Slogging On

It was a calmer week than the last one.  I'm keeping my nose to the grindstone, hand to the plow,  feet on the path,  etc. etc.  I'm trying to do what several mentors have told me in the past: "Sometimes all you can do is close your door, and do what you do best -- teach."  Next week should also be somewhat low-key.  It's a four day week for us, and we have 3 days of state testing.  So while the testing is high-stakes, there's not much preparation to do, since for much of the day, it's proctoring the tests.  We have Friday off for the state teachers' conference, so that's why it's a 4 day week.  I do have a lot of work to do -- a major social studies  project is due Monday so I will have 40 of those to assess, and I need to decide what's next.

Our teachers association has a project to work on also.  Our contract did not pass last March.  It's been renegotiated, and the vote on that is coming up.  We need to work on getting out the positive vote on that.  We are working without a contract, and the new one needs to pass. The proposed contract freezes our current salaries for another year, and then in the second year, the only raises are "step" increases - the increases in salary that we have traditionally gotten for experiences.  It's highly probable that those increases will be eaten up entirely by our increased health insurance contributions, at least for most of the teachers.  Many teachers will go "backwards".  Nobody is thrilled with it, but we also don't want to be without a contract.  And most of us are happy that we have jobs with decent health insurance.  What makes me a little annoyed is that many people forget that many of the teachers in our district live in our district and are taxpayers too.  We are VERY conscious of how school costs impact our property taxes since we pay them too.  In our state, the local school budgets are almost entirely funded by local property taxes.  It's a pretty uneven distribution of burden across the state.  Our state does not have an income tax or a sales tax so property owners and business owners bear the brunt of paying for services.

#89


Fifty Acres and a Poodle: A Story of Love, Livestock, and Finding Myself on a Farm by Jeanne Marie Laskas
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this saga of how a city-bred woman fulfilled her dream of moving to the country and living on a farm. Jeanne Marie Laskas, a columnist for the Washington Post, takes a humorous look at how she and her boyfriend Alex other bought a fifty acres of farmland in Pennsylvania, about an hour from Pittsburgh, based on the fact that it had a perfect view.   In a collection of beautifully breezily written essays she chronicles the purchase of the land, the gradual move from city to country, their wedding,  and their adaptation to country life.  Along the way her deep faith in God is also revealed as she shares her hopes and fears.  I especially loved how Marly, the poodle, becomes the symbol for how her world view changes. I'm looking forward to reading more of her story in the subsequent chronicles.


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My knitting has slowed to a standstill, as has my reading.  Most nights I'm in bed by 8:30 pm which has put a huge damper on both activities.

I did finally finish 2 books - #89 and #90 for the year:


#90

One Virgin Too Many by Lindsey Davis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Marcus Didius Falco has finally been rewarded for his continually outstanding service to Vespasian.  He's been raised to equestrian status and had been named Procurator of the Sacred Poultry.  This has put him in a bit of quandary as his higher social standing precludes his work as a lowly informer.   Or does it?  In this installment, Falco is asked to assist in the sensitive case of the missing 6 year granddaughter of a retired priest. The missing girl is a potential Vestal Virgin and she must be found before the lottery for the appointment is held. And Helena's brother (the one who doesn't like Falco) needs his help when he stumbles across the corpse of another priest.  Lindsey Davis explores the world of Roman religion in this installment, and it's a fascinating world as usual.


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Books # 40-43

What can I say?  I love to escape into books!!

Book # 40

href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/76884.Kissed_a_Sad_Goodbye">Kissed a Sad Goodbye by Deborah Crombie

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Another good entry in the series.  I think I read this one years ago -- I had the deja vu feeling, but I didn't remember the culprit or the reasons why.  I definitely like how Deborah Crombie is developing her characters as well as the relationship between Kincaid and James.  I also continue to be surprised that she is not a British author; her settings are so evocative!

