the answers are out

so i've been avoiding the blog all week after posting my quotes. thought maybe some more comments would come in...but since they didn't - i posted the answers to the quotes on that post in bold italics.

The War (1994) with Kevin Costner and Elijah Wood. (quote #2) if you never saw this movie OR you saw it in '94 when you were in grade 6, you should really see it again. it's powerful. poignant. well acted. touching. thought-provoking. it's so good.

i can't believe no one got quote #14 - the grandpa says it to the little girl when she's nervous about going to the pageant.

and Into the Wild - if you haven't seen it yet, you should.

and that's all for movies for now. your regularly scheduled blogging will recommence tomorrow.

so there may be a couple obscure ones but there are quotes still there that you should know - these are also your favourite movies.

i'm betting #2 no one will get except maybe my brother but doesn't it sound like a quote from a movie you'd like to see? i can't wait to tell you what it is so that you can go rent it because it's a fantastic movie.

quote it up...

as a favour to Sharelle...haha. i mean, Sharelle did this and now i am too. i'm really not a quote person - i often feel as though i watch a movie with someone and we leave the theatre together with them repeating lines from the movie that i don't even remember. or maybe that's just alyssa. but anyways, i did my best to pick my favs but i'm starting to wonder if other people have even SEEN some of these movies...we'll see...

Pick 15 of your favorite movies.

Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie (or quote them from memory).

Post them on your blog for everyone to guess.

Fill in the film title once it’s been guessed.These are the players’ rules:
No Googling or using IMDb search functions (don’t cheat!).
Leave your answer(s) in the comments.I pick the quotes; you guess without internet aid. I'll post the results as they come in.

1. The only true currency in this bankrupt world if what we share with someone else when we're uncool. Almost Famous

2. Well I don't want our kids growing up thinking there powerless because of me. Everything they do in this world has a consequence. Our children still believe in miracles. They still believe anything is possible. As long as they believe like that, they're gonna be something. They're gonna make a difference in the world...and that means I made a difference. The War

3. You know what that is? Death. You know what I just did? I defied it. Wild Hearts Can't be Broken

4. Do you know how popular I am? I am so popular. Everybody loves me so much at this school. Breakfast Club

5. "I love the sky. It's so limitless." "It is big. It's very big." "Big doesn't even sum it up, right? That word big...is so small." What's Eating Gilbert Grape

6. I'm impossible to forget, but I'm hard to remember. Elizabethtown

7. The question isn't "what are we going to do," the question is "what aren't we going to do?" Ferris Bueller's Day Off

8. Rather than love, than money, than faith, than fame, than fairness... give me truth. Into the Wild

9. This is one of those key moments in life, when it's possible you can be really, genuinely cool - and I'm failing 100%. Nottinghill

10. I can't seem to stop singing wherever I am. And what's worse, I can't seem to stop saying things - anything and everything I think and feel. Sound of Music

11. I was a little kid, and I was crying for one reason or another. And [my mother] was cradling me, rocking me back and forth...and there was like snot running down my nose. And she offered me her sleeve and told me to blow my nose into it. And I can remember, even as a little kid, thinking to myself, this is love... this is love. Garden State

12. "You don't always have to be who they want you to be, you know?" "I happen to like being adored, thank you!" 10 Things I Hate about You

13. Walk on road, hm? Walk left side, safe. Walk right side, safe. Walk middle, sooner or later...get squish just like grape. Karate Kid

14. A real loser is someone who's so afraid of not winning he doesn't even try. Little Miss Sunshine

15. The first rule of eye makeup is that you can never wear enough blue eye shadow. My Girl

i don't get it

i read blogs of people i don't know. some of the blogs i found through magazines that recommended them. some of the bloggers have written books and want strangers to read their blogs. other blogs belong to friends of friends. you know how it goes.

my question today however, is how does one's blog acquire "famous" status. sure, if you're an author, it makes sense. BUT the "diet blogs" that i read that were in some health mag are not well written. they're kind of mundane. and they get over 50 comments per post. we (my friends and friends of friends) are better bloggers than this! we're funny and interesting. why aren't we famous? how does a blog GET famous? do you advertise? do you comment on other peoples' blogs and suggest they read your blog? if anyone could let me know how i could go about doing this - i'd be up for fame and 50 comments a post.

potter...harry potter.

so i'm in. it's not that i haven't wanted to read the harry potter series. there was just so much hype about it over the last few years that i hadn't been super interested right away but knew that one day fo sho i would read them. i'm a teacher - how can i not?

so i started on spring break. i have to wait for the books to come into the library so it has taken some time between books but i'm about to finish off the third one and it's pretty good. keeps you wanting to read. i think maybe putting more space between the books would keep you wanting even more. i'm impressed by the intelligent writing and great vocabulary rowling has used in kids books (though some might put the word kids in quotation marks). sometimes kids' books can be dumbed down. the main girl character's name was killing me though because i couldn't figure out how to pronounce it having never heard the name before. hermione. sure, you're laughing at me if you've been reading the books/watching the movies from the beginning but seriously...hermione? it's not spelled how it's pronounced. i finally rented the first movie to hear it and i'm still not convinced that that's really how you say it. (those of you who have never seen the name before and are thinking, "how DO you pronounce it?" - it's her-mine-ee) it's hard to change it in your head after you've read three books thinking it incorrectly - her-me-in. haha.

anyways, all these facebook statuses have been related to ending school pretty soon so i thought i'd give a suggestion of some fast reading that will relieve you from your textbooks.

loving oat bars

if you also love the oat bar from starbucks and have perhanps been thinking it's healthy because it has the word oats in it...i'm bursting your bubble: it has 370 calories and 19g of fat!!! wha??? (that's a whopping NINE ww points!) have a piece of cheesecake! so on a quest for a healthier oatbar, i've tried a few recipes and bought a few different types of snack bars and after a long quest, i have found your substitute.

quaker oatmeal to go - oats and honey. sure, it's not THE oatbar but for 200 calories and 6g fat (only 4 pts) - it's worth trying. for those stats - it's as good as an oatbar for me. try it!

ahh...softball season...

i was a backcatcher. i had a great arm. i could catch anything. ...i was in grade six.

today i had high hopes for what my grade 6 skills could do for me as i walked onto the field with my new PPAC softball team. i was going to make those teammates happy i had joined.

my grade 6 skills let me down. apparently 14 years does that to skills. sure, i caught some hits, threw as hard as i could and tried to look like i knew what i was doing - but there were no joyful shouts from the regulars when they saw my skills.

maybe my hopes were too high. but hey - now i know where to stand if i'm the second baseman and now i know i'll have to stop running forwards for the flyballs that are actually way behind me and now i know i need to wear sunscreen on sunny days. i'm a quick learner.

matt says i'll get better. there's hope for the comeback of the grade 6 skills...maybe even more.

now they're on their own...

the salmon were released today!

i scooped the fry out of the tank (which took 15 minutes!) into a big bucket and we headed to a nearby slough that leads into the Fraser River. all the kids had their own little containers so that they could each release a few of the their own.

hopefully we didn't freak the salmon out so much that they swam into the river and died but because i forgot my little net at school, i had to scoop all the fish out with one of the containers that the kids had brought. there was some wicked turbulence in that bucket before they were released. oh dear.

so when the kids all released their fry, there were mostly shouts of "good bye!" and "there they go!" with one or two "mine's just lying here in the mud...". umm..."he's just scared."

and hopefully now the salmon dreams will stop - i've spent many an subconscious hour with these salmon and i'm looking forward to that being over!

thanks for all the comments and interest here on the blog! here are some pics - more here.

getting water from the river to add to our salmon bucket to help acclimatize them.

scooping...

