Science Teacher Rule #47

Not all students welcome displays of affections.


One student, who vacillates between the maturity of a 8 year old and the brilliance of a gifted student, is still learning the lesson. I also have to sign a slip whenever he needs to use colored pencils on a homework assignment because he tends to obsess easily. Crazy talented though.

Anyways, after saying something rude to a classmate, I insisted he apologize.

He said, "I'm sorry! Give me a hug!" while approaching the other student with open arms.

The other student gripped the two pairs of scissors he was retrieving like hand guns and replied, "Watch out! I've got scissors."

Science Teacher Rule #71

Students are not doctors.


However, after I said, "When is this day going to end?!" a student offered me a solution. Please note the spelling of prescription.

Sometimes I like being an athletic trainer (saturday steal)

A few weeks ago I headed off to Denver for an athletic training (not personal training!) conference and to see my lovely aunt and her family (Hi Aunt B! and Uncle D!)

The conference had a few really interesting presentations, like athletic training in professional rodeos, in depth low back evaluations, causes of sudden cardiac death, managing sickle cell trait and rhabdomyolysis, and lots more. (My degree covers a huge amount of really cool stuff. I forget how much I like it until I go to a conference.) The best part was definitely the workshop, a two hour workshop on proper hip biomechanics in running. Now I need another athletic trainer to watch me do the exercises and fix my running gait.
So what's the steal? Free stuff from the vendors! This year I came home with bright pink prewrap, a car first aid kit, a gatorade water bottle, free powerade, free USB from powerade, The Right Stuff NASA hydration, new MRSA killing cleaners and bandages, and a chance to try a new short wave diathermy machine (It's a therapy that creates deep heat by using rf waves. I had one happy back)

But the biggest steal came from a buddy of mine.
Row ten, lower levels, Spurs vs Nuggets. Free. A $100 ticket.

F-R-E-E.

It just so happens my buddy Mike covered a few scouting practices for Richard Jefferson's agent. He made a call or two and ended up with a couple tickets at will call, with no idea what kind of seats they would be. And since I was the only other one of our graduating class there, we went to check it out. The picture doesn't do it justice. I could actually see Tim Duncan trying to look innocent after a foul. It was awesome. Well, except that it was the Spurs. I hate the Spurs. An irrational amount. But I felt obligated to at least clap halfheartedly whenever Jefferson made a basket. I mean, he did get me a free ticket.

Quite the steal.

I kinda had to blog about this

You must learn about this essential life skill

winner! And Science Teacher Rule #61

Students have terrible spelling.


Uniek.



It should be unique, but I read it phonetically and thought he was describing his partner's eunuch personality.

:)


So I liked everyone's necklace ideas. There were too many that I really liked to just choose a winner. So I let random number generator take care of it. I did it by person instead of numbered entry, in case you wondered about my sense of justice. And the winner is....


Merkley Jiating!

Email me what you want on it and your address at geevz65 at g mail .

Science Teacher Rule #4

Never make major career decisions in April.


That little gem of wisdom is a maxim of my father, who has survived the April weeks of standardized testing, spring fever, terrible kids, grumpy parents, and low patience several times.

Now I officially understand.

Jewelry anyone?

My cuz just adopted a new baby boy that is que precioso. Jamie's funeral crashed our baby shower plans so I wanted to make something fun for her. I've been seeing and loving stamped silver necklaces lately so I decided to invest in the stuff and make some. Here's how they turned out.

I took the blank disks to madre dos's casa and made one for her that said, "Eat Sleep Hike" and my little sister wanted one that said MUSIC.

Well the U and the O looked pretty similar and I may or may not have a disk with a M O off to the left.

In order not to let it go to waste, we are opening up a little competition here at Hazardous Undertakings. If you can come up with something to finish MO with, you enter to win! The best part? I typically have maybe six to ten people enter these things so your odds of winning are awesome. Just comment your idea. I may let random number generator choose, or just pick one if your idea amuses me sufficiently.

