Sunday, January 30, 2005


Tom of the stitches. Yep, he got hurt at work on Friday. After 3 days home sick. Hmmmm I guess he should not have gone back yet. Posted by Hello

view from balcony area to the first floor. Extra bedroom and bathroom up here and sort of a living space in the front. This house is perfect for parties. You can see everyone and everything. Posted by Hello

Upstairs, is a balcony set up and you can see too the front door. That space up there will look really cool at Christmas next year. They have the tile there in and are working on the electric and the floor soon. Posted by Hello

Kitchen cabinets. Cherry, the fireplace will match this. Posted by Hello

Moms fireplace at the condo. Going to be stained cherry. Posted by Hello

Here is the tall peice. :) Posted by Hello

Finally got the new furniture up, not sure that i posted any pictures. Posted by Hello

Thursday, January 20, 2005

oh my - the blog blew up

Well, I can actually say that I have finally had the blog blow up on me.
I spent all morning writing a long - very long- post and wham, it blew up. I should have known. Oh my....
So, where do I begin again.......
SURPRISE, I started this post and did a quick post, even though I was not done and it found the old post - the really long one. Hurray.
Things lose too much of their spontinaity when I have to rewrite them. I know I tell the students to rewrite, rewrite and rewrite. But that is for a formal paper, not something that is more like a informal email or something.
Anyway, happy to say it found my post.
Enjoy
Tam

Oops, I got busy with EQ2 again....

Hi all, ummm, long time no blog. I can not believe how behind I am.

Well, I checked out Naarah's blog and realized that wow, she has posted more than I have in the last 3 weeks. That is Bad.....
Ok, stuff from Naarah's blog must comment on. Found the quiz page -
More cool things for your blog at Blogthings
Took a few quizzes. I hate the answers you have to answer the questions with.. ugh
Anyway - I have linguistic intelligence. Hmm. I could have told you that one.
My element on first look is Earth, then I went back for the other answers I like and got Fire. Earth works for me, accept for the description that went with it.
The Soul quiz said that I am a Visionary soul and am compatible with an Old Soul or a Peacemaking soul. I think that describes Tom...
Then I hit the number quiz and found out I'm Loyal - hmm what a surprise and they rate me a 6. Not that I understand that.
I was going to put up here the list they have for "you are addicted to Buffy (the Vampire Slayer), but that list was even too much for me. First - it was too long. Second - most of it wasn't funny. Third - they went overboard - saying things like "you are considered a stalker by the cast." and Fourth - who ever wrote it, doesn't know enough about the cute things from the show.
What's up in life? Let's see. Tom and I finally put together all the bedroom pieces. We now have bedside tables, a tall skinny dresser, and a short fat dresser. Some clothes have made their way into the drawers. Still working out what goes where. I need to get bolts to put the headboard on correctly. I think I might not need to swap the frame out with mom. Ours may be ok, her mattress must have been much thicker than ours.
Snow, I am tired of it. I have been hiding in the basement a lot, ignoring that it is outside. Playing Everquest 2, you can say all you want about it, I like it. It is great for playing by myself. I don't feel pressured to "find a Group" all the time and when Tom wants to play, then I go back him up. I spend a lot of time "Making stuff", I haven't made any money doing that yet. But that is ok. I keep finding things that other people want, and that is doing me very well in the money department. Ok, enough about a game.
Work - That is the school thing right? I guess you can say it is going ok. We just started the new semester and so, I am trying to get the students to re-evaluate their goals. Ha ha. Actually, I am trying to get them to realize that if they do their homework, they might just pass my class.
I have some students who have come back from hospital stays, long suspensions and other things. They are acting like I have to spoon feed them stuff. Not going to happen. They are supposed to come talk to me, I very much doubt that is going to happen. I failed one, and will probably fail 2 others very shortly. I am not going to wait around for them to do past work.
PLAY - They want me to put on a play. They even got someone to write the script so that we don't have to pay for one. The problem is, that they are not planning to give me time to actually work with the students. Ok, sure I know I'll have to spend my own time on this. BUT - my problem and most of the teachers here agree with me. Our school day is SUPPOSED to end at 2:30pm. It says it in all the hand books, in all the paperwork that they gave us at the beginning of the year.
Instead they force us all to stay until 3:30pm WITH STUDENTS, everyday. We have been given back our first hour classes, and are forced to try to teach them something - after they and us (the teachers) have become so worn out. 7:00am to be here, 7:30 am in class until 3:30pm in class - is pushing it. The students do not get a choice, they have to stay here until 3:30pm. I think that sucks. SO, now they changed things this semester and we don't have clubs and as far as I can tell - they want me to stay even later everyday to do the play.
I'm already NOT being paid for the extra hour that we are actually just BABYSITTING the students, and now I have to stay After that to do the play. If I had that 2:30 to 3:30 to work with students for the play - we might have a deal. I don't care how much money they are giving me compared to last year. I can still make more in another district.
Tom - Home sick today. Probably playing Everquest 2. He needed a day off. It just helps to show how badly they need to switch out the girl who is trying to be his line leader. Oh, she is just bad. She called at 5am bugging Tom about how to fix something. She should know how to do that already. ugh poor Tom.
Basement - Did you know we are lazy? Yep, the basement. Well, it's still there, we now have TiVo, and ummm. That's about it. No, we have not trashed it. I still need to move my computer, Tom is banishing me to upstairs. I have to get cables to finish that. I have to admit though, we have done more work on the house in the last 7 months, than we have done the entire time we have lived there. I think it will be 5 years this summer. I think we moved in July of 2000. Not, to say I never did any work outside. I think that is where I usually start. Have to clean up the flower beds again. ugh (and get the sprinkler sys working again.)
Ah, life in a house.
later
Tam

Tuesday, January 11, 2005

My score

I did the emotional thing that Naarah found and I scored a 93, which means I am very average. Gee what a surprise.
My problem is that it only gave you two possible answers and on many of the questions I did not feel that either answer was appropriate for me to use in response to the question. I left at least one blank, and wanted to leave another blank - but it wouldn't let me unclick - just pick the other answer.
Here is the website.
What's Your EQ (Emotional Intelligence Quotient)?

