Bloggerstock: What's Your Theme Song?

Ladies and gentlemen, blog readers of all ages, I'd like to share with you the wonders of today's post! Today is Bloggerstock day. "What is Bloggerstock?" you may ask. It's like a blog swap, but on a grander scale. It takes a group of bloggers, this time around 30 different 20-something bloggers will create a blog-ring all focusing on the same topic, "What is your theme song?" If you follow the links today, you should be able to gain exposure to a wide variety of blogs, some of which you may never have read before.

That means Ashes from Just the Ashes will be posting her blog here today. She's a great photographer and is moving to Korea soon to teach English! I'd say she's a pretty brave woman to venture halfway around the world on her own.

Hope you enjoy the ring of blogs! Read on...

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

What is Your Theme Song?

When I signed up for Blogger Stock, I didn't know what the topic would be, but I definitely liked the idea. However, I was worried that I wouldn't have anything interesting to write about.

I was relieved when I saw the topic would be my theme song. There's always been one song that I've always related to, probably even from the first time I ever heard it. That would be Wide Open Spaces by the Dixie Chicks.

I was never really a country music fan, but I've always loved the Dixie Chicks. Especially this song. I feel like it could have easily been written about me, and I think that that's an important quality in order for you to consider a song your "theme song".

The main idea of this is following your dreams. Leaving your home town and everything that's safe and comfortable to find your place in life, even if that means taking risks and making mistakes. It's about putting yourself out there just for the sake of trying to do something with your life, even if you don't even know yet what exactly is it that you want to do. It's about being okay with making mistakes because you know you'll learn and grow from them. It's about doing all of this even when others, especially those close to you, tell you that you shouldn't. 

This is something that really hits home for me. At 16 years old, I started counting down the days until I was 18 and could move out. It's not that I was miserable at home. Not at all. I just knew that there were bigger and better things about there for me than the tiny little town I grew up in. 

And when I turned 18, that's exactly what I did. I had a leased signed for an apartment before I even graduated from high school, and moved down there as soon as I possibly could. I even stayed there during summer and school breaks when college wasn't in session. I just knew that this was where I belonged, not in my home town.

I just graduated from college and now I have even bigger plans. Much to my parents dismay, I've applied and been accepted to teach overseas in Korea for a year. I know it's somewhat risky and my parents would rather I stayed here, but this is my adventure, and my life. It's what I want and need to do.

 Wide Open Spaces by: The Dixie Chicks

You can find me, Kara, over on the lovely Shinxy's page Vacuous Ramblings. Shinxy's one of the elite founders of Bloggerstock and lives halfway around the world from me. She's a super interesting girl and Pokemon master. Check her out!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

  

Who is Ashes? 

I'm a recent college graduate planning to teach English in Korea next year, a community support worker for children with mental disabilities, a girlfriend, an animal lover, a photographer, a Mac user, an obsessive Blackberry user, a crocheter, a scrapbooker, a daytripper, a daughter, a sister, a cousin, a friend, a soon to be auntie and anything else I decide I want to be.  

Find her here.

I'm a Food Geek, Too.

A few weeks ago, some friends of ours were telling us about the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program they were taking part in this year. The hub and I had talked about it briefly last year, but weren't sure if we could afford it. You usually have to pay a few hundred dollars up-front for the whole growing season.

What this incredible program is, offered by many farms around the USA, is by purchasing a "share" in a local farm, you financially support their day-to-day operations and are rewarded weekly with a basket full o' fresh produce! The farm we've chosen to support this summer (well, all the way through October, actually) is Colvin Family Farm, and it's located not quite two hours outside the city where we live.

They deliver to the Farmers' Market that is only about 15 minutes away from our house, so we're looking forward to making this a nice Saturday morning outing every week for the next five months! What I'm totally geeking out about is the fact that I'm going to get to learn about so many new kinds of veggies that I've never cooked with and some that I've never even eaten before! I even had to look up how to use something and how to store something else. I'll try to post some recipes and pictures every once in awhile as I embark on yet another geek-venture!

This week's share included beets (I didn't even know how to store these!), tat soi, scallions, spinach, salad lettuce mix, bok choi, radishes, Russian Red Kale, and collard greens. Looks like a lot of salads and stir-fries this week. Not that I'm complaining or anything. I have plans for most of this, so I'll keep you updated. I'm super excited about next week because I was told our share would include my favorite veggie snack of all - snap peas!

