So much for getting on other sub lists today...the phone rang at 5:45. "Are you available to sub in the elementary SpEd room for Mrs. D?" Gee...lemme think. Since I haven't had a chance to contact anyone else at any other schools about being available again... Was more of a resource room than actual SpEd - and there's a student teacher, too, so she ran the show, and I did little helpful things. Easy day.

Apparently I have developed quite a fan club in the past three days that I haven't been doing elementary band. (Was in the HS end on Monday & Tuesday.) I lost track of how many of the band kids stopped to ask if and when I was going to come back and take over band - "We hate Mr. L. He talked for almost 40 minutes, and we only had time to play one song. You have to kick him out." Three kids came screaming across the cafeteria as I was headed out after school, with the mom of one of them trailing behind. (The mom is their DI coach, and they were supposed to be working on their DI.) Half an hour later... Based on their comments, there are at least a dozen of the 6th graders and "probably all" of the 5th graders who want to see Mr. L. disappear. The mom is not afraid to rattle cages, either, and said she'd probably make time to stop in to talk to the superintendent, principal, and any school board members she can buttonhole.

Nice to know there's support - even if the chances of me actually stepping into that job are practically nonexistent.

Yet another in the bits-and-pieces category...

Snow day today - only about 2 or 3 inches overnight, but there's enough wind to make some pretty nasty drifts. Just talked to my brother, and he said that a neighbor got stuck in the middle of the road near his driveway - got "high-centered" on a drift. (i.e. the drift was tall enough that it lifted the wheels off the ground when he tried to go through it...)

Ran into my kid Tuesday night at the Cenex on the south side of SC. We stood there and talked (and D probably froze) for at least 20 minutes. I think the people inside were a little irritated with me...they're supposed to close at 10, and it was nearly quarter after by the time I walked in to pay. Oops. But hey - it isn't every day I get to see and talk to my (not-so) little girl.

First rehearsal for school musical pit earlier tonight. Right now, I'm playing French horn, although that will change if they can find another horn player. Actually, it might change regardless of whether they find another one. Apparently, the high school chick who said she'd play her violin in the pit thought it was going to be only 4 or 5 songs, so she's panicking a little bit...so I will probably end up being "promoted" to pit concertmaster.

Undergraduate student loan remaining balance due will be under $500 once they get the payment that is going out in tomorrow's mail. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Forgot to write down a check that I wrote sometime between last week Monday and today...and I have no clue what it could be. Have eliminated a few possibilities, but not enough to figure it out. Grr. Means I won't be able to balance my checkbook until it makes its way through the bank and I can find out who it was written to/for. Oh, well. There's still plenty to pay this month's rent bill.

I love winter! It's cold enough this morning that when I stepped out side and took a deep breath, my nostrils froze shut. It's also cold enough - below -40 with the wind chill - that we don't have school...a fact I didn't find out until I had walked in, through a completely quiet building, and checked with the secretary to see if it was a one- or two-hour late start. Oh, well...

Will be headed off to Block shortly, since it's a fairly busy day scheduled there. Could turn out to be a dud, though, if people just hole up because of the cold... I'm not going to turn down the chance to pick up some hours at Block (even if they turn out to be bookkeeping and not tax prep), since no school = no pay.

Less than a week until KVSC trivia contest! Random trivia question for all 2 of you who bother to read this: Name the first US airline to hire a female flight attendant.

Yet another very lopsided (and therefore difficult to referee) basketball game. I don't remember the final score of the game on Tuesday, but it was 21-1 at halftime. The first quarter tonight was close (8-5, I think...or 8-6) - but only because neither team could hang onto the ball or make a basket to save their lives. I wish I had counted the number of airballs...I'm sure there were a dozen in the first quarter alone. Final score: 61-15. Ouch.

Normal time getting back home after SC barbershop rehearsal: slightly after midnight.
Time getting back home after rehearsal here in town last night: slightly before midnight.
Officially, rehearsal ended at 9:30. A bunch of us hung around afterward and sang everything we could think of that all of us knew (or had music for). I don't remember the last time I sang for 4 hours in a day.

Student loan balance (only for undergraduate loans, unfortunately) is down to three digits! YAY!! Will be nice to have one paid off...

Ahh...snow days! We were supposed to have school today, but the 5" of snow overnight (with some freezing rain before the snow started) wiped that out. Called the school to check, since I'm not on the calling tree...realized afterward that I could have checked the Eau Claire tv station closing list. Oh, well.

Lazy day. Didn't bother to get dressed (t-shirt & sweats doesn't count as "dressed" in my book)...loafed, read, messed around on the internet, made stew, did an arranging project... Only down side is that no school = no work = no pay. If I had known in advance that we'd have a snow day, I could have gone in to Block. Meh.

No barbershop tomorrow night - well, not in St Cloud, anyway. Will be refereeing a basketball game, so since I don't have access to a teleporter, I wouldn't get to SC in time for any of the rehearsal. Will check out the local chorus, I guess...

First day at the Block yesterday. Three returns (12 in the office all day), all pretty simple ones. Nice way to ease into doing taxes again. Started mine, too - and according to the IRS methods of figuring things, I had a $4000 loss last year doing music stuff (teaching lessons, judging solo-ensemble contests, quartet performances). But...considering that the mileage involved was over 10K (at 44.5 cents per mile)... I'm not gonna complain - that's $4000 less that I'll be paying income taxes on!
Madrigal wrap-up party last night...it started to break up around 10, but the die-hards kept it going until midnight.

Wedding was nice - ceremony was short & sweet (maybe 40 minutes total from the start of the processional until the end of the recessional), decorations were simple & understated...very tasteful. Best of all - no cheesy, overused "traditional wedding music" anywhere in the ceremony. The processional was an untitled piece by Sigur Ros (and no, I had never heard any of his (her?) stuff before), the recessional was a Beatles' tune.

Only time the "when is it your turn" bit came up was during the lunch following, when a bunch of us were doing the traditional (for our family) prediction of which cousin's turn would be next. E is the hands-down favorite, since he's engaged. (He was the #1 guess last time, as well...but since he's engaged now, it's pretty much a given.) One of the uncles said something to me along the lines of, "rumor has it that you're next." My response: "Really? Obviously, you know something I don't!"

Five weeks until KSVC trivia marathon.

Truffles are finally finished, and will be in the mail on Monday.

Happy 2007.
Am definitely not happy with the bozo I'm filling in for at school. He's back this week - but won't give me any clue what his plans are for the rest of the 30-some sick days he has remaining. Should I be looking for another gig...should I just stay put and wait for the school here to say something... I don't know how to ask him any more plainly than I did today, but his answer was absolutely worthless. Some people's kids...or something like that.

Nice surprise in my pile of mail today - a check for refereeing that I had forgotten was still out. Bonus for the travel fund! :-)

Read 7000+ pages over the 10 days of vacation - the Wagons West series (minus the last two books, since we don't have those), the first three books in the Mitford series (highly recommended if you want a laugh), and Bill O'Reilly's Culture Warrior. Was nice to have the luxury of kicking back to read without having a gazillion interruptions all the time.

Grr. Was working on truffles about 45 minutes ago, and managed to break the spatula handle - just above the scraper part. So...the truffles will be delayed another two days, since I won't have a chance to work on them tomorrow. (school concerts...)