The Jedi Council

Today was a good Sunday.  Kind of.  We got up at a decent hour (7:30 a.m.) and got ready for church.  We headed over to church and Heather and I got to choir rehearsal and rehearsed and got ready for service.  The church service went fairly well and our kids behaved while they were in the audience and the pastor had a great message for today, especially for the fact that we had our second flood in the past year.  We got done, talked with some people at church and we went home.  On our way home, Heather got a text message from her boss asking her to stop by the store.  We went to Wendy’s and the talked her into doing a closing shift tonight.  Hey, it will mean that her entire shift tonight will be pure overtime.  When we got home, everyone was exhausted.  The kids wanted to watch a movie that went until ten o’clock tonight, so we told them they had to take a nap if they were going to watch that movie (“The Parent Trap”).  So, they all took a nap while I retreated to my partial basement hovel and watched some football.  Of course I couldn’t keep my own eyes open and I ended up falling asleep.  When I woke up this morning, I had a terrible sinus headache and I needed a nap.  So much so, that I woke up for a while and spent about an hour or so with Heather and the kids and then took another nap because I had to take some allergy medication that wiped me out.

So, after waking up from that nap, I helped Heather with Austin and Tara’s school projects that are due tomorrow.  While we did that, one of Heather’s co-workers, who’s a mechanic, showed up at the house to look at the Escort for us to see if he could figure out what was wrong.  Sure enough, he confirmed my fears.  The head on the engine is shot and could cost between $1000 to $2000 to repair.  Nope, not worth it!  So, we’ll have to work with one car until we get to the other side of Christmas and get our tax return and put our money from the tax return on a car and simply buy it outright.  One of these years we’ll actually get our tax return and be able to invest it or put it in savings.  Someday.  Anyway, we ate dinner not too long after that and Heather headed off to work.  The kids and I worked on finishing cleaning up the house from the weekend and from all of the stuff hanging around the house from trying to deal with the flood.  The kids then watched their movie while I watched some T.V. and taped other shows for Heather.  I was bummed to see my favorite group (the Cho brothers) loose out on “Amazing Race”, but it was bound to happen considering how they ran their race.  Then, while I caught up a little more on my blog, I watched “Elf” and then went to bed around midnight.

Okay, so let’s talk about Part 4 of Chapter 16 of “Star Wars:The Approaching Storm” by Alan Dean Foster…..

Chapter 16 (Part 4):  The conspirators gathered together on a transport that was moving them through the city of Coruscant.  The conspirators were pushing to move things along faster.  They even began to act as though the vote for secession had already occurred.  As others partied and laughed, Shu Mai stared out the window of the transparisteel transport and reflected about how this vote would change all the people out on this world.  She knew she was charged with a lot of responsibility as the president of the Commerce Guild.  She walked back to the back of the transport, stood in a small stool and told them it was too soon to celebrate, and too soon to reveal their true intentions.  A human-like member of the group said they have waited so long for this.  Shu Mai points out that all of their work would be for naught if they reveal themselves too soon.  She stopped them and waited for a judicial speeder that stopped outside, to leave, as she was fearful of spying techniques…..

This was another pretty busy Saturday in our list of Saturdays from this fall.  I thought since we didn’t seem to have anywhere to go, it would be a dead Saturday, but that was not the case.  We all got up pretty late this morning as we all stayed up pretty late last night and Heather worked till two this morning.  I took Heather over to her friends’ house to do some scrap booking as she was having an all day event at her house.  I think it was good for Heather to go there and get out of the house and away from the stress and things around the house.  While she did that, I took the kids to the grand re-opening of the local Toys R’ Us.  I did it for three reasons.  The first was to show support for the store as they were discussing not coming back to the area after they got flooded out in June and talked of closing the store for good.  Second, I did it so the kids could meet some characters.  Dora the Explorer, Sunshine CareBear, Sponge Bob Square Pants, The Cat in the Hat, and Austin’s favorite – Spiderman were there.  I couldn’t resist to take the kids and besides, it would be a great photo opportunity for Heather’s scrap booking later.  The second reason was to have the kids give Heather and I some ideas for things for Christmas.  Austin’s really easy to shop for, but the girls are starting to get hard.  Ruth is in that “tweens” stage, where she’s not a kid anymore but she’s also not quit a teenager, which makes it harder to shop for her.  Third, it was a personal reason.  Heather allotted me $30 to go shopping.  So, for the first time in my life, I went Star Wars collectible hunting.  That was actually really cool!!  I was able to come away with quite a few things.  I decided to keep to the cheaper products and I had a $5 off a purchase of $25 or more, so I was able to go over budget a little.  I got mostly titanium die cast miniatures of spaceships.  My son had some, so he donated to the cause when we got home and helped by brining his ships downstairs to display with mine.  Anyway, I got the Tie Interceptor, the Tie Fighter, the Droid Fighter, and the Y-Wing.  My son donated his Arc Fighter, and Naboo Cruiser to the cause.  I also got a new pack of figures that are miniatures called “Unleashed”.  I got the pack that had Kit Fisto, because he’s my favorite Star Wars character.