Edited: First use of veggies was for lunch today! Made spinach salad. The greens were so good, all I did was dress them and throw on some tomatoes I already had.
Pumpkin Seed-Mustard Vinaigrette
I just threw things together to taste, so I'm guessing at proportions.
1/2 Tbsp Dijon Mustard
1 Tbsp German salad vinegar
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1/2 Tbsp Pumpkin Seed Oil
Salt & Pepper to taste
Mix it all together and toss with fresh spinach and tomatoes. Yum!

What veggies do you love? Recipe ideas to share?

Proud to Be A Geek Girl

Angela at High on Life created a blog award for the geekiest of geek girls out there! I think her idea is spot on! 

The Geek Girls Unite award!

And here are the rules:

List ten geeky facts about yourself and...

Pass this award onto your favorite female geeks!

***

With this award comes great responsibility. I must list ten geeky things about myself.

1. My nickname is Starbuck, or sometimes Toaster.

2. I can relate to Dr. Sheldon Cooper on too many levels. 

3. I randomly spout physics knowledge when the situation calls for it. 

4. I wrote Newsies fanfic on a Prodigy BBS group when I was 12.

5. I played Envious Magic, a Harry Potter forum RPG for years. 

6. I consider myself a Browncoat. 

7. Whenever my husband randomly quotes Futurama, I can tell you who said it. I'm often asking him why he's quoting Zoidberg.

8. I'm in the process of making costumes for Dragon*Con.

9. I could define the word "nocturnal" when I was three. 

10. I played WoW Vanilla when it came out in November 2004. 

I bestow this award upon two wonderfully geeky girls whose blogs I love to read! 

Amy at Geek with Curves

Ray J at Point Me to the Sky Above

Enjoy, and perpetuate if you so choose!

Hump Day Hotties #6

After a bit of a hiatus last week from my Wednesday feature, I'm back. In honor of the fact one of my favorite summer series comes back next week, Burn Notice, I thought I'd show some hottie spy-guys. What is Burn Notice? Check out the video at the bottom. It might be a reality show about sunglasses.

First off, the burned spy who will take pretty much any job (as long as he's helping someone), Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan):

The best two (IMO) incarnations of 007:

The Original: Sean Connery

The New: Daniel Craig

Last but not least, Matt Damon as Jason Bourne. Mmmm...

Now, start spending your Thursday evenings with USA network (or Hulu) and the great Michael Westen. You won't be disappointed. Also, this show involves the use of heavy doses of Bruce Campbell. How can it be bad? :)

Show Your Geek!

Today is the celebration of two momentous holidays, and I hope that you will also partake. Let your true geek colors show!


First of all, today is  Towel Day. Yes, in honor of Douglas Adams, intergalactic hitchhikers, and Vogon poetry, please carry a towel with you, ponder the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything (hint: it's 42), enjoy some beer and peanuts for lunch, watch for falling whales and petunias, and most importantly, DON'T PANIC!

The second (and I only list it second because it's a newer holiday) way to celebrate today is Geek Pride Day. You should be proud to be a geek, no matter what kind of geek you are! Geeks are passionate. We truly love whatever it is that interests us. I for one am a sci-fi geek, a food science geek, a physics geek, a lit geek, a blog geek, a TV geek, a trivia geek, a board game geek, and the list goes on and on. Celebrate by wearing your geekiest tee! Spout random knowledge! Play your favorite games! Spend some time with an awesome book! My geekiest tee has yet to arrive. It will actually be at my doorstep this afternoon, what a perfect time to receive this:

 Also, from what I have read of this book, I think it is perfect reading for a geek holiday such as today:

Here's to Arthur, Zaphod, Trillian and the rest! Unleash your inner-geek!

...But They'll Never Take My Freedom!

**Warning: Profanity-Laced Post Ahead** 

Today was the last day with students. I have been in classrooms for seven years and teaching full-time for five. As you probably know, I really do love my job. It's where I'm meant to me. I have a passion for kids - guiding them, caring for them imparting my knowledge to them. But this year has been the worst school year ever! It's like the Herdmans infiltrated the minds of the frakking sixth grade this year and tried to make our lives a living hell. Seriously, I've never taught a worse group.

