They looked good before...

but now they're toast. We're doing destructive testing. The bridge must take a load of 300X its own weight for full marks. The largest was just under 500g, the smallest around 120g. With Kevin's help, I created an award for each bridge.

I did a Power Point Presentation with these photos and their group shots. I had to do a preamble for almost every award because they're very language- and culture-rich. But I think that I pulled off some humour. The kids got a really big kick out of the presentation.
In no particular order:

The brute force award. 150 kg wouldn't break this 480 g bridge.	The most elegant bridge. held 551 X its own weight. really good use of material and colour.	The most patriotic bridge. Apparently, there is a story behind the flag.
Close but no cigar award. Held 270 times its own weight.	The never judge a bridge by its cover award. This 120g bridge held 90 kg. I also considered the biggest over-achiever, the little bridge that could, and the ugly duckling.	It looked even better in real life but it wasn't especially strong. It held only 153X its own weight. Best eye-candy award.
All that glitters is glued.	The Mark McGwire award. The box they bought did say "popsicle sticks" although the rules explicitly said no tongue depressors.	Most original bridge. Cable stay? out of popsicle sticks?
The less is more award	the more is more award.	The little bridge that could. held almost 400 times its own weight.
The quality is job 1 award. This was meticulously designed and constructed. Using steam and ammonia to create the arch.	best supporting actruss	The wood wide web award? I love this photo, more for the seamless than anything.

Did I really do this?

I don't think it's particularly good and I know the text is very choppy, to say the least. But I'm certainly shocked that I can do this at all. click to enlarge. Some of the blurring and curving is caused by the binding of the workbook.

My new cousin.

My cousin John and his wife Sophie have just brought a son into the world. He's awfully cute, you must agree. James Qi John Li Iveson. 8 lb 4 oz, if I recall correctly.

3 angry coaches

The jury is still out for Sr Boy athlete of the year at my school. Beth, Peter, and I are the committee. I'm holding out and lobbying hard for one of these two. Let me condense our HOURS of discussion to a few lines:

Eric Tsui (I was going to use a fake name but I'm being so specific that there's no not knowing who it is if you're from AY)
- vball: #4 or 5 on a team just short of OFSAA. consistent and effective but no flash.
- tennis: can't recall, never saw him play, but this is "his sport"
- badminton: 2nd in North York in boys' doubles (an extremely competitive league). lost only to one team ever - twice in a massive double knock-out
- ultimate: most skilled thrower, leads an effective and aggressive offense, solid defensively

Matthew Lezon
- vball: #1 on a team just short of OFSAA. student of the game, cornerstone of offense, positive leader technically and socially
- bball: #3 on a team that finished 2/7 in North York East league play, did not advance very far in playoffs. able to finish, held his own against some extremely competitive competition
- ultimate: natural leader, capable thrower, leads a solid offense, great read of game, anticipation on defense

This is just too close. At first, I thought I would be happy either way but I'm just not comfortable with our decision yet. I think that both of these kids are terrific but they are very different types of athletes.

Who should be athlete of the year? Why?

Don't forget to read my next entry too - I had two entries this week.

Help me with my homework...

For my Mandarin course I am to choose and investigate 8 of the following questions. I want to see what generates some good discussion. Comment on any (as many or few as you want) that seem interesting to you. Although some are posed as yes/no questions, I am expected to elaborate.

If applicable, please also tell me
a) if you are of Chinese descent
b) whether your mother tongue is Mandarin or Cantonese
c) how long it has been since you lived in "China" or any version thereof
d) which city or region in "China" is "yours"

1. In general, how do Chinese prefer to say "No" (as in, no, I don't want to do what you're asking of me)?
2. Would Chinese prefer to be introduced to strangers or to meet them casually?
3. Do Chinese bow at the waist like Japanese or Koreans? What do they do?
4. Where do you put someone's name card after they give it to you? Why?
5. What's the appropriate resonse when someone flatters you? Why?
6. How impartant is the Welcome and Send Off for the Chinese? Why?
7. Do most Chinese preer a phone call or a face-to-face visit? Why?
8. Are individual expression and rugged independence praised by the Chinese?
9. Do some Chinese have an Us-Them view of foreigners? Why? (My addition: how is the affected by marrying in or marrying out?)
10. Is China a classless society? How can you see this? Explain.
11. Name eight of the confucian values which are still important for many Chinese in the 1990s. (I guess he's been using this assignment for a while.)
12. How important is Mianzi (saving/giving/taking face) to Chinese today? Explain.
13. Explain the term Reciprocity (huxiang). How important is it?
14. How do Chinese deal with the concept of "privacy"? Why? (My addition: within the family? outside the family? for children/teens? This one really hit a nerve for one student in my class.)
15. How different are Canadian Chinese from other Chinese? Explain.

And might I add that it bugs me whenever the instructor says "a Chinese" or "Chinese" instead of "a Chinese person" or "Chinese people."?

Why did I wait so long?

So, I'm loving my Mandarin course. Things I thought were going to be ridiculously hard haven't been so far. I love learning languages. I really should have done this such a long time ago.

Don't worry, the novelty will soon wear off and I'll started posting about topics other than Mandarin. Anyway...

I think I'm not bad at word attack, word recall, and the meta-game. For example, the instructor pointed to his nose and asked the class what type of nose (bizi) it was. I had no idea what he was getting at but I came up with the answer he was fishing for - mostly by luck. I've only encountered about 50-100 words, and I figured he must be looking for one of them. So I sorted through my adjectives (which are a small proportion of my vocabulary) and said out loud the only one that came to mind - da bizi (big nose). His wasn't even a large nose. But hey, you can call a nose big, right? He was so pleased and asked if anyone had ever called me da bizi. No, I've never heard of this before. Apparently, this is a reference to white people (makes sense). I also know that America (Meiguo) translates roughly as beautiful country so maybe one could call a nose mei but big definitely seems like the better answer.

I've had to ask one of my students for help with my homework once, which was an interesting moment/role reversal. I asked him to keep this Mandarin thing to himself. One, I'd be humiliated to respond if a native speaker wanted to hear me speak, which I can assume s/he very well might. Two, I want to be able to eavesdrop surrepticiously. Three, I don't want my admin or guidance to know or I'll spend hours talking to parents.

On a related note, the topic of mahjong came up in one of my classes today. I told the story of Tiffany's purchase of my contraband set and confessed that I play pretty poorly - my inlaws usually relieve me of my money when we play. To say the least, the class was very amused. I wonder how far the cuteness of a foreigner will take one?

Also, our instructor is really into language as culture, culture as language. And I do find those things interesting, too, but a part of me just wants him to get on with it give us speaking drills and feedback. You can never get a short straight answer on anything with any cultural implication at all, e.g., which title to use for a stranger of a certain sex who is clearly older/younger than you are). It always depends - where are you? where is the stranger from? how long has it been since s/he lived in China? how educated is s/he? But I'm thinking this culture focus is a good thing. Any Mandarin-speak to whom I've mentioned this has a quick and positive response to this description of the instructor. I'm just so pragmatic about most things. I figure that my appearance is going to let me get away with all kinds of minor or even major breaches of protocol.

Mandarin Lesson 1

Woah! That was really fast.

We covered
- a few statements (most about belonging to national groups)
- forming questions in two different ways
- negative statements
- a vocabulary word for each "letter" or group of "letters" that appear in Pinyin

I understand better now why Mandarin sounds like "sure, sure, sure, sure". I think it has a lot to do with the verb to be.

Cantonese vs Mandarin

I've been using this debate to put off learning to speak Chinese. But I think I've finally decided. At risk of offending my new family (sorry, guys!), I've decided on Mandarin. Let me be a little defensive. On the side of Mandarin we have:
- only four tones vs SEVEN
- daily practice at school
- eavesdropping on my students
- increasing Mandarin proportion of Toronto's Chinese community
- more usefulness for travel

I'm going to take an interest course or two this summer.

Mozilla rocks.

I just discovered the "open in tabs" feature. I used to right click and select "open in new tab" for each of the blogs I've listed above. Now, I have them all bookmarked (plus a link to comment moderating) in the same Mozilla directory and open them simultaneously with one click. I know it saves me less that a minute but I still love it.

mea culpa

um... It would seem that the absence of comments since September is my own fault. I wasn't aware that my blogging service now "required" me (by default) to moderate comments. But hey, even still, my ultimatum generated more comments than anything else I've written.

ultimatum

Start leaving comments or this blog has had it. In one year, I've had eight comments from three people (Thank you, Kern, Kristin, and MarkMark) and none since September.

You don't need a login. Just sign in as "anonymous" and leave your name in the body of the comment, if you want.

an ungodly speed

On a recent unit test, I asked my grade 12s to
(a) calculate the orbital speed MIR (or the Hubble), (3 marks)
(b) the period of its orbit, (1 mark) and
(c) explain whether their answers to (a) and (b) were reasonable. (1 mark)

The purpose of part (c) is to train the students to think about the meaning of their work during the test. I do this check every time I do a problem on the board. Some students do this instinctively but I figured the mark for checking reasonableness would motivate the others, especially since they could earn full marks for the question even if (a) and (b) were wrong but part (c) was good. It was also an opportunity for a discussion about good test-taking skills.