Toys R’ Us was an absolute mad-house!!  I didn’t realize what I was getting myself into when I walked into those doors.  There were massive amounts of kids and parents in the store and it was packed wall to wall and floor to ceiling (at least it seemed that way) with people.  Then, to make matters worse, the Toy R’ Us people didn’t know how to handle having people in costume suits.  I’ll give you an example.  When I go to a convention, or a person dresses in a Darth Vader or Boba Fett costume, we fully expect what we call the onslaught of kids.  In other words, kids and parents are going to want to have their picture taken with us.  We, as costumers, are used to this and actually enjoy this.  I know for me it helps to remind me that Star Wars is still alive and well and still a very popular part of American culture.  However, at Toys R’ Us, they didn’t handle that so well.  They had a security guard with each of the characters actually asking kids to back away.  One guy even told my daughter that she couldn’t give Dora a hug.  Now, luckily, Tara is a pretty mature young lady and she didn’t get upset.  However, there were other children that were in tears because they couldn’t touch Dora, nor could they have a pic taken with her.  Not a wise choice by Toys R’ Us.  Obviously they did not have rules in place for such an event and they did not know how to handle it well.  Not only did they have kids in tears, but they pissed off a whole bunch of parents.  And trust me, there is no one more angry than a pissed off parent with a child in tears next to them.  NOT A SMART MOVE!!  Anyway, we got through the chaos and checked out at the register with help from my kids and we got in the car and went home.

Once we got home, the kids and I all ate lunch.  That afternoon, they went out back to rake leaves while I dealt with the issues still in the basement.  I finished shop-vaccing the wet spots (there were very few by now) and worked on the carpet that was soaked from yesterday.  It was on the porch, but it still was pretty wet, so I shop-vacced that as well.  I then cleaned out the shop-vac because it had soaked up quite a bit of water.  Unfortunately, the filter is now officially shot on the machine.  I guess I’ll have to get some new ones when we can afford to buy them.  I got done with that and started to work on getting my new collectibles on display for downstairs when I got a phone call from Heather asking to come and pick her up.  We went over to pick her up and she said that she called our babysitters for the evening and apparently have spent the entire day cleaning out a friends basement from the flood.  They had two feet of water in their basement and spend most of the day “mucking out”.  So, we came home and had some time as a family and then ate dinner together and we all took Heather to work (she was able to secure a ride home from a co-worker for tonight).  I came back and got a shower and got ready for the concert and the babysitters were dropped off sometime around quarter after six.  I went over to West for the warm-up and the concert and performed.  When I came home (after intermission since I wasn’t in the second half of the performance), I woke up our kids, we all crawled into the car and took the babysitters home.  I got back to the house with the kids and they went back to bed while I went downstairs and finished working on my MySpace page and then caught up on my reading and blogging and got to bed around one a.m.

Okay, it’s time to talk about Part 3 of Chapter 16 of “Star Wars:The Approaching Storm” by Alan Dean Foster…..

Chapter 16 (Part 3):  Luminara reminds Barriss that she was on her way back to them and smiled as she pulled the fur out of her undergarments.  Sh then showed the sentinel as the crowd gathered around to see the accomplishment.  The sentinel asi this is a story he would tell his grandchildren and he saw no reason why the Council of Elders would not see them now.  As they walked into camp, they explained they would not have children to tell this story to, and Bayaar felt sorry for them.  As they got to the visitor’s shelter, Luminara gave the fur to the sentinel and explained to him to give it to the council and explain how they achieved such a feat.  As they stepped into the shelter, Luminara collapsed into the arms of her friends.  Luminara said she at least needed a bath before she could even begin to think of presenting herself to the Council of Elders.  The Borokii began to gather outside their shelter in awe of what they had witnessed of the off-worlders.  They wee all greeted and well taken care of that night.  Much conversation took place.  They all fell asleep to the thought that tommorrow would be the end of their mission on Ansion.  As they lay there, Obi-WAn was still in awe of the task that Luminara had accomplished and had a newfound respect for the fellow Jedi Master.  Anakin lay wishing to return to Cuipernam which would mean he was closer to getting off of Ansion…..

