It was good while it lasted. . .
Filed under: Fantasy Football, Mental Strain for Mama
The voting has ended and yours truly will not be gracing a month of the Hot Blogger Calendar. Despite being on the leaderboard all week, it just wasn’t meant to be. I don’t usually win things. It would have blown my whole "I never win anything, wah" whine-fest to pieces. I’m sort of relieved I can still use it. I’ve also been invited to my friend’s beach house the same weekend as the shoot. I’m just supposed to be at the beach I guess.
Avitable sent me a very sweet email and recommended I make my own calendar. I just wanted to take the opportunity to thank all of you who went and voted for me. I had more votes than I could have ever imagined and I truly appreciate your support.
In other news, I had my second fantasy football draft this weekend and ended up with the following team:
QB: Jay Cutler
QB: Jake Delhomme
QB: Jason Campbell
RB: Steven Jackson
RB: Willie Parker
RB: Michael Turner
RB: Matt Forte
RB: Rashard Mendenhall
WR: Braylon Edwards
WR: Santonio Holmes
WR: Roy Williams
WR: Chris Chambers
TE: Heath Miller
TE: Todd Heap
D/ST: Giants
K: Shayne Graham
If you have a big question mark when you see I have three QB’s, yeah, I get you. I have that question mark too. It boiled down to being my last pick and I just had no clue who to take. Playing in a league of 12 teams is a lot different than playing in a league of only eight. Yes, I also realize that I drafted the entire Steelers team with the exception of the QB, defense and kicker. There’s no need to point out how silly my team looks right now or how I’ll suffer during that bye week. I realize I have several "not hot" players. It seems to be the theme for the weekend, and I’m cool with that. Cool, not hot. There you have it.
The Meaning of a Name
Filed under: Fantasy Football, Mental Strain for Mama
After a long first week of school for all of us, we decided to grab a quick dinner at Friendly’s. We waited too long. Lil C was tired and beyond hungry. When she’s tired, look out. She has violent tendencies. She’ll pinch you and laugh while she does it. She gets whiny and miserable. Unfortunately, I’m always the one who has to sit beside her in the booth.
While trying to ignore the whining, Big I was telling us about her day at school. Her teacher had been paging through a book of names and telling them what their names mean. She went around the classroom and told Big I that her name means, "belongs to God." Although we knew the meaning of her name when we chose it, we didn’t know that we were giving her a very appropriate name for her personality. She is an angel, a total sweetheart. She also had that whole saintly experience last year. It was pretty amazing to us. She then went on to tell us that her teacher said that her own name means, "one who will never be married." Mr. BBM and I cracked up laughing. Clearly, the 2nd graders don’t get her humor. She’s an older single woman and she’s a riot.
At some point in the conversation, Big I asked us what Lil C’s name means. I laughed for a moment and then said, "Her name means prophetess of doom’." Big I almost spit her milk out her nose. Through her laughter she said, "What does that mean?"
"Well, it means ‘one who fortells or predicts bad things will happen." Big I threw her head back so hard from laughing that she smacked her head on the booth. Mr. BBM was laughing equally hard. It was contagious, so I was cracking up laughing too while Lil C sat there looking serious, perhaps as if she were about to predict doom.
We didn’t know it at the time, but we picked a near perfect name for Lil C as well. She is the little devil to Big I’s angel. She can predict doom because she’s usually the one causing it. The other night, she covered herself head to toe in baby powder, leaving little powder footprints all over the carpet upstairs and making herself look like a ghost. Two days before that, she ventured into my Mom’s room and loaded the toilet with toilet paper. She’s always finding a way to get into trouble.
Last night, as my parents were packing up to go on vacation, Lil C looked right at my Mom and said, "You’re going to die at the beach." I told her that wasn’t nice and asked her why she said that and she matter-of-factly said, "Mom-Mom, you’re going to die at the beach." I strongly discouraged my parents from taking their ocean kayak along after she said that and my Mom got a little panicky. It was kind of creepy, but I figured that Big I, with her fascination for all things morbid (like the dead mouse on the street in front of our new home), put her up to it.
Later last night, as I was drafting my fantasy football team, I thought maybe Lil C meant that fortelling for me. With a draft pick five out of eight, I was concerned about my team. Plus, I did no pre-season studying like I usually do. I simply haven’t had time. So, here’s my team:
QB: Donovan McNabb
QB: Matt Schaub
RB: Brian Westbrook
RB: Marion Barber
RB: Lendale White
RB: Jerious Norwood
WR: Reggie Wayne
WR: TJ Houshmandzadeh
WR: Santonio Holmes
WR: Nate Burleson
WR: Chris Chambers
TE: Kellen Winslow
TE: Ben Watson
D/ST: Chargers
K: Nick Folk
With the exception of Kellen Winslow, I don’t have a single player I had last year. Maybe this spells fantasy victory? I’ll have to see what my little prophetess of doom thinks.
Voting for the Hot Blogger Calendar ends on Sunday. Please click over and vote for me if you haven’t already. Thanks for all the votes and the plugs.
Freshman are Freshman are Freshman
I arrived this morning on campus shaking like a leaf. I was the exact same way on my first day of teaching high school freshman many years ago. My class started at 8 a.m. and I was approaching the classroom at 7:50 a.m. this morning. Because my schedule was switched only days ago, my room was also changed. I walked right past my room because it was full. That class had to already be in progress, right? No one is going to be at least 10 minutes early to an 8 a.m. class right?
Wrong.
I walked past the room, stopped and walked backwards and peeked in. I walked in completely dazed and confused and said, "Are you all here for Composition class?" They nodded in agreement.
