The newest member of the guitar collection arrived yesterday. Here are pictures. All I have to say is this. It's blue.





In other news, I've learned a new trick. How to make biscuits from scratch! Mr. Miller, my dad says to say thank you!

First, I've just noticed that this blog recently had a birthday. I've been writing here for four years this month! Happy Birthday to me!

Now, on to the important items.

A few months have gone by, and my herb garden has finally metamorphosed from what looked like average yard weeds into something we can actually use in the kitchen.

Below you'll find the pictures of what I've managed not to kill. (Don't ask about the oregano.)

Here we have the chives. I've not used them yet, as they still look a bit young.


The cilantro is doing the best by far. It's even begun to flower! As for taste, I'll tell you I won't use anything except fresh cilantro again. It's incredible.


Here we see the basil, also quite large, and the second most frequently requested item from the garden.


The odd balls of the garden. Strawberry plants. They've yet to make any strawberries, though. These could be regular potted plants for all I know.


Last but not least, parsley. We haven't tried this yet either. Garnish does not excite me.


Here's what they looked like months ago, for any who are interested in the progress.

Early herb garden post.

The time has rolled around to dust off the 3eb CD that goes untouched on the shelf most of the year.

I don't get around to listening too it all that often. I can't claim it's because Alex usually chooses the musical selections, or that I'm too busy. This has always been the way things are with the CD.

I bought the CD when I was in high school, I'm sure due to a Zann recommendation. As it was one of the very few CD's I owned at the time, I would feed my computer addiction by playing video games until the sun came up while listening to 3eb on endless repeat. Yeah I know, I had no life.

The CD accompanied me to college where gaming was replaced by late night studying. Then it followed me to NYC where I had no television or computer for quite a while. It hardly left the CD player. It even made the final trip with me when I moved back to Florida. A well travelled musical selection, as you can see.

But the last few years, I've forgotten to play it so often. I run across it about once or twice a year, throw it in the play list, and reminisce. Each time I take it out I swear I'll listen to it again soon.. but it usually doesn't happen that way for whatever reason.

Odd how a simple combination of chords and rhythms can take you back to times and places you'd otherwise forget.

The children are not the problem.

Parents, please. Before you send your child to my classroom, make sure you haven't allowed them to walk all over you the first five years of their lives. You may think you're taking the easy road by letting them get over here and there.

I've got news for you. Here and there becomes every single time a tear drips from their pretty little eyes, and before long you've created a monster. I have one such monster in my class. Unfortunately she entered school with only three weeks left in the year. That's not much time and I'm no miracle worker.

At the end of the week when she's become accustomed to rules and consequences she drifts by with relative ease. But the first two days of the week are horrendous, only because she gets away with murder all weekend.

I'm going to open a newspaper 10 years from now and see this kid's face staring back... and I'm going to say "I told you so."

The horrible fact is that the behavior is LEARNED. 99.9% of the time the child doesn't exit the womb in the form of a holy terror. They only know what we teach them. Not all lessons are verbal, either.

Telling a child to behave and teaching them to behave are two totally different tasks. One having positive results, the other negative. Figure it out.

Our new toy.

Notebook!

Alex has spent the last week burning every CD he owns onto his new portable hard drive. Cataloged. A to Z. I'm not certain he's going to get everything on this 120GB drive.. time will tell.

There are only 4 days of school left with children this year. I've made it almost to the end without killing any of them.. unintentionally of course. Interesting topics for the summer: possible part time office job, teaching my last adult class for Lake Tech, possibly attending ESOL classes (groan), preparing the news classroom at the new job for new kids, and running 4 miles a day. Yeah, I know. I said that last year.

End post.