Random Crap, Part 2

Stud Muffin is spending some time with The Girl and her family today, so I had a few hours to kill. I figured why not spend them trying to post pictures here! Here's a random modge podge of pictures I've been meaning to share for the past month or so.

I think I mentioned that Stud's grandparents bought him a bed, right? Well, here's the GIANT bed. Plus, his messy room, complete with the Thomas the Tank Engine wall decals that he refuses to let me take down. Seriously?! You can just see the Thomas curtains. On the wall that you can't see, there are shelves, which used to be completely filled with Thomas figurines and videos. I managed to pack those away a couple of years ago, but the rest of it, not so much. I'm shocked, actually. But, whatever. I guess I'd prefer Thomas to half-naked girls, right?

Back on Sunday, April 5th, we had a private party at the bar. A warm-up had started a few days before this, and it was about 60ish that day. But, right at the beginning of the party, it started to rain, which then turned to snow as the temp dropped. So weird!!

This is what the cars looked like when I left the bar that night.

At one point in the evening (around 10ish) I called Stud Muffin to check on him, as he was home alone, and he told me the power went out because of the storm. When I got home, this is what I found on the kitchen table. (Yes, the power was still out.) The candles were lit, by the way.

This was on the counter, but was already blown out. I had warned him not to leave the candles burning after he went to bed.

Another counter.

On top of my stove. This one was still burning. He probably figured it was safe, since it was on the stove.

This one was also burning. It's on the pedestal sink in my bathroom.

The following Saturday, well I guess it was technically Sunday, when I got home from work, this is what the sky looked like. Gee, I wonder why it's so hard to fall asleep when I get home? Could it be that it's freakin' daylight already!!?

Hey, whatta ya know! Something about school! The babies made these Easter eggs last month.

No, despite the uncanny resemblance, these aren't my droopy boobs, "they're necklaces!"

We made these last Wednesday. I LOVE the way they turned out, don't you? The babies adored the book The Rainbow Fish, which we read on Monday and Tuesday. They were sooo excited to make these. This almost looks like a "real" bulletin board, doesn't it? Granted, I could have changed the lame background paper, and maybe used some sort of border, but my days of putting up killer boards are over. You can't have anything nice around the Hell-Hole, because it gets ripped down almost immediately. I don't expect my seaweed to last very long. The random kids that wander the halls like to destroy everything they see. As much as I would love to go on and on about that, I'm not. I think next time, I'll make the fish a little smaller, because the board looks a little crowded, doesn't it? I started out to make them half that size, but that seemed too small. Oh well, live and learn!

OK, time for Dancing with the Stars! I still had a bunch of school tid-bits I wanted to share, so maybe I'll come back later tonight.

*Don't forget, you can click on photos to enlarge them. You may want to do that to get the full cuteness of the babies' creations!

Random Crap

As I was getting out the car after running some errands, the last thing I heard on the radio was "The current temp is 89 downtown." WTF?!?! Seriously?! Oh, and it was 6:45 PM!!
***
Yesterday was my cousin's bridal shower. It was in Lake Forest which is waaayyyy north of here. It took us over an hour and a half to get there. When we left here, I had the air conditioning on in the car, and the bank said it was 81. As we drove, the sky went back and forth from sunny to cloudy, then drizzle, then sun, etc. About 10 minutes before we reached our destination, the sky opened up, and it was raining so hard, I could hardly see. My mother kept screaming, "Pull over! Pull over! I can't see!" To which I replied, "Who the hell cares, I'm driving!" She cracks me up! While we were at the shower, enjoying our time with family, the temperature dropped, and the rain continued. When we arrived back home, the same bank said it was 39. God, I LOVE Chicago! I had to put the heat on in the car while I drove to the bar to work. Today, it's been warm and muggy all damn day! I had the air on while I was running my errands. I'm sure tomorrow morning I'll have the heat on while we drive to school!
***
It has recently been announced that 132 CPS schools will be going year-round next year, the Hell-Hole being one of them. For the past few months, I've been saying that I can't go back because of this change (among MANY other reasons), but now I'm actually starting to rethink things. Our mayor has said that his goal is to have all 666 Chicago Public Schools on year-round schedules within the next few years. Like it or not, I'll be teaching year-round soon. There's simply no way I can make a switch to a suburban school. I would have to take a HUGE pay-cut (my girlfriend just did the switch this year, and took a $35,000 cut!) and obviously, I can't do that. I'm already working 3 freakin' jobs! So, if I'm going to have to stay in the city, I'm starting to think I might as well just stay where I am. There's pretty much the same crap in every school to deal with, although it would be glorious to have a different principal to work under. Plus, the VERY lazy side of me cringes everytime I even think about packing up everything I have in that room. It makes my physically sick just thinking about it! I would seriously have to hire a professional moving company to pack it all up and move it for me, because it's just too overwhelming for me to deal with. Yeah, I'm a loser, but it is what it is! So, bottom line - much to the dismay of my friends and family, I just may be returning to the Hell-Hole in August...

I Heart Chicago (Email of the Day)

CHICAGO SLANG

1.. Grachki (grach'-key): Chicagoese for "garage key" as in, "Yo, Theresa, waja do wit da grachki? Howmy supposta cut da grass if I don't git intada grach?"

2. Sammich: Chicagoese for sandwich. When made with sausage, it's a sassage sammich; when made with shredded beef, it's an Italian Beef sammich, a local delicacy consisting of piles of spicy meat in a perilously soggy bun.

