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August 4, 2013

I'm Back!

I really didn't go anywhere.  I've just been enjoying my summer and not blogging.  But now school is BACK, BABY!  Teachers in our district started Wednesday and the first day with students is this coming Wednesday.  So I'm working on getting ready for that and just getting back on schedule in general.

Did you have a good summer?  I sure hope so.  We had a lot of rain, but in between downpours we hit the pool, played games and saw friends.

We got a GA Aquarium pass and went there a couple of times.


There was one fun day where My Lovely Bride and I took my daughter and a bunch of her friends to my school and we took a bunch of pictures of them doing all the things your'e supposed to do (and many you're not) in the library so I could put them into an orientation video for the beginning of the year.  Yeah, because with the new school I'm going to have about twice the classes so I just want to be able to meet them, introduce myself, hit play on the video, read them a story and answer any other questions.


We did take one mini vacation.  We spent the third week of July on Ponte Vedra Beach, FL in Jacksonville.  It's right near my brother.  We and my parents all stay at a condo on the beach and just hang out and play.  I'm more used to the Gulf Coast, so the number of shark's teeth we find on the beach on the Atlantic side is always crazy to me.  My sister-in-law is the the most amazing shark teeth finder. We'll all get three or four in a day while she'll get over a dozen.  My daughter found a huge one that looked like it came off a ginormus shark.  That's about when I started getting nervous, but My Lovely Bride calmed me down be looking it up and showing me that all those black shark's teeth are fossilized, which means they are at a minimum ten thousand years old.  

And then I saw a shark.  Yes, a real, live coming-straight-for-my-brother Mako shark!  He and the kids were out (not very far!) when this Mako came zooming in (probably chasing fish).  I didn't want to yell "shark" so I started yelling my brother's name.  He turned when it was less than five feet from him.  Luckily, at that point it got caught in a wave and kinda flipped around and disappeared just as quickly as it came.  The kids were cool about it and we continued to play in the water later.  Just no more boogie boarding.


When I got back we had one of our Guy's Read book club meetings at one of the Guy's houses.  This particular guy and his wife are always working in their back yard and it's incredible.  There's a chicken coop!  They keep bees!  There's all kinds of interesting gardening going on.  And best of all, he's even put in a Bocce ball court.  I've never really played and it turns out I'm not bad at all.  I especially love a sport in which I can continue to hold a beer in one hand while I play!


We were supposed to have read Paul Bowles' The Delicate Prey for that meeting, but I was one of the only ones who had finished it.  Because you know, summer.  What have you been reading?

What have I been reading?  Let me check my Goodreads account...  Okay, it looks like I read Swords and Deviltry by Lieber, finally finished A Clash of of Kings by Martin, and read The Last Colony by Scalzi, The Hot Rock by Westlake, Ringworld by Niven, Dodger by Pratchett, Zoe's Tale also by Scalzi and Bank Shot also by Westlake.  The Westlake and Scalzi were my favorites.   I also quite liked the Pratchett.  Oh, and I knocked off two collections by Zach Weiner, Save Yourself, Mammal! and The Most Dangerous Game.  You're already familiar with his SMBC site, right?

And now we're back at school.  On the first day back with teachers the administration unveiled our theme for the year: What's your superpower?  We got these cool t-shirts that have the Superman S on the front with the name of the school (which starts with an S of course) and on the back it says "I teach!"  Then under that it says, "What's your superpower?"  But that wasn't all.  Then each of the three administrators came out one by one and they were dressed as freaking superheroes.  The first assistant principal was Wonder Woman.  The next was Batman and she pulled it off.  The principal herself was indeed Superman. The staff went nuts.  I thought to myself, "Yup.  Gonna be happy here."