I've had good laughs over students' answers before. And I got another laugh this time when a student got answers of 10^40 or more for each of parts (a) and (b) in m/s and s respectively. At the very least he conceded that 10^43 m/s was - and I quote - "an ungodly speed" and that it would take "several centuries" for MIR to orbit the Earth. Well, the universe has only existed for around 10^18 s. The laughs continued because I wrote "LOL" next to "ungodly." Well, the student thought that this was the greatest thing that any teacher had ever written. The camera phone was whipped out. Another fun answer: an orbital period of 0.3 s. Imagine three times a second: "There it goes... There it goes... There it goes."

Aside: I had another student use a camera phone to record a demonstration we did in class. It's a different world, eh? Interestingly, technically speaking, the students aren't even allowed to use cellphones in the school, let alone in classrooms. But clearly, there are great uses.

Keep reading... I have a second entry today.

Did this really happen to me? or did I do it to myself?

Friday morning, I woke up before my alarm, needing to use the washroom - around 6:10. I sat up and something that didn't seem quite right. But I didn't think about it. I wasn't in any state to think about anything. I stood up. step up with the right foot. "step" with the left foot. Except that my left leg was entirely asleep and bore no weight at all. So next thing I know, I'm on the floor swearing. Lucky I didn't hit my head in my tiny, furniture-stuffed bedroom.

Well, my left knee had gone through a range of motion unknown to it for almost a decade. I landed hard on my left heel, which felt a little bruised. I was more worried about my knee but it didn't hurt. So I proceded with my day but investigated a little when I got to school. My knee seemed perfectly fine, not even any swelling which I can get from regular exercise. But the "bruise" on my ankle happened to be right over my ligament. By the end of the day, it was somewhat swollen, stiff, and lightly discoloured. Definitely a sprain.

It's pretty much okay now. I curled Monday and yesterday without any trouble.

crock pot

I got a crock pot for Christmas. It's awesome. I made stew and chili last week. I don't know if the best part is having a hot dinner ready when I get home or leftovers. Most recipes feed 6-10 people. I think my next effort will be a chicken. Ingredients: 1 chicken. 1.5 cups barbeque sauce.

second post in a day

So, look what they have at the Geography Challenge now. I am shocked that in my first three tries I got 6, 6, and 7/10. Same idea as for countries. They give you the capital. You click on the country. This IS a challenge.

Darn it. After playing for a few hours and pretty much getting the capitals down, I just discovered a good feature. If you click on "give me a detailed analysis" after your game. You get a list of the questions and your answers. What I didn't know is that each entry on the list is linked to the map. Click the word and they show you where it is on the map. That would have been helpful. I think it's too late now.

I haven't been posting ...

because I don't think I really have anything to report.

I guess I could have been doing my routine reports of daily activities but that started to bore even me. So I'll use Becky's Coles' Notes approach.

The Christmas holidays started off hectic because the last day of school was the 23rd. Dion and I Greyhounded to Ottawa that night and came back to Toronto with Ian and Dad, who stayed for a few nights. Chi was in town and it was nice to spend some time with him and Seewan also, whom I didn't know at all before. They really are everything that is great about Americans. I enjoyed three days over New Year's up at a colleague's cottage near Norland. very easy going. lots of sleeping, reading, and eating. Then I still had a whole week to do more sleeping, reading, and eating at home. I did not crack a book, not even Sunday before classes resumed.

I hope that everyone can say this but I think I got the best present in the Toronto-residents-of-Manning Christmas exchange. Becky bought me a game called Apples to Apples. It's so fun that Dion could not sit and watch, which he prefers to do for most games. We also played it at Chinese New Year, althought the group was a little big. 13 players means that there is always at least one good match.

I really had fun a couple of weeks ago when I went to play volleyball with Kevin's highschool buddies. The level was just about right for me. Luckily, the net was a little saggy, so if I jumped as high as I possibly could, I could just hit a quick. Three hours. I was tired but felt really good. I'll go again, for sure.

I'm starting to curl well - or at least better - again. That beginner clinic early in the season taught me a lot but also messed me up a little.

I was shocked that on the first day back almost my whole grade 12 class turned in a little assignment I had given them. It was assigned as seatwork for the last day of classes but I allowed them to hand it in after the holidays if they preferred to sing Physics carols, which they did. This was an incredibly hard-working and nice group. I told them so at the final exam. They did really well on a tough final. The average was 68%, including two zeroes, 74% otherwise. The other sections averaged 55% and 64%, I think. One of my students told me that the "joke/rumour" going around was that I was teaching enriched Physics. Which is a good thing, I think. Several of those students need enrichment. And I still ended up with a number of marks in the 90's and a median in the low 80s. But on the other hand, I do so many evaluations that anyone who has handed in all the assignments and put in a decent amount of work does pass. Completely fair I think. My only failures skipped the final (giving up and planning to try again for a better mark).

I have hated the weather this "winter". damp and grey, mostly above freezing. yuck.

My new semester classes look promising. I have a couple of characters in both gr12 Physics sections and I'm in a more intimate classroom.

I'm sure I've forgotten stuff. Remind me if you think of anything.

BOOKS
For Whom the Bell Tolls Ernest Hemingway. loved it. I've never read any Hemingway before. I can see why he's a big deal. ;)

Fifth Business Robertson Davies. I liked it. It dragged for a couple of chapters, I thought. For a little while, I didn't know why the book continued. It felt like everything was resolved.

Dion wins in a rout

nerdiness

Wow, if I don't score really high on a nerdiness scale, there's something wrong. The reference game, anyone?!

Today,

I went painting ceramics with Dion's family.
Here, I'm painting the lid to a Star-of-David box for Beth.

Kern

If my next post doesn't convince you to teach, nothing will.

two weeks of living vividly

It's been such an intense time.

Sorry, I've saved up 13 days of material.

Monday - don't remember much except that we lost at curling (Monday is my night with Leigh and Jenn). During their unit test, one of my able and eager Physics students completely blanked on one question about a snowmobile collision. I watched him staring at one page for the last 15 or 20 minutes. Poor guy. It was a question I all but told them was going to be on the test. I saw him in the hall a while later and tried to say some encouraging words but I think it just made him sadder. He was on the verge of tears.

Tuesday - the senior boys' lost their North region-semi final to York Mills at home. It was ugly. Complete fear of failure. Then we (Heather, Beth, Peter, and I) had to go to a coaches' meeting for the North region, where I had to face the York Mills coach and hear from Peter about all the things I could have done better during the game. It was a tough night. I think I spent about 2 hours writing my speech for the next day. You know the expression: if I had more time, I would have made it shorter. I made it shorter. The speech was mostly about courage.

Wednesday - SKIP AHEAD if nitty-gritty volleyball stuff bores you. 7am practice with the senior boys, 3:20 tryout with the senior girls. At lunch time I happened to see two grade 10 basketball players and convinced them to come to the tryout. Anita was stunned that I even knew her name but recalled that I did go watch a few basketball practices and games. The tryout was pretty fun. At the end I had two courts going side-by-side just playing a 4-2. Brian was playing with them. He made one pretty big back court attack that Kara, a grade 12 who didn't play volleyball last year, dug up like it was no big deal. She made the cut. I heard a big crack as Brian made another big attack but then I heard the gym go wild. Somebody had just stuff-blocked him. 15-year-old Anita. It's impressive enough that she was in the right spot at the right time. The shocking part is that he didn't go through her. She made the cut.

Thursday - 7am tryout with the senior girls. I posted the final list at the end of the day. I made some gutsy cuts and risky keeps, IMO. It's going to be a fun season no doubt. I got some work done (it happens so infrequently) after school and then I stayed at Dion's parents' house for the night so that I could take the car to school in the morning and have it for the weekend.

Friday - morning practice with the senior boys, good periods in the resource room in the morning, and the easiest-to-organise field trip ever with the Grade 12 Physics class in the afternoon. It was a workshop at the engineering faculty of U of T on how to design a spaceship. It was reasonably educational and of varying degrees of interest for the students - ranging from "hey it kinda sucked but I got out of class in the afternoon" to "wow, this is so cool.". The good things about it - 1. it was free. 2. I didn't need to miss any classes for it. 3. I didn't need any extra teachers to come with me (30-1 ratio is fine for that age and low-risk activities) 4. Almost all of the students could come. 5. Transportation was the TTC. 6. Students were allowed to go home unsupervised.

On the way back to school, I was on the bus with just two of my students, including the one who blanked on the test. He explained that he remembered my saying that it was a really excellent test question and that I had done a bit of wink-wink-nudge-nudge. But then a lot of the students laughed. Of course, they laughed because teachers aren't "supposed" to tell you what's on the test. But he interpreted it as, "she's goofing around. This is so hard that there is no way that it is on the test." And the worst part for him was that he was studying with a really strong student at lunch, right before the test. The strong student said something like, "I'll bet you anything that the snowmobile question is on the test." It was too late for him to learn it.

We lost our curling game and then drove straight to Beth's cottage and arrived around midnight. Poor Dion was already starting to get sick and then he had a pretty strong allergic reaction to Beth's dogs.

