Museum

Wow, this site is really slow today!

Anyway, yesterday Dad, Dottie, and I went to the Arizona Historical Society’s museum, or at least one of the museums. It is quite large (or much larger than I expected) and I really enjoyed it. It is divided into sections, of course. One section is on mining, since that’s an important part of the area’s early history. We got to see some of the equipment used, information about mining towns, walk through a simulated mine, etc. There was a vehicle section with a stage coach, antique cars, a horse statue with loaded mail bags (hope the check isn’t in thatmail!), oxen pulling a plow, etc. There were lots of dioramas as well. A medical section included scary medical equipment (the scarier part was learning what it was for!). There were parts that reminded me of Old World Wisconsin (I love that place!) and reminded my father of Ste. Marie Among The Iroquois (or whatever that museum is!). It was a nice way to spend a couple of hours, and certainly a place I’d go back to!

My father got me a cool tee shirt while we were there. I like my tee shirt collection, because it’s a way to remember the places I’ve been and the people who I’ve been there with. With whom I’ve been there.

The museum is right by the University, so when we were done we walked a block to get food. We went to this bakery/sandwich place called Paradise. While I was there I was thinking that John and Lisa would probably like it there. (BTW, there’s also a coffee place right around the corner ) We all ordered the roast beef sandwich (which turned out to be on fascinating bread) and she asked if we wanted it hot. We all said yes, and I wasn’t alone in thinking the sandwich would be heated. They were cold, but that was OK. The sandwich had an interesting and unexpected taste to it … a vaguely familiar spice. Horseradish. When we were asked if we wanted it hot, hot referred to the horseradish, not to the sandwich’s temperature! Still, it was a tasty lunch.

I brought Betty’s quilt-in-progress with me when I went back to their house. They have a twin bed (well, day bed) in the guest room, and I wanted to compare the quilt top so far that seemed so small. It is. I need to double the length and add a row of blocks on the side. No problem. I did the math while I was there, so I can cut out fabric today (in theory) and get working on it! I totally love the colors together and the pattern! I also wrote down, for future reference, the real number of blocks needed!

Protected Pics

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Protected: Pics — Last Day of School

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Pics — Swimming

Cast of characters: Buz, Jaeden, Dottie, Dad

Pics — Aunt Kay’s Visit

These are pics of Donna & her friend Cliff, Aunt Kay, Celia and Mary:

BORING!

OK, before I get to the boring part, I have to say that last night my dentist called me to make sure I was OK after the extensive work. Wow!

Now. Boring. Today was the workshop (8-4) for the program the district has decided we’re to use to meet the state’s ruling on English language instruction for English Language Learners. I left thinking “OMG, I lost a day of vacation that I can never get back.” First, it was impossible to find a parking spot. I parked a block away. They scheduled 100 people at a school that can’t park that many!

There was a LOT of being talked to and some of it was helpful. In the afternoon, we went upstairs to the school’s computer lab so we could see the on-line component … but the computers outnumbered the people. That wasn’t too important as those who did have access to computers discovered that everything took forever to load. And so I became a texting queen, texting messages to another teacher who wasn’t there but said she was going to be. I never thought I’d be that sort of person, but it kept me awake!

Note to those awaiting recent pictures: as soon as I find new batteries for the camera, I can upload pictures.

Dental Fun

So yesterday I get to the dentist, whose office I pass all the time. I step into the office and instantly realize this isn’t your average dental office. The waiting room has sections, including what looks like a toddler area and another area with videos for kids and possibly toys as well. That area also has a tv for non-kids. The receptionist sounds exactly like Mary Frances (only Meghan will know who she is) and after she shakes my hand she offers me a choice of beverages! I don’t need anything at the moment, but I do notice the tea bags. After I fill out the paperwork and am taken to the room, I’m again offered a beverage and the assistant brings me a bottle of water.

Everyone there was extremely nice. The extra machine is in this cupboard that opens up on both sides so that the adjoining rooms both have access. At one point while I was waiting, one of the assistants played peek-a-book from the room next door.

So the dentist looks in my mouth and of course I didn’t loose a filling — the filling was actually intact. It was half a tooth that I lost! Of course! On the plus side, it didn’t need a root canal, but it did need a crown (obviously). Then the Mary Frances Woman called the insurance company and let me know that they covered 50% and what my half was. I almost choked, but it’s not like there’s an alternative.

