One question- does anyone know offhand how many fluid ounces there are in a can of chicken broth? (as that is how the measurement is listed for that ingredient).

I think 14 oz, but make sure to check the can/box, they vary.

It's half a can, but I used about 3/4 because I knew I was going to cook down the sauce anyway.

Go Erika! Channeling your inner Ari clearly paying off there!

So, next week my colleague and I are taking our classes for the residential trip to the seaside - 4 days & 3 nights. Sounds like fun.

I was talking about it with another colleague - she taught Year 5 (which I'm teaching this year) last year, and we were comparing notes wrt parental craziness about the trip. And then she told me about her First Ever School Trip, back when she was a newly-minted teacher, all wet behind the ears. And I have to share this story with you.

So, my friend (let's call her Nat, because - well, because it's her name, damn it) was leading this group of kids on a trip to Dudley Zoo. Do not imagine a big sexy fantastic cutting edge zoo, ladies and gentlemen across the pond - this is Dudley. It's...I can't think of a USian equivalent, but we're not talking London, Paris, Rome, New York, Dudley in terms of sophistication here.

Ahem. Anyway, so, off they went to the zoo. And of course you're always freaking out about health and safety, and trying to predict who's going to barf on the bus, and counting heads every five minutes to check nobody's suddenly spontaneously combusted, or whatever, but it all went pretty smoothly. The kids looked at the animals, and they bought candy and cheap rubbish in the gift shop, and had their packed lunches, and all went according to plan. They rounded the kids up in time to get them all on the bus, and headed back to school, knackered but satisfied in a job well done.

Only...there was this smell. This most unfortunate smell. So, grimly, Nat went up and down the aisle of the bus, asking kids to check their shoes to find out who'd stood in something unfortunate. And she couldn't find anything. And the smell didn't go away. Indeed, if anything, it became more noticeable. She searched the bus, following her nose, and eventually found this kid all zipped up in his jacket, looking shiftily up at her. She looked down at him. He looked up at her. Beads of cold sweat stood out on his forehead. The stench was at its most pervasive right there, around the kid.

Nat tried to figure out how best to ask if he had crapped himself without humiliating him for all time before his friends.

And then she noticed his jacket twitching, and a hideous suspicion dawned upon her, and she got him to open his jacket.

And discovered that he had stolen a penguin.

...

...

...

So of course they do a frantic U-Turn and go hurtling back to the zoo, penguin in tow, and have to march kid and penguin off the bus to go and return the penguin to the zookeepers.

He stole a fucking penguin.

is still awed

I wish teachers were considered high risk. I swear we get exposed to just as many germs as the average health care worker.

Just as many (or more) kids certainly, but health care workers deal with a lot of sick kids (and adults) so they may have you on the germs count.

I think that's the sticking point -- that and that health care workers could then transmit to the other immune-compromised people they're working with en masse.

Not saying that teachers (particularly primary teachers) aren't exposed to a soup 'o germs, just that the line gets drawn somewhere.

Calli, [link] All this drama from me laughing at something another woman did not find humorous(that apparently 8, well, seven, other people liked well enough. Not counting one cause he made the original comment and everybody likes that, even if they said something incredibly stupid, right?) If I had to apologize for stuff I laugh at every time I didn't suit somebody's standards, that's all I would do, all day long. Considering I also laughed at the beginning of the book "Homicide" when the sergeant said a dead body had a "slow leak" and he knew where to get a patch kit and fix him, I'd have to quit b.org and writing and change my blogging name to "mia_culpa" besides.

Fay, a few years from now I'd suspect billytea's Ryan to be the culprit; since it's not, obviously a kindred soul.

Stole a penguin!

That may be the cutest naughty thing a kid ever did. I'm completely melted.

I think teachers should be immunized primarily for the students protection, not their own. An adult with a strong immune system could easily be a carrier for influenza without experiencing symptoms strong enough to keep them from coming to work.

Fay, I have asked her to hug it out. I left "bitch" off because she seems to be peeved on feminist grounds, and, while I was born at night, it wasn't last night.

And I also *love* that my Secret Political Boyfriend, Representative Grayson, called Dick Cheney a vampire, or rather, called the flecks of blood on his teeth "distracting". One person's "childish" is another person's "Shoutout!" If that's wrong, I don't wanna be right. Especially because it made me think of Spike carrying a gun around "cause it makes me feel all manly" and, apparently, Cheney shooting his boy in the face, never not funny.

So of course they do a frantic U-Turn and go hurtling back to the zoo, penguin in tow, and have to march kid and penguin off the bus to go and return the penguin to the zookeepers.

I'm sure it wasn't funny at the time, but BWAH!

And now for an article that made me go DUH: Antipsyochotic drugs cause weight gain. I gained 10 lbs on Abilify and my sister gained 25 in six weeks on Seroquel.