Saturday - nice day chilling out with Beth and getting some marking done. Poor Dion slept most of the day away - doped up on Neocitran. But then he beat us pretty handily at Scrabble. I had challenged him twice. Won one, lost one. For future reference: padders IS in the SPD, gentleer is NOT.

Sunday - left the cottage pretty early, got home, and took care of some stuff. I think I skyped with Kristin (or was that the week before?).

Monday - returned the gr 12 Physics tests and talked about study strategies - including studying in groups because at least someone will know what's on the test. I told them, too, that I didn't mean to have confused anybody about the snowmobile question. I will try to be more explicit in the future and they should call me on it if I am speaking in riddles. It really isn't fair that I speak in code to a few students who "get the game" of school.

I got an attendance report for all of the girls' volleyball players plus Brian, who was going to act as my assistant. Someone has to teach Jane and Kathleen to set - and God knows I'm not the one to do it. Not exactly the blind leading the blind, but it's close. Anyway, at this point I'm becoming really concerned for Brian. He has a habit of picking slacker friends and skipping classes.

The City of Toronto boys' volleyball championships took place this week. We are in the AAAA division (for the largest schools). Monday, we played Woburn at home in the quarter finals and WON 2-1. They played well. Stuck together, played some awesome defense. Jon had a break-through game. I've never seen him play smarter. For match point, Jon jumped really high and went over the block with a 75% speed hit that landed in deep one, where there was absolutley no one there to pick it up. Our motto up to that point had been, "good things happen when you go to one." We finally converted him. Unfortunately, Peter wasn't there to see it.

I really started to get excited about the prospect of OFSAA. Staying in the hotel. Dion would come as the male supervisor. The banquet. Ahh. A win on Tuesday would almost guarantee us a trip to OFSAA because two teams from Toronto go. We would only need to beat Macdonald (a heavy favourite) OR Northview (a heavy underdog).

Tuesday - We played our city semi-final at Northview against Danforth, who beat us 2-0. It wasn't a terrible game but we did beat ourselves. I think that I had improved dramatically in my game-coaching but it wasn't enough. We lost the first set 26-24, but having played rather well. But then despite two time-outs and two substitutions, we were down 11-2 at the start of the second set. Only then did we decide to play. To our credit, we toughed it out and traded points for the rest of the match. I was particularly proud that when Danforth was up 23-13, we kept playing. We did not lose 25-13. Most teams would. We lost 25-19. Danny served seven times, including three more times after a Danforth time-out.

It was a hard loss to take because it meant that our season was all but over. Danforth would have to beat the heavy favourites on Thursday and then we would need to beat the favourites on Friday to go to OFSAA. I took my probabilities and figured it was about a 9% chance. We were sad but I think it was healthy disappointment. Part of life, builds character, all that. Anyway, I stayed in the gym to watch the second semi-final and to chat with Beth, Peter, and Alison (a VP). It completely made my day that three of my players came back in the gym to watch the game.

Wednesday - morning practice with the senior boys. I gave them a speech about how proud I was of them and although I really wanted to win against Danforth, (if you're reading this, you probably know me well enough to know I hate losing) it made my day to see those players come back and to know that I still got to come back into the gym with them for the rest of the week. I was close to tears but not even trying to hide it. It was a really fun practice and we goofed around a fair bit. They didn't even play very well but no one cared.

Senior girls' practice afterschool. Pretty fun, but man, we've got a lot of work to do.

Thursday - senior boys' practice at lunch. A few of them were in the greatest, goofiest mood because they're also on the basketball team and they just won a season-opening tournament the day before. Fun practice again. I told them about a player's suspension (he was too embarrassed to tell them himself) and that they needed to support him, the same way he supported them. I also told them that I was going to U of T to watch the city finals and that whatever the result of the Danforth-Macdonald game, we would meet at the beginning of lunch - for season wrap-up or practice, depending. Before our practice-ending cheer, Danny interrupted to lead us in spontaneous prayer for Danforth. I was a little stunned but it couldn't hurt, could it?

I had fun with my grade 12 Physics class too. We haven't been having a lot of fun lately. I've been away so often for volleyball that when I am there, it's all business. I told them my F=ma story. Non-9T7 Eng Scis out there may remember Prof. Collins' speech on our first day of class. I repeated what I remembered of it and we dissected it. Then, we played BINGO, or should I say FSECS (phu-SECS) - Freebody diagrams, Symbols, Equations, Calculations, Significant figures. It was a nice change of pace.

A player's prayer worked and Danforth won 2-0. So, we found out at 8:30 that we were - much to my surprise - playing at Macdonald the next day. Do or die. OFSAA or bridesmaids. Well holy cr*p, that just made the next 24-hours ridiculously exciting and chaotic. I had to get ready for a supply teacher for my last period class (prepping to be away is always harding than prepping to be there) and make phone calls.

Friday - I was completely worn out around midnight (at the beginning of Friday) and just crashed. But then Dion came to bed at 3:30, which normally, I wouldn't even notice. But I did wake up and my mind started racing. Thinking about the next day & OFSAA. I ruminated for ages. I looked at the clock and it was 5:00. Well, my alarm was set for 5:30 for senior girls' practice; so, I just got up and took care of 2 or 3 of the 400 things I needed to do. Thankfully, I ate a really good breakfast because that and adrenaline was all I had to get me through until after the game.

Before most morning practices, as I'm waiting for the first subway of the day Northbound at Wellesley at 6:09 in the morning, I'm barely awake enough to do the Sudoku or to skim the Metro. Well, I was so excited, that I was pacing the platform. Not just shifting my weight, but grinding a groove in the floor. I actually caught myself unconsciously skipping at a couple of points on Friday. I was completely wired all day. I have never been that excited for even my own athletic competitions.

pretty good resource periods in the morning considering that I was trying to multitask some administration for getting to Macdonald and that Rose was absent and that we had a supply teacher in. Lunch practice. Highly necessary to work out some of the jitters. I had no fear of tiring them out. They're 17 and there was more than enough energy to go around. Here's my speech that followed my description of the game-plan. "If we want to go to OFSAA and we play like we deserve to go to OFSAA, we might just go to OFSAA." Practice ended with a cheer and another prayer.

It turns out that the gym was closed to student spectators because no admin from either school could be in the gym. Parents and teachers only. Unfortunately, we found out too late for a couple of my junior players, whom we turned away at the door. But Peter and Beth were there, several relatives of Danny and Matthew, plus our two super-duper student-teachers/gym rats, who had just had their last day at Jackson (until we hire them next year, I hope). Luckily, Nick (a first-year U of T student and sr. boys' athlete of the year at Jackson last year) was there, too. He sits on the bench with me and Brian and Kara when he comes. So, I had someone other than the players at whom to direct my nervous energy and any negative thoughts that I had during the game. I'm verbal. It helps for me to say something out loud and then I move on.

Game One (Best of Three). We're with them all the way. Macdonald is the heavy favourite but they're only playing at around 65 to 75%, I'd say. We're executing the game plan (something we've stuggled to do in the past) and playing great. So great, that I screwed up and lost track of the score. Rookie coach. We were up 22-20. But then they got three points on us before I called time out. We lost the first one 25-22. That was the only run more than two that Macdonald had in the match.

Game Two. I was afraid of another lapse like against Danforth when they didn't start to play until 11 points into the second game. Much to my delight, the team went out on the floor and kept on executing. But it wasn't to be. We played almost aggressively enough. Today's prayer wasn't enough. The score in the second set was 25-23.

Right after the game, Babak said it all - "The game was too pretty for us to be sad." True as it is, it's easy for Babak to say. He's our only bench player and still in grade 11. I said a few feeble words about how they should let themselves be disappointed or angry, it's healthy and natural, but that they had absolutely nothing to regret. I sent them into the change room to discuss what we should do for dinner. I wanted them to hurry into the change room so that I didn't have to cry in front of them. Tears mostly of joy.

When they came out of the change room, Peter come over to talk to them about the season, their athletic careers at Jackson, and their position as role-models in the school. At first, I was staring right at him but then I scanned their faces. My heart was melting. How could anyone not love these kids? I hardly had anything to say (rare - I know). They know how I feel by now. When Peter was done, Danny added that it wasn't just their experience in the gym that made the team so special. It was their experiences off the court, as well. They're very tight and spend a lot of time together. Danny also thanked me for stepping in to save their season and they all applauded. Of course, I was the lucky one in this transaction, I protested. I was once again embarrassed in front of them for being embarrased in front of them. I think I looked at the floor and shuffled my feet. Then we went out to Macdonalds.

Matthew blew me away. It was a time for us to be thinking about ourselves and celebrating our success as a team. But he wanted to know more about the suspended player, who couldn't be there for obvious reasons. What a kid.

Then I went curling. We got crushed.

Saturday - I got a 9am phone call, which normally I would leave for the machine, but I took it anyway. Happily, it was Becky, inviting us out to brunch. It was a nice brunch. Great to see her and Rob. Su, Lellean, and a friend of Lellean's were there, too, but they were at the other end of the table. So, I recounted much of this to Rob and Becky. I almost came to tears for the umpteenth time this week.