These kids took, took, took, and never gave a shit. I went through more school supplies than ever before, and I teach in a fairly good middle-class community.  I started out the year with 600+ pencils and ended the year with 10. I don't even want to know what the kids were doing with them. How irresponsible can you be? They smeared glue sticks on my floor and desk. They stole books from my classroom (and from other teachers' as well) and were found "left" all over the school. One was even found soaking wet on the floor of the boys' restroom. No telling...

They were apathetic. They didn't care about their learning. I've always been able to encourage students to take ownership of their learning and make it relevant to "real life," but this group would have none of it. Very few students even showed a glimmer of personality. My honors class, which is usually a highly-motivated, enthusiastic, creative bunch of kids were mostly bumps on a log with their noses stuck in books. I couldn't even get them involved in activities this year.

Needless to say, after a few months of apathy and disrespect (for people and property), I lost most of my motivation to be a "good" teacher. I still cared about the students, but I was starting to care less and less about what I was teaching them. Yes, please, write me a three-paragraph essay that tells me how to do or make something. Seriously, district? This is your idea of a GOOD writing assignment? i was just lucky that the second half of the year meant teaching how to use non-fiction resources, how to do research, a simple novel study, state testing review, and a couple of big, time-consuming projects. I didn't have to put forth much effort. When the students don't appreciate the effort put into the lesson, I'm less likely to make an effort.

There were some super sweet students in this group who got overlooked because of all of the ass-hats that spent most of their time in detention or suspended. I've never had this many students with bad discipline records, ever! And I had a student who almost went to juvenile a few years back! Back to those few good ones. They're the ones who I still tried to reach, but their classmates made it damn near impossible. They're the ones who I actually took the time to sign their yearbooks this week. They're the ones who came by to give me hugs today. They're the ones I hope actually come back to visit me once they're older. They're the handful I'm going to miss.

{via}

That all being said, they did not kill me this year. I have survived. I will no longer teach these students again. If they ever darken my doorway in the future, it will be simply to visit, not as a student. As of 12:00 pm EDT today, the students of Hellclass 2010 are on summer break, and that means I, too, am free! Sure, I have to return for a few days of teacher work next week, but those days are easy. I'm not focusing on that, I'm focusing on my 12 sweet weeks of freedom.

You'll probably be seeing me way too much for my own good online now! But it will definitely be fun. And less stressful.

WoW Wednesday Giveaway

 The awesome geek-gamer-girl extraordinaire, Ray J, at Point Me to the Sky Above is giving away a $25.00 Amazon gift certificate in honor of her WoW-iversary. She's been playing the game for five years now! I couldn't stick with it that long. I played about 3 months back in November 2004 and then again for another few months in the fall of 2006. I liked the game, but my attention span is too short. She's pretty epic for sticking with it for this long. You realize that means she's played all but about 6 months of the game's existence?!

I would LOVE to win that gift certificate as I shop on Amazon way too much for my own good. It could buy me something to keep me occupied for the summer break from work. I suppose you could go check it out, too, but then you'd give me competition for that awesome prize... :) But seriously, go over there. Read her blog. It's great!

It's Taking Over

"There's a demon in the Internet." - Rupert Giles

Last week, I was watching Buffy, as I often do when I need to destress. This particular line from the episode I was watching, "I, Robot...You, Jane," really struck me. Now, in the case of Buffy, yeah, there was a REAL demon that Willow had inadvertently released into the 'Net by scanning an old book. What I got to thinking about is not an actual demon existing in the Internet but how much the Internet has changed my life for both the good and the bad. 

 In April, for the original Bloggerstock exchange, the bloggers all wrote in response to the statement, "The Internet ate my..." I was not involved in the first exchange, but I found all of the posts to be incredibly interesting. (I will, however be participating in this one. Be on the lookout for a guest post on May 31!) I want to take the time to take on the demon of the Web and share what he's eaten from my existence. 

The Internet ate my money...

This is three-fold. Number one, we pay a nice monthly fee to have high speed DSL at home. It is GREAT service, but our telecom (phone, DSL, and Dish Network) bill is our most expensive bill aside from the mortgage!   

Then there's the fact that I can go shopping for practically ANYTHING I can imagine online. There's no telling how much money I've spent on Amazon and ThinkGeek over the years. If I can go shopping without crowds, lines, rude people, and the general public, I'm a much happier person. 

