Musings on Life and Living

Yes, yes, I am one of the many who love XKCD. If you haven't read it, shame on you. If you have read it, congratulations. If you read and understand it some of the time, you are like me. If you read it and understand it 100% of the time, then you are far smarter than me. And sometimes I read it and think, "Wow, this is so meant for Gretch!"

So Gretch and I had her parents and siblings over for a Memorial Day steak-fest and viewing of the classic film, Renaissance Man . Before the family arrived, I decided that no Memorial Day feast is complete without deviled eggs, so I ran to County Market to get some eggs. While there, I saw this display: Something about the juxtaposition of the grocery store's slogan (WE value FAMILY) and home explosives (TNT) just made me chuckle. The only thing that would have made it better would have been some humorously misplaced quotation marks .

So it has been a busy two weeks full of travel, travel, and more travel! But the trips have been most excellent! A couple of weeks ago, Gretch and I decided to go to Washington (Illinois) to visit my family (or, more specifically, my two sisters, Amanda and Ariana). We spent the afternoon/evening with them, but then we had to head back so that Gretch could get sleep before working on Thursday. The following Sunday, we drove to Washington again, this time to see all (well, most of) my family. Tom and Tabitha were visiting for a week with their children (seven of them). Aaron and Megan live in Washington, also, so we got to see a bunch of the family. We stayed overnight this time, but then came back again on Monday because Gretch had work on Tuesday. While in Washington, I noticed that Megan was reading a Jodi Picoult book, and I was heaps excited, as, previously, I had just one friend who read her books (Laurie is actually the one who introduced me to the author's book, "My Sis...

On Monday morning, I started my work day at about 7:30 am. I taught a mostly wonderful class of third graders at Robeson and had a fun time doing it.  First thing in the morning, we got to go see Mrs. Reger's class put on a few of their plays related to various social studies units. That was interesting, to say the least. Then Mr. Bost, who is the third grade teacher next to Mrs. Okruch (for whom I was subbing) decided that he and I should "team teach" a huge chunk of the science curriculum they currently have. (The unit is supposed to be finished on Friday, and they hadn't even started). Of course, when I say "team teach" I really mean "I teach and he manages the students". But it was fun, because I love teaching science (even when the curriculum unit is boring as!) I just hope that Mrs. Okruch isn't upset with me for kinda sorta almost completely ignoring her plans for the day... Immediately after finishing at Robeson, I went to a couple of b...

Yep. We saw "Star Trek" tonight. And it was freakin' awesome! So glad that Adam told us about the 7 pm showing! We beat the crowds and managed to get great seats. Dan and Rachel came, too, as did Adam's mum and dad. Unfortunately, none of the Richardsons sat with us, but that was okay. I was able to briefly chat with Verlin after the movie, and Adam and I discussed the relative merits of it through texting. I loved how the introduced the various characters, and how they really seemed to stay true to the idiosyncrasies of all the original crew members. It was cool to see Leonard Nimoy, also. The special effects were pretty cool, and the story itself was actually quite excellent. I definitely want to see the other films now, even though I know that none of them will have quite the same pizzazz as this one. Oh, and Gretch is renewing her interesting in Star Trek Voyager by seeking out the entire series on DVD. Apparently, there are things other than Snoopy and the Peanut...

Several months ago, there were rumours about a concert coming to the U of I Assembly Hall. I checked at the Assembly Hall's website, and there was no such concert listed. So I thought, "Hm... just a rumour, perhaps?" But then the rumour became more widespread. And then it finally showed up. Along with billboards and radio ads. So it was true. Jason Mraz was coming to Champaign, and Howie Day was going to be opening for him. This was, of course, a pretty big deal. Especially since Gretch and I are both huge fans of Jason's music. I'm still not sure how I would classify it. Not really rock, defnitely not alternative, not particularly pop, but not new age, either. Nor is it indie. Really, I think he is almost a category in his own right. But if I were forced to put him into a category, I think I'd go with acoustic pop. Anyway, tickets went on sale, but I didn't order any, because I wasn't sure if we'd really have the money to go. And then one of the r...