The Jedi Council

Thursday.  Although I didn’t have help getting the kids ready for school this morning, it wasn’t a bad morning altogether.  The kids got themselves together and I have to say they have really gotten back into the swing of things at the house.  I think it’s simply because they had a little bit of a break from school.  They got themselves together in record time and found out that if they do so, I’ll let them watch the “Today” show with me for a little bit, which I believe was a motivational tool for them.  We headed off to work and school and Heather even seemed to be in a pretty good mood this morning.  It’s nice when everything starts to run smoothly.
I got to school and set things up for my first day of music history.  I really do like teaching music history and I think my kids enjoy learning about it because of my interest in teaching it.  Today went pretty well in my classroom and students asked about what we would be doing tomorrow.  I explained to them about the music video and music podcasting projects and explained to them that tomorrow we would do research and they would learn more about it then.  Overall, a good day of teaching/learning.  I was happy and I think they were too.
I got home and spent some time helping my kids with homework.  I helped Heather get dinner together and we all ate dinner together.  We then ate dinner as a family.  After dinner I went downstairs and continued to do some recording and editing for the podcast.  I told Heather that I was determined to get this one out on time considering that I have an interview with Chris Macht on it!  I spent the rest of the night in the basement working on both my podcast and my blog.  I still am behind on the blog and have made it my mission to get it caught back up.  I didn’t really watch any T.V. and just worked on Star Wars stuff.  I got done around midnight and went upstairs and joined Heather, who was already asleep.
Okay, so let’s talk about Part 1 of Chapter 23 of “Star Wars:  Outbound Flight” by Timothy Zahn…..

Chapter 23 (Part 1):  Three hours after the battle had ended and Car’das’ sheer boredom had kicked in, he heard a tapping on the hull side of his bubble.  As the door was propped open, the vacuum of space rushed in, and shoved hi out inot the corridor.  Suddenly he was shoved back into the bubble and an oxygen mask was pushed into his face.  Thrawn asked him if he was okay and Car’das said he was and then he asked Thrawn if the plan worked, and Thrawn said that it did.  Doriana was surprised that Car’das was on this Vagaari ship and asked what he was doing there and Thrawn said he was luring them into Thrawn’s attack as the Chiss do not engage in pre-emptive attacks.  So Doriana then put together the concpet that the story of Car’das being a spy was a cover-up and Thrawn went on to explain that it was to protect Admiral Ar’alani, who was now taking the Geroons back ot their homeworld.  Car’das asked what happened to Outbound Flight as he saw the droid starfighters go after it.  Thrawn said they had to go farther then he had hoped to and Car’das asked how far and Thrawn said they’re all dead.  Doriana explained there was no other choice as C’Baoth was Force Choking Thrawn.  Car’das asked if Thrawn offered for them to just leave and Doriana said he offered more than once and said if it makes Car’das feel better, he pushed the button that destroyed Outbound Flight.  Car’das asked if they were sure there were no survivors and Doriana said they used radiation bombs, so it was unlikely, but they haven’t physically been onboard yet.  Car’das said the Neimoidians must be happy as they got what they wanted and Doriana said he was content…..

Wednesday.  And it was going to be another hectic one at that.  Heather and I are trying to figure out how all of a sudden everyone decided to put everything going on for the week on one night.  But hey, we really don’t have much control over that.  I got up and got the kids going for the day and reminded Ruth about having her instrument for band as her concert was coming up soon and it was important for her to have her things with her.  Heather had her first Wednesday off for the first time in a long time.  She has plans to do Jackets for the seamstress she works for.  So, I had some help this morning getting the kids ready for school and it was a welcome help that I don’t get too often.  It was a nice change.
I got to school today and got things ready for my first day of instruction on keyboards and recorder.  Of course, it was interesting.  Most of my kids gripped and complained about having to work again.  I sometimes get the impression that in other classes that if they don’t want to work, they simply put down their pen or pencil and don’t do it.  I tell my students that they need to follow the Yoda rule, “Do or do not, there is no try”.  Then I tell them that they need to try their best and if they do that then they will be surprised at what they can succeed at.  It works for some kids and others just think I’m trying to be corny, which I’m really not.  I’m just trying to be supportive.  My day went as I expected, and when the day ended I had a bunch of work to get done.  Once the last bell rang, I hung around and graded papers before SMASH rehearsal.  The first few workbook pages are looking pretty good from these classes, so I’m looking forward to grading more papers as I think they will all do their best in my class.  We’ll have to see what they look like two weeks from now when we’re close to Christmas break.
After I got done grading, I headed off to SMASH and the director told me and the kids that we are going to be doing a tour of the elementary schools again this year.  I just hope we get better crowds than last year.  Last year we would have concerts and we would be lucky if we attracted thirty people.  Some of that I blame on the PTSA’s for not advertising very well and other times it just seemed to be bad timing.  Let’s hope we get it right this time around.  We’re talking about doing it on Friday nights between February and March.  We’ll have to see.  But, with that in mind, it appears the students seem motivated again to work on projects and get ready for something.  I really do think it matters when you have a goal in mind.  I got done with SMASH and raced home and met Heather in time to ride with her to take the girls to Girl Scouts.  On our way home, we stopped at Arby’s and got some dinner.  We ate dinner at home and then went out and picked the girls back up by eight o’clock and came home.  The kids went to bed and Heather and I crashed in the basement watching our usual T.V. shows.
Okay, time to talk about Part 13 of Chapter 22 of “Star Wars:  Outbound Flight” by Timothy Zahn…..