After brunch, I did some grocery shopping, took a nap, and spent a couple of hours blogging and wiping tears off my cheeks.

recreations

My junior boys are out of the playoffs, but it couldn't have happened in a better way. We won our tie-breaker to be 8th on Monday but lost to the first placed team on Tuesday. We lost 2-1. All the other quarter finals, junior and senior, have been 2-0 results. Not too bad at all. So we had a pizza lunch on Wednesday to celebrate the season.

The senior boys keep going strong. Our quarter final win over Westview on Thursday wasn't pretty but it does place us number 1 in the North for the AAAA City Finals. I'll explain the city playoffs when we get there a week from now. We move on the North semi-finals at home this Tuesday versus York Mills. Just thinking about it makes me nervous. This is going to be an exciting, tough game. The North Finals are Thursday at Newtonbrook, probably versus Henry.

Meanwhile, I have a senior girls' volleyball team to select next week.

At curling on Friday, Dion, Ann, Steve, and I beat a team we had no business beating. It's sport- it can happen. But it was particularly sweet because the skip found out before the game even started that we were complete rookies - Dion, Ann, and Steve had played seven games between them; this is my second year curling in decades and my first year skipping. He went straight for the throat, didn't call a single guard. "You jerk," I thought. But we absolutely killed them. They decided to shake hands when it was 8-2 after six ends.

Dion was so proud to be "that team." You know, that ultimate team that has no skill but lots of youth and comes down with all the swill. Anyway, we were absolutely giddy all night.

All four of us went to the beginner's clinic yesterday, which was very fun and instructional. They fed us well, too.

Today, had a good long chat with Kristin over Skype and played a bunch of the Geography Olympics. I had my best result ever. 10 countries in 12 seconds. There was a lot of luck involved - the countries were almost all within reach of the Mediterranean. I only had to move three times: once to the Mediterranean for Serbia and Montenegro, down to Madagascar, and back to the Mediterranean for the Czech Republic.





BOOKS: I'm reading an entertaining but fluffy book that a house guest from Switzerland forgot at my apartment. It's called "Cross My Heart and Hope to Die" by Claire Calman. Complete brain candy.

Themes of my life.

I don't know if things really happen "for a reason" but certainly everything in our lives can be a lesson if we take the opportunity.

I woke up this morning (Saturday) at 6:15, my weekday wake up time if I have no morning practice. I couldn't get back to sleep. My thoughts were not racing but pressing. The last three weeks have been ...... I don't know the word but I think I might overuse the word remarkable in this entry. So much of it ties together into one coherent lesson. I've spent the morning reflecting on it all. It was emotional and tearful but almost entirely uplifting.

After practice last night, I went to dinner with Peter and we had a singularly ..... conversation, or I should say, set of conversations. We talked about our lowest lows and our highest highs and everything in between. He said a few things that had a massive impact on me. One comment was about the positive people in his life, another two were actually about my life. It's remarkable how similar our lows and highs are. In fact, it made it difficult to distinguish sometimes when we were talking about him and when we were talking about me.

Peter has been blown away and yet buoyed by the people who have come out of the woodwork to support him during this crisis. I guess I'm one of them. I told him that this was a testament to him, although I know that he sees that. I remember saying the same thing to Kevin once. Not about a crisis but just in general about like seeking like. If you have great respect for the people who choose to make you part of their lives, that must reflect positively on you.

And despite the fact I was really trying to be there to support him, Peter was reflecting deeply on my experiences that I related to him. With all the things he has to think about in his own life! Peter made some insightful and respectful comments about my parents. I had mentioned that Dion and I do want to start having children soon. There was a short pause in the conversation while we actually ate and after the pause Peter stayed on that topic. He said that he was really happy to hear that we would someday be parents. It was so geniune. It's one of the purest compliments I've had in my life.

This conversation has me thinking about the people in my life. How it reflects well on me that they are in my life. The people who were there for me when I was having hard times. If my life were a novel, it would hinge on the characters, both major and minor.

Those of you who know of the craziness of my childhood and adolescence will not be surprised that one of my greatest fears has been social and emotional dependence. I was the strong one. That was my identity. I got a lot of positive reinforcement for it. I wasn't old or mature enough to recognise or to have meaningful peer support. I learned to depend on number one because everyone around had just enough strength to keep themselves together. It was a very effective coping strategy for dealing with adversity, which is another theme of this entry.

In my early twenties, I came to understand the error of being an island. Not only could I trust people, but to do so was the surest path to a rich life. At the time, I called it giving myself permission to experience the full range of life's experiences and emotions. It was really about permission to shed the role of the strong one. To be vulnerable is to be strong.

There was a meta-reflection in my morning's introspection. Mentally, I listed the people I would like to talk to about my meditation. There are so many people I can turn to. It made me feel proud to have these positive people in my life. Trust me, I have my insecurities, but I'm not going to write too much about them today. It's too easy to focus on the bad instead of the good.

The one thing I've always known is that the true measure of a relationship is how you feel about yourself because of the other person. Many people have made me feel good about myself in profound but subtle ways. I bet many of them don't even know it or what it was they did… small comments that have stuck. Usually, it comes down to a compliment on my character from someone I respect. Peter, Rob Ho, Kern, Dan Vranesic, and Mr. Gledhill have made some of those comments.

Those of you who have been reading my blog recently will know that coaching has been a theme of the last few weeks of my life. Naturally, I've been thinking about my own coaches. I catch myself consciously and unconsciously modelling myself after Kristine Drakich. It makes me proud. Kristine Drakich was my volleyball coach at U of T and one of the biggest influences in my adult life. I admire her accomplishments and character tremendously, which makes it so powerful that she let me (and all of her athletes) know that she valued us. Not just as competitors but also as complex, flawed, whole human beings. She told me once that one of the things she recognised and valued in me was my ability to deal with adversity. I certainly had a lot of practice with it in my youth. One Christmas, Kristine bought a little porcelain angel for each of us and wrote a small note on its tag. She wrote that I should be proud of my development as a player and that I would some day be an excellent coach. For that to come from her was another of the purest compliments I'll ever receive.

I've always felt lucky in my life… born in Canada, healthy, satisfying careers (including being a student), middle class privilege, good friends, Dion. Dion's dad always says that you've got to be good to be lucky. I wonder what it means to be good at life. I think that dealing well with adversity is a big part of it. I hope I can teach that to some of my students and athletes.

Yesterday, one of my students was visibly upset when I returned her test. This is a kid who has it going on. She is very intelligent, hardworking, considerate, chooses excellent friends. She did fine, very well even. But she was almost inconsolable. I led her to my office across the hall so that she could regroup in privacy. She wasn't upset about the marks although lots of kids, especially Grade 12s, are. She was upset because she made so many mistakes on the easy things. Her identity is draped in being perfect. That will sound familiar to some of you. She's got it going on but there is one thing missing - dealing well with adversity.

I need a transition paragraph here but I'm worn out. Let's skip to the end.

When I was about 10, I couldn't sleep one night. I was thinking about mortality. Death is another theme in my life's novel. My mother consoled me that night and taught me about her thoughts on the meaning of life. She told me that when you die, there's nothing left of you on Earth except the effect you've had on other people. Almost everyone in my life has had a positive effect on me. I owe many people thanks for it.

What a week!

It started well enough. On Monday (Thanksgiving), I got a fair bit of lesson-planning and volleyball planning done for the week, which was good, as the remainder of the week will make evident.

Tuesday, I found out that the coach of the senior boys' vball team, Peter, is starting a personal leave that could last a little while. So, I have adopted his team until he's back. I have lot of mixed feelings about it.
1. It made my week a bit hectic. I had an unexpected lunchtime practice to run on Tuesday and I had to run the junior and senior boys' practices simultaneously on Thursday and Friday morning - talk about frenetic.
2. I love these kids. It is a really special group. They've always been wonderful to me and to the junior boys team too.
3. It's quite an undeserved privilege to be part of their team.
4. But mostly, the responsibility has made me feel quite insecure. There are high expectations for this team. The goal is getting to OFSAA. Yes, I'm pretty knowledgeable about volleyball but I'm a rookie coach. We've all had knowledgeable profs, right? How am I going to manage the transition to a new (but possibly temporary) coach? Can I do both teams justice?
5. This insecurity is probably a good thing for me. I know that you have to stretch outside your comfort zone to grow. But does my growth come at the expense of a great bunch of kids?

This has been occupying my thoughts. That and I'm sick with worry for Peter.

Plus a good friend of mine, who shall remain nameless, is going through a rough patch that has had me reflecting on some of the tougher times in my life and in my family.

Thank goodness both volleyball teams won their matches Tuesday night. The senior game was really good. It was 16-14 in the third. York Mills' record isn't as good as ours but they definitely showed up to play. The juniors did well too. They won 2-0 and adapted well to my introducing a libero into the lineup.