So I spent two hours in the dentist’s chair. What fun. But they were nice, and at the end they gave me orange juice to get my blood sugar back up because I’d been laying there all that time, and they gave me a hot, moist towel to wash off my face and neck to get whatever was there (drool, filling pieces, etc.).

Still, it was exhausting and stressful enough that I went to bed at 8, and of course had dentist dreams last night. I also dreamed that I lived in this really awesome house, but I knew it would be temporary (just because it was too good to be true) and I wanted to blog about it, but before I could I got interrupted. Well, now it’s a bit too late! But trust me, it was an awesome house!

Today I have a workshop from 8-4. On the initial flyer that everyone received, we were told that the workshop was mandatory — you either took one of the summer sessions for pay or you had to take it when school started, but for free. Then after we all signed up they complained about all the people signing up! It’s about the Avenues program — what our district is going to use for the four-hour block of time that ELL students are learning English and not learning the content that they’re nevertheless required to master somehow anyway so they can take the same state tests as the students who really are learning those subjects.

Tuesday

I’m not anticipating an exciting day, aside from a visit to the dentist this afternoon to take care of the filling that came out on Saturday. Why do these things always happen on Saturday?

I’ve been working off and on cleaning the house and putting all school stuff in the storage room. I also started reading again! Books for grown-ups! I read Held Captive, the book about the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping a few years ago. I got it at the Friends of the Library book sale, and it was obvious why they put it up for sale: someone had let their toddler write all over many pages with a red pen. It didn’t make it impossible to read, but it was annoying. Now I’m reading a long book called Vanishing Acts. I had read another book by the same author. This one is fiction, and it tells the story from a number of different view points, each with its own font.

I’m hoping we can go to the Historical Society’s museum later in the week. I’ve actually never been there, but it looks pretty cool! I also want to cut out more fabric so I can make more blocks for Betty’s quilt. It would just look too dippy if I simply put framing strips around it at this point to make it bigger.

I keep thinking I should format my story/book so that I can get it to a literary agent and see if anyone will buy it, but then I think no one who has an actual copy of it has read it except my mother (and she only read it because she was trapped in a hospital bed with nothing to do), so it must be pretty bad. I have another idea (this one for a kids’ book) that I may work on instead.

Cyprus

I love these dippy little quizzes.

You’re Cyprus!
Your parents probably had different ethnic backgrounds and now they’re
almost certainly divorced, or at least they argue all the time.  You mostly just wish
they’d leave you alone instead of using you as a pawn in their tortured conflict with each
other.  Instead, you’ve become the battleground for a fight that doesn’t really feel
like it’s yours.  You’d rather just go fishing.  But that doesn’t look likely in
the immediate future.  Just keep cooking with olive oil and you’ll live longer, at
least.

Take the Country Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid

summer?

I have to tell you that the last day of school Thursday and the last teacher day (Friday) were just as cold as the last day of school in Wisconsin! It was not only in the 60s, but on Friday it snowed on Mt. Lemmon! Three inches!!

By 12:30 or 1 I had all my stuff done and got my room checked by one of the assistant principals and was signed out. I’ve NEVER been done that quickly! But I was a sub for so long that I didn’t bring a lot of stuff to begin with, knowing that I could be told to clear out at a moment’s notice. I did bring home the children’s books that I’d brought to the classroom (about 1/4 of the actual collection I own) and put them straight into my storage room. I left a few boxes in a cupboard. Then I tried to take final pictures but the camera batteries were dead. Bummer.

Then I ran errands: I went to the district office to give them this receipt so that I could be reimbursed for something that they should have reimbursed IN APRIL. The guy I needed to see had taken Friday off, so I left everything there. Then to the bank, where I got money orders for June and July rent. Still working on August, but the reimbursement and Wisconsin tax refund should help. I should be getting paid for the workshop I’m going to on Wednesday as well, and together those will pay the rent. Next I went to the Haven to see if Cathy was there. I wanted to feel her out about the possibility of being a relief house manager over the summer, but she’d taken the day off as well. No one works the Friday before a holiday weekend?

Then yesterday morning, while I was at IHOP with the folks, I lost a filling. I have a dentist appointment now for Tuesday afternoon. This dentist is actually in walking distance! I paid for the most comprehensive dental insurance I could get (the premium version), so hopefully this is all covered!