Well, it’s Friday and I had high hopes that I wouldn’t have school this morning.  Simply because I was so exhausted from having to work on my basement last night that I hoped that I would have the opportunity to work on the basement today and hopefully take a look at the Escort and see if I can fix the “problem”.  When I first woke up, I found out that I had a two-hour delay and the county was still under a state of emergency.  The city was a disaster for many and many folks said they did not flood in June, but flooded this time around.  It made me feel better realizing that we weren’t the only ones that went through that.  The rain last night was amazing.  We got four inches of water in a matter of one hour!  No wonder the water had nowhere to go!  Anyway, I went back to bed for another hour and got up and checked the news.  This time, I still had a two-hour delay and the kids now officially didn’t have school.  This way okay, except for the fact that the parent/teacher conferences were now cancelled for after school today, which means Tara and Austin’s conferences were cancelled.  Anyway, I got ready for work and Heather decided she would drive me in to work if we couldn’t get the Escort started this morning.  I went out to the garage having high hopes that the Escort would start now that it had a chance to dry-off.  I went to start the engine and it sounded like it was killing itself.  I didn’t tell Heather, but it sounds like it might actually be the head on the engine.  I think it’s truly dead for good this time!  So, I went to work a little depressed, but ready to go.

Because of the way our two-hour delay schedule works, every period today was 52 minutes long.  This was good in some ways and bad in others.  First, the periods I had today had plenty of time to start on their projects for the first day.  However, this also means these periods (three of my five) are now a day and a half ahead of the other classes I have.  This makes it harder later to get them caught-up on that work.  Even harder to deal with, was the fact that half my students weren’t even in school.  I’m not sure this was a good idea having school when the county is under a state of emergency and half my students weren’t in school probably because their basements are flooded and they’re “mucking out” today.  So, I started my video project with my eighth graders, podcast project with my seventh graders and I think these projects are going to be very interesting.

I came home from school and Heather had worked out how tonight was going to work.  It was going to be a rough night as a lot of the roads are closed, including parts of Interstate 81 and Interstate 88 (both due to mud and rock slides).  So we knew that getting anywhere was going to take a good half-hour longer now since all traffic was being diverted toward our street from I-88.  So, Heather and I headed to Wendy’s with the Mazda and now the Acclaim (since the Escort is down and out) and had dinner together there.  Once Heather got there, I told her that the Acclaim was leaking fuel BIG TIME!!  So, we agreed that I would go to orchestra practice tonight and then come by and pick up the Acclaim and take it home so she had a reliable car to come home in.  So, I did just that.  We also discussed that we would not use the Acclaim unless it was completely necessary and that we would have to work out using one car again for a while.  At least we can get our tax return this year and put it into a new car.  Orchestra practice went well tonight and I think I’m ready for tommorrw and tommorrow night.  I came home and worked on a new “My Space” page for TJCS which will be up by next week.  That’s right, I finally gave in and got myself a “My Space” page.  I’ll have the link up by the end of next week.

Okay, let’s talk about Chapter 16, Part 2 of “Star Wars:The Approaching Storm” by Alan Dean Foster…..

Chapter 16 (Part 2):  Barriss had a concerned look on her face but knew she needed to concentrate on the living Force around her to keep the Surepp at bay.  Anakin gathered the unconscious Luminara and they backed out the herd the same way they went in, amongst the increaslingly anxious Surepp herd.  Obi-Wan was starting to sweat under the strain but they could see the electronic fence and the now worried Borokii tribe.  As they exited the herd, Obi-Wan was accidentally bumped by a Surepp and pushed out of the herd.  As they reached the fence, Kyakhta, Bulgan, and Tooqui grabbed Luminara and gently laid her on the ground while Barriss administered her Jedi healing powers.  Suddenly Anakin was launched from the herd as hwe was still amongst the Surepp to hold them back to let the others get through.  Obi-Wan asked if anything was broken and Anakin responded saying only his dignity.  Luminara’s eyes suddenly opened and she asked Barriss to help her up.  She apologized to Bayaar and told him she lost his knife.  Obi-Wan asked Lumiara what happened.  She explained that there was never Jedi training that ever covered this, but she was jumping from Surepp back to Surepp back and was doing fine.  On her way backshe slipped on a back because the Surepps back was wet.  She fell to the ground and hit her head.  She thanked Obi-Wan for coming to save her and Obi-Wan said they had to.  Barriss commented that they still needed a way to figure out how to get the albino Surepp fur…..

Okay, so it’s Thursday and I had such high hopes for the day when the day started out and by the end of the day I was completely depressed at how things went.  I knew it would be a pretty easy set of classes today, as we went over music history and I’ve got those lessons down to a tea where I could almost do them in my sleep.  I think it’s just because I’m that into music history and enjoy it that much.  I came home at a pretty reasonable hour as I went through and got my lesson plans ready for tomorrow.  I’m excited because we start our music video and podcast projects tomorrow and I have high hopes for these classes to be able to do the videos.  While I was at work, Heather emailed me and let me know that I just got my $10 Firewire card (off of Ebay, of course) in the mail.  I’m excited because this means I can use the better digital camera for my videos at school, which will drastically help with the quality of the music videos I can produce.  So, I will have to bring that to school tomorrow and test it out.

