Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Names

I've had some interesting student names in the past:

Ulysses

Ezekial

Refugio

and certainly a large number of Jesuses (but that comes with the territory)

I also get the "typical" "odd" names like Lavita, Laquanda, Benessa, Tamika, Tenisha, Chanell, Bettina, and even Griselda, etc. pretty frequently.

But this semester I have a Shennandoah as well, and I think that's pretty damn awesome!

Friday, January 26, 2007

HUH?

What the???
What food product is this advertising?
And also, what the????????????

surreal

I got the Golf back last evening... wow, after not driving it for a month, I had NO IDEA what to do in it!!! It felt weird sitting low and slightly reclined - being able to stretch my legs towards the pedals. It felt weird not bumping up and down constantly. My left leg had no idea what to do. My right hand kept changing gears, which in the automatic is no good... On the other hand it was really nice and quiet inside the Golf - no rattling, whistling or any of that...

And now, here they are, my cars parked side by side.


Totally surreal.

The Golf is longer, the Jeep is taller - but they are both pretty tiny compared with the majority of vehicles around here. I felt like I was a pro parallel parker in the Jeep last week at work - I could squeeze its short little body in some pretty impressive spaces. It's really easy to parallel park when you're sitting up higher!

last weekend

Twas a busy LA family weekend, as they usually are, but fun and full of wine... (as they usually are!)

Amelia had an egg baby to look after for Home-Ec - lucky for her Hazen was a willing babysitter...

Amelia jumping Raffi impressively... she's the only one of us who earned her food!

We had a couple of nice post-riding lunches at the ranch house (which has bizarre decorations on the walls)

Sunday, January 14, 2007

How to use chopsticks

We went out for Korean food to "celebrate" the Extreme Chef's birthday. Food was delicious, service was... interesting... and the best part of all was the little paper wrapper that the chopsticks came in. (The chopsticks felt the need to play "wishbone" and split not even remotely close to center, by the way.)

The chopstick wrapper illustrated how to use chopsticks if you have extraneous digits, too few digits, or perhaps a lobster claw, depending on which part of the illustration you are examining. We also weren't sure what we were picking up with the chopsticks: a coin? a paper towel roll?

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

ohhhh, California

I received this e-mail today.

Subject: IMPORTANT NOTICE: Possible Inclement Weather
Attachments:

Date: January 10, 2007

To: All Bakersfield College and District Office Employees

From: G*** C**********, Associate Chancellor, Educational Services

At the present time, national and local weather forecasters are predicting noticeable amounts of snowfall within the Bakersfield community overnight and on the morning of Friday, January 12, 2007. In order to alleviate some of the potential problems encountered during the 1999 heavy snowfall, administration will evaluate the situation early Friday and issue a decision regarding closure of Bakersfield College and the District Office.

If a decision is made to close Bakersfield College and the District Office, the information will be given to the local media (radio and television) for publication. A notice will also be posted at the Bakersfield College and District websites. In addition to checking these resources before coming to work on Friday, personnel are strongly encouraged to call the telephone numbers below to determine if a snow closure notice exists.

Bakersfield College 395-****
Kern Community College District Office 336-****

If a snow closure is determined at your job site, please do not come to work!

Thank you.

Granted, it has been reaching around freezing at night, however, I highly doubt the likelihood that we could get enough snow to actually last during the day and cause problems. Well, if there were Canadians driving around Bakersfield that is...

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Mine!

Gotta remove that license border... or add the letter "a" between "am" and "pain". Note anything on the rearview mirror?

Monday, January 01, 2007

Goodbye Canada, Hello New Year











the girls having xmas dinner in Montreal... breakfast in the new dining room in Barrie






Pearl's penguin appetizers!

lunch with S,J&N (wearing his new sweater!)

baklava. yum.















may as well ring in the new year with colour-coordinated martinis!

the return of Be and Mecky!