Crazy days...

I had to work Thanksgiving of course, and we didn't get time and half pay. Even if we did, the pay wouldn't be much at server wages. That would have been better than the nothing we got, no turkeys, no gift certificates, nothing. I love my job, don't get me wrong, but throw a dog a bone eh? Today was Black Friday, I went in at 4 a.m. Anyway, Tday was amazing!! The kids have been getting along incredibly well, but even more-so this week. My mum came over and so did nearly a dozen neighborhood teens, their gratefulness and sincere thanks made me again wonder what the deal is with their parents, these kids can't be all bad, can they?

Cook, wash dishes, repeat, day 2

The 3 days of cooking began yesterday; desserts were prepared. This morning I went out to see if the dolphins were playing before the sun came up. They weren't around, but the biggest manatee I've seen out there yet was hanging out all alone by the little boat ramp by the baseball field. He was a big mass of scarred flesh from part way down his back to his tail, really badly torn up from boat propeller blades I assume. The manatee completely healed, but I'm not sure how he survived. The shots are horrible, there was little light to work with. Went home, woke up the kids and we started cooking. We made pork pie for the first time in forever. They decided to make more desserts and we laughed and made messes and have had a perfect morning. The pork pies are done, we're working on the mashed potatoes and I'm making a sweet potato souffle I haven't tried before. I also still have to make the corn souffle, I'll make that now while the potatoes are boiling I guess. Happy Thanksgiving!!

Took mommy to the marina

This morning before the sun came up we made it to the park. The first thing we heard were the dolphin playing or chasing breakfast. I love this river. I love camping on the spoil islands and waking up to the dolphins. The manatee were out too, but not close enough to get any pics of. The dolphin were hard enough to try and shoot. We had fun though, the rest of the pics will be on my photobucket


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Just some pics today

I tried uploading pics the other day and it wouldn't let me. I forgot to post in here again. How can I keep my kid interested if I keep forgetting ;)

I'm no longer a doover...

I'm also no longer in E-Prime Hell. WOOT!! I made an appointment for an hour and a half before class started today to take my mid-term. Again. The other times were in class, this one was alone with no distractions. I don't know if that was the true difference, or if I got lucky, or if even subconsciously I just did not want to do this ever again. No matter the how, I DID it. I even scored a 50 out of 50. The only part of this class that still bothers me is my score on my MLA paper. It's my own fault, I really needed more time. I should have found a way, pulled an all nighter, something. Out of a possible 475 points so far we could score, I have 403.5 points. I'm so tired, staying awake in class was a chore. I got a little accomplished on an essay for some school grants though. I at least know more of what's expected on the essay and can think about it, and I thought of a couple angles on how to word some things. After working mostly 3 day weeks, and some 4 days, having a straight 6 day week is killing me. I've just got to deal with tomorrow and I can have a day off before I start my regular work week again, but I have to kill my APA paper some more for the rough draft due on Thurs. I've got the works cited done, the cover page done, the first paragraph done. Pretty sure those will be accepted, I hope. I think the rest still needs trimming though, and I have to completely redo the conclusion. As soon as I get out tomorrow I have to do as much as I can so I don't stress too much before class Thurs. Le sigh...

Pics wont upload :(

Last shuttle of the year...

Couldn't get near the river when I finally got out of work, and had to get the kids by 3:30. I didn't want to risk the traffic so I just got some shots from my window after checking out how bad the traffic was clogged at the river. G'night.

Dinner with Rob...

Long ass day, that's all I have to say. I'm off to bed. Pics from dinner:

Not much today...

The grades for our bcc blogs aren't ready yet, so I don't know if I have to redo any of them. Well I know I had a 28.5 out of the first one, just not the last 4 yet. My MLA style rewrite came back, 45 out of 50! I needed that badly!! I set up my Doover test for next Tues @ 12:30 so I can finish before class. I picked up my take home test for matv class at the lab too, first time he issues a take home test and I miss class. I'll do the test after I post this. Oh I have a shift tomorrow! 4 shifts this week!! I hope the worst at work has finished, I can't live off 3 or 4 shifts a week. I can't complain though, he never fired or layed anyone off, he kept us all and just cut our shifts. We all still have jobs, that's a lot now a days.