Chapter 22 (Part 13):  The vibrations from the attacked Dreadnaughts stipend and Pressor wondered if the battle was over.  Lorana reached out with The Force and sensed nothing from above and said it was definetly over.  Jorad Pressor asked if they cold go back up and Lorana suggested they wait for a little bit as there was probably a massive amount of clean up going on.  the one elderly male suggested they go back to the Jedi school and Uliar siad they’d probably be locked in, but Lorana insisted they would not and even offered to use some debris to prop the door open.  As they walked back, Uliar asked Lorana what the real damage was and Lorana said she didn’t sense any life uptop.  He asked if she could be wrong, but she doubted it.  Uliar said there may be soem survivors she can’t sense and Jinzler agreed, but said that since the turbolift cars won’t come, there is a rift in the space vacuum somewhere.  She said they’ll hae to wait till the droids finish he repairs and Uliar said that could take several hours.

It was Tuesday and it was back to the grind.  I got up my usual time this morning and got the kids clothed, fed, and ready to go for the day.  It’s gonna be weird having a full week of school after not having one for the last few weeks, but I look forward to the challenge.  Luckily the kids were ready to go this morning and I agree with Heather’s decision to put them to bed early last night and have them get everything together last night.  Too bad we don’t have enough time to do that every night.
I got to school this morning and got everything prepped for the day.  We worked hard in our workbooks, but the one class that has been misbehaving just took a turn for the worse today.  I had to actually remove a student from class today and I threatened to remove another.  I think we’ve just taken a step from bad into obnoxious by talking about inappropriate topics in class and they don’t seem to care that I’m standing right there.  One of the students even told me that I need to “ligthen up” because they talk about these topics all the time on the street and this school is full of “tie wearing stiff shirted adults”.  Interesting they look at us this way and it concerns me more about what those students are going to be like in the workplace.  I try to guide them to behave appropriately, but this discussion today just confirmed to me that we don’t get any backing outside the school to reinforce appropriate behavior.  Anyway, it was a little bit of a rough day, but I made it through.
I got home and told Heather I needed to lock myself in the basement and do some more recording for my podcast, so while she made dinner she was nice enough to take care of the kids so I could record for my podcast.  I got quite a bit done, probably about an hour’s worth of podcast recording done before the night was over.  While I did that, the kids worked on homework and Heather cooked.  We came together and ate dinner and the kids cleaned up while Heather and I retreated to the basement.  She continued sewing while I worked on editing more of my podcast.  When the kids finished, they put lunches together and got ready for bed while Heather and I watched our usual Tuesday night T.V. shows.
Okay, it’s time to talk about Part 12 of Chapter 22 of “Star Wars:  Outbound Flight” by Timothy Zahn…..

