February 2008: In Brief
Highlights:
1) The following math problem describes my 1st three weeks in February:
School holiday + Snow day or delay + sub job = 2 writing days = frustrated writer
I’m glad my kids enjoyed the time off though. Thankfully, my sub job for the last week of February was cancelled and I had 5 straight days of writing. Whoo hoo! (Also thankfully, my sub job was rescheduled for March. Subbing for the music teacher is fun. We’re going to learn to play, “There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly” on xylophones.)
2) Four nasal irrigations a day keeps the sinus infection away!
Fiction Books Finished:
**** Heat, by Mike Lupica- I don’t even really like baseball and still couldn’t put down this kid’s book about a twelve-year-old Cuban immigrant living in the Bronx and striving to make it to the little league finals. Excellent read for 3-6 graders or for a classroom read aloud.
Non-Fiction Books Finished:
*** Literacy in America, by Edward E. Gordon & Elaine H. Gordon -Finally finished! Long but interesting history of teaching in America, from the colonial times until now-heavy on the colonial & frontier times, light on the now.
Still Reading:
Dreams Underfoot, by Charles de Lint
Movies:
**1/2 Wuthering Heights (1992)- Maybe the book is better, but in the movie, Cathy and Heathcliff were pretty unlikable.
Sub Jobs:
1 day- Kindergarten
½ day- Music
1 day- 2nd grade
1 day- Music
TV Enjoyed:
**** Supernatural- I loved the “Groundhog Day” episode.
*** Friday Night Lights- Finally finished watching all the current episodes. Not bad, though Smash’s storyline seemed to come from nowhere and lacked credible build up, for me.
*** Ugly Betty (finished season 1 in Spanish)- Cute, cute, cute, then sad.
** Smallville, season 1 in French- Mediocre show with enough pretty people and cute wholesomeness that it’s worth using to practice French.
** Sopranos, 1st episode- I don’t get what is ground breaking about a show that could be called, “It’s Hard to be a Rich Patriarch.” As a guy friend said, “When almost every character in the show annoys you, it’s hard to keep watching.” Exactly. I did like the shrink but it sure feels like something bad will happen to her. Maybe I'd have liked it better if I watched when it first came out, before the hype. Bye Sopranos. I wished I liked you better.