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Book #41:

The Old Fox Deceiv'd by Martha Grimes

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is the 2nd installment in the Richard Jury series, and I enjoyed it more than the first one.  Richard Jury and Sergeant Wiggins are called out to a small Yorkshire village to investigate the murder of Gemma Temple, or is it Dillys March, the long-lost ward of Sir Titus Crael?   There are a number of possible suspects, all with good possible motives.  Grimes does a superb job of creating detailed characters, and in addition to fleshing out Wiggins, Melrose Plant, and Jury, we're introduced to the delightful Bertie Makepeace and "chatty" Percy Blythe.  She also serves up a good dollop of humor: I laughed out loud when Plant convinces Aunt Agatha that he's being followed by the dastardly agent provocateur Mr. Todd!

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Book #42

Queen in Exile by Donna Hatch

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is a fantasy/romance which is not my favorite genre.  I found it a bit too heavy on the romance for my tastes.  Donna Hatch has created a believable world that was easy to picture. I also liked her characters. 

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Book #43

a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/511614.The_101_Dalmatians" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"> The 101 Dalmatians by Dodie Smith

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I LOVED this book!  Until recently I didn't know that the Disney movie which enthralled me as a youngster, was based on a book.  (I don't know why, since just about every great Disney flick was based on one!)  The book of course was a bit different than the movie, and even better.  I loved the way the story was told from Pongo and Missis' perspective.  In the book, Perdita is a stray who becomes a foster mother to the pups.  I also loved the humor of the book.  It's a bit more sophisticated than that of the movie.  I wonder a bit if I would have enjoyed the book as much as I did had I read it as a child.  

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Book #63 -- A Rib-Tickler for Sure!

Finger Lickin' Fifteen by Janet Evanovich

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
I really enjoyed this one! Lots of trademark funny moments -- MULTIPLE car burnings, Grandma Mazur moments, a take-down at the funeral home, a fire-bombing, you name it, it's in here.



Lula witnesses a murder and now the culprits are after her. She's determined to find the murderers before they find her so she can claim the $1,000,000 reward. She goes undercover, along with Grandma Mazur, and enters a BBQ cook-off. Bur first, both of them need to learn how to BBQ ribs! I don't think I need to say too much more. Stephanie is working for Ranger in this outing, fighting off her attraction, while wondering if she and Joe will make up after a huge fight over peanut butter.



Although these books are predictable (will Stephanie ever figure out that it's a bad idea to let her FTA get dressed before handcuffing him), that's also what I like about them. I know I'll have a couple of hours of escapist fun.


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For a "Short" Month . . .

February seems to be very long! I know we have an extra day this year, but even with onlh 29 days, this month seems to be dragging on and on. It's got to be the weather. Even though the hours of daylight are longer, the days without sun and blue sky seem endless. We have had storm after storm, cold, ice, school delays or closings every week, and sickness abounds. Enough already!

I just finished book #13 for the 50/08 challenge. #14, #15 and #16 are also underway. I generally have several books going at once --- one in school, one up on the nightstand, and one on the kitchen table. I have another 4 or 5 waiting in the wings too!

My knitting queue is even longer! I have my cable cardigan on the needles - about 20 rows left on the 2nd front, and then the 2 sleeves, a pair of socks about 1/2 done, and then a baby sweater, a vest, a jacket, and a scarf lined up. That doesn't even include the yarn I've bought but don't have a pattern for yet, and the patterns I have that don't have yarn. There's just not enough time! Which is a weird comment to make considering I started today off with the fact that the month is dragging!

2008 Books

I've been reading a lot of "brain candy" so far this year. I'm in the "fluff" part of my reading cycle. Over the holidays I read some thought-provoking, more serious, materials, and now I'm in the dessert section! I'm tracking my reading and taking up the challenge of reading 50 books this year. This challenge would not have been a problem in the past as until recently I have been a voracious reader. But over the past couple of years, I've taken up knitting pretty obsessively and my reading time is what has suffered! And I've also spent an awful lot of time reading blogs instead of books! So this should be an interesting challenge for me this year.

One great book I can recommend, though I finished it in the waning days of 2007, is Three Cups of Tea. It's a terrific true story of Greg Mortenson, a former mountain climber, who is building schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan as a way to promote peace. My sister sent a copy to each of my adult sons as a Christmas gift and told them that everyone under 30 should read it. I think EVERYONE should read it, no matter your age.