8 Weeks Down, 8 to Go

Finally, the first eight weeks of the semester are done! This is a big point in my semester. I've finished teaching 2 of my 4 eight-week classes at Hawkeye and my 1 eight-week online class for UNI has ended as well. This means I'm down to just teaching 3 at Hawkeye and 2 for Allen. It's been a good first part of the semester, and I've had quite a few memorable moments with students and faculty at all places. However, I'm glad to see the semester progressing and am looking forward to these last eight weeks because that means after these next eight, it's semester break. Of course, with semester break comes spring semester which means that summer vacation is getting closer all the time.

An Interesting Paper Topic

(Note to Uncle Roger: I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while!  Things got a bit busy.)

A couple of weeks ago, I was reading through and commenting on students' drafts when I came upon a topic I can easily say I've never seen before in a student paper. Now that's a pretty amazing feat considering I've been at this teaching gig for a little over a decade now.  "What was the topic?" you ask. Well...prepare yourself.  Here is an excerpt from a paragraph:

"First you need to get a dead raccoon. Next, you will lift the raccoon up and tie twine around the left ankle. Then you need to loop the other end of the twine around a branch at a comfortable working height for you. After that, you then tie the loose end of the twine on the right ankle of the raccoon. You have successfully hung your raccoon for the skinning process."

Yes, dear readers, this student wrote his process paper on how to actually take the skin off of a raccoon. You can imagine my shock when I read the first few lines. I guess one good thing I can say about it is that his description was pretty good and his sense of process was easy to follow though I did have to look away a few times while reading in order to save myself from passing out/crying/vomiting/all of the above. The worst part was when he wrote about cutting the skin off by the nose. Oh Lord, help me!

As you know, I'm no hunter, I never have been and I never will be. That doesn't mean I think others shouldn't; it's just not my thing, but please, please, please if you are a hunter, do not write a paper about killing, skinning, etc. I just can't take it!

I do have to say this student did a good job of writing about what he knew, and if I had any inclination to indeed skin a dead raccoon, I'm sure his paper would have made the process easier to undertake. LIke a good teacher, I always do my best to find some way to provide a positive comment for each student's paper. Needless to say, this was one presented the biggest challenge in that department.

Can I Leave Class Part II

Today, the same student from the last post came up to me at the beginning of class and asked if he could leave our class to go make up a test from a different class. Seriously?  I just said, "Go." Then I marked him absent. I wonder if he'll even know why...

Can I Leave Class?

I just had a conversation with a student a few minutes ago about his attitude in class. Today, yet again, he has decided that texting on his cell phone during class is far more important than anything we are doing and that asking me at the beginning of every single class if we are doing "anything" today and if he can leave is what a college student should do.  Apparently calling him out in class on it does nothing, so we had a nice conversation in the hall after letting the class go for the day.

This conversation reminded me quite a bit of the "I left my bag in class so I was there" student from a week or so ago. Somebody...please tell me that today's 20-something-year-olds are really not this dense.

Me: "So, what's going on?"

Student: "Nothing."

Me: "Obviously. So what's the deal with the cell phone, again?"

Student: "What about it?"

Me: "You being on it. Remember the first day of class? The syllabus? All that conversation about why you should not be on your phone or if you need to be on your phone that you should leave."

Student: "But if I leave, then I won't get the assignment."

Me: "Yeah, but if you stay, you aren't paying attention and are still not getting the assignment, so why be here?

Student: "Because you said I had to."

Me: "I never said you had to. In fact, I made a special point about telling you to leave when you asked me if you had to be here. Yet you stayed and then proceeded to be as rude as humanly possible with your comments and your phone. In fact, I want you to leave. I don't want this attitude in class. Your bad attitude affects my attitude which in turn make me not want to be here."

Student: "I would never disrespect you. You're a doctor. You know what you're talking about."

Me: "Really? I don't think you do know what I'm talking about considering I've had this conversation with you more than once. So why are you on the phone?"

Student: "I get bored. I just want to turn in my assignment and leave."

Me: "So do it. No one is making you stay. You're an adult. I'm not babysitting you. If you want to be that kind of student, do it. But don't expect to get points or the homework assignment for not being there, and you better not ever ask me if you can leave again. Just do it. In fact, I'd prefer it."