(that's me with the giant bucket - i couldn't get the last dozen out so i released them myself!)

"there they go!"

the class newspaper

keep up to date on my class's reports online every friday. sure to be a good time.

cold turkey

so i WAS going to post a daniel larusso video here but i lamely can't figure out how to post youtube videos on my blog. so instead, a hundred points to the first person who can tell me who daniel larusso is (without googling, sharelle).

anyways, cold turkey. that is how i am going about cutting out snacks and sweets. i've been pretty lame (which apparently seems to be a personal theme lately) on counting my points and sticking to the plan. that's the nice way of saying that i've been eating very badly. we had some friends over the other night and they were talking about how for the last year, they've cut out sugar except for one treat a week. (and then i served them apple crisp and ice cream...oops) i got to thinking about this.

at first my thoughts were: i could totally cut out sugar (meaning refined sugar - not apples and such) but that's because sugar is not my downfall. my downfall is greasy, salty snacks. buttered popcorn, creamy dill chips, french fries! so i thought why bother with cutting out sugar?
then my thoughts evolved: i should cut out greasy, salty snacks.
nah.
then i ate a lot of crap on a little trip to seattle then came home the next day and ate more crap.
my thoughts developed into: i should cut out greasy, salty snacks AND sugar.
i'm so extreme.
anyways - done. it's begun. as of march 31, all the crap is gone for a month. (except for one treat a week) so far - it's been fantastic. it's so much easier for me to say no altogether instead of trying to limit a little bit. instead of saving 6 points for popcorn and butter, i can eat an apple, cheese, crackers, and an entire can of tomato soup made with milk. i'm much fuller.

so if you have me over for dinner this month (no, that's not a hint) and you serve me lemon merangue pie - please don't be offended when i decline. ;)

(as a side note to those of you counting points or trying to find healthy snacks - i've discovered All Bran bites. ONE point. one. and five grams of fibre. how can you go wrong? well...i guess you could go wrong if you buy them thinking they're going to be yummy. they're not bad but they're no blueberry muffin. definitely worth one point with the cup of coffee.)

oh dr. phil...

Have you seen that Dr. Phil Personality Test on facebook? i took it and couldn't decide if i mostly sat with my legs stretchd out or crossed. Here's the difference it made:

:egs stretched out:
Others see you as sensible, cautious, careful and practical. They see you as clever, gifted, or talented, but modest. Not a person who makes friends too quickly or easily, but someone who's extremely loyal to friends you do make and who expect the same loyalty in return. Those who really get to know you realize it takes a lot to shake your trust in your friends, but equally that it takes you a long time to get over it if that trust is ever broken.

Legs crossed:
Others see you as fresh, lively, charming, amusing, practical and always interesting; someone who's constantly in the center of attention, but sufficiently well-balanced not to let it go to their head. They also see you as kind, considerate, and understanding; someone who will always cheer them up and help them out.

really? crossing my legs makes me that much more center of attention and interesting? note to self.

perms

the other day i was getting my haircut and my hairdresser and i had run out of things to chat about so she was cutting in silence. during this moment of silence, we listened to the conversation going on next to us.

one hairdresser was putting rollers in a woman's hair for a perm and was running out of perm papers. she asked another hairdresser if she could get up on the ladder and see if there were some more perm papers up on the shelf so she did. she found them and as she handed them to the perming hairdresser, she said, "man, 10 years ago i spent all this money on training on how to do perms and now perms are so out. what a waste of money."

hmm...i wonder how the woman having her hair permed was feeling...

still surviving despite the three that took their lives when they jumped out of the tank during the night. we're keeping the lid on now.

and then there were 70

i got a call from a parent this weekend saying that there were no longer 11 salmon in the tank but instead 30 - 40 salmon!!! where did they come from? i guess the guru was right - they were under the plastic screen/grate thing at the bottom of the tank. so i went into the school today to clean and rescued the remaining few still under the screen. it was really hard to pull up because all the gravel was sitting on it but i got it out. there was definitely some evidence of a couple dead fish but for the most part, there may be at least 70 of them in there. unbelieveable. let's hope we can get them to april and we will be releasing them asap.

just the beginnings...

we're finally shelling out some money to try to make our house's random rooms look a little better.

our kitchen is so weird with it's open space. we have plans to put this loveseat and a chair in here...but what do you think of this rug? it can still go back. tim thinks it's too big. man, rugs are expensive.

this looks 110 times better in real life...not so shiny. BUT i finally bought a duvet cover for our spare room. (and yes, its not ON the duvet yet because i need to wash it) this means, if you want to come and stay with us - you don't have to bring a sleeping bag! yay! but aren't those blue pillows the perfect colour to go with the walls? i love winners. i bought that little side table peeking out over there from value village and have big plans to paint it before spring break is over so stay tuned for an updated version of this room coming soon. :)

and come sleep over!

it's a sad day of spring break when...

the neighbour begins hammering and sawing at 7:55am.

tim hortons

so since beginning to count points and discovering that my usual french vanillas were 5 points, i've pretty much stopped going to tim hortons altogether. in the mornings if my carpool buddy and i stop for coffee, we go to starbucks where i can get a latte. however, those add up.

well on friday, we stopped to get gas in chilliwack and the gas station is on the same side of the road as tim hortons...not starbucks. what to do... so i had my very first real coffee from tim hortons ever. a double milk, double sugar. and? it wasn't too bad.

i guess this is good for the bank, bad for a caffeine addiction...

umm...WHAT?!?!?

salmon update.

i've been worried. everyday i look in the tank and see my 10 or 11 salmon fry swimming around. are they eating the food i'm giving them? are they on the verge of death? where are the rest of them? i can't see any fish swimming in amongst the rocks. have they been crushed? why are the ammonia levels so high? my guru has been of no help whatsoever. very vague. maybe that's how gurus are.

so today i removed the rocks. i decided i didn't care if only 11 out 79 were out swimming...i was going to find out what was going on and stop this apathetic on-looking.

one by one i removed the rocks. i was careful not to let any slide and maybe crush the tiny salmon that were hiding. i'd take out a rock and not see anything. i'd lift out the next rock...and not see anything. there was slowly becoming less and less rocks and fewer and fewer places for a small fish to hide.

and then there were no more rocks.

and only 11 fish.

...

WHAAAAAAAAATTTT?!?!?!?!?!

nothing. no dead fish. no egg remnants. i dug around in the gravel. i cleaned the tank. 11 fish swam around my hands as i searched.