I got home and went there right away because the school warned us that there was a “doozy” of a thunderstorm coming our way and that we should get in-doors.  Now, in the same email from Heather, she let me know that the Escort was starting to act up again.  Much like it did the last time.  I figured it was the rain in the engine again and told her to just park it in the garage till I came home and could look at it.  When I got home, it was raining cats, dogs, and I think I can redefine it as cats, dogs, and I think the Lord sent some pigs as well.  So, it was raining cats, dogs, and pigs.  I went into the garage because it was the closest dry place to my car and I wanted to check out the Escort and see how it was doing.  I turned the car over and it at least turned over, but it ran really rough.  Exactly as it did when I took it to the mechanic and we thought it was dead.  I told Heather we would leave it in the car and let it dry overnight and check it out tomorrow morning.  I came inside and tried calling Josh, but he wasn’t there, so we decided to call our Student Loans company and worked out a lower payment since my loan has come out of default now.  They worked it out and we were able to lower the payments a $100 a month so that we can live more affordably.  They were nice about the whole thing.  Shortly after, Josh called back and we worked out how we’re going to handle the weekend I’m in Rochester and of course we goofed around with each other like we always do and I let him know about Celebration IVa at my house (I’ll get into that some other time).  After I hung up the phone, I looked outside and it was still coming down like cats, dogs, and pigs and my yard was not looking good.  As a matter of fact, I swore I had an in ground pool and I’ve never owned an in ground pool.  At least not voluntarily!!  It looked bad, really bad!!  Bad enough to make this homeowner completely nervous about their home.  I went downstairs to check on the basement, but so far everything was fine.  I checked out my new firewire card and we got dinner together.  We had some Chicken Cordon Bleu as we watched the news and then began to realize that the whole Binghamton area was going through the same flood problems we went through in June.  The whole area looked like a disaster area, AGAIN!!!  After dinner I got nervous and went downstairs to check one last time, and I ran into a semi-disaster.  In my home theater room, the water was starting to come in around the doorway and was starting to spread a crossed the floor.  In particular, under the carpeting that Heather and I had put in down there.  So we quick moved furniture, the 63” LCD T.V. and other various as sundries to get to the concrete floor.  I used the shop-vac and fought the flooding while Heather moved stuff and tried to find me a flashlight.  I tried to find the source of the leak, but there was no obvious source.  I think the ground was just so saturated that the water had to go somewhere, and there was nowhere else for it to go, other than my basement.  I just find it interesting that we flooded this time, but didn’t flood in the basement in June when everybody else did.  Heather and decided to move the T.V. to a dry spot in the basement and continue to clean up and try to watch some T.V. to relax a little if we could.  Four hours later, the clean-up was finished.  Well, it was kind of finished.  We put the carpet (which was soaked) on the front porch for now and spread it out to avoid getting any mold on the carpet.  It was a really long night and Broome County is now in a state of emergency.  Heather’s convinced that I won’t have school tomorrow, but I’m not so convinced.  I don’t think a state of emergency will stop my district from having school if they want to.

Okay, let’s talk about the first part of Chapter 16 of Alan Dean Foster’s “Star Wars:The Approaching Storm”…..

Chapter 16 (Part 1):  Everyone clammered and stared in awe, even the Padawans, at what Luminara was attempting.  She didn’t head through the heard but seemed to simply float over it.  In reality she was jumping from back to back, but was so quick about it that a Surrep would wake-up, look up and see nothing.  the Jedi looked on with microbinoculars when the sentinel slid over next to Obi-Wan says she’s moving so fast that he can barely keep her in focus.  Then Obi-Wan shouted out that she’s got it!  Bayaar was shocked that it happened so soon, even though minutes seemed like hours at this point.  Then there was a distrubance in the herd and Bayaar said she has slipped and fallen.  Obi-Wan told his padawans that they were going in, and that they had to concentrate really hard on using The Force.  The three Jedi walked among the Surepps hand in hand and used their collective power in The Force to keep the Surreps from trampling them.  Obi-Wan noted that as they walked, Anakins control over The Force actually began to grow.  They found Luminara on the ground with a shallow gap on her head with blood flowing out……

Well, it’s Wednesday and things seem to be going well for my classes.  Today was a good day to try and have some classes catch-up while other classes continued on with the work I had from them yesterday (this always happens when I have half-days, half my classes are a day behind until the next half day rolls around and then I get a day to catch them up).  Anyway, I got in early and opened some emails and found out that I had a staff meeting today, which I totally forgot about.  So, I emailed Jim, the director of SMASH to let him know that I would be late to rehearsal.  We were warned that the meeting may take longer than usual.  That was okay with me, but today was going to be a rough day as it was.  Now, I would have to go from finishing school, to a faculty meeting, to SMASH rehearsal, to a Girl Scout Bridging Ceremony (it’s Ruth’s moving-up night), and then finally home.  It was going to be a long night without the ability to eat any food for dinner till late.  To make matters worse, my wife only packed two slices of pizza and a few cookies for lunch and dinner.  Yeah, that just wasn’t going to cut it for me.  But, what can I do?  I’m not allowed to carry money in my house!