Student: "I'm not trying to be disrespectful. I just don't see why I have to stay if I've turned in my assignment."

Me: "You don't have to stay. No one is making you. But why didn't you take this as an online class when it's very apparent to me that you have no desire to be in this class. And don't tell me you do want to be here because someone who asks if they can leave all the time clearly doesn't."

Student: "I like class. I just don't want to have to stay."

Me: "Then don't stay. It's your choice."

Student: "But you said I have to."

Me: "I'm not sure how to make this more clear to you: you do NOT have to be here! You are an adult and it's your CHOICE to be here."

Student: "Okay, I'll be better. I just won't bring my cell phone at all to class."

Me: ...sigh...

Honorary Sideline Coach...Me?

I received quite an interesting email just a moment ago. Here it is (names removed to protect the ever-so-guilty):

Dear Marcea,

My name is --- and I am a student assistant in Athletics Academic Services and in charge of organizing the Honorary Sideline Coach (HSC) program. We have taken nominations, and you have been nominated as an Honorary Sideline Coach by --- on the Soccer team!

As you know, we are in the midst of another exciting soccer season, and I am happy to extend to you an invitation to experience the excitement first hand as an HSC. This program provides a unique experience for our faculty to be with the team and participate in team activities on the day of the competition. The selection of the faculty to participate comes directly from our student athletes. Your name was submitted by --- because you have positively impacted her experience at UNI.

Umm...Honorary Sideline Coach? Did I miss something? What is this? Somebody please tell me. I am the least athletic or sports-minded person I know. And why have I never heard of anything like this before?  I am teaching a class at UNI on how to teach grammar to K-8 students and I do have one student who is on the soccer team. So this must have to do with her. Dang her for getting me involved! What the heck?

Essentially though, aside from the fact that I have no idea what an Honorary Sideline Coach is or does, here's my quandary -- the class I'm teaching is only a 1 credit hour course, and it's ONLINE!!!  I don't even know these students and they don't know me. I have no clue what they look like or sound like. I know them only from a few keystrokes every week.  As instructor-students, we've interacted a handful of times on our course website, and in terms of this soccer student, I've only corresponded with her via email once or twice. So how in the world could she have nominated me, ME!, to be such a thing?

I suppose I should be honored. Right? After all, it is an HONORARY title.  Or should I be suspicious? Is this some new type of student-instructor hazing?  Will I show up only and be the only one there? Or will I arrive in the midst of some "under-the-cloak-of-darkness" hazing ritual where they demand that I drink beer upside down, build a pyramid out of aluminum cans, and then sprint over hot coals just to get back to my car? (And then end up on someone's Facebook page, naturally.)

Then again, maybe this actually is a good thing -- a fine, upstanding, university-sanctioned event. Perhaps I will get a free T-Shirt or perhaps some pom poms to wave. Maybe all I have to do is show up and I'll be treated as "queen for a day," er "coach for a day." Maybe I can even ask for an official whistle and megaphone!

If I do decide to go, I just hope they wouldn't expect much, especially not (Heaven forbid) coaching!

Rescue Cats? I Don't Think So.

Five years of teaching full time at HCC and I can't believe I still have trouble adjusting to going back to work after the summer. No, I didn't teach on campus this summer, but I did teach two online classes and do a lot of traveling so it's not like I was totally a bum. The worst part of it is that this is like the easiest semester I've had since I started there!

For starters, I am only teaching 5 classes at HCC. The past 4 fall semesters that I've been there, I've had an overload for a total of 6 classes, and usually, that means 6 classes that run for 16 weeks.  This time, I have 5 classes, and 4 of them are 8-week classes, which means I am really only teaching 3 classes at one time. How awesome is that?!?! PLUS...my schedule is so sweet this semester that I am only teaching 4 days a week...yeah, seriously...4 days! I don't have to teach on Fridays for the first time in...well...EVER!

So why, am I so exhausted all the time when I come home? Today, I was done with class at 2:15 -- I stayed until 2:30 to help a student. Then I went back to my office and sat there for a minute thinking of what I should do. After about a minute and two seconds, I decided to go home. Yeah, that's right! I went home! Why? Because I could! I was technically done for the day. So home, I went.