WHERE DID THEY GO? if i hadn't seen the 80 eggs with my own eyes, i would be calling me a liar for saying they had been there. but there were! i saw them!

i was in a state of shock. just writing about this, i am in a state of shock. did they die and disintegrate? were they all runts and the 11 ate them? all the theories that i can muster are ridiculous.

my guru kept writing me unhelpful comments and closing the emails with "let me know if there are any emergencies." umm...i think i'll be sending him an email tomorrow:

Re: Emergency

we love you galen...

so if you watch tv or listen to radio - you know who galen weston is. or at least you've seen/heard him...though supserstore never does clarify WHO galen is.

but from the first galen weston ad i saw, i was sold on the product (i can't even remember what it was now..maybe the cloth bags). he's the man. whatever he endorses, i seem to want to buy. does anyone else feel this way?

well the moment i saw galen's endorsement of apple crisp (the apples come from the orchard of two brothers who then make the crisp with their grandmother's recipe...so they say), i knew i had to try it. i could get my money back if i didn't like it! so thursday night, liz and i were stopping at superstore for milk and i said, "we need to get the apple crisp." and she too had seen the ads and had been sold. so we got the low fat version hoping our love would still be guaranteed. but there was no need...

it was fantastic. sure, you could make it yourself for way less than $5.99 but if you've been to my house lately for crisp (i've tried it twice in the three weeks), you'd be willing to pay the $5.99. for real. so it was a great little dessert - i was glad galen didn't let me down.

what will he come out with next?

they're alive?

so two tiny salmon are swimming around in the tank this morning. they've emerged from the redd. i managed to clean out the tank without sucking them up this morning...now let's hope there are 77 more that plan to show themselves SOON! stay tuned...

promises from the driveway

you've got to be kidding...

today when i announced that it was time for novel study, a cheer went up. they're all doing their own novels so they like that they've chosen it. but i had to get a video of the class during this time because it was so unbelieveable how quiet they were. you could hear a pin drop. and they're all on task. um...not that this doesn't happen often. i just knew i couldn't explain how amazing it was without video proof. ha.

snapshots from winners

instead of going to the gym tonight - i went to winners.

in the dressing room, i looked at the tag of one of the shirts i'd brought in and saw the tag that read "trendyland" and chose not even to try it on because i cannot bring myself to own something from trendyland.

at one point, i was trying on a hoody at the racks of clothes instead of taking it to the dressing room and when i put it on, the hood was covering my face. i have it on backwards. when i removed it, there was a girl smiling at me.

i really want a new hoody but winners only ever has roxy ones which are cute but i'm thinking maybe 25 should bring me a new brand of hoody. i resisted the turquoise ones.

if you've ever shopped with me at winners, you know how i like to hold up hideous things and make jokes about them. it's a good thing you weren't there today because i found something that i would have made a joke about but then looked over and it was in the arms of the person next to me. phew. that was close.

ode to google reader

liz introduced me to google reader awhile back and it really is the best. i used to have all the blogs that i knew on my favourites and one by one i would go through each blog to check up. at the 10th blog, you'd be frustrated that no one was posting, right? (it's not just me that does this right?) so google reader takes away that frustration. you "subscribe" to all the blogs you want to read by typing in their addresses and then whenever you log into google reader, it tells you which ones have new things to read. i recommend it if you have a list of blogs that you read.

photo day

classroom photos were today. i'm wearing old brown pants, a non matching dark gray t-shirt and a navy hooded sweater. i didn't wash my hair this morning and i'm not wearing the slightest bit of makeup. it's monday. my dress up day is wednesday. there should be a sunday night reminder call about photos. i totally forgot. and i'm pretty sure last year i didn't look great either. shoot. (in regards to the above photo though, is the kid in the center with the blue shirt the teacher? i guess they didn't worry about size when holding kids back in those days.)

blanks

sometimes i write entire posts then think, "why would anyone care about this story?" and i delete it. but i feel like i've blogged. i should start inserting blank posts in so you can see that yes, i did think about blogging today...it just didn't happen for me. :)

as for the salmon, i can't get the ammonia levels down. the status is pretty much the same as the last time i posted. though i did see one fish out of it's rock lair the other day and the yolk sac is getting smaller and smaller. i'm trying not to keep it SO cold in there these days in order to help them develop a little faster...hopefully before spring break. oh brother.

the views of science fair

i've been avoiding posting about science fair over the past two weeks despite it being all consuming. it's what i think about most everyday lately. that's bad - i know. maybe you remember science fair as being a project that you did at home with your parents and then brought to school on science fair day. i remember designing my brother's entire display board about hummingbirds myself with not a second thought about whether he should be doing it himself. but in my classroom, most of the project has been done at school. now i won't go into detail here because i could really go crazy just thinking about it. however, today as i kept kids inside at lunch time to finish their display boards, i overheard this conversation between two boys that i have been "pulling teeth" to get them to research and put together their projects.

boy #1: this is great. i wish we could do this all the time.

boy#2: not me.

boy #1: really? why not?

boy #2: it's tiring.

oh - if only he knew how truly tiring it is. only one more day til science fair.

welcome good weather

and saturday, the good weather began so we went for a walk.

dusk begins.

valentines

remember valentine's day when you were a kid? well that's what i get to experience every year - valentines with pink and red construction paper hearts, cupcakes, cookies with icing, games...it really is a good time.

yesterday the kids made over 40 valentines to put in our Kits for Kids that we were assembling today for kids in Tanzania. They put lots of work into them and included notes about themselves and the fact that God loves them and they are special. It was great putting together our 70 kits of school supplies today.

I read the kids this story yesterday while they made they're valentine holders called Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch. it's about this lonely man who doesn't have any friends and works in a shoelace factory. He's always alone and he never smiles. Then on Valentines day, he gets a giant heart-shaped box of chocolates and note that says, "somebody love you". knowing that someone loves him, his whole persona changes. he wonders who might have sent it. he smiles at people on the street. he shares his chocolates with his coworkers. he helps others. he bakes brownies and gives them to people in his neighbourhood. and then the postman comes by one day and tells him that he'd made a mistake and delivered that heart and note accidently to the wrong house! Mr. Hatch gives the postman back the box (minus the chocolates) and the note. and then...Mr. Hatch says to himself, "no one loves me after all." and he goes back to the lonely, keeping to himself kind of guy he was before. but now, everyone misses the fun Mr. Hatch so they throw him a party with a big sign that says, "everyone loves Mr. Hatch!" so it ends well but it's a little heart breaking when he finds out that the package hadn't been for him. so don't forget to tell someone that they're loved today (and everyday) because we might not realize how much it means.

rebecca sews: research

some quotes from a new found blog...and only interesting if you are interested in sewing.

