Olney / Takoma Park / DC

Sundays are usually my least favorite days.  Especially at the start of the school year it meant working 12 hours writing lesson plans, grading, contacting parents, etc.  They got better, but not much.  The shot below shows break time.  Ash is a canaries fan.  Evan is home on weekends, which is always good.

The drive to Takoma Park from Olney takes about 30 minutes, but can be longer if traffic is bad.  Sometimes it takes over an hour.  If we are in a hurry and traffic is good, 23 minutes.  The drive to work Monday morning is not the greatest since it is hard to sleep on Sunday.  This shot shows New Hampshire Ave.  Sometimes, to entertain myself, I pretend I am in a video game and am trying to weave through traffic.  I am not sure if this is always safe.

On Tuesday, we have campus families.  If we have time, Jenny and I will bake something to take to the kidlets.  Jacqueline's cookies now have a school-wide reputation.  I think there are students who only like me because of these cookies.  Fair enough.

I always feel happy when I have completed Wednesday, since Thursday is one of my favorite days.  It's a little easy to get lost in the hallway midweek, so my classroom has a convenient duck-tape number line sticking out of it.  Plus, you can do graphs on the floor and stuff.

For a teacher, Thursdays are Fridays.  At least, that's what I think.  If we do anything fun during the week, it will be on Thursday evening.  Thursdays are sunny, as clearly shown below.

Fridays are always a happy, short day.  I like the time after school when students are still hanging around.  Everyone is exhausted, but happy.  Exhausted and happy is a good combination.  Once back at the apartment, Evan and I might have a nice cup of coffee, or kick the soccer ball around in the parking lot.

We don't go into DC that often, because it takes about an hour from Olney.   Sometimes we make the trip on Saturday, and we will invariably stop at Peregrine Espresso.  On one such occasion, Brian and Tiffany and I quizzed ourselves and the friendly barista with a Trivial Pursuit book.

Jordy Baby

He's not in the Closet anymore. He's living in Hallmark or something lame like that, butt Jordan Kattenhorn spent a whole year holding down the left backside of the house. Alban and I used to harass him about his sedentary lifestyle. Jordan studied like he meant it, spending much of his time sitting on his tush with a book open. When he wasn't studying, he was cooking in the bottom kitchen, much to Alban's dislike. Not because Jordan's food wasn't good, but because Jordan's food was healthy. He even made a healthy variation of biscuits, that were really more like buns.

Now we know what all that was about, Jordan was just getting ready to bare it all just before he graduated.

Chaos Theory

I recently read an article about Chaos Theory. And Muppets.

The author advanced the theory that most people can be grouped into "order muppets" or "chaos muppets." Chaos muppets tend to be disorganized, emotional and fuzzy; i.e. Cookie Monster, Ernie and Phil. Order muppets tend to be neurotic, ordered and secretly enjoy the weight of responsibility; i.e. Bert or Alban.

Then there are the people who don't classify so easily. Those who seem to purposefully create chaos, but only because they believe it will lead to a more efficient order in the end; i.e. Oscar the Grouch or Cody. These kind of muppets are bookends to the other kind that project order but secretly enjoy the chaos. I'd probably place Tommy here.

Jacque - at times gives the appearance of a tornado juggling multiple responsibilities but secretly seeks balance and order.

Jessi - combines the appearance of an icelandic chaos muppet with the motivated work ethic of a classic order muppet.

Brendan = Elmo