Wednesday, was the toughest day of the week. I hardly slept, found out that I had messed up some paperwork with the main office, endured a seemingly endless staff meeting, had to run to make the bus for our away games, rode a school bus after the game that took us in the wrong direction to the wrong school in rush hour, and forgot my backpack (containing my lesson plans, school keys, and wallet) in the other school's gym. The boys were very sweet about my backpack. I guess I got quiet for a while after asking them to check under their seats for my bag because one player asked me if I was sad about my bag. I was a little distressed because I knew what a nuisance it was going to be. Another player asked if I was going to be able to get into my house.

Wednesday wasn't all bad though. The seniors won 2-0 and the juniors played so well against one of the best teams in the division that I keet forgetting that we didn't win, although we almost did. Also, by the time I got home (7:30) the caretakers from the other school had responded to my voice mail. They had the bag and I could come any time before ten get it. Also, Ian happened to be in town for work and we got caught up while he drove me up to the Allen and Sheppard to recover my bag, all contents entact.

On Thursday and Friday, I learned that I wasn't the only one having a tough week. A bunch of teachers at the school found this week hard despite Monday's holiday. Anyway, I made it.

Friday after work, we curled. I can't believe how well it went. Considering that this is my first year skipping and that between Ann, Steve, and Dion, they had one game of previous experience, we did extremely well. The main thing is there were few etiquette breeches and we got in 7 ends with a little time to spare. We stole one in the first and three in the second. We had four on the board so I felt relaxed the whole time. We couldn't get bagelled. We even scored one more in the seventh. The final score was 7-5.

Ian's being in town was very convenient because I got rides to and from Ottawa for my cousin Jennifer's wedding. It was a very nice wedding and I also learned that my cousin John and his wife, Sophie, are expecting in mid-May. Congratulations!

BOOKS. On the ride home from Ottawa, I read Night by Elie Wiesel. It's a short (just over 100 pages) first-had account of a Nazi concentration camp survivor. Extremely compelling. I don't know if such heavy material was the best choice but I told a student I would read it and discuss it with her tomorrow. I also told my Gr 12 Physics class that I would return some labs tomorrow but I haven't finished marking them yet. Oops.

That's it. I'm worn out. I need to sleep.

a week in review

I find my thoughts increasingly dominated by volleyball. So I'll start there.

We had a good practice Monday but still lost on Tuesday. Man, they just weren't playing. Wednesday was more eventful. First of all, the team captain missed the bus. So he had to scramble and get one of the seniors to drive him. Plus, we got our first win. By the skin of our teeth. Best of three - we were up 9-0 in the third, let them come back till it was 12-9 and we won 15-13 in the third. Yikes. But you would have thought we just won the national title, they were so excited. I also got to coach the seniors because Peter couldn't make it. So much easier. They know what's going on, and frankly, I could have said nothing and done nothing and they still would have won. On the bus home, I asked the junior boys what they learned by watching the senior boys. "So-and-so can hits the ball really hard." "So-and-so jumps really high." Cute but I wished they would have learned something. Although one kid was very perceptive. He asked if coaching the seniors was easier and observed that the senior boys can and do play all positions in the back court.

Friday, we were at a tournament at Woburn all day. It would have been more fun if we had a few wins but alas, it was not meant to be. I might have been able to get us another win with better lineups but it was very important to me to get everyone playing time. Things will change from now on. Playing time is no longer automatic. I'm also going to play with a libero from here forward. I have one player who is very capable and aggressive in the back court but not very tall though still somewhat effective in the front court. I have two other players who are effective in the back court but not all there in the back court. Perfect.

But getting ready for Friday was not so good. I had a lesson planned for my 12U Physics class that involved going to the library with the supply teacher to use the computer lab and study the Physics simulations on a particular website. Well, if I didn't discover at 5:30 pm on Thursday that the website was down for repairs. Arg. Start all over. I didn't get out of the school till 8 pm, I think.

Friday night, I hung out with Kevin. My one condition was that we not do anything loud. I had just spent the day in a gym with over 100 15-year-old boys and referees with whistles. So we got takeout Chinese food and watched Robots. I wasn't very impressed. It was moderately entertaining but there wasn't much story and many scenes were unnecessarily frenetic. Anyway, I hadn't seen Kevin for a bit and it was good to catch up.

Saturday, I spent most of the day cleaning the apartment then we went uptown for the Thanksgiving dinner. Way too much food. I did a cheese tray, luckily, because there weren't any other appetizers and dinner got started pretty late. I did the cheese tray because it was popular the last time I brought it and it takes next to no effort to produce.

Sunday was a great day of slacking off. Lots of Geography Olympics. Steak for dinner. Yummy.

mostly volleyball

Yikes, it has been two workweeks and three weekends since my last post.

The day after my last post, I went to my old stomping grounds, the U of T athletic centre, to watch our senior boys play in a volleyball tournament. I even ate at BBQues for lunch. Watching them play was pretty fun. I don't think that they were happy with their results, but I know that they got a lot out of it. I ran into Jeff Chung, who is now the head coach of the U of T men's program, and Mark Dunn, who got roped into helping out. They both look great but it seemed to me that Jeff wasn't as fresh-faced as I remember him. Since we're pretty much the same age, I guess I'm not so fresh-faced anymore either.

Later in the week, Peter (head of Phys. Ed.) phoned up to the Physics office and got me to come down and scrimmage with him and the senior boys' team. Well, I haven't played for almost nine years. I was very nervous. Not so much about hurting myself as about embarrassing myself. and then I was embarrassed about feeling embarrassed. I didn't even want to warm up my hitting. The net is much higher than women's. I did manage to hit a ball or two, served in, and did some of great passing and digging - I was always a terrible passer, although I know that this is all in your head. The boys were very supportive, congratulating me on cracking a ball or two and on stuff-blocking Matthew Lezon. That was very rewarding. Terrific fun. Maybe I'll go back and find a way to play again. Or maybe just coaching is enough.

That night I went out for dinner with Rob, Rebecca, and Kevin before they went out for a movie. That's all I remember from that weekend. I don't remember anything from the next weekend either.

This past week, we had our first league games. Our record is 0-2 but I think that we've played well anyway. I'm quite pleased with how a couple of things are progressing. We miss VERY few serves. We probably served out five or six times in six close sets, that is, about 120 serves. And they usually play aggressively - almost always trying for three contacts but sometimes hoping that the serve goes to someone else.

I went with a friend from school, Beth, the other half of Phys. Ed., to her cottage this weekend. It was glorious weather and I enjoyed myself immensely. I even like her dogs, both beagles. I really do. Keleb is an older mellow guy and Sheba a younger hyper gal. We chatted and read and played some Scrabble. We played two games and Peter tells me I was rude for beating her twice at her own cottage. The first game was close till I got "zest" on the triple word score with a valuable cross-word, "sharks" also. Then, as luck would have it, I bingoed on my first turn of the second match. I suggest we start over because "thunders", across two double-words, gave me 98 points. Probably my highest score ever. Beth didn't want to start over though. Not surprisingly, I won but surprisingly, I have been invited back.

BOOKS. I have finished The Big Bang. I definitely recommend it to people interested in science in general or physics in particular. I signed out The Catcher in the Rye from the library and finished it on the weekend. I definitely enjoyed it although I wouldn't put it in my top 10. It's a good pick though because it's a well-known work (cultural currency) and it's a short, easy read. The edition I read had about 270 pages. I picked it because it was mentioned by my dentist on Thursday.

TV. I was irritated with CTV for moving So You Think You Can Dance to Saturday. So, of course I missed it. I'm going to go check the website right now to find out what happened. Whoa. Kamilah gone, sure, but Blake gone! Surprising. As I said on Becky's blog: Jamile's solos may be to-die-for, but even his hip-hop partner dancing isn't great and anything else is mediocre, at best. He should have gone home a long time ago. I guess Nick and Blake split the vote for the guy who can actually dance the best.

School's in.

Let's see.

So far, so good. It took about a week but I think I understand my job in the resource room now. I think the bulk will be in working with the students working on missed math credits. My 12U Physics course is shaping up well too. They are a very attentive group but a little bit quiet still. I was impressed with their first assignments - a paragraph about the nature or role of science. They put a fair bit of thought into them.

I had good fun in the playoffs last weekend. My knee had been bothering me last week but it felt pretty good during the weekend. Now, this week it is just awful. I've worn a tensor all day for the first time in years. I think volleyball coaching has been aggravating it.

I just finished tryouts for the junior boys' volleyball team today. There are a few good athletes and a couple of players with good training. But I've never been involved in junior boys' volleyball; so, I don't know how we compare to the field. We'll find out soon. Our first game is a week from Tuesday. Yikes. I don't even know who my setters are going to be.

I just got my new laptop yesterday, almost exactly ONE MONTH after I ordered it. One snafu after another. It's sweet though. I do miss a few things about my old one, believe it or not, Mark. I liked the curve of the keyboard under the wrists. I really miss the track point. Removing your hand from home row to use a mouse/touch pad is just so primitive.

TV. Terrible that Rex stayed and Aaron went home last week on Canadian Idol. Thank goodness Melissa won. I was a little scared this week because Rex's first two performances on Tuesday were actually enjoyable. Not that he suddenly developed a good voice over the week but he had suitably easy songs and managed to hold the pitch much of the time. The single written for the Idol is actually good. A rare thing in the Idol franchise. Last year's single was awful, awful, awful.