"...And another thing: how do you deal with frustration and failure? Because learning to sew, at least at first, will add heaping doses of both into your life, I'm sorry to say. If frustration makes you crazy-angry, with bouts of throwing things and/or screaming, try to sew when your family/roommate/pet parakeets are elsewhere. Take lots of deep breaths. One deep breath for each stitch ripped out is a pretty good ratio. If "failing" at something makes you want to sleep for a week (and either stop eating altogether or mainline Ben & Jerry's): redefine 'failure'. You didn't fail to make a skirt, you succeeded in learning how NOT to make a skirt! Go into every project, at least for the first few projects, with the goal of learning, and not with the goal of making something couture-level. Define success generously. If you got the machine threaded right, didn't sew through your finger, and the two pieces of fabric join up more or less evenly? You won. Do a victory lap." - http://www.dressaday.com/dressaday.html (feb. 5)

this post made me feel better. and very glad that i am not learning from a book. if you live in edmonton and want to learn to sew, i recommend my cousin rachel who is a fabulous artist in more ways than just sewing but as of feb.11, she has started offering sewing lessons for a steal! working one on one is the best way to learn (in my [and rachel's] opinions, of course).

rebecca sews: legs

there they are. the beginning of pants. these are supposedly going to become something i can wear but i'm skeptical. i'm pretty sure the girl i partnered with to measure our inseams was confused at how to read the measuring tape. they could be capris. at least they're a comfy material and very wide legged - i can probably get away with mistakes. "what mistakes?" you may be asking. welll...like i said in the last segment of rebecca sews, i'm not very precise. and when it came to making these pants, i was frustrated by the slowness of the pinning and by how many pins i needed and then the slowness of the cutting of the fabric. i just wanted to sew! but i guess this is good patience practice for me. at one point, i broke my needle on the machine. (not on purpose - not even by lack of patience - it just broke.) but i'm sure the pants will work out...and if they do, and you're my size, maybe i'll make YOU a pair! hmm...i shouldn't sign myself up for too much too soon. maybe only if i get your name at christmas.

here's a close up of my lightning stitch - used for seams that you really don't want to have fall apart. (i would think that would be all seams but apparently not.)

i got the remote

one thing i dislike about the gym i'm at is the tvs. there's no sound and the remote sits around and it gets picked up by unthoughtful people who change the channels mid-show or have the same thing on side by side tvs. i've blogged about the tvs before and have thought about blogging about the tvs many more times.

on friday, i finally got the remote.

i was on the treadmill next to a guy who had the remote. when his run ended, he walked away and i grabbed the remote out of the little bottle holders and i was so pleased with myself. now i could watch whatever i wanted. hoping for great things, i pointed the remote at the tv and found channel 2 and watched the listings go by. hmm...nothing good was on. i just wanted an episode of what not to wear or something. and i even would have settled for friends. but no. so i flipped the channel to oprah. but then i looked over and oprah was on two tvs side by side all of a sudden. i thought to myself, "that's weird that someone behind me just changed to this channel too. i'll change mine to something else so that i have two options to watch." but as i pressed the numbers on the remote, i realized that my remote changed more than one tv. which must be why you can only ever see one remote around. it must change them all! so i aimed the remote a little better and got two different things on tv. but they were an uninteresting oprah and tyra. lame. but oh well, i put the remote in my bottle holder and kept jogging.

a couple minutes later, a familiar face comes walking by and goes on a nearby treadmill. it was the guy who called me a cheater. he's on the treadmill in front of the tyra tv. all of a sudden, i didn't want to have the remote anymore. then another guy came and got on the treadmill next to me. i debated whether i should give him the remote so that he could change the channel to something he wanted to watch. then he and buddy start chatting and i start worrying that maybe they're going to make a joke about having two talk shows on. do i give the remote away? are they thinking, "why does this girl have such crappy channels on?"

finally the pressure was too much. i pressed STOP on the treadmill and ended my workout 10 minutes early. i couldn't take it. the responsibility was too great.

and now i will never hope to have the remote again.

sleeep...

some mornings as i sit at my desk while the kids do their silent reading (and seriously, it is dead silent in here) i find myself feeling so tired, i think i might have to lay my head down on my desk. i think thoughts like, "i don't think i can make it through the day" and "i'm going to have a nap when i get home". but then silent reading is over and i stand up and begin the day of "do your math. sit down. where's your pencil. let me help you. stop inturrupting me. good job. why don't you have science fair resources here? yay yay this is exciting. well done. tie your shoes. etc etc." and the tiredness never dawns on me again for the rest of the day.

so what would i do if i always sat at my desk and wasn't a teacher who walks and talks all day without of a moment of silent thought? i'd be tired i guess. and calling in sick a lot.

but really...i'm really tired today. i might not make it through the day. i'm going to have a nap when i get home. thank goodness it's friday.

for the lurkers

the guru took a couple days to get back to me which made me nervous but then he said that unless the salmon are eating (which they're not yet), the ammonia levels probably aren't that high. keep cleaning the tank. don't disturb the rocks where they're hiding. all seems to be clear on the salmon front.

a appreciate the delurking. i encourage more of you to do the same. :)

so i got a webcam set up if you want to look at our tank: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=1ulU6xXZ3gI

on the salmon front...

all is not well.

i tested the ammonia levels today. they're rising. i knew it was time. tank cleaning.

so apparently i'm supposed to siphon water out of the tank with this hose thing but the only way i can think of to get the water out is to suck on the end of the hose. there's no way this is how this thing must work. i go and get my principal to help me. he inhaled on the hose until water came out of the tank and he got the end of it into the bucket before it hit his lips. hmm - i guess that IS the only way to do it. shoot. i guess next time, it'll have to be me.

so as the water is pouring out into the bucket, i'm supposed to be pushing the other end of it around in the gravel, making sure i'm getting all the excrement out of the rocks. (like that word?) but as i do this, i'm realizing that really, all the alevin are inside this little rock fort that we've made and i'm sure all the excrement is in there too. what do i do? start pulling rocks away? freak them all out? as if they're not already totally scared as they look out their little fort windows and see this giant hose poking around in the gravel. so i don't bother them. i fill up my bucket of water, empty it, get new water, clean it, pour it back in. retest the ammonia.

NOTHING CHANGED! the ammonia levels are still too high! and you know what will happen if the ammonia levels are too high...(say it with me now) all the salmon will die!

i sent off a quick email of questions to my salmon guru and have yet to hear back. oh man...what have i gotten myself into?

sick

so after a crazy wednesday night (see the last post), needless to say i wasn't feeling so hot on thursday morning. on thursday around recess, i started feeling sweaty but cold. i had a headache. but that must be from my crazy workout, right? at 11:30am, one of my students said he wasn't feeling well and he lay down on the sick cot and slept until 2:40pm. i knew how he felt. terrible.

but do you ever get sick and think, "maybe i'm not really sick. i'm just making these symptoms out to be something bigger than they are."? i got home from work on thursday afternoon and looked through my cupboard for some medicine. there on the benylin bottle it listed all 6 of my symptoms: headache, stuffy nose, sore throat, dry cough, chills. so there - it must be true. i'm sick. but it's okay because here i have a bottle of something to cure me. i check the expiration date: oct 07. shoot. i took it anyways. and actually, i started feeling better. better enough to think that maybe i wasn't sick. what a strange thought process.

then i spent a sweaty, freezing, sleepless night in my bed and felt justified in the morning for calling in sick. i went back to bed and slept til 12:30pm. my symptoms have changed, but these new ones are still listed on the bottle: sore throat, chest congestion. and i continue to take my expired benylin every 6 hours as instructed.

