And the catch is...

D wants to make sure he's done with his Ph.D. before we go on the East Coast tour we're planning. So... it may have to wait until spring break 2009 if he isn't done by the end of summer 2008. The good news is that their next trip to LA will probably provide the last bit of data he needs to get writing on his dissertation. Luckily his comps paper (paper in preparation for the thesis) was much longer than normal and much of it can be reused in his thesis. By his calculations, the comps paper will probably end up being about 1/3 of his final thesis. He's staying on here until May/June 2009 regardless of when he finishes so that he can help his advisor finish off this grant, and then he looks for a real job, wherein he will quickly make more money than me and can start paying off his student loans. :-)

I told him I am throwing him a huge-ass party when he finishes.

A professional?

I just had an interesting thought. Along with feeling more like I know what the heck is going on in school (as in I'm not totally lost!), colleagues are actually starting to come to me and ask me questions about stuff. Not much really, but just details of when things are supposed to happen, which students are involved in activities, asking me to help setting up grade scales on the computer, etc. Maybe it's because I'm the only one who actually reads my email. :-)

But it does make me feel like I'm not the "new kid" around here any more...I'm actually an established member of the team who might know the answers to some questions. Nice.

Unrelated but mildly interesting: fall TV premiere week! New Heroes and Dancing with the Stars and The Office! Woo hoo! I do need to find some work to do during those shows, though. Maybe sorting or pre-cropping pictures for my albums, since I've got a ton of those to do now.

A perfect fall day

Our temperatures have been strangely seesawing the past week, between nearly 80 some days to frost warnings last night. Today it's a comfortable 65, with a beautiful sunny sky. Perfect day for a football game, or for catching up on some paperwork and other work that needs to be done. This probably includes picking up the kitchen, which is a bit trashed because we had friends over for dinner last night. Beer brats, corn on the cob, acorn squash, rosemary roasted potatoes, and (store-bought) cheesecake were on the menu. We played Ticket to Ride, one of our new favorite games (although we still might prefer The Settlers of Catan).

I just got my first check with my raise for this year, and because of the bump last year when they started paying me for my Master's, it's pretty nice. Think I'll max out my Roth IRA and put some more money into short-term savings too. We've been kicking around the idea of an East Coast tour next summer, since people we know have moved to Maine, Rhode Island, New York, DC, and South Carolina in the last few years. Working our way from north to south or vice versa might be really enjoyable. If we're going to do it, though, we should probably start saving now.

Later: Prairie Home Companion and dinner, then watching The Bourne Identity with popcorn and snuggly husband. Nice reward for getting some work done today!

New year, new kids, thank goodness!

I just realized I hadn't yet posted since school started. The last three weeks have been insanity itself, but it's just now slowing down to the point where I'm catching my breath again. Kinda.

After Australia, I spent a week in Denver helping my mom recover from knee surgery #2. I arrived back home a whopping 2 days before school started...we had a Monday inservice day, then the kids arrived on Tuesday. Even though I was fairly ready before I left the country, I still felt like I was being rushed into the new school year headlong! It went well, though.

The kids this year are a WORLD away from last year's hellions. Last year made me start considering other career options. This year, so far, is doing a pretty good job of reminding me why I loved teaching in the first place. I actually am spending some time teaching this year, go figure! When you don't have to spend all your time disciplining and trying to motivate kids who just don't care, you can actually spend your time teaching kids who are interested and engaged (at least most of the time). I mean, I ask them to sit down and be quiet, and they do it! It's incredible! My homeroom had 2 study hall days in a row and they sat there quietly and read books or did homework! For 50 minutes! 2 days in a row!

I know it's a lot of exclamation points but I think you get the idea. We are starting a new curriculum this year, which is difficult because I'm not familiar with the lessons and have to spend much more time planning. However, I really feel that it's a much stronger, more coherent, more challenging curriculum, so I don't mind putting in the time to really understand what's going on. Plus, it has actual lesson plans. Like suggestions for introducing the lesson and background information on the activities and common pitfalls and how to wrap up the topics. Before, all we got was a mostly useless textbook and a pat on the back. This one has a teacher's guide that's actually readable, accessible, and organized. What, you say? Guidance for what to teach and how to teach it? Impossible! Yes, friends, it's true. I'm trying everything in the book for now--next year I'll decide what to keep and what to ditch based on what works this year.

D and I had a nice weekend wherein we stayed home and did nothing social-wise. We have been super busy with friends and went to WI last weekend, so I just wanted a weekend to ourselves. We finally caught up on Big Love episodes and watched some Arrested Development on DVD from Netflix. Good times.