"What did I do at home?" you ask. Exercise? No. Grade papers? No. Load the dishwasher? No. Plop down on the couch and turn on the TV? Yes! I was excited to find Haunted Collector on and was settling into a lazy hour or so before Dr. Phil came on when before I knew it, I was out like a light. Completely, totally, unconsciously asleep. Apparently my phone rang twice and I got two text messages during this time. Keep in mind that the phone was on the arm of the couch directly above my head. Did I hear it? No. Might it have been important? Yes.

Sadly, one of those calls and one of those texts came from Ken, who was stuck at work because the poor chap locked his keys in the car. My fault? No...but I guess I should have been available to go get the guy. Thankfully, he kept calling and I finally woke up. Then, of course, I had to drive to the JD Northeast site in my barely awake stupor.

Thankfully, the house was not on fire. Had the fire alarm gone off, I probably wouldn't have heard it, and I doubt any one of our 3 cats would have been as heroic as those dogs you see on TV rescuing their owners when they are passed out.  Of course, they have no trouble walking all over me and biting me in the face at 3:00 a.m. when they want to be fed, but bother to do a little thing like wake me up in the face of a life-threatening fire or an urgent phone call, no. Thanks, cats.

And so the adjustment to a fall work schedule continues. Hopefully, for myself and the sake of those who may ultimately depend on me to save them by driving spare car keys across town, I will get into this routine and the nap times will either become less frequent or less comatose in nature.

Conversation with a Student

The following conversation took place in the hallway outside my office between 11:45 a.m.-12:00 p.m. today. 

Student: "Mrs. --- is so unfair! She counted me absent today but I was there."

Me: "Why would she count you absent if you were there?"

Student: "I got there early and put my stuff in the classroom. Then I had to run to Financial Aid to do something. When I came back she wouldn't let me sign the attendance sheet."

Me: "How long were you gone?"

Student: " Five minutes."

Me: "Five minutes? Really?

Student: "Maybe a little longer.

Me: "Like what?"

Student: "I got there at 9:30"

Me: "Class started at 9, right? You missed 30 minutes out of a 75 minute class?"

Student: "Yeah."

Me: "So you missed almost the whole first part of class?"

Student: "Yeah."

Me: "You think you should get full credit for that?"

Student: "Yeah. I left my stuff in there, so she knew I was coming back."

Me: "You just left your stuff in there? Dropping your things in there doesn't mean you were there. Your backpack could get credit, but you can't."

Student: "You don't know what I'm sayin'..."

Me: "Yeah, I do. You're sayin' you weren't there, but your backpack was and you're mad that you won't get counted as attending when you weren't actually attending."

Student: "I'm going to complain to my adviser. He's a Dean and he will tell her how things are supposed to be and take care of me. He'll make her add me."

Me: "But you weren't in class the whole time."

Student: "So?"

Me: "So, why should you get full credit for not being there?"

Student: "Uh..."

Me: "Is this going to affect your grade in the class?"

Student: "No."

Me: "So what's the big deal?"

Student: "She can't do that to me."

Me: "What do you mean 'she can't'? She's the teacher. Those are her rules. So, really, you're just mad that you didn't get your way."

Student: "Yeah, well, I guess. So does that mean I shouldn't tell my advisor?"

---

Afterthought:  In my 12 years of college, I don't recall having a lesson or class called, "Dealing with Students' Ever-Changing Perceptions of Reality." 

---

Later, I delighted in this imaginary conversation I could have with my boss...

Boss: "Where were you yesterday? We didn't see you around and you didn't tell us you were going to be gone."

Me: "Oh, I was there. When I got there, I turned the light on in my office and left my bag. Then I had to go to the grocery store to get something for dinner, then take the cats to the vet, and then go home and mow my lawn. But I was there because I left my stuff there."

Boss: "Oh, ok. I guess as long as you dropped your stuff off you should still get paid the full amount for the day even though you completed no work, contributed nothing to the school, and were, in fact, in no way shape or form, where you were supposed to be."

Me: "Yup."

All Things Old Are New Again

I found out today I still have at least one loyal reader! Roger, this blog is dedicated to you!