maybe i should take a drive to the drugstore and buy something more up to date. :)

you did WHAT?

i'm about to turn a short story into a long one...get ready.

when i returned to the gym in november after a major hiatus, there was this girl in all my step classes who made me so frustrated. i'd be slogging through the steps with my lead legs and she was so bouncy and full of energy. for example, before the class started, she'd bike on one of the stationary bikes that are in the room where we have our step class. can you imagine the loathing i had for energy-girl? but the more i went to step, the more energy i'd have. i wanted to have a class again with bouncy girl and compare my new self but she seemed to stop coming.

well last night, she returned. we were at my bootcamp class together. now this is a seriously engergy-sapping workout. i think i've blogged about it before...oh yeah - how do you like them apples? so anyways i was concentrating on keeping up with miss bounce and then the instructor (who i'm pretty sure is making up the class as she goes along - takes one to know one) tells us to get a partner. oh man - i hate partnering with strangers for anything but at the gym? the worst! so since bouncey and i are standing next to each other, we decide to be partners. we do some stuff with a step and the reason we're partners is to push each other harder by having to keep up with each other. okay - that i can handle. and i'm honestly, way too pleased to be keeping up with my partner. then the instructor says (and keep in mind this is now the last 15min of the class so we're so tired and sweaty), "i saw this thing on tv the other day about ______ (some fighting thing-i can't remember what) and the training they did was really rigorous but it was something that i was wanting to try in class sometime." okay... "get into your partners again." my and engergy walk over to each other. "now you're going to piggyback the other person back and forth across the room for a minute". WHAT?!?! are you picturing this? 8 grown-ups who are literally strangers and we had to piggyback each other around this room. if you weren't insecure about your weight yet, you ARE now! so anyways, we did it. THEN the instructor says, "okay, now you're going to lift your partner up with both arms and carry them newlywed style back and forth across the room." WHAT?!?! but we did it. me and my new bestfriend were the only people who were able to do this one the whole minute. bring it!

so now that i've piggybacked miss bouncey around, i'm feeling as though we are bestfriends and there will be no more of these frustrating feelings towards her in classes. we'll have this secret knowledge of what it feels like to lift them up and we have the bond of knowing that if they fall and hurt themselves in class, we could be the ones to carry them out.

but aren't you saying to yourself right now, you did WHAT at the gym?

a day of raising money...

today my class held a bake sale at school to raise money for Project Love. Project Love is a program through CODE that sends school supply kits to kids in a country in Africa. this year, the designated country is Tanzania. my students brainstormed ways that we could raise money to make our kits and came up with bake sale and bottle drive. so my 12 grade 3 and 4s brought baking (and actually i only had 7 of them today because of sickness/snow) and we baked some cookies and brownies this morning as well then sold them at recess, lunch and after school. in our little school of 55 kids, we raised about $90!

then, i took in all the recycling that we've been collecting and stinking up our classroom with for a week and made another $62!

so on february 14th, 12 kids from canada will be assembling SIXTY EIGHT school supply kits to send to tanzania! i'm pretty pumped.

in other fundraising news, i will be participating in Fit for Heart - a 2 hour workout class on February 16. my gym, VRC, is holding this class to raise money for the Heart and Stroke Foundation and people participating are to raise that money. gym members can also bring 1 friend for the class. sooo...(you can see where this is going right?) if you'd like to support me by donating you know, like a couple bucks to Heart and Stroke, that would be awesome. let me know when i can pick up that toonie before the 16th. IF you'd like to be my one friend who comes to the class with me (which by the way would be awesome to have a friend because i always work out alone), let me know that too! it's going to be a combination of step, bootcamp, and cardio salsa. woohoo. thanks!

rebecca sews: a pillow.

that's a flat felled seam down the middle and can you see the darts?

the zipper.

something i learned in sewing class this week - i'm not a perfectionist. i just cut kind of on the line, sew around 5/8ths, and sort of round off the corners. sure, this might not sound like a big deal...when it comes to pillows. but i think it might be a big deal when it comes to well-fitting clothes. shoot. i'm going to have to work on this.

they hatched!!!

in fact, when i got to school today, there were still some eggs and a few alevin swimming around. alevin is the name for the first hatched salmon. they have a yolk sack attached to them which is what they eat and as they eat it, it gets smaller and smaller. so right now, they'renot great swimmers because this heavy yolk sack is hanging off their fronts. they seem to mostly be sitting around with a few wild tail flicks here and there. most of the alevin are hiding in the redd (the pile of rocks in the middle of the tank) so we can only see a few. pictures will be up tomorrow. i'm SO happy they hatched - i was starting to worry!

mom and kids camp

today at missionsfest, i walked around with a couple for girls from my class. met a guy from camp luther which is apparently a camp in mission. who knew? and he said to me, "yeah, there's a great mom and kids camp you guys could go to together." are you kidding me?

and if you don't like that anecdote from the day, maybe you'll like this one: i stopped at starbucks this morning before meeting up with the bus from school. i was standing in line when this guy came in and walked past me towards the end of the line but he stared a little strangely at me as he walked by. so now he's standing behind me and i satrt wondering, "is my hair sticking up? does my ponytail look funny?" so i start playing with my hair a little and the guy says, "you look fine." awkward. i made a couple jokes.

oh yeah - and they said they'd hatch today

but the salmon were lying. probably they'll all die from overexposure to light because we checked so many times. well - that's a little extreme but they'll for sure hatch for the kindergarteners who are looking after our tank tomorrow. shoot.

confession

i've been wearing running pants under my clothes all week because i've been so cold. i have to wear my slightly too big pants to fit my running pants under. i'm feeling a little bulky.

isn't anyone else cold? is there anyone else wearing longjohns or something? how could it just be me? no one else is looking fatter than usual because of the layers of clothes.

[and before synchyshyn makes a snappy comment about how she lives in much colder weather, to my defense, i bring my colleague sally, alberta born and raised. she says (and i quote) "it's a different kind of cold here. it gets into your bones and even though it's only 0 degrees, it feels a lot colder than -5 in alberta."]

rebecca sews.

not in straight lines. and not quickly. but sews nonetheless.

last night i began the saga that will be known as "sewing lessons". it was an interesting mix of people. one very negative, recently retired woman who has never sewn before who would put herself down for being so stupid then tell herself that it was okay and she was going to master it (yes, all aloud). a girl who looked like maybe gr.12. a mid-thirties woman. a super conservative mother and definitely homeschooled daughter in long jean skirts. and me. loving the variety.

so we got down to business right away sewing different types of seams then pinning them into our booklet of instructions. the instructor suggested we put each page of our instructions in a plastic page protector and then into a binder and while it sounds super keen...i still want to do it. here's my example of a flat felled seam - you might see these on the side of your jeans or something.

okay - so it's a little hard to see but too hard to pass up showing you.

in three hours, i sewed a few practice seams, cut out one side of my pillow fabic, sewed 7 darts, and then sewed the two pieces of my pillow together (but the middle seam is unfinished). and this is what that looks like:

you may be wondering why my pillow has darts but it's really just to learn how to do them. next week my pillow will be finished and i'll be moving onto yoga pants. ...really? from pillow to pants? we'll see...

so sewing wasn't exactly what i expected. i think i thought it would be easier. that straight lines wouldn't be so hard to come by. i had to learn to measure in inches - they're divided into 8s. weird. and sewing seems to go hand in hand with ironing since we were ironing every other seam that we sewed so that it would lay flat. i may need to take a course in ironing next. but despite all this, i'm not totally turned off. i can picture all the great things i'll be making in the future. and that is what i thought about while i sewed my darts.

salmon update

the salmon survived the weekend! due to hatch on thursday...

this is what the tank looks like, all covered up with styrofoam. and yes, the yellow bucket is supposed to be there - reminding everyone not to turn on the hot water tap. the rocks are on top of the tank holding the styrofoam down because the pop bottles of ice are trying to pop the lid off.

can you see them? they're small and pink - you can see a couple on top of the rocks and then lots around the bottom.