Last, those pesky monthly subscriptions for things I like too much. Like I used to play WoW, so that was a monthly fee given to the Interweb demon. And now I can't imagine living without Netflix! We occasionally get the DVDs and watch them, but it's the instant play via our Wii that gets the most use.

The Internet ate my time...

I spend more time in front of my computer and playing on the web than is healthy. I am blogging, looking at random things on Reddit, watching videos on YouTube, on Twitter, in 20sb chat or forums, on a Wikipedia surfari, or a myriad of other worthless distractions.

The Hub and I also used to get sucked into the time vortex that is World of Warcraft. I've not played in 3 years, and he hasn't about 6 months. He gave it up because the amount of time spent playing was becoming an issue and he was getting bored. His friends transferred servers. I still heart him, though! :)

Sometimes, instead of being social in real life, or going to real life events, I'd rather zone out in front of the glow of my MacBook's screen. It's sad really. I would not ever want to calculate how much time I spend each day online. Especially now that I've got my iPhone. I'm plugged in no matter where I go now! It's scary, really.

The Internet ate my privacy...

This is the Facebook issue that everyone is starting to deal with. Or at least a lot of us are. I mentioned to people I work with the other day that I'm contemplating leaving FB altogether, and  they didn't understand why. Too many people out there just don't get it. Facebook is selling and linking your information and interests for profit. I do not appreciate it.

I'm a public school teacher, but I've been using FB for years to keep in touch with old friends from HS and undergrad. I do not want my 12 year-old students to find me. I don't want their parents to see my weekend plans. I've attempted to keep things as private as possible, but every time there's a privacy update, it resets everything.

Advocacy groups are trying to force FB to keep default settings as "opt-in" instead of "opt-out" by taking this to the FTC. If you ever have questions about this stuff, check out the Electronic Frontier Foundation. They're all about transparent, fair Internet with REAL privacy. You want to really read something scary about Internet privacy (or the lack thereof), check out Cory Doctorow's book Little Brother.

The Internet ate my sorrow...
One MAJOR positive thing about the Internet is that it's given me a place to vent over the years. In grad school, during the pre-Facebook days, I had a horribly emo blog that I know no one read, but it was nice to vent. Now that's what I do here, through Twitter, and on 20sb. I've discovered a great community of people who have been more than supportive whenever I've just needed to rant.

It's also been a great way to keep myself distracted when on the verge of a breakdown or when I'm sad because the Hub is on a business trip out of the country. It keeps me from digging myself into a deep hole. It truly has helped me in so many ways!

So to the Internet demon, I say, "Thank you and damn you, for you are both a blessing and curse, but now I don't know what I'd do without you!"

Worst (or Best?) Teacher Ever

We are now T-minus two and a half days until I am free of kiddos for twelve glorious weeks. That being said, my class has been the best class ever for students to come to for the last week or so. I say that because the English curriculum basically tells me to do a project and teach a novel study for the last few weeks after state testing is done. All of our "real teaching" is done before the testing.

My students completed the epic Middle Ages research project and Keynote (yes, we're an all Apple school) presentations that took all of three weeks. Then they wrote a theme analysis of a novel we read in class back in March. This was their end of the year "Writing Assessment" we must complete for the district.

After that, all bets are off. I can't logically teach a novel study because (a) I just taught one six weeks prior and (b) the students are reading a novel in Science class (Hoot) and in World History class (Catherine, Called Birdy). Do I really need to confuse the 12-year-olds even more?!

So, yeah, here's what my class has looked like since last Thursday:
Thursday, Friday, and part of Monday - Watch From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler because one of my classes read it in March. The other classes read The 39 Clues: Maze of Bones, and there is not yet a film version of that book.
Other part of Monday - Make students organize all of their writing assessments from 6th grade in their writing portfolios because I don't want to do that for 100 folders.
Tuesday through whenever it takes - All classes now watch The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe while the teacher takes down bulletin boards and packs up classroom. Why this you ask? Because it's based on YA literature, was on my syllabus, and is easily justifiable if questioned. Oh, and it's ridiculously long.

So, does this make me a teacher made of awesome or of fail? I don't care. It's made me a teacher free of stress.

