kate's eights

 1 - thank you, stacie, for blogging weekly and fueling my desire to do the same. if i can get into the habit of a regular weekly burst, maybe i can wrangle some more long-term and more fanciful writings back into my packed schedule.

2 - why are critters smarter than my family? my family members are too stupid to shut a door behind them when coming in from outside, thereby inviting all manner of crickets, spiders the size of rhode island, and mice into my home. but the critters entering my home are too smart and avoid all the Killer Death i have lying around to dispose of them. can i get a reversal here? although that spider last night was pretty stupid, running under the couch away from the giant shoe and then coming right back out to be squished to death. i seriously would have torn the house apart until i saw it die anyway. good to have it over with quickly. that monster was HUGE.

3 - why is it so hard to be environmentally friendly? i'm trying to recycle laminate at the elementary school. the laminating machine automatically generates a 3-foot by 15-inch swath of wasted laminate between every feed. i have heard other teachers say they cut it down into pieces and use it as disposable overhead sheets. i use it to grade papers. yesterday, i gathered approximately 30 feet of this wasted plastic, trimmed it down and stacked it neatly on an unused shelf. the janitor of the school deliberately threw it in the trash in my face, telling me she isn't going to waste her time with that. sorry, whose time? i gathered it from the trash, trimmed it, and stacked it up. not like i left it in a heap on the floor. then she swooped around the room, threw away a bunch of construction paper (that was big enough to be used still) and several blank pieces of paper, most of which i was using to divide up piles of copies i was making for three teachers. my point is, i am a taxpayer and this woman is throwing MY money in the garbage. this wasn't the first time she's thrown good paper into the trash,nor is it the first time she's thrown MY work into the trash. i'm starting to feel bitchy towards her. so i tattled to the principal on her.

4 - king arthur flour ROCKS. i can't afford to only buy that flour exclusively... it's well over $3 per bag. but i buy the bag and halve it with regular unbleached flour for baking and the results are still amazing. i baked snickerdoodles for my son's class treat yesterday. i had no less than five kids (and his teacher from last year) ask me in the hall if i had brought my famous snickerdoodles. and three kids who are not in his homeroom said, "lucky," and sulked off to class because they missed out this year. it's good to be famous for something tasty.

5 - next week begins a new era of music in our house. we will have trombone and upright string bass. i find it ironic that both instrumental music kids so far have chosen instruments that are larger than they are. so we'll have timpani for lars and harp for mileidy, right? oy vey.

6 -so, last night i sliced open an acorn squash for dinner. i'd never had it before, but i prepared butternut squash for my kids as babies, so i had the basic concept down. slice, scoop out seeds, bake. in the middle of this process, my nose began to run. i started sneezing, then my nose blocked completely. then my eyes began to burn like fire. i ran to the bathroom (as best as one can with their streaming eyes squeezed shut, snot pouring from their face and slimy seeds on one's hands). i washed my hands off with hot soapy water, cleaned up my face and headed back to the kitchen. i had just enough time to finish scooping seeds and throw the pan in the oven before starting the whole face problem over again. only this time, it didn't improve with a good, hot wash. i had to lie on the couch with ice on my eyes, which were blood-red and swollen shut. needless to say, i did not partake of the acorn squash for dinner. if it had affected my breathing in the slightest, i'd have been hitting 911 FAST. now i'm all a-skurrd of acorn squash.

7 - camping!!! we are heading en masse to gettysburg this weekend for some scouting/birthday fun. we traded in a HUGE (circa 1992) two-room tent for two smaller (lighter, waterproof) tents. we are hoping to hit a ghost walk for seamus' birthday fun and another mommy is baking a triple chocolate birthday cake in a dutch oven. i will take copious notes and attempt this feat at a later date. since my pear upside down cake was a success (except for that 2 inches in the very middle), i have every confidence that i can do this one too. oh, and i'm hoping to stop by the gap outlet in search of new fleeces for the chitlins. they miss the gap sweaters they've outgrown!

8 - with the end of september drawing ever closer, it is time to begin work on the halloween -excuse me, book character- costumes. fortunately, they have all decided to be relatively easy stuff this year. our second-grade "Ramona the Pest" will be resplendent in um, a new haircut, a dress, and wellies. our third-grade "Calvin" will have his stuffed tiger in tow for the big event. and for his finale of elementary school book parades, our fifth grader has decided on a nonfiction book.... "Poop: A Natural History of the Unmentionable" by nicola davies. yes, i'm serious. his brown sweatsuit will have different, um, specimens labeled on it. i'm making him do most of the work, about which he is absolutely STOKED.

on that note, fare thee well until next week.