Chapter 22 (Part 12):  C’Baoth had not noted the continued affect of the wave after wave of droid starfighters.  He stayed concentrated on the bridge of “The Sprinhawk” and Thrawn was still dying.  Doriana came to the conclusion that C’Baoth was hidden away in Outbound Flight if this attack wasn’t affecting him.  Then an odd formation caught his eyes using those droid starfighters that had the strange cylinders connected to them.  There were ten pair of them heading at Outbound Flight at full speed.  The droid starfighters each punched their way inside the Dreadnaughts using the holes that were punched through the hulls.  Then a bright blue burst blew out from the windows of Outbound Flight.  Suddenly, Thrawn let out a gasp of air and fell forward onto the deck of the ship.  Thrawn managed to let them know he was okay and Doriana said he thinks they killed C’Baoth, but Thrawn corrected him saying they killed all of them.  Doriana said that was impossible, but Thrawn explained tha they were a dangerous weapon that once inside a ship’s hull explode into a wave of radiation.  Doriana grimaced and Thrawn then explained that they were intended for use against the Vagaari ships not Outbound Flight.  Doriana said he understood, but Thrawn broke in again saying they would have to fight the Vagaari on thier ships in hand to hand combat.  He also pointed out that some warships and civilian ships have escaped which will give the Vagaari the chance to escape and attack this part of space again.  Doriana apologized again, and Thrawn said he just wished he had better control over this battle.  Kav asked what happens now and Thrawn said they board the Vagaari ships and liberate the Geroons from their bubbles.  Doriana nodded and thought to himself that everyone on Outbound Flight had to have died.  Then he remembered what Kav had said earlier about Thrawn.  Kav insisted Thrawn would have to die.  Doriana asked if he could observe the Chiss warriors in action and Thrawn agreed to the idea and told Doriana he will find it informative…..

Monday.  I’m exhausted from last week and the weekend.  I’ll be honest, this wasn’t much of a vacation for me.  To make matters worse, I spent almost all of my weekend in a car and I am just not a fan of the idea of being couped up in a car all day long like that, but it happened three times this weekend which made me hate driving even more.  It was a little awkward to get up without he kids this morning.  Heather and I both got up at my usual time this morning and she decided to cook me breakfast which was a nice touch.  I had some eggs and grits before heading off to work and I have to say it was nice and relaxing having just her and I in the house together.  I guess this is what my life will be like twenty years from now when (hopefully) all of the kids have moved out of the house.  After my nice relaxing morning, I headed off to work.  I felt bad for Heather because she had to get in the car again and head off to Rochester.
Work went okay this morning.  My students were definetly NOT awake this morning and I think they were just wiped out as much as I was.  But, I summoned on my powers of energy and really tried to relay that to my students.  Today was also the first day that I played Tuba with the band during lunch.  I’ve come to the conclusion that I’ll have to be in the auditorium for the next three weeks to get ready for the concert during my free time.  It’s hard to believe that the concert has snuck up on us that fast!  I continued to bring equipment in the auditorium today for the sound system and I told Rob that I would have all the equipment set up by the end of this week barring any major problems.
After a long day at work, I got home to an empty house.  I half expected it, and I have to say it was odd to have such an empty house yet again.  But, after an hour, my kids came home and took care of all of that.  They were so excited about being at grammy and papas on their own and I got the lowdown on everything they did while they were up there.  Once Heather got home we started dinner and all ate dinner together.  We decided not to take Austin to Boy Scouts tonight so that we could give him a chance to get to bed early as they all seemed tired after coming home, which I could understand.  Tomorrow would be a long day for them and Heather as they would all get back to their routines again.
Okay, let’s talk about Part 11 of Chapter 22 of “Star Wars:  Outbound Flight” by Timothy Zahn…..

Chapter 22 (Part 11):  As the droid starfighters contineud to push their attack on the Vagaari, they suddenly stopped  their attack and moved out.  Car’das used his microbinoculars and noted that the surviving Vagaari ships were making their way to the edge of the grav projector field.  Car’das wondered if the droid starfighters ran out of fuel, but then he realized they were all running away from the Vagaari and toward Outbound Flight.  Not only were the droid starfighters attacking the Dreadnaughts with lasers and torpedoes, but they were slamming into the hull of the ships at full speed as well.  That’s when Car’das realized that the starfighters were not trying to get through the hull of the ship, but to make dents where the interior blast doors were.  With the doors warped close, the other starfighters could open the Dreadnaughts to space and there would be no way to repressurize the ship…..

