So, not really a Big Important Beep Me thing, but I'm here anyway 'cause it feels like a big deal.

I'm still training as a teacher & I'm just finishing my first placement - four weeks teaching a class of 8-9 yr olds. (Or at least teaching them 60% of the time.) They're "My" Class. Anyway, I'm going to miss them hideously - they're smashing and I've really been enjoying it and I've totally altered the classroom layout and displays and everything and it's been a blast. And today I took my merry little band of 32 kiddies (should have been 33, but one was injured playing football last night) on a trip to a museum in a town a half hour away, where we had a workshop with an archeaologist and got to handle real Egyptian artefacts and look at mummies and all that good stuff, to tie in with their History topic. It was my idea, I did the background work, I did the costing for the trip and organised the bus and the adult helpers and did the recce and produced worksheets and organised kids into groups that would get on without actually distracting each other too much, and sorted out packed lunches, and arranged when each group would get to go to the gift shop, and everything.

And it went like a charm. They were well behaved and sensible (not docile - they're a lively bunch, but they totally did me proud) and knowledgeable and keen and focussed and So. Bloody. Good. that I'm about ready to explode with pride. The archeaologist was so impressed that he let them handle fragile artefacts that he normally doesn't let the kids touch, and they treated them with respect. I bloody love my kids. I am brimming with pride. I am also feeling kind of trumpet-blowy, because it went really well, and that's because I planned it out well. Go me.

t /boastful

My appendix is a lovely, healthy specimen of appendiosity. (Obviously, otherwise I wouldn't be home to post this.)

I'm not a hypochondriac, though: it's pretty certain I have ovarian cysts (plural), and my blood work came back with an elevated white blood cell count, which means I have a virus of indeterminate nature somewhere in my body.

In any case. My appendix is fine, but I am not exactly healthy. All y'alls vibes certainly kept my appendix in my body, though, so thank you.

Buenos dias de Galapagos!

Kevin and I are sitting in a tiny little internet cafe in Puerto Ayora, on the island of Santa Cruz. Everything has been beyond amazing and I´ll post a URL with pictures as soon as we return on Monday.

I hope everyone´s doing well!

It's official--I made my first "A"! 98.8% for my first course work. I'm now working on Office 2000 (and more advanced typing).

It's January 31, and it's 90 degrees in Los Angeles.

To the rest of the country, and indeed the world: "Ah-ha!"

Okay, folks, I now have too much beer and every condiment known to man. You must come to my party. Excuses like, "I live in Kansas!" will not be accepted.

Day: Today
Time: 7ish (p.m.)
Place: 965 S. Gretna Green Way, LA CA 90049 (Y! Maps Link)
Cell: 323-363-5279
Land: 310-820-7112
X-Streets: Bundy & Wilshire
Freeway Exit: 405, Wilshire West
Bring: Yourself, your friends, and possibly more beer. :)

Happy Chinese New Year to all of you! (Also in Chinese tradition, Happy Birthday to everyone since you would normally celebrate your birthday during the New Year celebration, irrespective of the actual date of your birth).

May your next year be filled with peace and prosperity.

I have jury duty, so I won't be around for 1-3 days.

Just wanted to pop in and thank you all for your good wishes on the audition.

I acquitted myself respectably. I am happy.

Now I'm going to sleep.

My dad is dying of cancer. This was all discovered Monday, after a series of events that are too much to go into here. Whatever it is (he had a biopsy late yesterday, but only to see what type; there's no doubt that this is a metastasized cancer; they/we can tell by looking at him and feeling him) is spreading through his body at an alarming rate.

He has palpable and visible lumps that are multiplying unbelievably fast. The small blessing in that, is that they were able to biopsy one of the lumps rather easily, rather than submitting him to an invasive ordeal. He's currently hospitalized, but we're looking into the feasibility of bringing him home, with hospice care to help. I was called to the hospital yesterday because they expected him to go then. But he rallied, and is fighting so hard that he was refusing to sleep, even while on a morphine drip. Now the doctors and nurses say we can't tell how long he'll last.

Buffistas are so warm and giving but all I want and need is for as many folks as possible to please pray (or hold good thoughts) for an easy and dignified death, free from fear and pain, and for strength for my poor mum who loves him so (as do I, my dh and our children).