Anyway, I got done teaching and had some prep time and headed down to the office to get my mail.  While I was there, I got my “Christmas Bonus” (or at least what I like to call it).  Every teacher received a glass mug with the Binghamton City School District logo on it.  Too small for a beer glass, and too large for a shot glass.  Need I say more?   Anyway, went to my faculty meeting and probably got myself into trouble because it was about a program that I already know how to use, so I went into Microsoft Word and worked on catching-up on my blog.  As a matter of fact, I should be completely caught-up on my blog as of tomorrow.  I know what you’re all saying, “yah!!”.  Yeah, I’m saying it too!  Anyway, I don’t use the program at the workshop because I used it for a while (it’s a web-based gradebook) but then it crashed twice in a matter of three weeks (on the BOCES end of things, so I don’t blame my district), but then I decided to swear off the program and go back to using Microsoft Excel.  Since then, I have not had any problems with my gradebook and I don’t see myself changing that concept anytime soon.  Anyway, got done with the meeting and boogied out of school to get to Roosevelt.

Got to SMASH rehearsal and got a chance to work with our other trumpet player, who needed some help.  I think we got him underway to get him ready for our concert at First Night (the show that’s put on downtown for New Year’s Eve, which SMASH is the headliners for now).  After that we worked on another tune and got the placement changes underway for equipment and worked the song out overall.  It was a productive rehearsal and we got a lot done.  Jim and I talked in the parking lot for a little bit, like we always do and then I headed out for Ruth’s elementary school.

I got there and didn’t see my wife, so I thought I was in the wrong building, till Austin yelled “daddy”.  I didn’t see them in the crowd, so I guess sometimes it’s nice to have a loud mouthed son.  We watched Ruth go through her bridging ceremony and I began to realize that my little girl ain’t so little anymore.  I’m now convinced that Scouts comes up with these ceremonies (Bridging, Blue and Gold Dinners, etc.) to remind you that your son or daughter is growing up and that you, as a parent, need to be proud of who or what they are becoming.  We got done with the ceremony and while we had some cake and soda, Heather called our local Chinese food place and ordered so we could pick it up on the way home.  We went and picked up our food, went home and got the kids to bed right away.  Heather and I went downstairs to watch our usuals on T.V. (“Jericho”, “Criminal Minds”, and “CSI:NY”).  As we did this, I worked on trying to find a Staedtler pen for my capsules for my Jedi costume and have come to realize that I don’t think they sell that style of pen anymore.  Bummer, I really want to get those capsules before I have to go up to Syracuse on Thanksgiving weekend.  All well.  I also got a phone message from Josh about Christmas that I haven’t been able to return yet.  Maybe I’ll email him tomorrow.

I haven’t had the guts to tell Josh that the weekend I’m coming up for Tuba Christmas may not work out because there is no one to watch the kids on Saturday night.  My parents have a party to go to (and I’m not going to affect their life to try and make mine better) and I get the impression that my brother and his wife don’t want to watch the kids and Josh is having an “adult” party at his house and I have nowhere to put the kids.  So the whole thing may just not work out at all.  I’ll have to talk to him and see what happens.

Okay, I lied, I was able to get a picture of the cute puppies from my co-worker.  I know she’s been waiting for it, so here it is:

The one on the left is named “Honey” and the one on the right is named “Jammer”.  Now tell me they aren’t cute!! 

Okay, so let’s talk about Part 8 of Chapter 15 of “Star Wars:The Approaching Storm” by Alan Dean Foster…..

Chapter 15 (Part 8):  The Jedi sat down and discussed solutions, including trying to find a way around the expectations, with no solutions.  Bayaar walked them to the corral that evening where they were joined by an uneasy sentinel.  The sentinel almost hoped they would give up instead of risking their lives.  The Surreps began to settle down for the evening.  A crowd had gathered and bets were being placed on the offworlder’s chances.  Luminara stripped down to her Jedi undergarments and Obi-Wan and Barriss began their objections.  Luminara asked Anakin what he thought of her idea and Anakin said it just simply sounds like a crazy idea.  But Anakin pointed out that many considered him crazy when he podraced.  Luminara asked Anakin if he had a better idea and he said he did not.  Obi-Wan asks if she’s sure she can do it and Luminara says she’s not sure, but this is the only way.  Obi-Wan tells her that here death may not convince the Borokii of their sincerity.  She tells him that The Force will be with him always.  He gave her a hug and she gave Barriss a reassuring look.  The electrified fence was shut-off and Luminara jumped on the back of the closest Surepp.