Today's major project was to move an antique desk from its long-time home at The Farm to it's new place in Waterloo. Starting off at Mom's, we picked up her and her truck, made a quick stop at the brush dump to get rid of some debris, and then headed out to Sheila and Roger's place, aka The Farm. The plan: to pick up Great Grandma Mae Bramblette's (yes, with an 'e' at the end) writing desk and bring it to our house where the entire family can enjoy it more by having it out in the open. 

First off, I think this desk is absolutely amazing!  When I first saw it, I just had this feeling about it. It's almost like I could feel its use over the years. I never knew Great Grandma Bramblette, but I like to think there's something about her attached to this desk. In addition, because there are a lot of pieces in the desk that belonged to Grandpa Dudley Bramblett (no 'e' at the end here), it has a lot of him as part of it too. 

Truth be told, I was so scared to bring it out of the basement at The Farm -- seriously, I was afraid it would fall apart or just plain fall and break into a million pieces. However, Ken, Mom, Sheila and I somehow managed to get it up and out and in the truck. Fifty or so odd bungee cords later and Ken had it secured and we were road-ready. I'm glad to say we made it home safely and in one piece (though, thank you, Roger, for volunteering to drive behind us to pick up any falling pieces...!). It was a slow drive home, but one well worth the extra care.

Once we made it back here, it was a painstakingly slow process of getting it in the front door (only 4 steps) and then sliding it into position in the living room. I spent some time dusting and cleaning it up a bit. I also couldn't wait to put some of the original books back in it as well -- just to see what it would look like. When all was done, all I could say was, "Wow! How beautiful!"  I hope the whole family will agree and we'll have many years enjoying it together.

"Yeah! Bananas -- Sweet!"

I love my Tuesday/Thursday 8:00 a.m. class of Writing 2 students. What a great group! This morning, I didn't have to rush up to campus by 6 a.m. like I normally do in order to get grading done before my 8 a.m. class. I made a stop at the grocery store to pick up a few necessities, and while I was there, I thought, "Might as well bring some treats in for the students." I grabbed some donuts, some mini cherry pastry turnover things, little bottles of Sunny D and then, sort of as an after thought, some bananas in case anyone preferred a lighter fare.

When I got into the classroom, there were 3 or so in there at that time -- thankfully 7 more came shortly after that. They saw the food and were like, "Is that for us?" I said, "Sure, I was at the grocery store and thought I'd grab us some treats." Those students got up from their chairs so fast that I could hardly believe it. The best part was when I took the bananas out of the bag and put them on the table. The only guy in there at that time said, "Yeah! Bananas -- Sweet!" and took two. 

While I chuckled to myself about that in that moment, after thinking about it for a while, I realized that there is probably a lot more to that statement than I initially thought. Bananas -- no big deal, right? Sure, for me growing up, bananas were always around along with apples, grapes, oranges, and of course, more summer strawberries than we could eat -- on shortcake, ice cream, in pies, or in Grandma's jam that we'd freeze and enjoy all year long. It was no big deal and I thought all of that was just part of the package of growing up.

With my students, I'm not so sure. The longer I teach at the community college in my town, the more I notice about the disparity between my upbringing and that of some of my students. I didn't grow up rich. I had two parents and they both worked, and worked hard, but we never were really in need of anything. We didn't have the biggest house ever (6 people in one, two-turned-into-three bedroom-house with one bathroom), didn't have new furniture or new cars and we didn't take vacations to Disney or anything like that, yet we always had what we needed, and in many cases, we were able to get a few things that we didn't need but wanted. When I say "we," I'm referring to my 3 sisters and me because my parents were the kind that were more than generous -- giving first to others and reserving leftovers for themselves, including driving rusty old trucks!

But what about my students? So many of them come from broken homes, the foster system, parents in prison, brothers and cousins killed on the street, having 3 babies by the time they are 19, being arrested themselves, and so forth. I could go on and on. In the midst of all that, did their parents stop to think about buying bananas while at the grocery store? Forget bananas -- what about grapes, strawberries, or even carrots, broccoli or cauliflower? Those things are not cheap, and when your income is low to begin with, compounded by multiple children or even generations of families living together, compounded again by lower educational background affecting one's understanding of the importance of those foods, and so forth and so forth, what importance do bananas have in the grand scheme of things?