My Friends Are Made of Awesome

As you may or may not know, in the US, we have somehow misappropriated the Mexican Day of Beating the French into Submission (Cinco de Mayo, not a true Mexican holiday) as a ridiculous excuse to go out to the nearest Mexican restaurant, eat lots of enchiladas, and get drunk off as many Dos Equis, Coronas, and margaritas.

Also, this year, said holiday of American debauchery (do we REALLY need an excuse to drink and eat lots of cheese?) fell on a Wednesday. Most of our friends are no longer in university. They have real jobs, like us. Those that are still in school at the local university had final exams that week. So, as it starts to be come clear, we were completely unable to celebrate said fiesta. But some friends came up with a brilliant solution. As we're not really celebrating 5/5 for it's true purpose, can't we just celebrate some other time?

This is how yet another great theme party was born. Last night, we celebrated Catorce de Mayo. And here's how:
(I apologize none of these pictures are mine. The food was too awesome and disappeared too quickly!)

{via}

I made turkey enchiladas. I've made these in a more "gourmet" way before, but since I had all of 45 minutes last night, I used canned enchilada sauce... They were still delicious.

{via}

Another food geek friend made carnitas de puerco , pico de gallo, and guacamole all from scratch. EVERYTHING was delicious. I bow to his kitchen skills. And he's like me. If he's gonna cook at someone else's house, he travels with his own chef's knife, salt, and pepper grinder. Yeah, we can be picky.

Of course, there were margaritas. I love margaritas, and one of my friends once gave me his awesome recipe. Now I use it, and share it. He's from San Antonio, TX, so he knows his Tex-Mex stuff. I will now share my recipe with you. If you're not in the US, use whatever you can find that's acceptable. This recipe takes the pre-mixed Jose Cuervo Golden Margarita mix and makes it MUCH better.
PS - Margaritas shouldn't be fluorescent green! 


Margaritas of Awesome
This is for each serving: 
2.5 ounces margarita mix (75 mL)
1.5 ounces gold/reposado tequila (45 mL)
1.0 ounce orange juice (30 mL)
0.5 ounce *good* orange liqueur such as Grand Marnier or Cointreau (15 mL)
0.5 ounce triple sec (15 mL)
1 pinch kosher salt

Stir together in a pitcher and serve over ice. I will warn you, these are strong, not for the faint of heart. If you need to cut anything down, go a bit easy on the tequila. I also recommend trying different juices, not just the orange. Lime works nicely as does my favorite, blood orange! Enjoy!

Then, we watched Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory dubbed in Spanish with English subtitles and decided to apply fake tattoos. I have kanji that does not mean what it claims to mean on the inside of my left wrist. It was a wonderful night!

Yes, Intelligence, Please!

Emily Jane wrote a brilliant blog post about the lack of brain-power and thought put into many TV and movie productions these days. How they're so mainstream, safe, stereotypical, and full of "fluff," and I couldn't agree more. So I decided to take the thoughts she inspired in my sick-addled brain and write them over here.

Way too many movies that are made now are completely unoriginal. There are remakes and reboots galore.  There are adaptations of books and comics around every corner. I love comics, and the recent Marvel movies had been very entertaining. That's not to say they all have been. The Ang Lee Hulk was horrible. What was Brett Ratner thinking when he made X-Men: The Last Stand? And speaking of X-Men, what was Hugh Jackman thinking when he signed on to Wolverine? The obvious massive payday aside, did he even bother to read the mind-bendingly disjointed script?

Don't even get me started on the state of comedies, crap children's movies, and romantic comedies. Yes, I do go see some of these movies for the popcorn-level fun or if I'm in the need for something painfully sappy, but they generally do not include an ounce of actual intelligence.

The same could be said about most TV. We're still riding in on the end of the reality-TV wave. I'm just glad to say I think American Idol is finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. There are a ridiculous number of Law and Order/CSI clones on at any time. Don't get me wrong, there are a few of those which are well-written with enjoyable characters - Bones and Castle, but the ubiquity of these things tend to make me mad.

There are still good things being made, don't get me wrong. I just wish that there was more quality and originality out there. Part of the problem in this country is production cost and the insane need for ratings, though. Can the network execs not learn that not every show out there is going to have tens of millions of viewers? Not everything that is good will be universally acceptable. And if you relegate something to 8:00 or 9:00 on a Friday night, of course your numbers will be low! Get over yourselves. That being said, there are things I do like out there.

