well, reunion was a bust. i only got one business card. congrats to mi who had the closest guess.

saturday night i will be dancin' the night away (figuratively speaking, of course) at my ten year high school reunion.

lets start the guessing now:
how many business cards do you think ill get?

the winner gets a prize. in order to be eligible you must vote in the comment box and include your email address so i can contact you with details.

KIDS SAY THE DARN CRAZIEST STUFF... vols. 8 & 9

volume 8:
today in class Ashley earned the award for best joke teller as she tried to stump her classmates with her own version of this old favorite:
"If there are ten apples on a table and you take three away, how many do you have?"
"Seven" "No, three; that's how many you took!"

Ashleys version turned out this way:
"If there are ten apples on a table and you take five away, how many do you have?"
"Five" "Oh, wait a minute."

volume 9
this afternoon, i passed by a group of students, of whom one was Mirna. she said, "Mister, can I ask you a question? What does 'dutch' mean?" Mirna could see i was a little confused by her question, so she clarified, "I mean besides the religion."

sometimes its just better to turn and walk away.

i spent the entire weekend in a classroom learning to be a princeton review SAT instructor. the interesting thing is how much the training seems like a church camp or religious seminar. there are very clearly delineated good versus bad entities. there is much talk about warfare and being prepared for battle. during the breaks the skeptics keep saying "didnt that seem a little weird to you?"

in our class weve managed about 88% retention, which is pretty good for the first weekend. well see if everyone shows up for weekend number two.

the most notable part of the weekend (which has nothing to do with the religion analogy) was when we the students in the class had to deliver our first teachback. this is where we are assigned to reteach a couple of pages from the manual. we are evaluated based upon things like energy, board presentation, and, primarily, how well we do it just like we were taught. my goodness, were the teachbacks awful! it was really hard to sit through 3+ hours of that.

dont you hate it when you hit Sign Out instead of Post?


we all admire musicians for the perspicuity, erudition, and grace with which they reveal their opinions of world affairs, politics and most anything at all, dont we?

this summer marks the point at which i begin to realize one of my deepest dreams. im going to become a street performer, playing guitar and singing on the oceanside pier. coincidentally, today i stopped into the post office to find out how much it would cost to ship my mandolin to the highest bidder, wherever he or she may reside. upon my leaving, the postal employee asked me why i am selling it. "alas, i need the money." my response must have provoked her next inquiry (since all musicians are hard up and dont have the sense of actors to take restaurant jobs): "are you a musician?" i had intended to reply, "aspiring", but what came out, both stumblingly and studderingly, was "ascribing". at that very moment stars shone in the eyes of the postal clerk, as well as in those of the customer behind me: its clear im on my way.

ugh...blogging is like working out. it feels great when youre in the swing, but its so hard to get back into it once you take some time off. not as if there hasnt been plenty to blog about. at least since i started teaching summer school. i mean there is the kid with the straight up old school ducktail (hillbilly version), theres my arthur fonzarelli wanna be who keeps a black comb in his back pocket and even leaves it to rest in his bouffant (like pick-in-afro style), then theres the kid whos spitting image for bobby on king of the hill, as well as a host of other motley characters. it seems all the best stories are now eluding me. so much for re-entry.