Really thinking about this makes me feel so guilty -- guilty for having so much and for not realizing it, guilty for not thinking twice when I grab a bunch of bananas and stick them in my shopping cart and guilty for not understanding how the rest of the world is functioning around me. I've said it many times before: I live in a bubble, a big pink plastic bubble -- a place where there is and generally has been enough money, where college is done and paid for; where our house is comfortable and cared for; where my neighborhood is green and lush with trees, a place where people jog, walk, their dogs, and ride their bikes at any time of the day or night; where I don't have to worry about having the house windows shot out or the cops coming through regularly; where I don't have to closely watch the computer at the grocery store worrying about how high the total will get, where I don't worry about just getting enough gas to be able to make it to work that week (though I do cringe at the cost), and much much more.

And so as I sit here in my office at work typing this (insert here..."where I don't have to do manual labor in the extreme heat/cold for minimum wage"), all I can think now is, "Yeah! Bananas -- sweet!" ...such a simple phrase.

Right?

Find the Squirrel in This Picture

Stucco-It-To-Me-Baby

We met with "first choice roofing guy" -- I have an urge to call him "Bachelor #1" --  a week or so ago. Results of meeting: not good! He presented us with some options regarding the roof, the beams, and the stucco. To make a long story short, he thinks we need to take down all the old wood, take down all the original stucco, replace stucco with Hardie Board (apparently, the latest in stucco replacement), replace wood beams with MiraTec (some sort of composite material), paint both of the aforementioned items, then proceed with the roofing project. Oh, and did I mention that we also have to add in the cost for re-stuccoing (is that a word?) and re-beaming (yeah, I'm pretty sure that isn't a word) the garage.

The Estimated Cost: ~$30,000

I don't know what you're thinking right now, but my first thought involved chest pains and an overwhelming desire to move. We needed to do some hefty thinking on that one. After a half a week of thinking heftily (man, I'm just making up all sorts of words tonight), I shared the latest on the situation with my friend Kelly who had some not-so-great news to report about that particular company. Turns out, they did some work in her town after a bad storm and the majority of the people in town were not pleased with the quality and they said it was completely overpriced! It was so bad that some of them put signs in their yard telling others NOT to ever use this company. Time to rethink Bachelor #1.

I decided to call in "second choice roofing guy" -- aka Bachelor #2 -- to come back and ask us for his opinion about what the other guy said. Bachelor #2 was the first one to notice the rotten wood when he gave us our initial roofing estimate, so I knew he was detailed enough to see what was actually happening up there in roof land.  His initial estimate was very reasonable and he sounded extremely knowledgeable about his craft.  After a week of exchanging emails about the situation, we arranged for him to come over today to reinspect.

Important Side Note: Fast and reliable communication is extremely important to me when in the process of choosing a construction company. Bachelor #1 was good for a while, but I think he tired of my questions as he has not responded to my last query in a week. Bachelor #2 is doing great so far -- a response within 24 hours of each email sent. He's definitely pulling ahead in this aspect of the competition. 

Bachelor # 2 came out this morning and seemed to think that our stucco looked pretty good for being 70 years old. There are areas that obviously could use some paint and places where the stucco and beams meet that could definitely stand to be recaulked (I do know that is a word because he said it about 20 times this morning.) Long story short: he thinks we can take the beams down and replace with the MiraTec and reseal, but he doesn't think the stucco is in that bad of shape to need to be replaced completely. Sigh-of-relief!  He'll return on Monday with some dudes to take measurements and get up on the roof for a better look. Then he'll give us estimates for the cost of redoing the whole thing: one doing all the things #1 wanted us to do -- and with his suggested alternative.

As of now, I'm feeling a lot better about this.  As an added bonus, he told us about different houses in Cedar Falls that he worked on where he installed Hardie Board so that we could see samples of his work. We drove by them tonight and found them highly satisfactory.

And so, we commence with more waiting. Hopefully, this time we will get better news when it comes to estimates. We've come to accept the need for more work than just the roof, but now the question becomes just how much coin will we have to fork out.

Where there's a roof, there's gotta be a bat, right?