Again, not much to talk about today.  Heather and I got up fairly late this morning and didn’t check out of the hotel until about noon.  We left and decided we would make a casual drive back up to New York.  Somehow, we missed a turn-off to go back to New York through Pennsylvannia, so we decided just to hit 17 and take that up through the Livingston Manner area.  We enjoyed a nice drive up through the country side, but were trying everything we could to keep each other awake.  We decided to stop just outside Poughkipsee (I don’t think that’s how you spell that) and got some lunch and stopped at a local Wal Mart.  We got some Christmas CD’s including the soundtrack to “Elf” and Harry Connick Jr.’s latest Christmas album with the song “The Happy Elf”, which I love!  Anyway, I also managed to find two Star Wars figures I couldn’t find anywhere around Binghamton and picked those up.  I know it’s a risk as my mom may get them for me for Christmas, but if she does, I’ll just return them and get ones I don’t already have.  We got back on the road and listened to Christmas tunes the rest of the way home.
We got home around four o’clock or so and decided to just go right out and get some dinner, so we went and got some Taco Bell (I was in the mood) and came home and relaxed and ate dinner.  We unpacked a little and went to bed.  Heather wasn’t looking forward to tomorrow as she was going to be driving to Rochester and back while I was at work, and like me, she was sick of being in the car all weekend long!
Okay, let’s talk about Part 10 of Chapter 22 of “Star Wars:  Outbound Flight” by Timothy Zahn…..

Chapter 22 (Part 10):  The bridge crew pushed past Doriana and tried to get Thrawn away from the still ongoing attack, but to no avail.  Doriana wondered if C’Baoth may have been weakened by the Chiss attack, but he didn’t appear to be.  He wondered if he turned off the display if it would end the attack, but he didn’t know which switch.  Then Doriana found the red switch on Thrawn’s control board.  He flipped up the cover and pushed the button……

Okay, I can’t talk too much about today as again, I have had people ask me not to mention them on my blog.  So, let me try to sum up the day in just a few sentences.  We headed to New Jersey for a wedding of one of Heather’s cousins.  We stopped in Binghamton on the way and dropped off a bunch of things my parents gave us for Christmas and to unload part of the car.  We then continued on our travels and visited a relative down there.  We went to the wedding and it was beautiful.  We then tried to find out hotel in Jersey and got lost.  Jersey sucks!  We found out hotel, got in late, went to the reception and ended up getting there late, but had a good time at the reception party and had way too much fun with a chocolate fountain.  We went to bed really late and were extremely exhausted!
Okay, that’s all I can say about today.  Oh, and I am still sick, but feeling a little better today.  Time to talk about Part 9 of Chapter 22 of “Star Wars:  Outbound Flight” by Timothy Zahn…..(and if you want to find out more about today, email me)

Chapter 22 (Part 9):  Lorana was heading down in the turbolift car when she felt a disturbance in The Force and realized what Master C’Baoth was doing.  As the turbolift moved down, she screamed “No!” at the ceiling as Lorana realized that in a vengeful rage, Master C’Baoth was suddenly turning to the Dark Side.  Lorana had never known a Jedi who had fallen, but now she has and suddenlty with the pain came a feeling of guilt.  She wondered if she could have prevented this as his padawan.  Should she have forced him to see what he was doing?  But now, it was too late.  then she convinced herself it won’t, and concentrated using The Force focused at D-1 and told C’Baoth he doesn’t have to kill someone.  But no response and it seemed as C’Baoth was convinced to continue.  the turbolift got to the bottom and Lorana knew it was too lat for C’Baoth but not for the trapped crewers.  She made her way tot the storage core and was going to do what she could…..