BOOKS. I'm reading Simon Singh's Big Bang. A little less "entertaining" than Fermat's Enigma or The Code Book but I am really enjoying it.

Geekiness

I've often describe my geekiness (and that of several of our friends) with an explanation of the the reference game. As I spent most of the day alone, I had to find a solo way of indulging my geekiness. I rediscovered The geography olympics, now at http://www.geographyzone.com/new/index.php?t=1&b=1 . Although that redirects you to the new geography challenge with a much improved interface.

It's amazing how the brain works. At first I was getting only 7 out of 10 right and after a few tries was back up to pretty consistent 10/10 with the occasional 9/10 due to the South-West Pacific. Kiribati anyone? But soon I was recalling countries that hadn't even come up yet today. Soon, I was working for good times, not just perfect scores. You get a total of 120 seconds. One by one, you are asked to click on ten countries, randomly selected from 192. If you make a mistake, the correct answer is displayed - a nice new feature. I used to play with an atlas handy. I've been playing for a little over an hour and my top times for perfect scores are

100 seconds left - once
99 seconds left - once
94 seconds left - four times

Like minesweeper, there is obviously some luck involved. Small countries are bad because it takes time to hover over them. The location of a country can be bad too. It takes time to scroll across the world map. Here's a hint. Keep your mouse hovering over the Eastern part of the Mediterranean between countries for quick map shifting to within range of a very large number of countries. Another. Don't click on a country until you KNOW its whole name - it is displayed letter by letter. I've clicked on Austr(ia) only to find out that I was to click on Austr(alia).

Here we go...

School's almost here. But before we look forward let's have a look backwards, if I can remember it all.

last Friday: I spent the evening at Ann and Steve's with them, Derek, Rob, and Rebecca. Great fun AND I found Dion and me curling buddies. I'm playing with Leigh and Jenn on Mondays and with Dion, Ann, and Steve on Fridays. This is going to be a fun season.

last Saturday and Sunday: Gee, I cannot remember anything except good long phone calls to Ottawa. If you know what I did last weekend, please tell me.

Monday: I went into school caught up with Heather a little. I really enjoyed Litter's game, though I was the only one apparently. Dan and player on the other team were arguing over a foul call right off the bat and we generally got our butts kicked. Our defence was actually really good. We just could not execute on offense. The player Dan was arguing with is Dave Flynn, with whom I have played and whom I really like and respect. I definitely played better than I have most of the season. I wonder if Dave's presence did it. I was making things happen on offense with precise OIs upfield around the zone, no drops, only two or three bad throws or throwing decisions.

Tuesday: Dream in High Park after school with Ann and Rebecca, which was fun despite the rain. It was Much Ado About Nothing, which I think they did the last time I went to Dream several years ago.

Wednesday: I started the day at Grand and Toy and stocked up on binders. At school, I started filing all the handouts in my drawer into binders. It took me all afternoon and I got "kicked out" around 6 because the last of the custodial staff was leaving.

TV: I'm glad that it wasn't Melissa or Aaron who got booted off Canadian Idol, as they and Amber were the only ones in the top 10 who had good voices and pitch control. Kevin has called me the pitch-Nazi in the past. I don't really like live music because of pitch problems. So I always like the in-tune Idol performances best, with little regard to "performance" but some regard to song-selection. So You Think You Can Dance was entertaining as always. The disco was INCREDIBLE, so was Artem in the Passo Doble. The rock-and-roll was also really good. It bothers me somewhat that the hip-hop dancers will get votes no matter what. Kinda like the best "country" singer in American Idol, who will always go farther than s/he deserves.

Thursday: Dion took the day off. I went to school and continued filling binders and reorganising my filing system in my desk. Got caught up with Kaitlyn and Heather and had a lengthy discussion of teeth. Crest Whitestrips come highly recommended but I'm not sure if that's really my thing. My teeth are clean and healthy - do they need to be pearly white?

BOOKS: I finished Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Leguin. I recommend it highly. It is classified as science fiction and won both the Nebula and Hugo awards for 1969 but I think it will appeal even to people who do not like science fiction. The one and only disappointing thing was the introduction, which was written by the author. I always read the introduction last because I hate knowing anything about a novel before I read it. But I had been looking for some criticism, particularly about the politics of the countries and entities involved. Is there a relationship between the Ekumen and the UN? (not really, I think) How about the Sarf? I thought that the Sarf was much like the Stasi and, of course, Orgoyen was much like East Germany. Does that make Karhide West Germany, even though it is a monarchy? Is there a relationship between the politics and gender in these countries? Anyway, I was left cold.

Friday: I got my class lists and went over the OSRs in preparation for making a seating plan. O man. I have a bunch of my strongest personalities from last year back. This should be another fun but tiring semester. I still don't really know what I'm going to be doing in resource. We'll see. Some people tell me I'm going to love it; some tell me I'm going to hate it. But the people who tell me I'm going to hate it hate everything.

I went out to dinner with Mike, Rob, and Rebecca. Good fun. We ate at Fresh, near Bathurst and Bloor. I had the special, guacamole veggie burger, with soup, Dahl. The burger was okay to good, the soup was amazing. I decided to walk home and was pleasantly surprised to find out that Indigo is open till 11pm on Fridays, especially since I got there just after 10pm. I ended up with "just" four books.

Saturday: spent forever making scalloped potatoes for the week and for the barbeque uptown. "Uptown" is my usual short hand for Dion's parents' house. The potatoes did not turn out will at all. The potatoes were undercooked, bland, and cold. But the name game was great.

My blog is so boring that...

I check everyone else's blog before my own.

I almost didn't post this because it's just so boring.

I went in to school on Monday but didn't accomplish a whole lot. They're not really ready for us yet. I think that there will be another hire at the school; so, our timetables, class lists, and room assignments could still change. But I did catch up with Peter and got started thinking about the upcoming sport seasons. I also moved my desk to the far end of the Physics office, which means the desks are staggered and we won't always be backing into each other or needing to squeeze through.

After school I got a bite at Fairview and picked up a thank you card for Kevin's parents. I did want to let them know how much I appreciated the work they put in to host the wedding and I gave them copies of the photo CDs. I got to drop it off at their house before the Litter game at Parkway Forest. Ann and I spent more time talking shop than warming up before the game. I thought the game was pretty good. Horizontally Hip is a nice team and we lost 12-9 but that's okay.

I didn't do much during the day on Tuesday but I took care of a few phone-errands, including signing up for curling, and tidied up the apartment. Gina and I went out for dinner, which was great. We haven't seen each other in real life for a couple of years so we had a fair bit of catching up to do. Hopefully, we'll do the same thing next week.

Oh! and congratulations to my cousin, Jennifer, who is recently engaged to Gordon.

This week/end

Thursday, I went to lunch with Leigh, Dan, Derek, Rob, and Becky. Then I headed over to Spadina and College to pick up CDRs for the wedding photos. I happened to run into Jaclyn, who took me up to office to show me around and she gave me the most recent copy of Abilities. I am quite impressed by the amount and quality of work involved.

I had to make two CDs of photos for each major stakeholder. The 300+ highest quality images completely filled one CD. I put unretouched images and email-sized images on a second CD.

I think we played Scrabble. I won a very close one. There were three bingoes. We haven't had such a good battle for a while.

Friday, Dion and I had lunch with Janelle, which was good fun. Before we knew it, it had been a two-hour lunch.

We played Scrabble again Saturday afternoon. Only one bingo this time. Dion took this one handily but I brought it back to respectability near the end with AVAIL through a triple and turning BLAZE into ABLAZE. I still didn't have much of a chance but the result was much closer.

Saturday, Dion was raiding and working on a google coding challenge and decided that his keyboard just wasn't working well enough (CNTL was giving very strange outcomes) so we skipped down to Future Shop just before closing. We ran into Steve Ho there. We spent a couple of hours catching up and showing each other our new apartments. He owns at the Polo 1.

When we came home, I started playing GAMES, in the magazine, and Dion was WOWing. Then in the wee hours of the morning I happened to look out the window and noticed that there was a bunch of smoke and a few emergency vehicles over at Bay and Wellesley. Fifteen minutes later, there were more emergency vehicles than I could count (I count very badly :) ) and the power went out. It didn't come back on until about noon.

So this morning when the power was out we decided to go over to Plaza Flamingo for brunch and then we stopped by at Manning to see if there was any mail for us or other former roommates. We also go to see Melissa, who weighs about as much as a box of Kleenex. I exaggerate but she really is small. We were informed though that she has been adopted out. I hope she'll get her pills as a result.

Billy Joel has occupied our CD player all weekend.

other thoughts on the wedding

Monday, during ultimate warmup Rebecca asked if I had found the weekend emotional, or whether it was just her. I said, "uh yeah! I believe you heard me crying at the drop of a hat." Friday night, I did spend a lot of time contemplating everything and didn't fall asleep until well into the night. I hadn't realised how close the emotions were to the surface until during cake decorating I started to say so out loud. Kevin's mom reminds me a lot of my mother, although a little less so now that she has forgone the blonde. She is such a sweetheart, too. I'm glad I didn't spend a lot of time crying. It was a terrific time.