After 5 (the 6th was MIA) roofers coming to check out the house, I think we've got one chosen. I'll say more after we meet with him this afternoon to discuss things.  Regarding the other post's issue: I contacted the construction company that made the repairs in 2010 and they swore that no estimate had been made for rotten wood around the rest of the house, other than the front which was replaced then. I also checked with our realtor about that and the house disclosure statement from the previous owners. Long story short: it looks like they aren't liable for anything and we'll be paying for all projects. I didn't really think we'd score some money from them, but it was certainly worth a try, so thanks to you who suggested.

Another issue -- and you can be sure I'm bringing this up with the roofing guy today -- bats. I hate bats. No, not baseball bats. You know what I mean -- the flying mice-like things. Ugh, I hate them! Did I already say that? 

So, anyway, bat #3 made its way into our house on Wednesday at some point (Now that I thnk about it, I wonder if it's just the same bat?). I was in the basement about to change laundry at around....oh....8:30 p.m. Naturally, all three cats followed me down there expecting to get fed. As I was walking into the laundry room, I heard a weird scratching sound. I stood still waiting for it to continue. It continued. The cats looked puzzled, but none of them got off their chunky cat butts to check it out and rid the house of the intruder -- why the heck do we have those cats anyway? I ran upstairs to tell Ken I heard something scratching but wasn't sure what it was. We both grabbed flashlights, went to the window fan area where the noise was coming from, shined the flights, and.....BAT!!!!!  The nasty little rodent was trying to climb around inside this old window fan. My first thought was, "Ah ha! Now we know how they are getting in!" Sadly though after checking out the entrance outside, we realized its sealed pretty good so they must have a different entrance point. The mystery continues.

Naturally, I hid in the laundry room while I made Ken get rid of the thing, which he did. He used the $5 "Grab It" thing we bought at Menards -- now that's a purchase that has more than paid for itself! I'm still freaked out. I'm dying to know how they are getting in. People say to check the attic, so I'm going to make the roof guy check it out, and he WILL find a way to make some fixes. Oh yes, he will!

"Having a roof over your head" takes on a whole new meaning

Our journey into home ownership has taken another turn. We are now experiencing the wonderful world of roofing. I'll be clear up front: I went into this project with a clear understanding that a new roof was not going to be a cheap or fun experience. The general price that I've gotten from friends and family who've been blessed with the experience of putting a new roof on their home has been roughly between $11,000-$15,000. Okay, so that's a lot of money, but it's a roof after all and something that should last 20 or so years, right? Right.

Now, we have to be savvy about this project, and heaven knows we don't want a rerun of last year's front steps debacle. This means bids, bids, and more bids before we get started. After asking everyone and their brother who they would recommend, we've brought in 5 companies to give us estimates on re-roofing the house and garage. (We also need some minor tuckpointing done to the bricks at the top of our chimney, so we're also investigating that now with these companies.) Here's what we've learned from them so far as I've broken it down into two categories:

WHAT WE ALREADY KNEW

• We need a new roof.
• It is going to be expensive.

WHAT WE LEARNED

• We REALLY need a new roof. Apparently, there is only 1 layer of singles on the house and they are pretty much done for. In addition, we've been told the current roof is approximately 20-30 years old.
• Because we have a steep pitch to our Tudor style house, it's going to cost more than re-roofing the average home.
• There may be spots on the roof that are soft and need to be repaired.
• Different companies/people have really different styles of doing business: some very professional and some not so much.
• Not all construction companies do both roofing and tuckpointing. This means additional/other people may need to be brought on. Sigh. If you recall the "Great Front Step Massacre of 2011," you know I hate dealing with contractors and subcontractors.

Now I have to add a new category. This category is titled, "HOLY CRAP / ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" This is where I share the totally unexpected news about the roof and ensuing project(s).

