A big old helping of randomness today!
1. I’m taking Punkin’ Pie out of school on Thursday so she can come with me to a school-group screening of Beyond Belief. I’m not wild about keeping my kids out of school for anything, but I think that this is an important film with an important message. The film is being shown to several groups of high school students, and I know for sure that my kid can keep up with the conversation with the filmmaker (and, if I’m not mistaken, at least one of the widows) afterward. I wrote an email to her teachers this morning letting them know about the absence, and making sure they know that SHE is responsible for getting caught up on the work she’ll miss that day.
2. I have a bunch of ideas for blog posts for nearly all of my sites, but I have almost no time to sit down and compose them. I’m hoping to knock one out today, and I’ll just have to start writing drafts for the others.
3. I finished The Stand the other day. Kizz, did you say that the ending disappointed you? It did me, too, a little, but I very much enjoyed the novel. I’m now about a third of the way through Twilight and I have to say that I heartily DISagree with the woman who told me it was on par with Outlander. I know Outlander, and Twilight is no Outlander.
4. I wasn’t the only one to give student essays back last Friday. As I walked out of my building on Friday morning, a student (who wasn’t mine) was heard saying “he gave me a letter grade lower than I was expecting for everything!” This made me smile. Welcome to college, my dears.
5. Beanie inspired me to poetry this morning as she played on the tree swing while we waited for the bus:
She swings joyfully in the early morning light,
the branch sways and creaks through the arc of her path,
and golden leaves shower her flight.
6. As I was driving home yesterday, The Writer’s Almanac was on NPR (does anyone else think that Garrison Keillor is creepy?). It seems that yesterday was Margaret Thatcher’s birthday, and the quote that Keillor used to commemorate the occasion was this one, which I love:
“Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.”
7. I have one more student essay to evaluate and I’m DONE! Of course, I still have a bunch of response papers and in-class writings to look over, but after this afternoon, the heavy-lifting of the first round of essays is in the proverbial can!
8. It turns out that I should add “grammar” to my list of things that are touchy topics to discuss in public. Someone latched on to a Grammar Wednesday post I wrote a while ago in response to a request from California Teacher Guy, and is not letting go. This person insists, in a way that feels very confrontational and polemic to me, that the phrase “to go missing” is wrong, wrong, WRONG, and seems entirely unwilling to consider another point of view. I’m going to agree to disagree with this person and leave it at that. Enthusiasm is one thing, but even *I* have edges….
9. I really wish that I was willing to post pictures of my children’s faces on this site. I took a gorgeous shot of Punkin’ Pie last weekend, and I am astounded by how utterly beautiful this child is. Holy crap.
10. The possibility, though slim, does exist that Mr. Chili might not be home for Thanksgiving this year. He’s involved in a launch that’s happening in the deserts of New Mexico that may or may not spill over the holiday. This is going to be a stressful thing – if it happens – for many reasons. First of all, we’re going to hate – HATE, I say! – being away from him for that long. Second, Thanksgiving is being held at his mother’s house this year (as opposed to his aunt and uncle’s place), and Mother Chili will be some kind of unhappy if her only local child won’t be in attendance. We’ll handle whatever comes, but the idea that my husband might not be home for Thanksgiving prompted me to stop at the grocery store on my way home from work this afternoon to purchase the ingredients for a mini Thanksgiving dinner. I’ve got a turkey breast, some sweet potatoes, some stuffing and cranberry sauce, and I’ve put together a batch of creamed onions. Trust me, you wish you lived at MY house tonight. Mmmmm!
Happy Monday TUESDAY, Everyone!
(thanks for catching that, Gerry. Since Monday was a holiday around here, Tuesday felt like Monday. Sorry….)
Do you get a Thanksgiving break? Can you and the girls go to N.M. to be with your husband? Or will he be working on Thanksgiving?
Ahhh, early Thanksgiving. How festive. Celebrate early and often is my motto.
Nice batch of randomness.
You just (sort of) made yourselves Canadian for your Thanksgiving. That seems cool.
Yeah, that was me. King isn’t my favorite at finding how to end stuff.
While I can see that someone might have firm ideas about grammar, I just can’t see getting all that heated over it. Some people look to be confrontational in everything. Sorry that this one seems to have latched onto you.
I’ve been reading The Stand this week, and now I have a horrific cold. Sneezing, phlegmy, achy and sore. So, it’s a little freaky. I think I am putting the book down for a couple of days.
Happy (early) Thanksgiving. Now I want some dressin’.
The phrase “to go missing” , or “gone missing”, or “went messing” is not wrong. It first came into being in the 1860s, I believe, and in recent years it has become commonplace. It means that someone or something has disappeared, but it implies that it was due to foul play. I just looked this up a while ago when someone questioned me about it. It does seem to be more of a British expression than US.
Garrison Keillor? Creepy? Aw, really? I love listening to him-esp. before I go to sleep. Maybe it’s a midwest thing.
Your turkey dinner sounds yummy. I sometimes like to make a mini Thanksgiving when it’s not actually the holiday- just because it tastes so good!
That is a great shot of Punkin. It is now the background on my phone.
I made a comment here yesterday, but I don’t see it. Did you censor me?
And how come it says “Happy Monday Everyone” at the bottom of the “Ten Things Tuesday” post?!
My lost comment just said something clever about Punkin’ Pie’s picture, but I’m not that clever today. My cleverness has “gone missing” (with advance apologies to those who think it was never around to start with–but no apologies to anyone who thinks “to go missing” is not proper American English).
What happened with the car? I was hoping for an update on this one.
I hear you about the children’s faces. I want to do it all the time. Then I ask myself WHY I want to. I tell myself it isn’t that important.
Thanksgiving. Why don’t you go to NM and have Thanksgiving with him? Seriously! And also seriously, if he is in ABQ (which might not be the case because there are plenty of military places around here and “launch” sounds more like one further south near some white sand–which is fun to visit), you can all come to my house for Thanksgiving. We rarely have family here. We like to have guests that are stuck here for some reason or another. We started this when Prince Charming was in graduate school–hosting the myriad of his student colleagues who didn’t have enough time to go home. We do it here for those lonely lieutenants that are in the same fix.
Whatever you do, the nuclear family is more important than the extended family. If there is ANY way, I think being together would be the best option.
Have you ever seen pictures of Garrison Keillor? A face made for radio, if ever there was one. It looks like it imploded.
His voice, though, reminds me of riding home from my grandparents’ house, half asleep in the back of the car. Nice memories.