(after i took this photo, i wondered if it was healthy for those eggs who shouldn't have any light to have a major camera flash. oops...what am i doing raising salmon?)

i didn't tell these kids to pose. this is really how intensely they inspect the tank when we open it up. (umm - it is pretty cool if you look closely because you can see the little eye through the egg and they wiggle. for real.)

according to our estimates based on the temperature of the water, the eggs should hatch thursday BUT if they don't, we're going on an all day fieldtrip on friday so we might miss them hatching and they'll just all be swimming around on monday. oh man.

inspiration for sharelle

a similie haiku:

the gray clouds linger
like cigarette smoke in my
corduroy jacket

(no, i don't even own a corduroy jacket - that's how poetic it is.)

a girl of simple tastes...

that is what i am.

i haven't spoken of this on the blog yet, but since november, i have been counting points. if you're familiar with the weight watchers lingo, you'll already know that all food has a certain amount of points as figured out by some mathmatical equation using the calories, fat, and fibre. so for example, a piece of dempsters bread is 2 points or an egg is 2 points but a handful of potato chips is 6 - 7points. so based on your height, weight, job, etc - you're allowed a certain amount everyday. mine is 22 a day. sure, there are many an argument against WW and their points but there are also many success stories. and i'm loving it. i am counting points somewhat illegally because i'm not signed up with WW but instead, my support meetings take place on thursday nights when i get together with liz. if you'd like to know more, maybe you'd also like to count points and meet with us on thursdays, (or not count points but just want to see me get weighed in every thursday) send me a message on FB or email. it's a great program if you don't eat chips all day as your points. not that i've considered that...

so back to the post title - a girl of simple tastes. you can imagine that if you're are counting points, it gets a little obsessive feeling. you regard food as points and ask yourself questions such as, "is this chocolate cookie point-worthy?". so when i eat "bad" foods, i have started only eating my most favourite things because why waste points on something you don't even like that much? i'm sure you can see the logic. so my favourite point indulgence is a Wendy's Jr. Hamburger and fries combo. if i have the burger with no mayo and only one half of the bun, the meal is about 11 points. pretty decent. however, when friends want to go out for dinner at a restaurant, i'm sometimes thinking to myself that there is nothing point-worthy there and i'd really just like to eat wendys. it's a terrible affliction to love fries so much. my mom jokes that "fuh-fies" was one of my first words as a child. thankfully, i have fantastic friends who let me drag them to wendys for lunch after church instead of somewhere nice. and it's always the best meal i've ever had.

because what can i say? i have simple tastes.

the cd...

it even has the version of "anyone else but you" with michael cera and ellen page singing on it.

tales from the gym

wednesday nights are boot camp night as i've recently started going to this new class...umm called bootcamp. so it's super intense and when i think i can do no more, the instructor says, "okay, our warm up is finished!" yep.

so at one point, half the class was on bikes and half the class was doing something with the step and then we'd switch - intervals. so i'm pedaling away on the bike and the guy one bike down from me says, "we should turn this fan on." which was facing us. smile and nod since i can't muster any breath to say anything. then we switch to the step for a minute, then return to the bikes. as i'm adjusting my feet on the pedals, the guy says something to me. you've got to picture the atmosphere - loud music, the instructor calling out things, people on bikes etc. so i say, "what?". he says it again...it sounded like something to do with apples. so again, i say, "what?" he replies a 3rd time, "do you like apples?" i'm like, "yeahh..." [macdonald stare] and he points at the fan he's just turned on and says, "how do you like them apples?" oh my goodness. i cannot believe i just worked so hard to get me to hear that. i just laughed.

now, guys are not often in these group classes so it's always a little funny when they are there because, while it doesn't seem silly for women to be exercising in unison, it just seems a little silly for men. i guess it's stereotypes. but last night, i was at a stength class with weights and mats and stuff which is an hour long. there were these two total gym-like guys who are not the type to come to a class but this one guy, a lot of people seemed to know. classic tanned waxed chest with the tanktop that has a neckline that comes down really low so you can see his muscles (but he's like 40) it was funny. anyways, back to the class, they do the same succession of strength exercises each class for a few weeks so you get used to the routine and then they change it. so the last 4 times i've gone, there's this move that is apparently working your shoulder rotator cuff. i've never been able to do it. maybe i have too much weight for the exercise but it's so awkward. well last night, i finally was able to do a few more than usual and trying not to audibly grunt, i worked that rotator cuff with a few breaks. then when we're done, tank top buddy says loudly to the instructor, "hey! that girl right there (pointing at me) didn't do all the reps. i was watching - she cheated." haha. some subsequent jokes were made about why he was even watching me and i of course threw in the joke that that many reps was more than usual. but it was pretty random.

despite being a cheater, my rotator cuffs are sore today.

all the salmon will die...

in a bout of ambitious summer planning, i contacted someone about having a tank in my classroom for raising salmon. i was warned, "it takes a lot of work". but my ambitious, summer (vacationing) self said, "no problem".

and then in december i attended a workshop on how to set up my tank and everything i should know. the woman leading it told us wide-eyed teachers that if tap water gets into the tank, all the salmon will die. if the temperature rises above 10 degrees, all teh salmon will die. if the ammonia levels get too high, all the salmon will die. if they get too much light, all the salmon will die. i commented to the person next to me, "i'm starting to get nervous about this..." and the leader overheard and said to me, " you SHOULD be nervous. it's an accident waiting to happen. and if you kill them all, the students will call you salmon killer." shoot...

so for the past couple weeks, i've been preparing the students for the salmon's fragility. "they could all die." "no, really. they might all die. and that would be okay." nonetheless, the kids are unbelieveably excited about our salmon...though they keep mentioning eating them.

i told the janitor that i was getting salmon eggs and he laughed. "do you remember the two ferns you used to have in here?" (i killed them.)

despite my poor reputation, the eggs arrived yesterday. 80 chum salmon. due to hatch in approximately 8 days. our water won't stay cold enough so we have to keep changing frozen pop bottles of ice in and out of the tank all day. last night, i put 3 frozen bottles in and this morning, the temperature of the tank was at 12 degrees. we've now gotten it back down to 10.

but so far, all the salmon are not dead.

in error...

www.photoboothvancouver.com

i spelled it wrong in an earlier post.