• Like I mentioned above, we have a Tudor style home. This means we have a brick bottom half of the house with a half timber and stucco upper level. Refer to the picture if you need a visual. When the house was built (ca. 1940), the timber portion was wood painted brown. At some point in time, a set of owners got tired of painting the wood and had it covered with brown aluminum sheeting. Interesting. I didn't really think or pay attention to that fact when looking at the house. Apparently, if this is not installed perfectly, water can leak in between the aluminum sheeting and the side of the house (stucco) and cause the original wood to rot. This brings me to bullet point 2.
• At various places on the house we have rotten wood underneath the sheeting. Oh joy. Couldn't see it, didn't know it was there, but now we've got a problem. Naturally, there are places in the roof where it intersects with the sheeting. Obviously, sheeting will need to be removed/replaced to fix the roof thus exposing said rotten wood. More money.
• When the roofers replace the sheeting, doing so with the rotten wood would not be advised. The nails used to hold the sheeting won't go back into the rotten wood. Will have to replace with new wood and new sheeting. Hm...if we put new sheeting on in some places around the house, won't we need/want to replace it elsewhere on the house so that it all matches? More money.

As a side point, I'm a little concerned because only 2/5 people who've come for bids have noticed the problem with the wood and the sheeting. What does that mean? Did the others not see it? Would it come up as an added expense later once we're into the project?

But hold on; here comes the fun part. Ready? The last person to come here on Friday to look at the roof greeted me by saying, "I'm already familiar with this house. I was here 3 years ago making repairs for the owners." Um...okay....so what do I do with that information? First thoughts, "Oh crap! Now what?" So I asked him to fill me in on why he was here and what he did. He repaired different parts of the roof where the owners were experiencing leaks and ice dam problems. Well, that explains the different colored shingles/patchiness we can see. At the time, he explained to the owners the need for a new roof and the problem with the rotting wood and the sheeting. Their response to him was to just patch it. Apparently this happened right as they were planning to sell the house and move and they didn't want to put the money in. Go figure. Maybe that's why they moved. How much money was his estimate in 2009? Then it was about $18,000. And now? Um yeah, a little bit more and that doesn't count any work on tuckpointing the chimney. So we're definitely looking at over $20,000.

Sigh.

I have one more person coming in on Monday to take a look. I've heard good things about this company and so I'm hopeful they will prepare an estimate that takes all these things into account but that comes in at a reasonable price. Pray for me.

Back Yard Bonanza!

Spring Break is just about over, but I am happy to report it was a good one! No, we didn't go anywhere this year, and that is fine. With so much traveling coming up for both Ken and me in the next two weeks, it was nice to just hang at home.

The weather was beautiful -- almost 70-75 degrees everyday!  And that's in March! It was very reminiscent of the 2009 March weather during our wedding. Crazy.  We spent almost every day outside in the back yard doing projects. Things we accomplished: dug old tree stump out of space behind the garage, laid brick path in space left by removing old stump,  trimmed dead limbs, pulled out old leaves and sticks from flower beds, and pulled out stones from pond area. I also pulled out some old cinder blocks that were buried in a flower garden in the middle/back of the yard. I plan to plant a bunch of "hummingbird friendly" flowers there in April.

Now, sad as I am that break is almost over, I'm more sad that I haven't done any grading over break. I got out my laptop this afternoon with the explicit purpose of doing that now, but I found myself playing on eBay for the past hour or so. I guess it's time to face the music and realize play time is over. On the plus side...only about 6 weeks left until the semester is over!  Then it's back in the back yard for more play time!

And now for the furnace

Home update time. Our next major house project came in the form of our furnace. Our house actually has 2 furnaces and 2 central air units. One set heats/cools the old part of the house and the other set heats/cools the back part of the house -- the addition put on in the 1950s. While I was in FL for a conference last week, Ken discovered that our back furnace had quit working. Not that we really noticed it though for 2 reasons: 1) the weather hasn't been that cold lately, and 2) we generally keep the house relatively cool anyway. It's just the two of us after all and we don't care.

We thought about calling a furnace repair person/business to come check it out, but that last time we had to do that, we had a negative and very costly experience. Forget that!  After our whole front porch steps incident last summer, we've decided to only bring someone on for a house project if they have been recommended by someone we trust. So I sent out an email asking for our local friends and family to give us some ideas of people that would recommend for things like the furnace, roofing, plumbing, etc. -- general home owner-type service personnel.

