Edge of the Known World: May Begins in Pictures

You can see that our neighbor's home construction project to the west of us is proceeding nicely. You can also see that the ridge line is going to neatly cut off our view when the roof goes in. However, Chuck eyeballed it and said he thought it was higher than code. He mentioned it to the contractor, who double checked his plans and found an error. It IS three feet too tall. The contractor came over the other day to thank Chuck for catching the mistake now, when it is relatively easy to fix; rather than later, when the county inspector would have made him tear the whole thing apart. I was just so happy that he was nice to Chuck! The neighbors who are building on the east side of us spent last summer dragging us into court for such infractions as watching construction too long. Of course, she and Chuck have a little baggage, to say the least.

When Sara gets her driver's license, I won't have to do these long drives to school in the early morning.

This one has a "late start" on Fridays.

They are SUCH PIGS. I get so tired of trying to keep my space livable.

Has anyone ever had part of your washer agitator break off? This happened: I found the broken piece in the laundry basket; then located the sharp edge in the washing machine, lurking... waiting to destroy everything it touches. We'll try filing it down and see if that works.

Colleagues! I LOVE my colleagues! BUT..

...I have so much work to do...

Enrollment data... more enrollment data... I was making good progress until I made the mistake of checking my e-mail and found a rabid message from one of the Fifth Grade teachers, accusing the Adult Education program of trashing her classroom last night. Plant knocked over; markers dumped onto the floor; a bucket of other items dumped out; and (here's the kicker) VOMIT on a computer, pillow, desk and the floor. Really?!? She thinks one of our adult students PUKED in her room? What kind of debauchery does she think we get up to!? She said, "I think it is shameful that the children take better care of our spaces than your adults do." Of course, this didn't happen. I was in that room off and on all evening. There were only two groups that used the space. I checked with the staff and the volunteers and noting unusual happened in that room at all. Plus, after we are finished, the custodians come in to do night-cleaning. The custodian said he found no vomit either. So, I have no idea what is going on, but it made me mad to be called in to my boss' office and questioned about it. And mad to have my department treated so poorly by some silly goose.

The circled area represents all the stuff I didn't get done while I was dealing with "vomit-gate".

Nathan told me that he HAS to have a set of earphones for standardized testing on Monday morning. He wants to take ear buds to school; but he left his lying around and Tobi chewed them. I won't lend him mine, because I want to go running on Monday. No worries, I tell him. I have a really nice, school-issued head set that he can use.
Nate: No way! They can't be head phones, Mom! They have to be ear buds!
Me: Why?
Sara: Nate, they have head sets there for you to use!
Nate: No! We have to bring our own!
Sara: You just don't want to use mom's 'cuz they don't look cool.

Chuck found a pair for him to borrow and ended the discussion. I was amused.