A Boy Named Goo

This video is in response to Zebro. A bunch of comedians from Boston who made fun of the Goo Goo Dolls.

Lake Champlain Sunrise

Ellen got digital camera with a 30 second timer and Alison had a new tripod. We set this up on a very clear morning on the back porch at North Hero. I was not sure where the sun was going to come up so I moved the camera a couple of times.

You Tube

This is the Jonathan video

Graser no longer a threat to High School Students

Sour Grapes

Bad News From The School District

I got a letter today from the school district. They said they had selected someone else for the Social Studies position. I was dissapointed.

I am not sure why.

I guess I better not quit my day job.

Yesterday we put in a new toilet. The old one was not a good flusher. Plumbing is tough work for the following reasons.

1. Tight spaces, large inflexible body
2. I am bad with tools using my right hand - can't even hold them with my left.
3. If you screw up - you can't hide it - water can't be swept under the rug.
4. I don't have the right tools and I don't know what I am doing.
5. I don't read instructions or think ahead.

Syracuse lost to Virginia yesterday in lacrosse. Virginia was the better team.

I finished reading "The Awakening" by Kate Chopin for my Women's Lit course. What a bad story. Nothing happens and then the main character swims out into the ocean and drowns. All because - wait I have no idea what her problem was. She had it made in the shade. This classic was written in 1899 and remained an unknown work until femanists discovered it in 1970.

Saw "Walk the Line" yesteday. Another bad movie/story. Johnny Cash is in love with June Carter but married to another. Booze, pills, and no June lead to a downfall. June gets him cleaned up and he marries her and revieves his career. Most of the movie he is depressed. And so was I.

Home Repair and Maintenance

Memorial Day Weekend! Ellen turned 18 yesterday. Alison is home from Cortland. I have 10 teaching days left after this weekend.

Diana wants to go buy a new toilet for the main bathroom. I guess we are headed out to home depot to buy one. I get to take out the old and put in the new.

It is lacrosse championship weekend in Philadelphia. In 2002 the girls and I went and saw Syracuse beat Princeton at Rutgers for the championship. The games have since moved to pro stadiums and tickets must be bought in advance. Syracuse plays Virginia, LeMoyne plays Dowling, and Cortland plays Sailsbury in the DI, DII, and DIII playoffs. I have never heard of Dowling or Sailsbury.

Mother's Day Eve

Is this a holiday? Mother's Day Eve. You can only open one present.

Yesterday it started raining about 5:30 PM. Lots of sun, lots of rain, plenty of rainbows. We had some hail.



This is what my back yard looks like in the shoveling season. We have two seasons in Central NY, the shoveling season and the mowing season. It is kind of like that Robert Frost poem "Fire and Ice". Or as I like to say "mowing is great and will suffice."



Doppler radar image of winter in Central NY. During the periods when we aren't experiencing a major winter storm we have "Lake Effect" snow flurries. This is the same as a major winter storm except it only strikes specific locations, like my driveway, or the road I take to work, places like that.



This is picture of me on the Great Wall of China. What this picture doesn't show is the Great Wall Amusement park. It was great. Go Karts, Mini-Golf, Skee-Ball, Cotton Candy, Fried Dough, and Starbucks in great abundance. China is just like the U.S.A. They have everything we do and Green Tea too. But don't expect to get good Fried Rice!




This photo is from the running of the bulls at that place in Spain. It's not as much fun as it looks. You have to wear white for one thing. You can't sue the town if you get injured. The other nuts running with you are more dangerous than the bulls. They play music the whole time over loudspeakers and it is the same Ricky Martin song over and over. Celebrities get to run with each other and the bulls are photoshopped into their souvenir videos.

Alison's Birthday

Alison is 20 today. She was born on a Friday afternoon in 1986 at Crouse-Irving Memorial Hospital in the City of Syracuse, New York. It was a long day. I went home completely exhausted and I hadn't done a thing.
I remember getting up on Saturday morning and thinking my life has really changed now. And it has.
Alison was a very pleasent baby. She just didn't eat the first week of her life. But then she came around. May 9th. A day I'll never forget!