I Survived the Site Visit!

So we had our site visit today, which is what I’ve been preparing for like crazy for the last few months. The site visitor said our program was really good in some areas, and he only had a few questions that he wanted clarification on, so it seemed to go well. However, one of my coworkers pointed out that he is a psychologist (don’t ask) and so could be playing mind games with us. At least he seemed grateful for the refreshments we provided for him. The hard part is we won’t know anything official for seven months, but the vibes seemed good to me. Tonight after Date Night with Jesus, I am meeting Light Bright for a celebratory margarita!

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Jamaica-Theme Birthday Party

Maybe you are wondering how Richard Bonomo’s birthday party went. Travalon brought plenty of reggae CDs to set the mood, and I made jerk chicken (using sauce from Jamerica) and a Black Magic chocolate cake decorated like the Jamaican flag. Catzooks was a huge help, making several dishes and potent rum punch and asking Rich questions that we turned into a “Rich trivia” game (which they tell me I won). Luxuli brought ice cream in the colors of the Jamaican flag (double chocolate, golden Oreo blast, and key lime) and Kathbert made a little display with golden cornbread, green peppers and black olives. One guest came in dreadlocks, and another one had visited Jamaica and had an entire “Jamaica box” with things like a full-sized flag. The easiest way to sum up the party is with this picture I drew:

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"Who is Bob Marley?" Month

The Ubiquitous Richard Bonomo’s birthday is coming up (on Mardi Gras this year!) and I was having trouble thinking of a theme. We had already done the obvious ones, like Lincoln, Sts. Cyril and Methodius, Mardi Gras, and a luau (since he once lived in Hawaii). And of course we wanted to avoid Valentine’s Day as a birthday party theme. In desperation I asked Travalon if he had any ideas, and he had a fantastic one: Jamaica, since February is Bob Marley Month.  The theme was not a surprise, so we told Rich, and his email response to one of the people helping me organize the party was: “I am afraid the name ‘Bob Marley’ does not ring any bells for me…” She sent us all an email saying “So, then I thought we could say ‘February is national “Who is Bob Marley?” month.’” To which Kathbert replied, “Who is Bob Marley? And why does he have a month?” My response was to send her the link to the Wikipedia article on Bob Marley. When I told Light Bright about this, she said, “I thought Bob Marley was a household name!” Guess not in some households.

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Greeting Card Laughs

Today Light Bright and I were both having crazy days, though interestingly we were also having fabulous hair days. (Her hair looked great because she had a gig right after work, and I can’t explain mine, except that it always looks best on days when I am not going to see Travalon. Stupid hair.) She said she had to take a break, then she returned and said, “I have something for you.” It was a card with what looked like a cat being electrocuted on the front, and then inside it says: “Things are about the same here – what’s new with you?” She got one for herself that has one nun asking another, “So what are you wearing tomorrow?” We needed that laugh today! I hope it gave you a laugh too.

By popular demand of Hardingfele, I am posting the card:

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Need Any Box Tops?

Does anyone need any of those Box Tops for schools? I have seven of them that came off our new binders. The binders themselves were made in Mexico, and now they contain information about each of our trainees in preparation for our site visit next week. My blogging may be somewhat spotty until then, since I am too fried to think of anything clever to blog about, plus I’m trying to help organize a birthday party for Richard Bonomo this coming weekend. Speaking of Rich, Banjo Player says I should change his name on this blog to The Ubiquitous Richard Bonomo, because she sees him everywhere. Does he see her too? We’ll just have to see if he tells us in the comments.

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My To Do List

Sorry, my brain is mush today. Here is why:

Famous Hat’s To Do List:

• ·         Find missing evaluations
• ·         Print name for each binder
• ·         Add QI info to binders
• ·         Print table of contents for each binder
• ·         Print a cover sheet for each evaluation
• ·         Label each evaluation
• ·         Print rotation grids and put them in binders

I actually did get this all done today, and now I can think of nothing to blog about so I’m just posting this.

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A Gig and a Game

Once again I have been so busy at work that I didn’t even get a lunch break. I have a few moments now and will try to write this post quickly. Saturday my band had a gig at a wedding; fortunately, the reception we played at was inside, but the ceremony itself had been outside. Brr! The bride and groom made all the food for the reception themselves, including the cake, and this was not a particularly small wedding. We had a good time playing in our new band T-shirts, which really cut into our pay. They looked very nice. When I got home, I accidentally dropped my purse on the floor and the strap went over Cashmere’s head. She started to panic, and I had visions of my rabbit strangling herself, but then I said, “Wait,” and she calmed down and let me pull it over her head. Maybe she is learning to trust me after all. She has also started eating carrots, the only plant matter other than banana (and houseplants) that I have ever seen her eat.

Yesterday Travalon and I spent some time hanging out at the Memorial Union, which brought back a lot of memories for me. The students look so young, but lots of non-student types hang out there too, so we didn’t really stand out. The Ratskellar has a giant screen TV, so we watched some of the basketball game there. Then we went to Richard Bonomo’s house to watch the Super Bowl with Luxuli’s husband and Cecil Markovitch; plenty of other people were there, but some, like Kathbert, watched none of the game at all, and others, like Mr. Icon, would watch a little here and there. I enjoyed the halftime show with Beyoncé and was rather puzzled by the loss of power in the dome. When it came back on, San Francisco came roaring back to live, but ultimately they lost to Baltimore, a situation Light Bright bemoaned today. She is a lifelong Niners fan.

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