What a day!  It was a half-day for students, but a full day for teachers.  I taught three classes this morning and then had the second half of the day to do some planning with other teachers in my area.  I also helped the band teacher put together a stand cart.  I had a colleague who just got some brand new puppies this summer and I got to see them for the second time today and I must say they are just absolutely cute!!  They’re names are “Honey” and “Jammer” and they are the cutest and most active puppies you’ll ever meet.  I wish I could take a pic of them and put them on my blog because I know you’d all agree with me.

I got home today and had some time to myself so I continued reading “Star Wars on Trial” and have gotten quite involved in the book.  I have to say it is really playing to my philosophical side and I can’t wait to talk to Nathan about how Star Wars will go down in history because I think this book will be a great jumping off point for both of us.  After reading for a while and “accidentally” taking a nap, my wife ate dinner with us and then headed off to work.  I went downstairs and did some work on my computer and check on email and what-not and found out that “Star Wars and Beyond” was going to end at the end of this year.  This is devastating news to me, but I can understand why Robbie felt the need to end his show.  It’s a lot of work to keep a podcast going.  I would be curious as to why he decided to end his show, but I don’t want to press the point with him.

Okay, let’s talk about Part 7 of Chapter 15 of “Star Wars:The Approaching Storm” by Alan Dean Foster…..

Chapter 15 (Part 7):  Anakin asked what the Borokii do with the Surreps at night.  Bayaar says they are coralled and brought together.  When Luminara asks how close, Bayaar says VERY close, and explains that they fall asleep standing up.  Luminara noted that it would be easier to find a white Surrep when they are all together than wen they are spread out.  She asks if they are accepting of other creatures being amongst them.  Bayaar says that Surepps are nervous creatures and can easily be spooked and they can turn on you quickly.  Obi-Wan asked if the white Surepps have a tendency to flock to any point in the herd and Bayaar said they flock oto the middle of the herd to try and hide.  Barriss looked at the herd and began to think to herself that the task at hand seemed suddenly impossible.  They were all stumped about how they were going to complete the task.  Obi-Wan suggested they come back tonigh and Luminara pointed out that they need a Borokii knife anyway, sine they can’t use any technology…..

Okay, it’s Monday and I’m really starting to get caught up on things and feel as though my life is starting to come back in to order.  At least in a way it is.  I pretty much had my stuff together to start new classes today.  My students seem pretty well behaved, but it’s hard to say as the first day is always the “grace period” as I like to refer to it.  We’ll have to see what they are like over the next few weeks as that is a sign as to how they will really do.  I almost hate this part of the quarter because I know I’m sizing up my students and my students are sizing me up.  It is kind of odd and we all seem to be just in a weird state of affairs.  But, hey, we all seem to get by when it matters most.  I got done with classes today and went home as soon as I could so I could help my wife and my son baking cookies for Boy Scouts tonight.  It was part of an assignment and we had a whole bunch of fun doing this with him.

I do have good news, though.  It seems as though our problems between Citi Financial and Mark’s Auto have been solved.  I say that because we called Mark’s Auto today to make sure they got their payment from Citi and they said they already received it from them.  Then when we got the mail this evening, we had a statement from Citi and our first payment is due on Thanksgiving.  I guess we need to give thanks that we got a car.

We got to Scouts tonight and the kids practiced their honor guard duties for the next pack meeting next week.  They look pretty sharp for a unit of Bears and seem to really understand their role within the honor guard.  We came back to our room, shared some cookies and stories about baking and then made a “home-made” version of gorp or trail mix.  It was cheap and it had corn-flakes, raisins, and peanuts in it.  It was a cool recipe and I liked the idea of putting it together at home.   We may try it as a family sometime later.  Then the boys talked about emergency procedures and then we got packed up and went home.

We came home and Austin was all hopped up on sugar because they all ate cookies all meeting long, so trying to get him to bed was interesting to say the least.  After eight o’clock, Heather and I went downstairs and watched our usual gambit of shows (“The Class”, “How I Met Your Mother”, “Two and a Half Men”, “The New Adventures of Old Christine”, and “CSI:Miami”) and of course I taped “Heroes” to catch-up on later this week (hopefully tomorrow).  We went to bed and fell asleep as soon as we hit the pillow.

Okay, let’s talk about Part 6 of Chapter 15 of “Star Wars:The Approaching Storm” by Alan Dean Foster…..