Kevin and Susanna Wed.

It was a perfect day and a remarkable wedding.

Here are some of my favourite photos. I was a back-up photographer, so I have an odd assortment of photos. I was looking for moments and angles that the delightful Yeung (sp?) could not get due to space-time constraints. I had a hard time selecting this set of photos. Vanity made it difficult to set aside the technically and artistically pleasing in favour of the photos of substance.


Susanna did not exactly walk down the aisle.
Proud parents of the bride await her arrival.
And she was having trouble getting through her vows.
Kevin had trouble starting his vows.
But they both made it.
See?
Poor Kevin! The photography was endless. A little levity is needed; so, Linda got "cheeky" - if you know what I mean.
No really, poor Kevin. It looks like he's escorting Susanna to the dance floor, which at this point might have been preferable. But no, he's escorting her to the deck for more formal photography.
A little refreshment between poses.
And some rest before the formal photography resumes.
Becky really outdid herself. If she had only made one cake, maybe someone would have eaten the tiramisu (sp?)

midsummer

Yikes, summer is past half over now. Although a couple of days ago I was starting to get the feeling that I'm ready to go back. If I had to go back next week, I think it would be okay by me.

I have a project that I'm supposed to be working on for the board but I just can't get into it. I'm constantly procrastinating. It's amazing how much of nothing I can do. memories of grad skule.

Dion is going to be quarteting again. There was talk of his singing tenor with Kevin on lead, Jordan Travis on baritone, and Dave McEachern on bass but it sounds like they switched Jordan and Dion back to their "natural" positions. Dion's having fun with it.

The apartment is pretty much put together now. The computer is out of the kitchen and I've purchased a dozen or so storage pieces. spice storage. shoe storage. bathroom product storage. baskets, baskets, and more baskets. Once I get a couple of big things down to the garbage, it'll be fine. Everything else can wait indefinitely. Some more lighting maybe and a microwave would be nice but whatever.

My friend, Andreas, was in town for a couple of days this week. We had a very nice time catching up but it made me miss the crowd I met in Switzerland. A great bunch of people, really.

Dion's off at Kevin's stag right now and we're having a brunch for Susanna tomorrow. I hope it's a nice day so that we can go out to the island. I should remember to take my camera with me.

Oh. And today is our fifth anniversary. Hard to believe, isn't it? Five years ago, I had just started my masters, Dion hadn't quite finished. Kern and Kristin still lived here. None of our friends had kids. We hadn't even met Mark yet. Becky and Rob hadn't started dating. But Kevin and Su had been together for four years. Plus ca change....

oh boy. lots to write

Sooooo much has happened.

Two Tuesdays ago... Was rather boring. We had to be at school but there was nothing going on. So I probably shuffled some papers. It was really hot for packing that night.

Wednesday was the big move day. Of course we were short on boxes, so I had to go to the liquor store for more. That was 10 in the morning and already it was blazing hot. The movers were about 40 minutes late but that wasn't so bad. We just sat around for about 20 minutes with nothing to do. The movers, Jamie and Barry, were awesome. Jamie was the brains of the operation, Barry the people person. They got everything in the 6'X9'X12' truck for one trip. It was very close. We have a lot of furniture. They didn't even really need ropes to tie things in, it was that packed. We had to block a lane at Yonge and Wellesley at 6 pm to unload the truck. I'm sure we were highly unpopular. It took almost 4 hours and we paid $400, including tip. I was a bit shocked to learn that the movers make only $12/hour. It's heavy work, no breaks, and it was scorching hot. Doesn't seem right.

Luckily, there was a Canada-wide Sympatico system failure that night. It seemed like quite a coincidence that our service wasn't working the first time we set it up but that's what the problem was. I say luckily because that meant Dion was available to help move furniture and such.

Kevin and Su came over to see the place and kill some time before heading over to their new apartment while the tenants finished moving out.

I had been convinced that I would sleep like a rock that night because of all the work and the air conditioning in the new place but it didn't happen. I actually had a really hard time falling asleep. It felt a little like we were at a hotel. Rinsing plastic cups in the bathroom sink, living out of a suitcase.

Thursday was the last day of school and very uneventful. I think I shuffled furniture.

Friday was busy again. I went over to the old place to help clean while Mark moved out. It was a nicer day than our moving day. Then I went back to the new place and Jaclyn came over to visit. We chatted, went out to eat at the Friendly Thai, and combed the bookstores between Wellesley and Dundas. There are many. At the World's Biggest, I picked up two new science books. Then Dion came and picked me up (he had been uptown golfing and then hanging out all day). We went over to Bathurst and cleaned the fridge and picked up the last of our stuff. We spent the night uptown.

Saturday was the family gathering for the Canada Day long weekend. Pretty fun although Norman's friend Howard ruined the name game with long clues about an R-rated inside joke.

Don't really remember Sunday. must have unpacked. Same with Monday. Although I do remember that Dion was home because he inadvertently booked it off. Litter lost again I presume.

Last Tuesday, we left for Salt Lake City. Very uneventful travel except that our room wasn't ready at 2, when we arrived, or at 3, when they said it was supposed to be ready. Kevin missed the Magacity cake presentation waiting for the room.

Wednesday had the quartet quarter finals. Mirage's set didn't go that well in the afternoon. The Fixx's set in the evening was a little better. Hot Air Buffoons were a big hit, as were OC Times, a young quartet from the Far Western District (FWD) and Realtime, another young quartet from the Canadian West Coast.

Thursday was the chorus wildcard contest, I think. I really thought Megacity sang well and they did score just over 80% but it wasn't good enough. They finished 10th, which was their qualifying position. The top 6 made it into Saturday's contest. I think I got a workout in on Thursday.

Friday had the College contest and the regular quartet semifinals.. I was pleased that I was almost able to pick the CQC top 5. I had 1, 2, 3 and 5 in the right order and I really liked 4 but I didn't know if they would make it for lack of reputation. I got another workout in in the afternoon.

Saturday was a really long day. The breakfast was nice, as always, and very entertaining. The chorus contest was almost unbearably long. It started at 10:45 (I missed the mic testers and the first chorus) and ended over _7 hours_ later. The absence of a curtain was the main culprit, I believe. Even though the choruses weren't being judged while the lights were off, they all had formal ways of taking the risers and walking off the risers. I almost had the chorus contest picked correctly too. My order ended up 2,1,3,4,5. I thought the the Masters' ballad was great but that the uptempo was off. It might have been the hall's accoustics, which were disappointing. I couldn't make out the lyrics because of the stomping and box thumping, though I imagine it was not a problem for the judges. TNL's set was a big hit, especially the uptempo. All the mime gags got big reactions, too. Just bias, I suppose, that I had them in first. Alexandria was a little disappointing. I've always liked Alexandria until this year. Not that they were bad but I'm usually highly impressed.

The evening quartet contest was scheduled to start a little over an hour after the afternoon contest. Needless to say, we missed the start. Luckily, there was about and hour of pre-contest presentations and performances, so we didn't miss any of the competition, except the last quartet, Saturday Evening Post, which we skipped out on. Everyone was pretty excited that Realtime won and OC Times was over the moon with their 5th. I know that because FWD and Ontario cohosted a hospitality suite after the contest and OC Times and their supporters could hardly contain themselves.

Sunday was an uneventful travel day.

Yesterday, I did very little except for laundry until the game. Litter added a sorely needed W to the scoreboard. Dion came, I don't know if that was the difference. It was 17-14, I think.

Phew. I'm done.

no title available

Let's see if I can remember it all.

Monday: Several students actually came for "tutorials". got caught up on some stray marking. Litter got killed.
Tuesday: supervised spec ed exams
Wednesday: my kids wrote their exams. I marked, and marked and marked.
Thursday: marked at a much reduced pace
Friday: see Thursday. took some valuables up to Dion's parents' for temporary storage
Saturday: went to Neil and Liiling's wedding reception. I arrived horribly overdressed. So I walked to the nearest mall and bought a $30 sundress. The closest thing to fitting was - shockingly - a size 7. I haven't worn a size 7 since before puberty. Anyway, the replacement dress was a very good idea. much more comfortable, at least as comfortable as 45 degrees including humidex will allow. After the wedding we killed some time at Chapters, just for the airconditioning. Dion and I then went to the McDonalds's of our first Valentine's day for a milkshake (for me) and a Sundae (for him).
Sunday: got as much packing done as the heat would allow.
Monday: nice staff luncheon for Ted. Ted's great. also got sick. It's been coming.

One of my students took this photo at the science fair last week. pretty fun!

June 19, 2005

lots to report

Well, I didn't get the science fair reports finished until Thursday night. But what a week!

Monday, I had ultimate. We lost a close one to Weapons of Mass Disctruction. Then I went out for food after, which was fun but put me behind in preparing. Tuesday afternoon I had the first of my in-class science fairs. I had to rearrange all of the desks so that all the students could display their projects and have electrical outlet access. Repeat Wednesday. Thursday was the science fair. About twenty of my thirty five grade 11 groups came and entered the contest. I was _really_ proud of them. They worked really hard on these projects and produced some high quality work. Thank goodness we had the grade 12 bridges being tested during the science fair. It was some desperately needed entertainment for during the contest. Three of the bridges held over 400 lb. Closer to 450, I think.

