Horst Happenings....

Sunday, December 14, 2008

It's ALIVE.............

Yes, the blog is alive again. I have been absent for quite some time. Actually I have been busy for quite some time. For some reason this school year has been particularly busy. The Christmas holidays are beginning to roll around and things are actually beginning to ease up a little. I suppose that I might address some of the goings on in my recent world later. First and foremost, yours truly was selected as Outstanding Teacher at Brook Avenue Elementary School for the 2008-2009 school year.

Don't believe me! Follow this link to the Waco ISD website.

More later!

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Sunday, October 12, 2008

Baylor 38 - Iowa State 10

Just got a new phone last week.

Sony Ericsson W580i.

I took it to the Baylor-Iowa State game last night. I took Julie too.

I decided to try out the video feature during the game. I recorded the second half kick-off.

The kick-off turned out to be a return by Baylor's Mikail Baker for a touch down. The 93 yard gallop gave Baylor a 28-3 lead with just 18 ticks off the clock in the 3rd quarter.

Sic-em Bears; and they did.

38-10

I was looking at the stats this morning.

In the Big 12 there are 6 teams in the Top 25. That's 50%. Now listen to this. At the end of the 7th week of the season and the 2nd week of Big 12 play, Baylor is not in the cellar. Guess who is. After 2 weeks in the Big 12 play Nebraska, Colorado, and Texas A&M are all 0-2. Baylor is climbing the stairs out of the cellar. They have a lot of help though. In Big 12 play Baylor and OU (Hmmm!) are both 1-1 and tied for 5th place in the conference. I'm happy; Baylor won last night and I spent a great evening with my daughter.

In addition to all of that I got the big kick-off return on my phone. The resolution is a little rough and my hand was shaky from the excitement but here it is from YouTube.

Friday, September 26, 2008

Potpourri or A Little of This and a Little of That

I hate allergies.

I don't know what blew in, but I wish it would blow out.

Yesterday was not a particularly good day. I must have gone through a box of Kleenex and several allergy pills. When this happens to me I get cranky. I was cranky at school yesterday. I am sure the kids thought I was cranky.Today has got to be better. This weekend has got to be better. Baylor has a bye week so I don't have to worry about going out to a football game. The Heart of Texas Fair does not start till next week. I still have time to get better and get rid of this. If I don't get rid of it maybe I'll get used to it.

Tutoring starts in a few weeks. The kindergarten teachers need to get together to determine which students should attend tutoring. We also got our schedules on Wednesday. I have been assigned to tutor 5th grade.

Wow! What a switch. Spend all day with my kindergartners and then head upstairs and spend an hour with 5th grade. That's a 5-6 year jump in a matter of minutes.

The neighbor across the street called the other day. He wanted to know where we picked up our campaign sign. After the remnants of Ike blew through his signs were gone. He had them placed along his frontage with the road. He had placed several about every one-quarter mile. It looked good. I'm not sure if the wind blew them down or if they were "taken" down. I noticed yesterday that he had a new sign up. This time it was placed next to his driveway.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Say Again...,Again

In an earlier post "Say Again..." I mentioned a tendency of mine to hear what is not said.

It happened again today during training after school. Prior to our session one of my coworkers was finishing lunch. Another coworker mentioned, "I can smell your onions."

That is not what I heard. I am not going to say what I heard. I knew my coworker would not say this particular thing, but yet I thought I heard it.

Later in the afternoon I mis-heard again. This time the same coworker was cleaning up the table and asked me, "Are you through with your bottle?"

And what did I hear you ask?

My ears told me I heard, "Are you through with your BODY?"

"No, I'm still using it. It's not ready for recycling yet!"

A Man of Letters, Sort Of!

Does anyone out there use a Logitech G15 keyboard?

I use one and for the most part I love it. My keyboard is an older model G15. I've had it for probably 5 or 6 years. It has a blue back lit keyboard so I can use it at night and not disturb my wife by having the lamp on. It has 54 Macro enabled keys which allows me to have tons of shortcuts. It has multi-media controls on it along with a flip-up LCD screen which gives a variety of information.

There is so much to like about it. However, there is one thing I don't like. Many of the keys are beginning to wear through. Actually the black paint is rubbing off and the blue back light is shining through in all of it's glorious blue. The "E", "R", and "T" keys are basically a blob of light if you can envision light being a blob. The U, I, O, A, S, F, J, N, M, and Space Bar are also beginning to show definite signs of wear.

One day last summer I wrote the company to inquire as to the availability of replacement keys. Apparently Logitech has no replacement keys. Silly me! I just thought someone could pop down to the assembly line pick out the keys I needed and send them my way.

Life is just simply not that easy.

I was assured that they could replace the keys IF I sent them the keyboard, AND the keyboard was within the warranty period.

First, the keyboard is 5+ years old. I strongly suspect it IS out of warranty. Perhaps I could go to the "warranty" store and by some more and fill it up. Secondly, send the keyboard back?? And just what do I use in the meantime? It would be easier to simply buy a new one which is exactly what I don't want to do. The new ones are not the same as mine; plus, there's nothing wrong with mine except the keys.

I did buy a keyboard at Target yesterday. Brought it home and looked at it. I took it back a few hours later. I just couldn't bring my self to actually spend $75 for the keyboard just to get 13 keys.

Let's see, that's about $5.77 per key.

Perhaps I'll write Logitech again. If I bug them enough perhaps they'll send me a bag full of letters one day.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Loose Training???

Autumn, Day 2.

More training.

This time it is Science training. The district is implementing a new science program called Loose In the Labs. I am attending a training of trainers session. After the training today i will need to train the other Kindergarten teachers on our campus how to properly use the kits and the lab materials.

This training thing could actually be pretty good. I went to training one day last week and taught for four days. This week I have training today and Early Release tomorrow. Three and a half days teaching and one and a half going to training. Not bad.

I don't know what I'll do next week. No training and five days teaching.

It'll work. It's a job and I love it.