Black Friday.  The day that all the people in this country go out and try to find the best deals in shopping for the Christmas Holiday season.  I like to go out today for two reasons.  First, I do manage to find some great deals on Black Friday not only for my shopping, but also because I like to observe people during this day.  I’m always amazed at how people act and how people behave in public when they’re forced into stressful situations.  My wife and I occasionally fit into that situation as well.  This year was much easier to shop in Rochester, as Webster has a new shopping plaza that has a lot of stores Heather and I like, so we didn’t have to go far to shop.  We went to the Webster Plaza at six’thirty this morning to shop at Kohl’s.  We found some good deals there on linens for our bed and some other random things we needed.  I also managed to find some hard to find Star Wars figures at Kohl’s.  That’s right I found Star Wars figures at Kohl’s!  I know, it blew me away too!  Anyway, we stood in line for about twenty minutes, which considering how long the line was (it wrapped all the way around the store), it wasn’t long at all.  But, I was not feeling well today (fever continuing from yesterday), so that twenty minutes seemed like an eternity.  We got done at Kohl’s and my wife thought we should head over to JoAnn Fabrics.
Now, I’m all for my wife being into sewing and going into a JoAnn Fabrics.  However, on Black Friday, it was a madhouse!!!  All their fabric was fifty percent off and then there were coupons that would take even more money off.  Heather has been planning to make new costumes for our church for their Christmas pageant, so she figured we could get some material at a really good price here.  Basically all we had to do was give up some time.  Well, she was in there for almost two hours.  Not actually shopping, but waiting for her fabric to get cut.  While she waited, I told her I was still not feeling too well with hot/cold flashes, but that I would run around the corner to McDonald’s and get us some breakfast.  I managed to do that and took the kids out to the car and we ate breakfast in the car just to give Heather a break from the kids.  We finally got out of there and were on our way to Eastview Mall and it was only ten in the morning, and it seemed like it should be in the middle of the afternoon.
We had a good shopping experience in the mall.  We found quite a few things between the mall and the Circuit City and Borders Bookstore acrossed the street.  Heather and I even managed to find some things for ourselves at a fairly cheap price.  I found an MP3 Player at Circuit City for $35 and it has 2 GB of memory and it’s a name brand unlike the cheapo one I had from before.  Heather found some things she was looking for and we even got the kids some things at a reasonable price, like tights for the girls.  We got all of our shopping done by about one o’clock and headed to mom and dad’s house for lunch.  They were gone, which was okay because I really needed a nap again as my symptoms were starting to take off again.  I took a nap and before I knew it, it was three in the afternoon.  I felt bad, but needed the nap, and Heather said it was okay.  Mom and dad came home and we ate some Turkey leftovers for dinner (like you have to twist my arm to do that).  We got done and Heather wanted to head over to Target and Bed, Bath, and Beyond in Webster and my parents agreed to watch the kids while we did.  So, we did some shopping and managed to buy me some medicine just because my symptoms were still that bad.  We were hoping that with some medicine, I could make my way through tomorrow.
We came home, spent some time with the family and went to bed early.  Tomorrow would be a long day with a trip to Jersey and a wedding to attend, besides the fact that I wasn’t feeling well.
Okay, so let’s talk about Part 8 of Chapter 22 of “Star Wars:  Outbound Flight” by Timothy Zahn…..

Chapter 22 (Part 8):  Kav insisted that Thrawn made a bargain to destroy Outbound Flight, but Thrawn insisted he agreed to do only what as needed to decrease the threat of Outbound Flight.  He reminded them they were in no position to make demands and are still not in a position to make them.  Suddenly, C’Baoth appeared on the screen comm and told Thrawn that he thinks he has won.  C’Baoth looked rough with torn and blood-stained clothes, and his face half burned.  The look in his eyes had Doriana begging Thrawn to destroy them, and if they don’t he’ll kill them.  Thrawn said he has one as it would take only one command from them and they’re all dead.  C’Baoth said the Jedi do not yield to empty threats but accept their destiny.  Thrawn said to choose their destiny as he was told the Jedi serve and defend, but C’Baoth corrects him and says the Jedi are told to lead, guide, and destroy all threats.  C’Baoth began to smile as Thrawn’s body was thrown back as he clutched uselessly at his throat.  Doriana trid to help, but soon realized that he couldn’t as C’Baoth was choking him using The Force and he had no way to stop it!….

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!  We had quite the feast at the Crissman household today!  If it was something that wasn’t nailed down, then we ate it!  But hey, isn’t that what Thanksgiving is all about?!!  I got up around nine o’clock this morning and found out my son had been up for two hours already, like always.  He just manages to get up early, I guess he gets that from Heather because she has no problem getting up at four-thirty for the day and functioning for the rest of the day with little to no sleep.  But then again, this is why she always wants to go to bed at nine or ten o’clock (which I can’t do, even if I wanted to).  So, I came out to the kitchen and ate a little bit of a breakfast, as I knew there would be a feast later on.  I then went into the family room and watched the “Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade” with my kids.  I have to say that the Parade was interesting this year considering the stage hands in New York City are also on strike.  They have cancelled shows left and right and things are not looking good for the entertainment industry.  Talks are to resume later next week, but I don’t expect much out of them.