I, too, am not a horror movie fan. I'm a bit of a wuss, but, really, what it is, is I 'm not a fan of scare-tactics. (I am, however, a fan of parentheticals, interrupters, and appositives.) The best "scary" movies and TV shows are the ones that hit home in a very disturbing way.

 I'm fairly new to the whole Doctor Who thing, but as Emily said, it's been scaring generations of children since the 1960s. It's incredible. That show really gets you. The weeping angels are some of the scariest creatures I've ever seen. The way they move, or don't move, and how they can be everywhere and nowhere. How they can slowly turn you into stone. It's like a more believable, and in turn, creepier, version of Medusa. And don't get me started on the Daleks. Their voices, their lack of remorse or any conscience at all... Yeah, scary. I mean, look at the exent of the Daleks' manipulation. It's all just a means to an end.

I am a bit more familiar with the Whedonverse. He created entire fantasy worlds for Buffy and Angel, and they were right here in our own world. There was (is) a lot of originality from the mind of this guy and his friends. Plus things can definitely get scary. I'm watching the Buffy episode "Nightmares" right now. An entire episode about your worst nightmares coming to life? That's harsh. It ranges from the typical "not studying for a test" or "showing up at school naked" to creepy killer clowns, getting buried alive, and resurrected vampire Masters. Anything (and apparently everything) can happen when you live onto of the Hellmouth.

His forays into "sci-fi" were not as successful. I say "sci-fi" in quotations because they had some science, but they were very much escapist fantasy, as well. Of course, I feel that Firefly was a super-intelligent show that met its demise far too soon. Also, Dollhouse, when the writers were allowed to do what they wanted to write, and not bow to the whims of FOX executives to save their show, was great. It dealt with some great ethical issues that many other shows would've been to scared to attack. Obviously Whedon's heavier shows were not very widely accepted in the mainstream. They do have a HUGE cult-following, though.

And speaking of "sci-fi," what about the great space soap opera that was Ronald D. Moore's Battlestar Galactica? That show dealt with some heavy issues, like balance of religion and politics, death penalties, abortion, rape, cloning, oppressive governments, and many more that aren't coming to me right now. Sure, this show was a "remake" of something that existed 30 years previously, but it wasn't really a remake. It was more a reinvention with some of the basic concepts still at its core. I'm still not sure I liked where the finale went, but whatever. It shouldn't tarnish the legacy that is left in the show. Not always original, definitely mainstream-friendly in many ways, but it was not "fluff" all the time.

Moral of the story: Be original, and draw on people's real fears. Don't try to scare us with things that go bump in the night, unless there's a good Doctor Who-type reason behind it. And networks, stop caring so much about AI getting you 35 million viewers. Make some quality TV, and let the creators have creative freedom!!

Hump Day Hotties #5

I was inspired by Amber over at nostomaniac, and all of her nostalgia for the 1990s, so I decided to go back in the day and post some of the hotties I was in love with when I was, like, 14.


Was there not a teenage girl alive in the mid-nineties who didn't want a piece of Jordan Catalano from "My So-Called Life"?!

And when it came to "Buffy: The Vampire Slayer," it wasn't Angel who caught my attention, as he does now. It was the awkward, geeky, best friend who was at the center of an unrequited love triangle. Yes, friends, Xander was my Buffy hottie crush.

Enjoy your flashback, nostalgic hotties today. (And luckily, Jared Leto, at least, grew up nicely and is still hot! Yeah, I like guy-liner. What of it?)

What You Might've Overheard

Yesterday afternoon, the Hub and I were running around buying Mother's Day gifts and other random things for projects around the house. For lunch we decided to calorie-binge and go to Steak 'n Shake. As always, I could not come anywhere close to finishing my milkshake, so I got a "to go" cup.

We decided we needed to stop at Wal-Mart before going home. I still had my milkshake in my hand. It being 80 degrees outside, I did not want to take it inside.

****
And thus begins this short conversation:

Me: It's okay if I take my milkshake inside, isn't it?

Husband: It's Wal-Mart. You could take a rabid hyena in there and no one would notice.