Thursday and Friday I congratulated my grade 11s for the outstanding work that they had done on their projects. I almost got a little choked up on Friday when I told them I was glad I wasn't a judge. There truly was no way I could choose. I spent more time with the projects, so I know how much thought most of the groups put in to it.

Dion and his friend/classmate/coworker Otto came to the science fair. Dion is sooo in the good books as a result.

Friday, I was absolutely exhausted. sleep-deprived, really. I stayed up to 2:30 on Thursday marking the science fair projects so that I could return them Friday, the last day of classes. I was an idiot. misspelled my name in several yearbooks even. I couldn't believe that even in the last class of the day, 21 out of 33 students came to class and most of them were on task most of the time - making up Jeopardy games about Physics for each other. I got out of the school as fast as I could, leaving a big mess of papers and equipment, to go out to celebrate with Heather and Kaitlin. I wasn't keeping up my end of the conversation, though they seemed just fine without me, until I got some food in me. I had skipped breakfast _and_ lunch. Very good fun. I'm really glad that we all get to stay at the same school next year.

Saturday was busy. I had washed, dried, folded, and rehung my draperies, done some grocery shopping, and rented a steam-cleaner for our area rugs by noon! I spent the afternoon on the rugs and then met up with Dion, our new landlord, and her agent to sign the new lease. We found out the the landlady, Cynthia, attended the highschool where I teach. Small world. We saw the terrace/party/excercise room for the first time. It's rather nice. The terrace is enormous and the exercise equipment is quite decent.

From the new apartment, we headed to Dion's chorus's send-off party for Salt Lake City. I really like the set and had a good time chatting with Su, Annie, and Nancy. Watching the beards being removed was also good fun. Dave Streeter looks like a complete stranger without the beard and mustache. I got a lot of really cool photos, but again I can't be bothered finding a place to post them. Maybe I'll look up our sympatico site again.

Today, I cleaned the last of the area rugs. This last one is wool, so it held onto the smell of the previous owner's dog more tenaciously. It's still not perfect but it does look and smell much better. That's about it.

woohoo

I marked 89 unit tests yesterday! Let's see if I can get through almost 40 science fair project reports today. But I'd better plan tomorrow's lessons first. I have one more topic to cover in each course before the exam.

a great day

My grade 12's tested their bridges today. All of the bridges were under 500 g (600 g was the limit); most were under 300 g. Four of the nine bridges held over 60 kg, which is all I had available at the time. They will be tested destructively at a Physics Fair night next week. One of the bridges going to the big show is just over 200 g. It holds at LEAST 300 times its own weight.

In the evening we had our year-end athletic banquet. I was given the honour of presenting several prizes - most improved and Jaguar pride for Jr. Girl's Volleyball, most improved and most valuable for Coed Ultimate, and Jr. Female Athlete of the Year.

Have pictures, can't be bothered finding somewhere to post them.

still nothing to report

Wednesday, I stayed very late after school trying to set up some demos. I could hardly get anything to work. I found a couple of good things but they were for topics we haven't quite reached yet. Which, is fine, we'll get to them.

I've been getting away with lots of last-minute planning these days. I hope the reason is that I'm just that much better at it rather than I'm letting my standards drop.

I've cooked more than usual this weekend. Scalloped potatoes and ham yesterday, pancakes for breakfast today, tuna casserole tonight. I sliced too many potatoes yesterday, so I used the leftovers in the tuna casserole rather than potato chips. I was really good. I think I'll do that from now on.

I haven't felt like working; so, I've been procrastinating with the cooking and housework. And I gave Dion a much-needed haircut. I hope it lasts him till Utah. We're going to be REALLY busy at the end of the month. I think I mentioned this already but I'm starting to get nervous. Marks due Monday, last day of school and moving Friday, perhaps Saturday, and then leaving for Utah Tuesday. I'm not sure how I'm going to do it all.

I got a bit behind there.

Let's see.

Last weekend was the long weekend. On Friday evening, we hung out at Rebecca and Rob's. Nice and relaxing. Then Saturday, we looked a couple of apartments, including one possibility at Yonge and Eg with indoor access to the subway station. Then good times at the barbeque and Dion's parents'. Someone brought a PS2 with the karaoke game. I think we need one. Rest Sunday. Start of the ultimate season Monday. We played very badly.

We had TDSB North Region Finals at our School on Wednesday. We almost got ourselves knocked out by Earl Haig in the Semis but pulled off a win. It came down to last point wins. Then, we just couldn't get the W against York Mills in the finals. Second Place meant that we needed to play the second place finishers from the other two regions for the fourth semi-final spot at TDSB championships.

Thursday, we went to see an apartment at Yonge and Bloor/Wellesley. Pretty small but the price was right. It was in pretty bad need of a facelift. That night, we also decided that neither one of us was willing to drive to Ottawa for the wedding. So we decided to take the bus. But we couldn't leave early enough to arrive before the middle of the night.

In my afternoon class, I blew a resistor. It started to smoke. I have to remember to do that every time I do Ohm's Law. It amuses the small minds. It'll make the lesson memorable.

Friday we left around 12:30 am from the bus station. Unfortunately, they had enough passengers to send two busses, one of which (ours) went to Ottawa express. We arrived at 4:30 in the morning. We couldn't bear to call my brother to come pick us up. I slept for a bit and we got breakfast when the Van Houtte's opened. Ian came and got us, we got changed, and went out for breakfast with Dad.

The ceremony was early and the bride, Sophie, and groom, my cousin, John, looked smashing. But being in the cathedral had me thinking about my Aunt Norma a lot. Most of Sophie's family couldn't make it to the wedding; it was a small affair. A big contrast from Norma's wedding when it was standing room only for the crowd of over a thousand.

We (Dion, Ian, Dad and I) visited briefly with Doug and Mel in the afternoon before heading to the reception.

What a lovely reception it was! It was hosted at Francis's mother's home in her backyard, I mean 5-acre park. Really beautiful. It only rained while we were under the tent eating. There was a dragon dance before dessert - very cool. Dessert was a yummy and beautiful cake made by my cousin Margaret and a chocolate fountain that would only work with large amounts of chocolate. Things wrapped up on the early side but I really think it was one of the nicest weddings I've attended.

Yesterday, A.Y. got knocked out of the TDSB playoffs, effectively finishing 5th - just out of the semi-finals. We played well against Bethune but Humberside was just too skilled for us. We'll do really well next year. Only 3 of our players are in Gr 12 now. Then Litter played well but lost. I got home way too late for a school night. I want to see everyone but I don't know if I should be going out after games on school nights. Fortunately, there aren't many more Monday nights this school year.

We're applying for an apartment we saw today. It's _between_ Wellesley Stn and Yonge St. Rather small but nice and they've come down from $1300/mo, which they had posted on MLS a couple of weeks ago to $1200/mo. Can hardly be beat for location.

All I can think of for now. But it has been two weeks.

far to incoherent to summarise in a title

Last Sunday was my birthday. Dion, his family, and I went out for brunch at Plaza Flamingo. It was good. I got very yummy cake on Tuesday from the math department.

Thursday was our second ultimate tournament of the season. The weather was much nicer this time but our play was inconsistent. We have league play again on Monday.

Today I've been apartment hunting online. I got an old finnicky printer working, which is helpful to the cause. We're looking for something at Yonge and Bloor for July first. We're also considering College, Wellesley, St. Clair, and Eglinton and Yonge. We'll see. There are lots of vacancies, so I don't feel rushed yet. But it is going to be a busy time when we're moving. I'll have projects and exams to mark, packing to do, and we're going to Utah the Tuesday after moving day, I think.

Can't decide what I want to do today. I can't bear the thought of marking all day. I may do housework and errands instead. Man, I'm boring. I've been getting hints from my roommates that I'm not doing enough fun stuff.

Is another week gone?

This is getting a little silly. It's all a blur.

Monday - ultimate practice
Tuesday -
Wednesday - ultimate practice
Thursday - home at a reasonable time, watched a couple of hours of TV
Friday - one really terrible lesson, a disappointing ultimate practice, window shopping on Queen W, good dinner at a nice Indian restaurant with Trevor Trodd, Caroline and their friends.

I can't even remember the rest.

time flies

I can't believe how fast the year is going. The week is always over before you know it. More so the weekend.

This past week, what happened? lots of last-minute planning all week. Monday - ultimate practice followed by dinner with my curling team, where I received the most spectacular fall award. Tuesday - don't remember. Wednesday - ultimate practice and stayed very late getting lessons ready for a supply teacher Thursday. Thursday - ultimate tournament at York Mills. fun despite the miserable weather. single digits, windy, raining. Also Thursday, parent-teacher interview night. One adorable family took photos. Friday - home by 8:00, practically asleep by 8:30 when I got a welcome phone call from Kristin. Saturday - slept in, took a nap, went shopping (bought a spring and a summer jacket, both off-white), went out for Dinner with Rob, Becky, Mike, Derek, and Kevin. Sunday - nothing much of anything.