Couple old pics, a sort of short story in pics, sweet:

After Effects...

I missed two classes in one week, unbelievable. I skipped one Monday night due to making a date with the kids for the fair forgetting it was a school night for me. So I wake up Tuesday morning, and I feel fine, by afternoon I started thinking I ate some bad fair food. I lay in bed when I'm not dying in the bathroom and pass the afternoon like this. I'm only a little better last night, and today I have been just weak and fatigued. I think yesterday the class covered a blog I've already turned in, but if the discussion turned toward the APA style paper then I really needed to attend. I've finished the Bib and cut the paper down a lot. I have questions about taking out the transitions and making headings for paragraphs. I went to the marina early but couldn't get to the manatee. The marina doesn't open until 7am so I wasted a few minutes at Space View Park. The manatee have taken to hanging out by one of the docks I can't get to. I can get to some docks close to the manatee but not close enough. The fence and sign keep me from driving in, but I'm tempted to park down the road a bit and walk in, but I don't know if I should. Besides, I found the loch ness monster residing in the marina. A deformed manatee perhaps? Bottom pics, more on my photobucket.

Space Coast State Fair...

Everything worked as I planned. Not too many people attended, I'd hoped tonight wouldn't have a high attendance. I made sure Jasmin was off from work, and made sure anyone coming with us, or meeting us there, knew we would be there and to text us to see where we were in the fair. We had a decent group, 6 with just us then another 6 or 7 showed up to meet us. I love this fair, you pay $10 to get in with all rides included. I forgot I had class last night though. I didn't have a test or anything but I don't like to miss class. I'm doing very well in this class even, but still... I shouldn't skip, I honestly forgot. I wanted to hit the fair on a dead night and I knew Monday night would have to suffice. Everyone had an incredible time. So glad we went!!

More pics!

WTH is the deal with brooms?!

Do a quick search on the Internet or listen to broadcast media reports and you'll hear about "researchers and scientists" who are saying that a broom can stand on its own because of things like the moon's gravitational pull, the equinox or the way the planets have aligned.
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My broom has an extreme angle, I never expected it to stand at all. Pretty weird and cool, they posted this on the mommy boards and I thought they had pulled a joke, but April Fools day will not come for a while.

We should go to the Space Coast Fair in Cocoa tomorrow! I love the fairs here, you pay one price to get in ($10) and includes all rides. I just shoot tons of photos and the kids ride all they want. We going on a day I hope will have low attendance. The good deals for $7 will come on Tues and Wed so I assume most people will want to go those nights. Hopefully the fair will have such few people the kids will have the rides to themselves mostly, at least no huge wait lines anyway.

I got a couple shots in at work while I took my break. This poor lizard had his tail caught in the door one morning and instead of breaking off and growing a new one as these kind do, the door just bent his tail at an angles. I put him in the bushes in the wall near the window and now every morning he hangs out on the window ledge and catches bugs for his meals, or just suns himself. His size has doubled I think.

Tired...

I need to have some sleep. I worked today and didn't take any pics. I think I finished my apa bib. I have to start cutting down my mla paper to convert to apa style. I have the format all set up and the part cut out we don't need though. Good night. :)

Some old pics.

Game night...

They have an away game so they have to be back to the school early. I've gotten no school work accomplished today as of yet. I'd hoped to just sit in front of the computer all day, for school specifically, though I do have some dvd's to make for friends. I just set background music to their kids pics for family or friends of theirs they want to share with, you just play them in your dvd player like a regular dvd and a slide show plays with music. They're time suckers though, and I can't use my computer while I'm burning. I can't wait to get my laptop next semester! Anyway, I just sat down finally after getting the kids to school, they have different schedules but the same school. I did grocery shopping for game night dinner, I have to make a lot on game night, the band members drop in randomly and these kids can eat! I can't imagine what the football moms go through on game nights. I cooked dinner and made dessert and left the sink full of dishes, I rinsed them all but I left them for now. I have to bake the garlic bread later after I pick up the kids but I have until then to do school I just wanted to do this blog real quick. I like this blog, I miss photoblog more than I realized. I got some shots this morning at the marina too, nothing major, but the manatee have definitely returned!