SNOW - is anyone else sick of it yet. We haven't had this much snow in years. Ok, I probably said that last year, and It was true of last year, but this year is even worse.
The snow doesn't even get a chance to melt and here it comes again. Ok, so tomorrow it is supposed to be like 45- 50 degrees - are they crazy. Then down to 1 degree on FRIDAY. I heard them use a term called SLU-MENT this morning on the radio. That is slush and water and everything FROZEN solid. I certainly won't be pushing that around with a plastic shovel.
Oh yeah - I'm counting. I am counting the number of times I have had to shovel snow this year. I am at 5 or 6 since the first of January. Tom has helped ONCE. Hmmmm

SCHOOL - tired - almost feel sick. Have a headache again today. Giving exams is a pain in the rear. I gave them a crossword puzzle of 33 of the 100 words they learned over the semester. Some of them have been acting like it is the worst thing ever. I love it. I didn't use definitions, I used sentences that use the words in them. WOW, they had to think. Unfortunately it is taking them 2 hours or more to finish it. I didn't think it was that hard. Oh well.

I have 1/2 the finals graded. I have a small section of their stories graded, I have figured out what work was laying around that I needed to put in the computer. Hmm, I guess I got some stuff done today. I can't decide, am I staying for the Basketball game, or going home after the meeting. I guess I could get some more work done - if I stay.. So, what's for dinner.

Have a nice day. I have Martin Luther King Jr.'s Day off on Monday. What are you doing?
later
Tam

Friday, January 07, 2005

FINAL EXAMS

Wow, I forgot how much fun Final exams are....... (NOT)

Yes, I actually had to write and give a final exam. I have one hour left of giving exams. I have a student still working right now. He is a slow reader, and should have a file. But you know how it is in a charter school - IEP or 504 status, what's that....

Anyway- I don't think they all failed. I think some did ok.


SNOW DAY - oh yes. A snow day - that was January 6th 2005. I didn't get one snow day last year, and I had to drive over an hour to get to work.... Hmmm, I only drive a 1/2 hour now. I wonder what this means...... I like this new job. At least for the snow day. LOL

What else? Mom decided on a Condo. She ordered all the upgrades and stuff this past week. I have no idea when she will get to move in. But, I'm guess it might be a slow process so she can get some painting done?? I know that Mike will get rangled into adding pot lights in the ceilings and some other things. I guess I can help... lol
Time to start working on our house again. I have bedroom furniture now. I have to put it together and get things organized, UGH - I hate that word. Still have tons of painting and stuff to do.

Oh man, I have to go do a couple things.
later
Tammy

Wednesday, January 05, 2005

Final Exams

UGH - I feel like I am the one who has to take the final exam. UGH

Yes, it is that time of year. Hopefully Tomorrow will be a snow day and I can put it off another day.
Oh yeah, today - all of Monroe county has a snow day. NOT FAIR.
Do the snow dance for me tonight.
Tam

Monday, January 03, 2005

Happy New What???

Oh my, yes it is the New Year - 2005 to be exact.
Now - do I really want it to be the new year? Yes, considering the insanity that was involved in 2004, sure.
Had to go back to work today. I am once again avoiding writing a final exam by typing on my blog. Hmmm, great idea.
Reading other peoples blogs. Matt - Tales of a Shrink - I'll warn you - if you consider yourself rather conservative, you might not want to visit his blog. I enjoy it greatly though - having lived in "Fashionable Ferndale" myself. I met Matt on New Year's eve at Carrie's house. She is rather slow about updating her blogs. She worked for John Kerry's campaign, so check her blog at your own risk. She has great stories, when she remembers to blog. It's been a while.


Welcome to the blog - those of you who finally now have the address, because of my x-mas cards. I printed some pictures (sorry to those who didn't get them) for the first 30 cards I mailed. I was out of ink and way out of time for the rest of the cards. (Opps, I remembered I have a couple more cards to send - now that I got some actual addresses.)
If you didn't get a holiday card and you want one, let me know. I have more - I was missing some addresses. Yes, it is a wedding picture.

Our holidays were great. I want to thank everyone who made an effort and we were able to see you. We saw family at Aunt Pat's house on Christmas eve, and then toured Mike's house and Tom's rents house on Christmas.
Then, our house got cleaned - but not finished - and we actually had people over for dinner. Schawna and Mike put up with us on Monday. Rich, Heidi and Alex visited on Wednesday, and Paul and Michele came by on Thursday night. We crashed the fun at Carrie's on Friday and were total bums over the New Years weekend, becoming more depressed by the minute because of work TODAY.

So, I hope you wasted some time today reading my blog instead of working. Because that is what you should do, at least for a few minutes.
Take care.
HAPPY NEW YEAR and we'll see you around.

Saturday, January 01, 2005


Finally, I met the infamous Matt - Tales of a Shrink. Wonderful blog, it entertains me greatly. Matt was explaining why the different types of glasses for wine or champaign - and how to save off Red wine. (c) 2005 TLWF Posted by Hello

Ah, before the Overflowing Wine started, of course, we arrived first at Carrie's. (c) 2004 THF Posted by Hello

Hurray, and Happy New Year - This was the New Years Party at Carrie's House. L to R - Jason, Matt, Jason, Slyvia, Carrie and Josh. As you can see, the wine was flowing very freely. (c) 2005 TLWF Posted by Hello