Um ... has anyone seen Cash this morning?

Did something happen in her neck of the woods?

Haven't seen Cash.

I'm at work, so I can't really do any of the home remedies for puffy eyes. I'm just hoping no one notices and that they go away. Soonish.

if they were going to rummage through the boxes, you'd think they would have left them at least neat and not turned over on their sides with stuff spilling out.

Ha. While in theory I approve of reusing things that would instead be thrown away, my professional experience with dumpster divers is that *many* of them rip through bags and boxes and just leave it all for "someone else" to clean up. I get cranky b/c the "someone else" is my coworkers, or occasionally me. I may be an ecofreak, but don't get me started on freegans.

Damn emotions. Can we remove them somewhere? Or have a mute button? Or just an adjustable button?

No kidding, right? I cry very easily, which never fails to astonish and confound KBD. It's not something I can control, and I've pretty much given up on trying. But he really doesn't get it and frequently ends up patting me clumsily and saying "Don't cry."

Did something happen in her neck of the woods?

No. I just had a bad dream about her and feel the need to check in.

Aw, smonster, I'm sorry. Go get some chocolate?

So, I'm Little Miss Outoftheloopenstein lately, I know - punctuation for all that need it (I just skipped a gazillion posts).

Work is keeping me busy busy busy lately. Had an Observation today (the Head watching me teach my Year 5 class Literacy) and another on Monday (the Head of Key Stage 3 watching me teach Art to the Year 8&9 group). Felt like utter crap on Monday after the observation, even though the lesson went pretty well - she evidently wasn't much impressed. I mean, didn't say it sucked, or whatever, but didn't have much actively positive to say either - and apparently I really need the pats on the head to make me feel hopeful about my ability to make things better. Which was a bit sad-making, since I've been working my ass off trying to figure out how to connect with this group (who are...well, let's just say that they're less able than my Year 5 class, and leave it at that) and after several weeks of not really getting very far with what we're SUPPOSED to be doing, have rewritten the curriculum to base it around

( continues...) is OMG fabulous, and my kids have been writing their own stories in which a character leaps out of the pages of the book and causes chaos in their lives. Plus, we got to watch the movie. Ooooh, the temptation to accidentally hit pause during the shirtless Paul Bettany fire juggling sequence. Guh. And guh. And guh again.

Tomorrow there is a fancy dress competition at school. Teachers are supposed to participate, of course - it's supposed to be a character from a book. For the life of me, I couldn't think of anything, and then yesterday I thought I could go as the Wolves in the Walls. So I spent a very happy 3 hours after school fashioning myself a Wolves In The Walls costume, of which I am inordinately proud. I may even take photos tomorrow, because I think it kind of rocks.

...okay, what the flying fuck, Board?

Just because I've been away, you eat most of my post?

kicks board

Board HUNGRY!

That was weird - was there some kind of freaky punctuation in the middle that the board interpreted as HTML, maybe?

Just because I've been away, you eat most of my post?

I'm not glad it ate your post, Fay, because we haven't seen anywhere near enough of your pixels lately, but I'm glad it wasn't the meds playing with my mind that made it appear as if half your post had disappeared.

In an effort to placate the board's insatiable appetite, I offer these photos of an adorable baby:
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Meanwhile, Flickr gives you a random greeting in some foreign language whenever you open it, "Guten Tag" or "Ni hao", for instance. Today I open it and it gives me the following message:

"O HAI Billytea69! You now know how to greet people in Lolspeak!"

I am nonplussed.

I am a Very Good Granddaughter. My grandmother has been trying for ages to get me to have lunch with my uncle (the obnoxious one who I'm not sure about inviting to the wedding), so that he can meet The Girl. Today, we did so, and it was not so bad, particularly as my cousin and grandmother were there too. Also, given that it was not so bad, I may reconsider the wedding invitation thing. It would make my grandmother very happy.

Fay, regardless of the missing bits of the post, the project where your kids are writing exciting stories sounds fab!

Shir, being depressed over a life situation is not good. Is there any chance of you moving to a place on your own at some point? With crappy situations, I'm sure it must be better to see if you can resolve them rather than taking medication. Obviously if there's no way to do that, then that's different. I hope that things improve in some way, whether for you emotionally, or practically regarding housing.

smonster, how's the trapped nerve today? I can relate to fighting over seeing the world differently. The Girl and I have to work very hard on that one, especially when you factor in general communication difficulties. I hope that your discussion at least has some useful results in that area.