but the website is looking awesome as it develops. sweeeeet!

skiing

i have not been on my downhill skis since the beginning of '06. yes, i'm serious. i own the gear and never even went skiing last year. but not so this year. tim, matt, and i headed to manning park this past saturday for a little ski time. matt invested in skis, bindings, poles, boots, snowpants, googles, and a touque this week so we thought we should take him out. good times.

i admit, i was sad to be missing my saturday morning step class but as it turns out, i'd forgotten what a workout skiing is. my legs were killing me on my first run. i thought that i'd do great this year since i'm in much better shape than two years ago, but it didn't seem to matter. i stuck with the green runs, sometimes having to go by myself so that the boys could go do blue, and in my alone time on the mountain, i decided that skiing is not my thing. i'm not having fun going down the hill - i'm desperately trying to stay up. i'm am in constant fear that i'm going to fall. it shouldn't matter so much - oh well you fall - but it matters to me. i fell once. lots of snow p the jacket. had to take the one ski off to climb up the hill to get my other ski that had fallen off and then i couldn't for the life of me get the skis back on. i eventually got them on and finished the run but i didn't want to go back out. it was reminicient of night skiing in grade 9, ang. i wanted to sit it out. BUT i stuck it out, kept doing the greens and made it through the day. maybe skiing would grow on me if i went more often than once every two years. i'll have to try that out. i think i'll invest in a new pair of goggles though - the ones in the picture are from grade 7 and when i'd wear them, air was still coming up into my eyes and they left tiny foam chunks on my face when i took them off. haha.

as for matt - he's a natural at every sport so it didn't matter that he'd only been on skis a total of 4 times - he was great. i'm going to HAVE to get better because it's beginning to look like a family sport.

into the wild

a couple weeks ago, tim and i went to see "into the wild" in theatres with some friends. it is quite the movie. if you haven't heard of it - in a nutshell: a guy out of college, gives away all his money, and he travels around the US with nothing but the things he carries in his backpack with the ultimate goal of getting to alaska and living in the wild. now, i'm not a philisophical person and don't usually go too deep into the movies or books i encounter so you'll have to see it yourself and see what you make of it. but when we came out of the theatre, if we hadn't been with people, it's the kind of movie where you think you might cry the whole way home but you're not sure. it's amazing. see it.

super interested in the story behind the movie, i borrowed the book from a friend and read it this week. the movie is fairly identical to the movie which is great excpet the book adds a lot more thought and theories on the main character's reason for his actions and come comparisons to other people in history. an interesting read. read it.

then tim and i were in future shop and came across the soundtrack for the movie. eddie vedder wrote 10 of the 11 songs for the movie and performs them all. if you like eddie - this is a phenomenal cd. eddie and a guitar for most of the songs. so good. listen to it.

i can't stop thinking about this movie - it stays with you. february 12 - out on dvd. let me know what you think.

teacher shulba...

so, first week back has actually been good. it's hard to leave vacation but i definitely felt the benefits of rest and relaxation when getting back into the classroom. less easily irritated, more patience, more laughs with the kids - it's been a good week. some random stories?

whenever kids come up and ask me how to spell something, i always say, "how do you think you spell it?" and then they spell it out for me and i help them correct it. but man, wouldn't that get annoying as a kid? haha.

trying to drink more water at school has meant going to the washroom more which is okay because my class is quite well behaved if i'm out of the room for a minute. but the other day when they were writing in their planners and getting lined up to go to the gym, i slipped out quickly to go to the washroom (which is across the hall from my class) and there's a knock on the door and i hear a student call, "mrs. shulba?". so i say, "go away, i'll be out in a second!" embarrassing. so i come out and say to that student, "what could you possibly have to ask me that you would come and knock on the bathroom door?" and he says, "i wanted to know if we were going to have to run laps." oh my goodness.

in Bible class, the kids were following along with me in their Bibles while i read them a story about David and Saul from 1Samuel. it happened to be the story where Saul tells David to go and bring him back 400 foreskins. "what's a foreskin?" umm...when they're following along with you reading, you can't just skip over things. haha.

in p.e., we've started basketball. it's amazing how athletic my class is. i was avoiding playing a real basketball game with them because i thought it would be too frustrating but then we tried it when the gr.5s went with the 6/7s for p.e. and the 3/4s were awesome. one game that we play most days to practice shooting though is HORSE. that's where when a kid shoots a basket and if he misses, he gets the first letter: H. then when it's their turn again, if they miss they get the next lett: O. the last person standing without spelling the word HORSE is the winner. so one group was playing and the winning student yells out at the end, "i'm a HOR!" i laughed outloud. i love that they're still pretty innocent in grades 3 and 4.

all days in the life of mrs. shulba.

most suprising christmas gift of 07

a cd - the wailin' jennys - from tim.

the day before christmas, we each picked a gift to give to each other to open early. he hands me a cd-shaped package. "oh - thanks" giggle. rip rip rip. "hunh. the wailin' jennys?" "yeah, i really researched this to find you a new band that i thought you'd like." "hmm...thanks." "let's open and listen to it." "wellll...it looks country. did you buy it because you thought you'd like it?" "no - it's folky. sarah harmer like." "well, let's listen to some clips before we open it in case i don't like it." "okaay..." music music music. "sure, let's open it. it sounds okay."

as it turns out, (poor tim) it's the greatest cd and i've listened to it non-stop since christmas day. i love every song, no skipping certain ones. it is a little country - i can't deny it. but still fantastic. soo...

if you want to hear them with tim and i on february 8th, they're playing in Harrison Hot Springs (of all places...i don't think they're too big) and it's only something like $18. sweet!

i recommend a listen. even if it's just on itunes and not at the concert way out in the boonies.

the most coveted party favour ever...

so...greatest invention ever - the photobooth. when my friends and i were in grade 8 and 9, there was a black and white photobooth in Bootlegger at the mall and we would go as a group with our coins in hand and stay at bootlegger foreva eva, getting in and out of the photobooth. seriously hours. we'd plan the poses for each shot, people would jump in and out of the booth between shots. it was much fun. and these photos were the only things in our little wallets for many years.



i think i may have forgotten the fun of the photobooth...until last night.



domi and ang have created a photobooth. for real. with a screen and a camera and printer in a giant box like thing. apparently domi has one in hawaii and has rented it out at wedding receptions and it's been a big hit. and now they've made one here. http://www.photoboothvancouver.com/ . one cost, unlimited pics, greatest invention ever. well done dolientes! can't wait to see it up and running somewhere.



what event do you have coming up that you need a photobooth for? guarenteed hit.

happy new year!

christmas 2007

merry christmas! i think we can still say it up until january, right? though i said it to someone accidently at church today and they laughed at me and said "happy new year." hmm...

-

so as always, the shulba christmas took place on christmas eve. we tried something new - cooking food on stones. yes, marble stones with fuel under them like fondue... i was definitely unsure of how this would work and whether we'd be waiting a long time to eat but what better time to try them out on an evening you have no where else to be except sitting around with family chatting? and as it turned out, they worked great. they're quite fun. and healthy really - tiny portions of meat and vegetables? it was very good.

prawns were my favourite...i ate 17. so maybe it's not necessarily portion control...