Ken's brother Tom -- an electrician and handyman of sorts -- offered to come over and check out our furnace.  It turns out that it was going to be a pretty simple fix. I guess (and I spare you all the details because, well, frankly, I wasn't paying attention) that the igniter had burned out. Tom told where he could get a part and then explained how to fix it. Ken ran by the parts store on his way home from work today, got it, and came home to install. I kid you not, it took him probably 2 or 3 minutes total and it was done and working!  We've now got the back room set at a balmy 62 degrees (it was only 60 without the furnace working). What a relief!  The whole project only cost about $32! Awesome!  Mucho thanks to brother Tom!

Midterm thoughts

I just reread my last blog post. Guess who's disappeared from class? Yup. She Devil has been absent for a couple of weeks now. Big surprise? Not really. But why did she have to make life so miserable while she was here? Sheesh. Cut me some slack people.

In fact, most of my classes have dropped in number of students. The 8-week Writing I classes are the worst. I have approximately 8-10 showing up on a good day. Of course, tomorrow is Friday, so that means I'll probably have 3-5 in each class. It's really quite depressing. I was pretty down last weekend after I only had 5 show up in my 1:00 class. What a bummer way to go into the weekend.

My latest favorite though have been the students who have been absent for about 3+ weeks who are just now emailing me telling me they want to get back "on track" and complete their missing coursework so they can pass the class. Um, yeah, right. Did they miss that part of the syllabus that said, "NO LATE WORK"? Or did I neglect to make that clear on Day 1? Oh, right. They didn't show up until Day 2 or 3 so that policy doesn't count for them because they weren't there to hear it. And really now, you've been gone 3 weeks, which is the equivalent of 6 weeks in a regular semester, you've completed no work to date, but you want me to give you all the work you've missed. How about I also stay late every night to reteach everything I went through each of those 2-hour class sessions when you weren't there?

I also have a new one this semester: students who don't want to come to class, but who consistently turn in their work to me via email. Did I miss something that said our class was a correspondence or online class? Hmm... how dumb of me not to realize that. Yeah, I hope you enjoy not having your assignments graded because there is no way I can even prove the work is yours! See you (or not) next semester.

How many weeks until Finals...?

Get... Out... Of... My... Class... NOW!!!

So, did I actually write in my last blog that I WANTED to go back to work? Well, ok, so I did, but that was because I like being around my co-workers. Today, I got to...err had to... kick my first student of 2012 out of class. My, my, what a great way to start the year. You know, I don't recall having to kick anyone out last fall. Why now?

Naturally, the nastiness started even before class began. The student asked me if I brought in the journal packets. I simply said, no, that they are in my office and she can swing by and grab one after class. She didn't like that, so I got to see her roll her eyes and sigh, "Ugggghhhh." That was just the beginning. In the next 20 minutes, she proceeded to check her cell phone, be on the computer even though we were going over a lesson and I'd asked them to just turn away for a moment, text even after I told her to put her phone away, and then announce to me and the class when I told her that if she HAD to text to go into the hall to finish, that "It ain't like we doin anythin' anyway, humpf."

Shortly after all of that, I told her to go to the hall so we could chat. There she wouldn't look at me and was so snotty. When I told her to knock off the attitude, she said, "I aint got no attitude." I figured by then, nothing I could say would change anything, so I said, "Get your things and get out of class. You're not staying here with this behavior." So, after some more pouting and stomping back in the room, giving me dirty looks, and making disgusted noises, she left. She returned about 10 minutes later, threw her paper down on the teacher's stand at the front of the room where I was reviewing the lesson, and stormed out.

Good riddance, and DO let the door hit you on the way out, please.

And a great big "yay" for going back to work!

So my last post was about the wonders of freedom at the end of the semester. I hate to say it, but right around the beginning of January, I was ready to go back to work. When I got there this week, I didn't realize how much I actually missed the interaction with my co-workers. It's been nice being back and just having time to get back into the swing of things with them. Of course, I'm not totally ready for the idea of teaching again, especially because I have 6 classes AGAIN this semester. Ugh. But the good thing about that is that I will get overload pay for 2 classes. That will be awesome!

But it is going to be a busy semester: 6 classes, 3 committees, 3 conferences (Florida, St. Louis, and Newport Beach), a trip to NY in March for Rach & Suz's wedding, and all of the other regular things in life. March will be the craziest since I'll be in NY, MO, and CA all in the same month. I guess I won't be around much. Ken'll be on his own with the cats. :-)

16 more weeks until summer!!!