Me: :starts laughing so hard, I almost hit the pavement: Come here! :gives husband giant kiss: And this is why I love you!
***

If people had overheard bits of this conversation, we'd be the Wal-Mart crazies, wouldn't we?

Stark Expo 2010

The Summer movie season has officially kicked off. And I've bled the first $8 of what I am sure will me many, many more dollars to escape from my grasp over the next four months. (Since when is Summer four months long, btw?) Yes, friends, I went to see Iron Man 2 this morning. Hub and I decided to go to a 10:45 a.m. matinee for two reasons: 1. cheaper 2. less people. Seriously, there were all of 20 people in that show! At the largest and most heavily attended cinema in the city! Even though it's not getting the greatest of reviews, it's by no means a bad movie. As a matter of fact, I had a tremendous amount of fun watching it! I recommend it.

Here is what I have to say. I'll attempt to keep it spoiler free. RDJ is once again awesome as the snarky, smarmy, sarcastic Tony Stark who finds himself on a downward spiral. One of my favorite lines, which I must share out of context as to not spoil anything was, "It tastes like coconut...and metal." I'm not sure why, I think it was his expression as he said it, but I was almost falling out of my seat I was laughing so hard! The movie actually had quite a few moments like that.

Then there's Mickey Rourke. Hub called him the current #1 guy in Hollywood you don't want to eff with. And this role, as Ivan Vanko, a.k.a. Whiplash, is no different. Rourke was perfect for the role in a seriously scary kind of way. I mean, the guy researched the role by visiting Russian prisons, NOT by reading a bunch of comic books. His tats are based off real Russian prison/gang tats.

Also, Scarlett Johansson was pretty kick-ass as Black Widow. I was kinda afraid they'd soften her up, but no, she is one tough bitch. How cute is it that she and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, are now both part of the Marvel stable and could possibly end up in a geek-power-couple Marvel movie together!?

As always, with the new round of Marvel movies, PLEASE, if you know what is good for you, DO NOT LEAVE before the credits are over. Trust me.

And Then My Head Exploded...

So, last night, I was on the verge of an anxiety-induced breakdown.  I've been stressing out waaaaay too much over the past three weeks on whether or not I'm gonna get this third grade job I interviewed for. Our school system is so large and bureaucratic, that I can't exactly call up and ask what the status is.  With two weeks left in this school year, I'd like to know where I'm gonna end up next year. Will I stay where I am or do I need to pack up my entire five-year accumulation of teaching stuff in my current classroom?! I about lost it last night when I got home based on a really small, ridiculous, and most definitely inadvertent trigger from another teacher.

And this is how I've been able to deal over the past twenty-four hours:

Snuggling on the couch with my sick hub watching old episodes of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer Season One while he reads me random tweets from Wil Wheaton.

--------------------------

Chatting with fellow 20sbers Alex, Mel, Jen, and Risha. Little does Risha know, but she totally talked me down last night. She's so awesome!

--------------------------

NyQuil. Yeah, I know. I have allergy problems. Sometimes I live off this stuff. And last night, I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep without something...

--------------------------

Playing Yahtzee with some of my students this afternoon. Instead of doing something productive in my last class today, I pulled the board games out of storage. I really need to do that more often. And they got such a kick out of me playing, too.

--------------------------

/via

Selling tickets at our school's annual carnival after school. Watching the faces of 5 and 6 year-olds light up when you hand them a strip of paper tickets is priceless. It can pretty much melt any heart. This is one of the reasons I want to teach the younger ones.

--------------------------

Coming home to a surprise order from ThinkGeek that my hub got for me!

 

--------------------------

And watching THIS!

I'm definitely looking forward to relaxing this weekend and hopefully seeing Iron Man 2. Any of you have great, unconventional ways to destress or calm an anxiety freak-out? Other great, lazy weekend plans? 

Hump Day Hotties #4

This is an homage to my favorite hot comic-book geek. Yes, Ryan Reynolds has starred in not one, but like eight, comic/superhero movies. Yes, I'm counting Paper Man. And the upcoming Green Lantern and rumoured Deadpool spin-off.

The obvious, already existing ones being Blade: Trinity and Wolverine. He's even a self-professed comic geek. He was the one pushing for Green Lantern.


And he's HOTT. See?

And in other hottie news, I'm deeply disappointed in this David Boreanaz news. He's not so hot anymore.