But, the parade had all the usual musicals in it, even with the strike.  I find it interesting that they can’t seem to perform on their stages, but they have NO problem performing for a national audience.  Anyway, I will admit the parade was a nice parade.  Around eleven o’clock or so I got up and took a shower while the kids continued to watch the parade.  Around noon or so, my brother and his wife and my nephew and niece showed up and we started to really get ready for Thanksgiving.  Well, the way a Crissman group of males do.  We watched the football games of course!  Mike, my dad, and myself watched the first half of the first game and around two o’clock or so we all sat down and had a late lunch/early dinner.  We had everything you could think of.  Turkey, stuff, stuffing balls, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, jell-o, green beans, corn, cranberries, and much, much more.  It was a great dinner.  We then went out and watched what was left of the first football game and started to watch the second game, as we goofed around and poked and prodded at each other the whole time.  I have to say that my nephew (also named Robert Crissman) has turned into quite the mobile terror as he’s learned how to work and he really can get motoring.  We then went out and had desert and again, there was a lot to choose from.

After desert, we continued to watch the football games and have fun.  By about eight o’clock or so, I think we all ended up sleeping at some point from Carbohydrate overload.  After about nine o’clock or so, my brother and his wife decided to head home as they had decided they were going to go out shopping early tomorrow like we were.  There was a little bit of an interesting snafu today.  I kept having hot and cold flashes all day long.  And I mean MASSIVE hot and cold flashes.  One minute I needed to have a sweatshirt, t-shirt, and flannel shirt on just to feel relatively warm.  The next minute I was so warm that I thought I was burning up.  It got worse later into the evening and I actually went to bed around ten o’clock because I felt that bad and I was that desperate to warm up and I hoped the bed could warm up.
Okay, let’s talk about Part 7 of Chapter 22 of “Star Wars:  Outbound Flight” by Timothy Zahn…..

Chapter 22 (Part 7):  Lorana soon realized through the smoke and debris that she was dying.  She was pinned down and realized that she couldn’t move.  She tried to focus using The Force, but between the screams of the Vagaari and the many now injured Jedi, The Force was full of fear.  Soon, a maintenance droid pulled on her arm and as she asked what it was doing, she felt the sudden wisp of oxygen.  Lorana looked up and saw a huge gash in the ceiling of the bubble.  That’s when Jinzler looked over and realized that Master Ma’Ning was using The Force to hold up part of the ceiling.  That’s when Lorana realized that he had taken the full frunt of the laser blast as well as shards of metal all imbedded into his skin.  She called out to him, but Master Ma’Ning said it was all too late for him.  That’s when it dawned on Jinzler what had really happened here.  She tried reaching out with The Force to find the mind meld and she realized that whatever had targeted the weapons blister had inadvertently killed all the Jedi.  Ma’Ning tried to talk to Lorana and said he shoul have stopped C’Baoth earlier, but he was a Jedi Master.  He told Lorana it was too late for him, but not for the others and he used The Force and unpinned Lorana’s legs.  He told her she had to help them.  Ma’Ning started to collapse and Lorana insisted on helping him, but he told her she took an oath to help others and she needs to maintain her oath.  He gave her a last smile and said good-bye and Lorana said good-bye as well, knowing that somhow she would never see him again.  She used The Force to open the door to the corridor and saw a hallway that was ravaged, but with no holes in the outer hull.  She headed for the forward blast dor as it opened because the ship was beginning to repressurize.  She could hear the screams and shouting and could sense the fear ahead of her, but she was not concerned with the average crew-person.  She was now concerned about the fifty-seven conspirators sh had locked away in the core.  If he time came, they would have no chance to get to an escape pod even if they wanted to.  She headed, in pain, to the nearest turbo lift…..

Wednesday and no students.  And no set time to have to get up by.  No set time, but my wife decided she wanted to be on the road by nine o’clock.  In all honesty, I didn’t want to get on the road until eleven or even twelve o’clock, but considering my wife drives, she kind of wins that fight!  So, we were on the road by nine o’clock this morning. This morning when I got up, I decided I was taking my podcasting equipment with me because I wanted to record on the road because I think this next podcast is that important.  So, on top of the normal things we take with us, I added on my laptop and my recording equipment.  We made really good time on our way to Rochester and we made our way to my parents’ house in Webster by 12:30 this afternoon.  We ate some lunch with my mother and managed to meet with both my mother and father for quite some time and really had a fun time.