Things to keep in mind

1) the disk only accommodates about five to six letters across the center. You can make three lines if you like, but the above and below lines hold three to four letters
2) the M O are to the left center already. So if you want it to say MOM, it won't be centered. MOM 6 would look better because I spaced it for the word MUSIC.
3) Abstract works too. My first experiment I wear the most and I just stamped letters all over the disk and it turned out cool. This can also be a gift for someone else if you happen to be one of my few male readers. (Hi Dallin and padre dos!)
4) It is sterling silver, but I won't be giving up a chain to go along with it. I will add the jumpring though so it will be pendant or keychain ready.
5) I should just post a picture, but I'm lazy. I hope you can visualize


I'll keep this open for about a week. Happy idea making!


Oh, and if you don't win, but want one, I can make you one for cheaps. And we're talking Geevz cheap.

Why is New York the only state with an "upstate"? Why is there no upstate AZ?

I have this friend Suz. The first time we met we were both newlyish weds in Flagstaff. We were both doing a musical number thing, and I announced to her that we were going to be best friends. I was right. It is very hard to make best friends as an adult. Even harder to make couple friends. However, it can be done. Once, I called Suz to see if they wanted to have a pizza and Settlers night and she said she was in labor. I said WHOA! some other time then. She said, no come over it sounds like fun. I'm trying to do as much labor at home as possible. So we did. We paused the game for contractions and the boys had a great time with the stop watch. We played "Don't Eat Pete" with peanut butter M&M's because Suz was cool enough to know that game too, even though it gave her wicked heartburn at the hospital.

Having a kid didn't stop her from going out and having adventures either. She'd still go to band shows and tote Lily with her.
She threw me a big kid birthday party with a pinata and a crown.

We drove to San Antonio together. (Curse you El Paso!)
She's that awesome.

So I took advantage of Spring break and flew to Upstate New York to see her.
Behold the epicness

The Lilster driving
Another city named after me
Road trip to Niagra Falls
Pit stop at the Palmyra temple
Aaaand the Smith farm
And the Sacred Grove
Da Falls! Canada style!
And it may have sorta kinda took us an hour to actually FIND the falls, even though we could hear them. Yes we are impaired. Must have been that awesome pub we ate at in Buffalo that Guy Fieri recommended. Oh, and if you try to figure out if the turnstile into Canada works, carry your purse that has your passport. Especially if you are staring at the sign that says, "documents required beyond this point." I mean, if someone you know would do something like that...

But we eventually did find the U.S. side too.

Check the snowyness
After the road trip, we had a few awesome days of just chilling out. I discovered that baby Stewart knows where it's at with the black out curtains. I may have slept twelve hours straight. Twice. I mean, it's a vacation right?

Anywho, we finished off the trip with a st. pattie's day play date. All green clothes and food. The kids wouldn't eat most of the green, but that was probably good considering the diaper ramifications.

Overall glorious trip.

Tune in next week for Adventures in Denver!

Saturday Steals: what turned me into a crazy person

Did you know that I WON?! I am the proud recipient of a $7 amazon gift card. You better believe I'm going to enter the saturday steals every week. You should to. More people= more $ for the prize.

This week's steal is my purdy new street bike. Well kind of new. I got it a bit ago. It retails for about $1000. For those of you going WHAT?!!! I hear you. I thought $200 was decent price for a bike until I became a crazy person. I hadn't owned anything but a walmart bike in my life, and even that was purchased when I was in junior high.

Enter the world of triathlons. You can drop $5000 on a tri bike easy. No kidding. Don't believe me? Look.

But I just wanted something besides a borrowed mountain bike. My awesome bro-in-law was training for the tri with me and bought a bike. Then he decided that he's rather have a new gun. So he offered it to me for $500. I think he rode it twice. But here's where the steal is. Since he bought it from the shop, he gets lifetime tune ups and maintenance free. Plus the bike fitting ($80). And since he had it for maybe three weeks before he sold it to me, guess who still gets all those perks?

Yep. Me.

There is a downside though. Having a shiny, pretty bike makes you do silly things. Like ride 7miles to work once a week. Or get convinced to go for 30 mile bike rides AFTER teaching junior high all day.

Of course, 37 miles in one day would have been MUCH worse without my bike. I think she needs a name. Any ideas internetdom?

Science Teacher Rule #26

Today I found cause to explain to my class that it is not a democracy, it is a dictatorship.

Then I see a passionate fist rise straight up from the back row and a yell "AUTHORITARIANISM!"


Somewhere, there is a social studies teacher who should be very proud.