-

and then on to christmas morning at the macdonald household. we forgot to take pictures of us around the tree opening presents but we had a great time nonetheless. judy served up a great turkey meal and we remembered to take a couple photos then. (and i know you're wondering - but it's blueberry juice.) :)

and of course we gamed it up throughout the day. good times.

-

hope you all had a great celebration as well!

poached eggs anyone?

this is just a little by the way...because i couldn't let this information pass by me without passing it on to all other egg poachers out there...

yesterday when i was on the treadmill, there were two tvs in front of me - one had the news on and the other had the food network. i don't know who picks these channels but i did not. anyways, watching the food network and some girl was making a breakfast meal blah blah blah and she was going to make poached eggs (you know, when you crack the egg into the boiling water and then take it out in 3 min) and these were her tips:

[wait, let's insert here that i make poached eggs all the time and the problem is that when you drop them in, even if you do it gently from a little cup or something, the white part spreads everywhere and doesn't cook with the yolk. you may not care but people who poach are feeling my pain.]

so the tips:

crack the egg into a little bowl or cup first. (i already do that)
turn the heat down a little so it's not crazy boiling when you drop the egg. (i already do that)
stir the water (whatever.)
add a tsp. of vinegar before adding the egg.

so yesterday and today? added the vinegar and WOW!!! HUGE difference! the egg doesn't fly all apart in the boiling bubbles - it stays together! you have to try it.

then the woman on the stepper behind me (who apparently had the remote) changed from the foodnetwork channel to the news. the SAME news that was on the tv right next to it. so now i had two tvs with the same thing on it while i finished my intervals. i turned around and looked at her to try to show that i was watching this egg poaching penomenon but she ignored me.

at least i learned about the vinegar.

inspiration (or...you did what?)

so with the lack of blogging from people i know, i've had to resort to reading the blogs of people i don't know. on my google reader list i have been keeping up with these two blogs: Soule Mama and Wee Wonderfuls. two very crafty, sew-y, inspiring blogs. they make you want to be able to sew. seriously. so after a monh or so of reading...i've decided to do something about it...

i signed up for a beginner sewing class!

i know, its almost as shocking as me signing up for the triathlon (i said, almost) but i just think it would be so great to be able to whip up cute shirts or sew baby clothes for your friends' baby showers with the fabric that you get to choose. then i could learn to make quilts. the ideas are really getting out of hand.

so if you feel the inspiration with me, by chance, and want to learn to sew yourself...consider coming to abbotsford for 4 mondays starting jan 21 from 6 - 9pm with me. it's going to great.

i saw it...

juno.

it was awesome. when it comes out in theatres near you - go see it.

where can you see preschoolers singing, choirs rejoicing, skits like you've never seen before, all in one night? agassiz! see if the grade 3 4 5 class pulled it together and memorized all their lines in one week. come one, come all, to our christmas production wednesday night at 7pm. maybe if you're in the neighbourhood. haha. okay, i know, i know - you're not coming. but one year, i'll put out the invitation and someone will come and it'll be great. :) yay for jamie, judy, and tim for their faithful attending every year! see you tomorrow!

relax - it's just christmas shopping...

i started today. christmas shopping. after a long day at work, i went straight to winner's and wandered around. then to costco. then to walmart. then to the mall. then to future shop. and it was a great evening.

if you don't let yourself get too uptight about 10 person line or the fact that you had to park far away from the door and then walk in the rain - it's not so bad. i'm definitely a "wander till you find something you think they'll like" kind of christmas shopper. sometimes i have some pre-shopping ideas but most often i don't. i think it's less stressful. i'm not really looking for anything...just looking.

so if you still haven't started your christmas shopping, take a deep breath and remind yourself that giving is about the thought - not the amount of money. there's nothing that any of us NEED so it's all a little bit extra and that should be fun to shop for. smile at the people behind the counter because no doubt they're stressed and if you're shopping for someone who's hard to buy for, costco has a great deal on movie tickets. :) just so you know.

happy shopping.

for sharelle...

biggest mandarin ever.

no juno?

i have been waiting for the movie juno in great anticipation ever since i saw the preview at some other movie. it has my favourites, michael cera and jason bateman, and looked great (in that artsy, film festival way that makes some of you not want to go see it). tonight, we were excited to go see it since i'd heard it was out in theatres.

I CAN'T FIND IT!

in a deeper search on the the juno website i found that there are some free screenings over the next couple weeks. only ONE in vancouver on wed. dec. 19 at 7pm. if you live in vancouver, i suggest signing up for free tickets at 5th ave cinema - find more details on the website. also, you edmonton-ites also get a couple free screenings. but alas, i cannot go because it's our christmas program at school that night. sigh. but i guess we can go another night. :)

oh the propaganda

in case you don't buy 12-packs of diet cokes, i thought i should let you know some very interesting facts that are now written on the side of the box:

"Refreshing. Uplifting. Hydrating? It's true. Research shows that all beverages contribute to proper hydration. That means wether it's your first can of the day or your afternoon pick-me-up, Diet Coke helps you stay hydrated throughout the day. So stick with the Diet Coke taste you love. Your body will thank you for it."

who's buying this (the words above, not the diet coke itself...i'm buying that.)? your first can of the day? your body will thank you for it? oh man. too funny.

calorie counter...

i found a site that you can type in all the ingredients of a recipe and it will calculate how many calories, fat, fiber etc is in each serving.

http://www.calorie-count.com/calories/recipe_analysis.php

just in case any of you were wishing you had such a tool.

you've heard the ads...

but will 10,000 songs on our phone really give us joy this christmas?

the clock is ticking...

as we come down to christmas vacation, it also means the christmas program and this year...i'm at a loss. two years ago i searched and searched for a skit online that could accomodate 22 kids. one year ago, i wrote a skit. this year? i'm out of ideas.

HELP! Au Secour!

sooo...any ideas for a clever skit? any links to skits? anyone already written a christmas related skit with 16 parts and at a grade 4 reading level? haha.

no but seriously - i need a premise for a skit so that i can write one.

some time on your hands?

so you know when you have a little time to kill and you're on the internet but there's nothing new on facebook or the blogroll? what do you do? i hate to admit it but sometimes i play yahtzee online. so today, i'm having a snowday! school was very unexpectedly cancelled (unexpectedly because agassiz never seems to cancel) and there's a few minutes until something on tv comes on.

so...i went to the yahtzee page. and i get this blank screen with this message: this page is unavailable due to excessive traffic. sorry for the inconvenience.

excessive traffic? so what? doesn't one want excessive traffic at their page? anyways...now it's gone and i'm sure i could find it elsewhere but i liked this version. and i really should find something more useful to do with me time. ha.

what do you do with your spare minutes on the internet...i'll be needing some new ideas.

does anyone else feel like this?

so once december hits, christmas shopping is on for me. however, i tend to find lots of things that i'd like. but you're not allowed to buy them because you're shopping for others. so...despite this rule, i bought myself a christmas present today. augh. i hate people like me. but anyways...what do you think? it's real leather even though it looks a little shiny in this picture. worth keeping?