3. Da: This article is a key part of Chicago speech, as in "Da Bears" or "Da Mare" -- the latter denoting Richard M. Daley, or Richie, as he's often called. Or "da Sox" or "da Hawks" but always "The Cubs"

4. Jewels: Not family heirlooms or a tender body region, but a popular name for one of the region's dominant grocery store chains. "I'm goin' to da Jewels to pick up some sassage."

5. Field's: Marshall Field, a prominent Chicago department store. Also Carson Pirie Scott, another major department store chain, is simply called "Carson's."

6. Tree: The number between two and four. "We were lucky dat we only got tree inches of snow da udder night."

7. Over by deer: Translates to "over by there," a way of emphasizing a site presumed familiar to the listener. As in, "I got the sassage at da Jewels down on Edie, over by deer."

8. Kaminski Park : The mispronounced name of the ballpark where the Chicago White Sox (da Sox) play baseball. Chomsky Park was renamed U.S. Cellular Field (da Cell)

9. Frunchroom: As in, "Get outta da frunchroom wit dose muddy shoes." It's not the "parlor." It's not the "living room." In the land of the bungalow, it's the "frunchroom," a named derived, linguists believe, from "front room."

10. Use: Not the verb, but the plural pronoun 'you.' "Where use goin'?"

11. Downtown: Anywhere near The Lake, south of The Zoo (Lincoln Park Zoo) and north of Soldier Field

12. The Lake: Lake Michigan (What other lake is there?) It's often used by local weathermen, "cooler by The Lake."

14. Braht: Short for Bratwurst. "Gimme a braht wit kraut."

15. Goes: Past or present tense of the verb "say." For example, "Den he goes, 'I like this place'!"

16. Guys: Used when addressing two or more people, regardless of each individual's gender.

17. Pop: A soft drink. Don't say "soda" in this town. "Do ya wanna canna pop?"

18. Sliders: Nickname for hamburgers from White Castle, a popular Midwestern burger chain. "Dose sliders I had last night gave me da runs."

19. The Taste: The Taste of Chicago Festival, a huge extravaganza in Grant Park featuring samples of Chicagoland cuisine which takes place each year around the Fourth of July holiday.

20. "Jeetyet?": Translates to, "Did you eat yet?"

21. Winter and Construction: Punch line to the joke, "What are the two seasons in Chicago ?"

22. Cuppa Too-Tree: is Chicagoese for "a couple, two, three" which really means "a few." For example, "Hey Mike, dere any beerz left in da cooler over by dere?"
"Yeh, a cuppa too-tree."

23. 588-2300: Everyone in Chicago knows this commercial jingle and the carpet company you'll get if you call that number -- Empire!

24. Junk Dror: You will usually find the 'junk drawer' in the kitchen filled to the brim with miscellaneous, but very important, junk.

25. Southern Illinois : Anything south of I-80. This is where Smothers' is from....

26. Expressways: The Interstates in the immediate Chicagoland area are usually known just by their 'name' and not their Interstate number: the Dan Ryan ("da Ryan"), the Stevenson, the Kennedy (da "Kennedy"), the Eisenhower (da "Ike"), and the Edens (just "Edens" but Da Edens" is acceptable).

27. Gym Shoes: The rest of the country may refer to them as sneakers or running shoes but Chicagoans will always call them gym shoes!

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• If your local Dairy Queen is closed from September through May, you live in Chicago ...

• If someone in a Home Depot store offers you assistance and they don't work there, you live in Chicago ...

• If you've worn shorts and a parka at the same time, you live in Chicago ...

• If "Vacation" means going anywhere south of I-80 for the weekend, you live in Chicago ...

• If you have switched from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day and back again, you live in Chicago
  

• If you carry jumpers in your car and your wife knows how to use them, you live in Chicago

• If you design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit, you live in Chicago

• If you know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter and road construction, you live in Chicago.

• If you find 10 degrees "a little chilly", you live in Chicago .
  

• If you actually understand these jokes, and forward them to all your Chicago friends & others, you live or have lived in Chicago .

The "slang" dictionary had me crying, I was laughing so hard! The second part of the email might have been posted here once before, but it's still funny, nonetheless.

Joe should have just said "no"....

I just totally stole this from my Bloggy Buddy, Karen. It made me spit on my computer!! For those of you youngsters out there, you might not even know who the hell Joe Cocker is, but the rest of you old farts (like me!) will thoroughly enjoy this!

Wanna know why I'm so cranky?

I just got home from school, it's about4:30, and my widget says it's still 82 God-blessed degrees outside!!!!!

Seriously?!

OK, it's been pretty rainy here lately. Plus, the temperature dropped over the weekend. Monday night we were expected to have a low in the 30s and snow. Freakin' snow! (In the windup, it didn't snow, but it was cold as hell.) Today, it warmed up quite a bit (60s) and by Friday, we are supposed to hit 80. Seriously?! I'm already annoyed. It was too warm for me today, and it was only in the 60s. Yeah, I know, I'm weird. I've said it before, and I'll say it again - I think I was a penguin in a previous life!

I'm a Proud Mommy

Stud was appointed Vice President of Anime Club today! How cool is that? He's very excited about this, as am I. I can't wait to see how he handles the responsibility. This would be the very club he petitioned to let girls join (so that The Girl could be member!). I'm sure girls will be openly welcomed next year, if he has anything to say about it. ;-) (HOLY CRAP! Did I just imply that he and The Girl will still be dating then?! Yikes!)

I've never posted about his talent in the art department, have I? Perhaps I will scan some of his drawings and post them here to give you a taste of what he can do. I find myself being more and more impressed with his drawing. I think the fact that most of these drawing are done during class (!) negates any good feelings I may have about them, though! I have to remind myself to focus on the beauty and talent sometimes, ya know?