Heather left to go to a salon where she had made an appointment to get her hair and nails done for the wedding this weekend and while she was gone (which seemed like a long time!), my brother and sister in law came over to visit for a while.  We had some fun discussions, but my sister in law messed around with my wife’s Girls Scout cookie and nut sale order forms.  I know she didn’t intend to tick my wife off, but I know for a fact that messing with those order forms really makes her mad because she has a system and if you mess with the system, then you fluster my wife and then she’s worried she’ll make a mistake.  Well, my sister in law gave my mother what she thought was her popcorn and nut orders.  Well, later on we found out she was wrong and “grandma” on the form meant Heather’s mother and not my mother, but then again, Heather would know that and not my sister in law.  Anyway, Heather got back to the house and we all met for a while and my brother and his wife left and we ate dinner with grammy and papa.  We watched some T.V. after dinner after having spirited debates about everything from schools and “children today” to politics, which is always a hot button issue in our house.  While we talked, my mother worked like a busy bee trying to get things prepped for Thanksgiving tomorrow.  It will be a good day with parades, football, and my favorite, turkey!!!
Okay, let’s talk about Part 6 of Chapter 22 of “Star Wars:  Outbound Flight” by Timothy Zahn…..

Chapter 22 (Part 6):  Thrawn gave an order and Doriana asked if it was time to join the party and Thrawn said they would start one of their own.  Doriana immediately realized that “The Springhawk” and the other Chiss ships were heading straight for the Dreadnaughts of Outbound Flight.  they got close to the nearest Dreadnaught.  REAL close, through the shields and all.  The other Chiss ships broke off and got close to the other Dreadnaughts as “The Springhawk” opened fire.  They targeted the weapons blisters and then the shild generators.  The shooting was specific and accurate, but in a sudden turn of events, the Chiss attack  broke off and they headed back out into deep space.  Doriana asked what was wrong and Thrawn asked why and Kav pointed out that their enemy was left helpless before them.  Thrawn said this is precisely why he stopped and then oppened up the comm channel to Master C’Baoth and again offered him to surrender and return to the Republic as he has destroyed their defenses.  Kav was again shocked saying that Thrwan was to destroy Outbound Flight, but Thrawn told him that if he is to command again, then he can make those decisions…..

Okay, Tuesday and the last day of school until next week.  I am so looking forward to tomorrow.  I got up with the kids and we got ourselves going for the day.  We were pretty happy going out the door this morning because I think we all knew that tonight was going to be relaxing and tomorrow we would be in Rochester.  I’m pretty excited about going up there as we haven’t been there in almost a year.

I got to school and got things set up and basically continued to do some Music Theory with my students to start off the workbook.  Some of my classes are in different places than others, but I’ve just learned to live with this concept since I teach for only ten weeks.  I swear that classroom Unified Arts teachers have to be some of the most flexible teachers in the world!  Today was a prime example.  We were told that one of our classes were going on a field trip today and that they would not be coming to our classrooms.  So, I had planned on not having those students.  Then, when that period came around, those students showed up, very shortly thereafter with an apology from their regular ed. teachers explaining there was a problem securing bussing.  I understood the problem, but couldn’t understand why they couldn’t tell us in advance instead of sending the students and THEN sending an email.  Just not good communication.  So, I quick whipped out a lesson plan I could use for that class today.  I would like a little advanced communication, but then again, I may be asking too much.  I got done with my day and felt relieved that I was able to do all the things I was able to do.  Once the day was finished, I put my things away right away and made my way out the door.

I came home to my wife already packing suit cases and getting ready to get on the road tomorrow.  I went outside and checked the oil and other fluids in the car to make sure that we had everything up to spec before we got on the road.  We got everything packed and then went out to Wendy’s for dinner and then headed to Wal Mart to get some things that we still needed for the weekend.  We came home, were exhausted and basically went downstairs and hid out and watched our usual Tuesday night T.V. shows.  Tomorrow would be a casual driving day as we didn’t have to be anywhere by any given time.  It will be nice to be able to go to Rochester without a schedule.
Okay, let’s talk about Part 5 of Chapter 22 of “Star Wars:  Outbound Flight” by Timothy Zahn…..

Chapter 22 (Part 5):  Lorana had never felt anything like it before.  She was deeply immersed in the Jedi mind meld creating massive confusion and on top of it, they were sensing Vagaari deaths.  Not just a few deaths, but waves and waves  of them were appearing against the Jedi consciousness.  Lorana began staggering and found her physical body started to react as she had a pain in her shoulder and her head, and she had fallen out of her chair.  She felt the others in the mind meld feeling the same pain and they were all twitching, uncontrollably.  They knew that over a thousand Vagaari voices had been silenced…..