Beautiful today...

I finally went down to the marina this morning. I didn't have to try very hard to not act excited, at first anyway. I guess I can have some definite preferences when I want to shoot. Not too windy, sun not completely up yet or just barely, not too cloudy, all these factors usually make my day. The kids used to play opposite day, today becomes my grown up opposite day. Mother nature punishes me for ignoring her for so long. I even let my school shoes and good jeans soak in the waves. The wind and cool spray are nearly enough to make me leave, and yes, I truly spent a quarter of a century in New England, I just can't stand the cold and I don't have too. More breezy than cold, I find all my old favorite spots to poke my camera into and forget everything else around me. I lose myself in my little world of angles, light, holes, balancing on rock and concrete and hoping I don't kill myself for that one last perfect shot. I leave the banks for the safety of firm ground in the park and find more holes in the rocks. I capture a fisherman leaving, he happened by as I was shooting through a hole. The elements hindered his day, as I thought would happen to mine, but I had a huge grin and I didn't care who saw me enjoying myself. Though I do wonder what they think sometimes, graceful doesn't come to mind when I think of how I acquire some of these shots.

School Blues...

So I blew my MLA paper. :( Well sort of, the paper actually had "great paper" written across the top. I blow nearly every paper by using ebola, great comparison, they infect my papers. Every freakin' time I use some of the 14 words not allowed on any papers. I know the words, I have no trouble writing without using them most of the time now, so why do they still slip by me?! Maybe writing correctly on this blog, instead of how I've been writing for the last 10 years on forums, will help me amend my "Doover" status. And I should stop using ebola on here too. Oh, I scored 50/100 on the MLA style paper. I'm still disappointed in myself, I needed at least one more day and I just couldn't pull off an all nighter. I wish I would have, just ridding the ebola would have upped my grade by a lot I bet. I know I'm in a funk because I haven't even been taking pictures. Well, I did on Halloween of course, but I haven't been down to the marina at all and I have no idea if the manatee have come back or not. I spent time converting my MLA paper to APA and rewriting my bibliography for more points. I had enough time to go to the marina to catch the great evening light but I worked on my computer instead. Firefox crashed more than ran for a while there, I uninstalled and reinstalled and haven't had any issues. I found my two classes for next semester, I have to sign up for them tomorrow. I best get off my ass and take some pics tomorrow after I drop the kids at school.

I already missed a day :(

So much for a picture or post a day for year eh? Oh well... I'll try. I was going to post something I did for a message board, but I don't like my style of posting on message boards for "real" posts. I'm very informal with grammar in particular while posting online. I figure so long as I can spell everything correctly, anything else will pretty much slide. Anyway, I just started another blog for mini stories in case I want to save any others, or start writing more. Nobody will read them, so I can really let loose if I like, if anything this will all just help me write better when I have to for school, or whatever else. I have comm 1 later today. I did all 5 of my blogs in hopes to spend more time on converting my MLA style paper to APA. I think I may have converted the bibliography correctly already also. I've done all I can if I did the work as he intended until I understand exactly how to convert my paper, I'm so ignorant sometimes. I did the strikeouts and changed the formatting to APA though. I need to have time to fix my Doover status, I have to "do over" my midterm until I turn it in correctly, last time I had two ebola. I really must concentrate on getting my APA paper completely correct in case I stay a Doover. I also get to see my grade on my MLA paper today, I can't wait. No rewrites on this though, the grade is permanent and I'm afraid my transitions were weak. I'll see soon!

I took this pic at work the other day... boring I know, but I will take pics soon. I have a lot to add to myspace too.