"What?!? Didn’t anyone tell you people that when you have an 8 a.m. college course, you’re supposed to arrive at 7:59 a.m.?"
They laughed and looked at me like I was nuts. If I made it to my 8 a.m. classes in college, it was with seconds to spare and only because I had slept in my clothes the night before. I shared that little piece of knowledge with them and then went searching for another table and more chairs. I have 24 students in this writing class. I’m going to have a lot of papers to grade.
By the time they were half way through their departmental assessment exam, I was feeling more relaxed. I allowed them to leave as soon as they were done and then prepared for my next course, which is a speech class. This class is smaller with only 19 students. I have many student athletes and some very interesting other students as well. The composition course will be a challenge to teach because of the subject manner. Making bibliographies interesting is next to impossible. The speech course’s challenges will come more from the students.
I had one guy try to sleep through the syllabus stuff. I called him out and he was bright eyed after that. I had another interesting young man who has been home-schooled his entire life. This is his first time in a classroom. My friend, Renovation Girl, told me that going back to teaching is like riding a bike and I think she is right. It felt mostly natural and I think it will be a good semester. It’s funny though. College freshman are just like 9th grade freshman, but in bigger packages. I thought they’d seem so grown up, but they’re just kids.
Either that or I’m getting older. Let’s go with the "just kids" scenario.
I’m hoping that the nerves I had today will be gone on Thursday when I go back for the second class. I’m also hoping that getting up that early starts to suck less. I am so not a morning person.
On another subject entirely, I haven’t been able to kick much butt or even pretend to since having ACL surgery. But apparently there are enough of you who want to support a woman making a fashion statement in a gi. I’m in the top 12 as of right now over at Hotbloggercalendar.com. I’m shocked, flattered, and realizing that you, my fantastic readers, totally rock (Like I didn’t already know this long ago). So, if you haven’t voted yet, please go cast your vote for me; and thanks a million to those who have already gone to cast a vote for women kicking butt in the martial arts everywhere. I think I need to start selling t-shirts that say "Girls in gi’s are hot."
And while I’m on the subject of "hot". . . there’s a hot new martial arts blog that I know you’ll want to check out. Ikigaiway.com is a site for all martial artists, written by a very dear friend and teacher of mine. His insights into the martial arts are always interesting and thought provoking. His blog header is reason alone to go and check him out (Hello, may I please have the name and number of your designer???). So when you get sick and tired of waiting for me to actually talk about something martial arts related, go and visit Ikigai. Tell him BBM sent you!
Time to Breathe
I barely have time to breathe lately, much less blog. On Friday, I received a phone call from the Department Chair at the college where I will begin teaching tomorrow. Before Friday, I was supposed to teach two Composition/Research classes in the afternoon. She left me a message asking me to switch to the morning. She also said she’d like me to have one Composition/Research course and pick up a Speech course as well.
This schedule allows me to be finished teaching by 10:50 a.m. each day that I’m on campus. It’s a pretty nice schedule which means that I can pick Big I up from school every day. Plus, I’ve always wanted to teach a speech course. I’ve done a lot of public speaking and I always thought it would be a fun course to teach.
So, I said yes to two preps and very early morning classes.
Instead of spending my last weekend relaxing, I spent hours each day planning and writing my syllabus. To say that I was stressed and overwhelmed would be a gross understatement. Because I spent my entire weekend planning, I managed to get onto campus today, make copies, and get some other things done. I am ready for the first week of teaching. Since I start at 8 a.m., I will need coffee though to be really sure I’m ready.
In other news, I think we’re getting our roof trusses today. I’ll post pictures later if the guys actually get them up.
Also, Big I had her first day of school today. Keep your fingers crossed that when I pick her up in a little while, she’s a happy girl.
And finally, today is voting day. While I could care less if I win or not, receiving a sucktastic number of votes is not at all cool. There are some ladies who are already rocking the vote count over there and I think all martial artists and fans of those who sometimes write about martial arts should stand up and say, "Yes! A girl can be hot while being completely covered up and wearing baggy pants in a gi!" So go and vote for me! A vote for me is a vote for girls who’ve said no to spandex everywhere!
General Housekeeping
We came back from the beach with mosquito bites the size of oranges and a bit too much laundry. I’m not sure what they’re putting in soft-serve ice cream these days, but I think I may need to replace Lil C’s entire wardrobe.
We thought we’d come back to a framed house, but instead it’s still just a basement. The only development is that we now have the beginnings of a low rock wall on one side of our property. It’s pretty cool looking, so I’m happy about that, especially since it was a surprise development. I’m not, however, happy about my lumber sitting there. Wednesday will be two weeks without any house action so that’s a bit discouraging. It better start happening this week or else I’m going to start to worry about our settlement date.
We’re gearing up for the start of school, Big I’s and mine, with only one week until go time. I’m also in my mad planning and writing mode for my guest post at Secondhand Karl’s place. We’re also gearing up for fantasy football season. We have one drop-out so far and I’m anticipating a second drop-out, so there are two teams in the all blogger "Smacktalkers Anonymous" fantasy football league. If you’re interested in getting your heiney handed to you running a team, shoot me an email. Potential participants will be screened for football knowledge and violent tendencies.
Playing so far are: Papa Bradstein, Bush Mackel, Goonsquad Sarah, Ikigai, and everyone’s favorite commenter "Marcus Aurelius" or "Chris39." If you’re interested, I need to know soon because the draft is next weekend. Time is of the essence.
Hopefully, we’ll have some cool house pictures to show you this week. Our countertops are coming in next week, but we still don’t have walls. Weird.
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