26

[copied from dland]

My big music mix took up 26 discs, so yes, it ought to keep me busy for a good, long time. It was my kids who actually thought of it, maybe because K has a CD player in her car but no way to plug in the iPod, and rarely gets the right kind of radio reception to play it that way, so she keeps burning playlist after playlist to CDs. And iTunes radio, as someone suggested, is interesting; I never listened to that before. Of course, I can't listen in the car, but I tried out a few of the stations after school today, and I'll try it again. I've always said that if I ever found an all-Beatles-all-the-time station, it's the one I'd listen to, and they have one there.

Today's first day of state testing went very well, at least from my point of view. I didn't really have to do much except walk around to make sure that all of the kids were using the right part of the score sheet and on the right test, and I read one of the multitude of announcements that had to be made. My colleagues who told me that the worst thing about the test is the boredom were right on target. Teachers must stand or walk around; we can't sit down and read or grade papers or anything. Today's testing took about two hours; I think tomorrow's is a little longer. There were four of us in the room, so we were there in two teams for about half the time each. I guess I'll live for the next three days although my feet sure hurt.

I was totally exhausted by the time I got home -- the headache came back about mid-day -- and all I wanted to do was sleep. There was a snow squall outside, nothing sticking, but the Sibs and I decided not to go to the mall, so I settled in on the couch and then K called, asking me to see if there were any weather announcement on her school website. (She's at school, but had no computer access, and word there would travel slowly.) By the time I got the school's site up, the snow had stopped, so no luck there for her. But then I was awake.

So I got up and cooked. I know! You people hardly recognize me anymore.

Today's taste treats -- not to be consumed on the same day -- are black bean soup and white bean pesto. The soup is stupid easy: two cans of black beans, one pureed, and a jar of salsa, thinned with vegetable broth to make it soup. Two points, baby! That's my dinner tonight, and K can have some when she gets home, if she wants it. As for the pesto, I never made pesto before, so I don't know, but it looks okay. I guess you keep pesto cold in the fridge and toss a small amount of it with hot pasta? If I understand correctly; anyway, it's in the fridge and I'll have that tomorrow. Good for your heart, doncha know.

And when I was done, I checked the front porch and my new coffee maker had been delivered. So I ran it through the start-up routine and washed all the parts, and I'll make a test cup in a little while. Not that I drink even decaf this time of day, but I can take a sip and see if it's dishwater or coffee. I don't know why it wouldn't work; I'm using the same coffee pods for now that I've been using in the old machine. I won't try it with the DD coffee until I know it works.

Now that I'm sitting still, I feel like I could just pass out on the couch and sleep there unti tomorrow morning. I couldn't, but I feel like I could. Gotta call the Sibs back first.


WATCHING STILL STANDING :: ENTRY #1392