Chapter 15 (Part 6):  Anakin was shocked that this is all they were lookingfor and asked where they could purchase such an item.  Bayaar said that it cannot be bought and must be shorn from the animal like Ansionian tradition.  No technology allowed.  Tooqui commented that he wasn’t keen on this notion.  Barriss agrees and tells Anakin that she thinks this just seems too easy.  Obi-Wan asked if the hair could come from the local herd and Bayaar said that was acceptable.  Obi-Wan then asked Bayaar to escort them to their local herd while there was still daylight to work with.  As they strolled through town, Bayaar was a gracious host pointing out the sights and sounds of camp.  It wasn’t long before they were in front of the Surepp herd.  As they stared at the herd, the only noticable colors were blue and green.  There was not a white Surepp to be found!  Obi-Wan asked how they are to get wool from an animal tht isn’t there, and Bayaar replied saying there are several albino Surrep’s in their herd.  When Luminara asked how many, he retorted saying “two”.  This only confirmed what Barriss thought about this being too easy.  Anakin said this task was impossible withou some use of technology…..

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!!  Which is the day of a baptism, baptism, baptism!!  We got up fairly early this morning (around 7 a.m.) and got the kids and ourselves ready to go to Brockport Presbyterian for the baptism of Robbie Crissman (yeah, that’s right, he’s named after me, poor fool!!).  We got there and found Katie in the choir singing with the other kids in the children’s chorus and there was my nephew, Robbie.  He is so cute and definetly does NOT live up to his namesake.  Now, to explain what I’m really saying, I was a devil child from the instant I was born.  I didn’t stop crying for at least a year (at least according to my parents and my brother).  Even then I was still a devil child getting into trouble at home all the time and being a holy terror to my parents.  The only place I didn’t get into trouble was in school (ironic, ain’t it?!!).  Anyway, that is not how Robbie is at all.  He is a very subdued, happy little boy.  You can even see him sizing people up and laughing at them and just being a light-hearted kid all around.  At the time of the Baptism, Heather and I were called up as well as my brother and his wife as we are officially acting as “god-parents” to Robbie.  That’s right, now I’m officially responsible for kids other than my own, scary ain’t it?  Anyway, we had the baptism, with little reaction to the water at all, and Robbie was a complete saint.

After the Baptism, we went over to my brother’s house and had a little celebration.  There was pizza, wings, and cake.  It was a great time and we got a chance to spend time with all of the family, including the Lesko’s.  It was nice to see the two families together again and was just a blast all around.  Even the older kids had a blast.  They went downstairs and goofed around most of the time while the adults stayed upstairs and had “adult” conversation (no adult conversation is ever actually adult.  Let’s face it, we’re all still kids at heart).  My parents left fairly early as they had a dinner to get to at their church that they were in charge of.  We left around 3 p.m. and headed for my parents’ house to get our dog, Clifford.  We picked him up and got on the road around 3:30 p.m.  We had to stop on the Thruway twice.  Once because Tara had to use the potty, and Clifford was acting like he had to go (and I’m not about to let a dog pee in my new car!); another because we heard what sounded like a rock hit the car (sounded like the windshield) and we stopped to see the damage.  Luckily there was nothing to even note.  Whew, the last thing I wanted was damage to our new car.  We ate dinner at the McDonald’s in Lafayette and got home around 8 p.m. (Just in time for “The Amazing Race”).  We unpacked and watched our usual shows and then went to bed REALLY exhausted from the weekend.  Man, I almost need a vacation from my weekends because they’re just that packed full of stuff to do!!

Time to talk about Chapter 15, Part 5 of “Star Wars:The Approaching Storm” by Alan Dean Foster…..

Chapter 15 (Part 5):  As they dismounted one of Bayaar’s guards escorted their steeds away and Anakin became worried about their supplies, and Bayaar told them they would not be touched.  He told the Jedi that they would be made comfortable while he talked to the Council of Elders about their request.  Luminara turned to what looked like a sympathetic guard and asked if he thought they would receive council and he said he wasn’t sure because he was only a guard, and left them behind.  Over the next several hours they experienced that best of Ansion food, drink, and pleasures.  They enjoyed themselves and felt safer here than they did with the Yiwa and Qulun clans from before.  Bayaar came back that evening and informed them that the council would greet them all.  Barriss became excited adn said they are all taken care of then, but Bayaar warned that greeting was exactly as it sounded, as if it would be rude to not at least greet any guests they may have.  Obi-Wan asked if this meant they would not listen to their proposal.  Bayaar responded saying that tradition is to make an offering to the council that fits their needs.  The council asks for them to hand the council a handful of wool taken from a white male Surepp…..

