then I will take another stab at it.
Queen's closed at 2:30pm. And that's saying a lot. We rarely ever close. For anything.

snow

Woke up at 5am with the plows. School buses are cancelled but schools are open. It looks pretty bad but I am just heading out to do some shoveling to see how bad it is.

Prime minister

After reading the previous post Lisa suggested James could be prime minister.
James has a number of platforms that he plans to run on- he is quite passionate about his educational platform- he advocates for more PA days and making school funner. His foreign policy is entirely centered on Afghanistan where he plans to ban the Taliban and take over the country so that everyone can go to school and not get killed at school and not have to wear the clothes all over them- they can wear regular clothes if they want. His policy on entertainment focuses on the video game industry- that money should be invested in them so they can make new games. (All government officials and their friends would get free ipads and games of course!)

James' ideas for the resoration of the world trade center

James and I had this hilarious conversation on the way to school:
J: What is someone bombed the world trade center
Me: Well, actually they did.
J: What happened?
Me: A bomb went off in the parking underneath the building, damaged the building a bit. But after that, when you were in my belly, it got hit by airplanes.
J: I thought that was the twin towers
Me: Same thing
J: Is there another world trade center?
Me: I don't think so?
J: Are there trade centers?
Me: Maybe smaller ones?
J: If I had an apartment building and a couple of thousand dollars I could rebuild it.
Me: Where would you build it?
J: Debating between Ottawa and Toronto. I think I'd pick Toronto because there are lots of tall buildings.
Me: So you could hide it better?
J: Yeah.
Me: How big would it be?
J: About the size of a hockey rink.
Me: The length or the height?
J: Both. If I go to council and get money then maybe it could be twice the height. And there would be tanks on the roof to protect it. And if any planes came at it the tanks would shoot them down and make the pieces of the planes really small so it wouldn't hurt people on the ground. And there would be a clean up crew.

superbowl

James: I'm going to watch the superbowl
Me: I didn't know you liked football (he does have a football DS game that he likes a lot though)
James: I like pretty much any sport
Me: so who are you cheering for?
James: The 49ers...or the Ravens...basically whoever starts winning first
That's my fickle fan! Whatever team wins, that was the team he was going for!
Not much has changed in that area.

On the topic of the 2 coaches being brothers, James suggested that the winning coach would let his brother 'touch' the cup/bowl (whatever the trophy is) after the fact. (apparently that is what good brothers do)

Also, I have discovered how to increase James' hygiene! In the past when I wanted James to take a bath or a shower, I would have to hound him to do it. But no more. I have discovered the magical formula for James to want to take a bath! I run the bath and pretend like it is MY bath and he will strip off his clothes immediately and get in the bath. No fuss, no muss as long as it is MY bath and not HIS bath that he is taking. He is too funny that kid.

upside right- the one in which the bathroom gets cleaned at 11pm

I laundered, cleaned the kitchen, cleaned a cupboard and shoveled snow. After all that excitement I crawled back in my freshly laundered bed and had a 3 hour nap. When I woke at 6:30pm, I had a bagel and tried to decide if it was breakfast or dinner.

Cleaning the bathroom is one of my least favorite jobs so I decided that it MUST be done tonight and it was. At a time that I am normally sleeping.

I also finished up Nat and Karrie's Christmas package. I'm counting on them being so sleep deprived with the baby that they won't notice it is late! Hopefully, I'll get it mailed off before next Christmas.

Today Al told me he has a Twitter account. I found this funny cheese commercial there. Thanks for sharing Al!

Also, check out this picky professor!

And this snow falling off the roof

And this baby bear sneezing.

predictable

Last night I ordered from the Darbar. It's probably been a few months since I last ordered but I only need to get 4 words into the order and he knows who I am. "Chicken tikka, no onions" and he'll say hello and know who the order is for. Is there noone else in kingston who doesn't like onions with their tikka?

The rest of my day will be pretty predictable as well- lots of cleaning!

James is at a tournament in Oshawa today so I'll do my best to get ahead on the cleaning before he starts messing again!