There is only one word that could describe today – DRIVING!!!!  That’s pretty much all that we did most of the day long.  We got up a little later this morning than we intended but managed to get out of the house on time anyway.  We managed to get out of the house by 9 a.m. and made several stops before we got on the road, including Dunkin Donuts and the bank to make sure we were all set.  We got on the road and Heather and I both struggled to stay awake all the way to Rochester.  I got to bed at one this morning and she didn’t get to bed until two-thirty this morning, so we were both exhausted.  We got to my parents’ house and the kids were excited (of course, they could finally get out of the car.  It’s a nice car, but any ride three hours long with three kids is long!).  We got to mom and dad’s by noon.  When we got there, the kids and I all ate some lunch at mom and dad’s while Heather had decided to head back to our bedroom and go to sleep.  I spent some time with my parents and Heather ended up sleeping for three and a half hours.  When she got up, we ate dinner together as a family.  Not too long after dinner, the kids went to bed and my parents, Heather, and myself stayed up and watched “Pirates of the Carribean” which I brought along for my parents to see for the first time.  As soon as the movie was over, we all went to bed.  It was a long day and tomorrow is going to be a longer day, so time to get some rest.

Let’s talk about Chapter 15, Part 4 of “Star Wars:The Approaching Storm” by Alan Dean Foster…..

Chapter 15 (Part 4):  The leader came forward and introduced himself as Bayaar of the Situng Borokii.  As Obi-Wan explained what they wanted, the guards kept watching them from all angles.  He was told they could not make decisions of this as they were all only sentinels, and said he understood their position.  Bayaar invited them into camp and they headed that way as the guards took up flanking positions.  This camp was different as there were residential, commercial, and manufacturing portions of the camp with technology on high display.  Luminara eyed Obi-Wan as they were brought just outside the visitor’s quarters, because of their last experience with visitor’s quarters.  Kyakhta tried to put their mind at ease as the Borokii would not deceive them like the Yiwa or Qulun and that is what makes them an overclan…..

It’s Friday and I’m totally relaxing today!!  I got up and decided I’m doing minimal work and I’m going to go downstairs and “veg” in my chair.  I haven’t done that in so long that I’ve almost forgotten how to do that.  Well, I vegged in my chair, sort of.  I needed to get my grading done before Monday at noon so they can close the gradebooks out for next week.  No problem.  So, I finished grading the last of my finals and then calculated averages with extra credit.  Then I went online and filled the grades in manually.  It took all of an hour (I did it while I was watching Dr. Phil).  I then took a short nap and went outside and helped the kids with raking leaves after Heather left for work.  Our leaf raking around the house really hasn’t happened a lot and I need to fix that before the first snowfall, but I don’t know how I’m supposed to when I don’t get my weekends to do such things.  Heck, I’m worried about the next TJCS episode only because I don’t see a free weekend to be doing any recording between now and the release date.  This could spell trouble, but I’ll keep you all posted.  Anyway, I came inside to take a break from leaf raking (the kids continued working) when Heather showed up at home and came running downstairs because she was all excited because she got out of work early.  The thing is, her excitement scared the every living bejesus out of me and she had to peel me off the ceiling and grab my heart which jumped all the way to PA.  We then all ate lunch and then headed to PA to get gas for our trip tomorrow.  Heather still has to do her late shift tonight so she went upstairs for a nap while I continued to veggitate and watch T.V. shows.  I was starting to get excited about all six star wars movies being in a row on Cinemax, but knew I would not be able to watch it this weekend because of the Baptism.  So, what do we do in the Crissman house when we’re disappointed?  We create our own situation.  I decided around 6 p.m. tonight (after dinner) to start watching “Star Wars:  The Phantom Menace”.  Of course, as soon as I began, my kids came running downstairs to join us.  Well, after I watched that, I figured what the hell, might as well watch “Star Wars:  Attack of the Clones”.  Well, if you’re going to watch “Attack of the Clones”, might as well watch “Star Wars:  Revenge of the Sith” (of course I sent the kids to bed before I started this one as it was 11 p.m. by the time I started).  When  it was all said and done, I didn’t get to bed until 1 a.m. on Saturday morning, but I definetly got my fill of Star Wars for the weekend.  At least considering that I wasn’t able to be home to watch the sextology on Cinemax.

So, let’s talk about Part 3 of Chapter 15 of Alan Dean Foster’s “Star Wars:The Approaching Storm”…..

Chapter 15 (Part 3):  Kyakhta’s mount came back to join the group and he told them all that he had found them.  Luminara asked if he was sure it was the Borokii and he said without a doubt.  As they broke the ridge, they saw hundreds of make-shift shelters.  Thousands of Borokii milled about camp and they could see thousands of hard animals just ouside of camp.  Bulgan explained that the herd animals were called Surepp and that the males were blue and the females were green.  Bulgan explained that the Surepp have three eyes; top to see flying prey, middle to watch other Surepp, and bottom to watch the ground.  He says that because of their numbers the are rarely hunted by other animals like Shanhs.  He says they’re good for meat, milk, hides, and wool.  Kyakhta pointed out that riders were approaching.  Six riders approached as six was a significant number for the Ansionians.  They were clad with light armor, standards, long knives, and Malarian laser pistols…..