1 year on Blogger

Sunday Oct 1st is my one year anniversary on Blogger. Pretty good year.

October 1, 2005: First ever Blogger Post

I am a lot happier in this blogspace than I was at the now a mess Modblog. But, there is a lot of work for me to do with this place. I hope to buy some time in the next few weeks, but we'll see. It's a real busy time in the fall at school. Much for a teacher to do.

Which reminds me, I have a review, test and powerpoint to work on. :)


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Stayin' Alive

The Astros will live to fight another day. Astros 5, Braves 4. Tomorrow it's do or die... and hope the Cardinals lose. The Cards need 1 more win or an Astros loss on the final day of the season to go to the playoffs.

I am proud of this team that they have come back and fought so hard to make the playoffs. It was a pretty dreary season, but they polished it up down the stretch. At least they made things interesting. It might just be VERY interesting. The Cardinals are no great shakes right now. They barely were able to win late in the game on Saturday. The Astros win will force them to pitch their best pitcher against the Brew crew tomorrow.

It's must win Sunday. The Astros always seem to be coming down to the final day of the regular season to win. Keeping my fingers crossed for some good luck.


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Messing with new blogger templates

I have had a frustrating week. Been messing with the new blogger templates and I am not happy with it yet. You may see some changes here from time to time until I can get it right.

Unfortunately there isn't much time to work on it right now.

School has been pretty whack. We are doing massive schedule changes this weekend that will take place on Monday morning. I am losing a Level World History class and gaining a Pre-AP one. This is making for massive shifts in my classes. So far the numbers look like this:

1st period - 30 kids, lost 6, gained 3 and 5 of them went to other periods
2nd period - 28 kids, lost 4, gained 3 and 4 of them went to other periods
4th period - 30 kids, lost 6, gained 3 and 6 of them went to other periods
5th period - 16 kids so far - brand new class, but mostly made up of old students from other periods.
7th period - 25 kids, lost 3, gained 2 and 0 of them went to other periods.

It's pretty wierd. But it has to happen to level our classes. We hired 10 new teachers and that has added 50 new class periods. In World History we are getting 2 new class periods of students. So that will help a little. Of course, one of my level classes is going to a new teacher and I am taking on a brand new section of Pre-AP. That will help the over crowding in the Pre-AP classes.

I am pretty sad about it actually. I was just getting used to my kids and the class size. I will really miss a few of them. Great kids.

Out of all of my classes so far (and this could change over the weekend and next week), I have lost 5 students that I will no longer have. 6 of the students on my rosters are now brand new and they are transferring in from another teacher. 18 of my students are moving from one period to another (not counting 5th period which most of that class is moving to a new teacher).

Crazy huh?

Well, time for me to get some sleep. Oh yeah, my post on the Astros jinxed them, huh?

Oh also, I failed to mention... our kitchen sink is again backed up. Time to call on some plummers. Everything seems to be breaking at the same time. And it is costing us an arm and a leg... and we are running out of arms and legs.
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Astros Making History

ESPN.com Astors Win 9 Straight!

This is just a remarkable story.

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- The clock hasn't stopped ticking on the Houston Astros, who keep staging one of the greatest stretch-drive comebacks in major-league history. No matter how long it takes.

Roy Oswalt picked up a weary bullpen with seven shutout innings and the Astros ran their improbable late-September winning streak to nine games, enduring an afternoon-long rain delay before beating the Pittsburgh Pirates 3-0 on Thursday.

They needed nearly five hours to win the night before. This time, they waited for 3½ hours just to play. Time is running out on the Astros, but it's not stopping them from winning.

A three-game sweep in Pittsburgh highlighted by a 7-6, 15-inning marathon win Wednesday night at least temporarily cut Houston's deficit in the NL Central to one game behind St. Louis, which had lost seven of eight going into its night game against Milwaukee. The Astros were 8½ games out on Sept. 20.

I hardly want to post about it... because I am so afraid of jinxing it... but I can't hold it anymore. I am so pumped!

I am taking my Stros jersey to school tomorrow. It is "Camo" day since we play the Bears in football on Friday, but I might have to wear my jersey over top of my camo. Amazing.

They have sucked all year... but these guys never quit. They didn't last year when they had their greatest season ever after a HORRIBLE start. Now they are writing history. With St. Louis losing big tonight... they could be a FREAKING 1/2 game out tomorrow morning! Wow.

GO STROS!

Geaux Saints

How can you not root for the Saints tonight?

Geaux Saints Geaux.

I have a student this year that was a "Katrina Student" - meaning her family came here to the Houston area after the devastation of her hometown in New Orleans.

What a start - a blocked punt for a TD.

Then another TD.

And another.

Boy are they going to be partying tonight in "The Big Easy!"
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Madden Curse Continues

Shaun Alexander Out Indefinitely with a Broken Foot

Amazing. Every year since athletes replaced John Madden on the cover of the Madden football video games, that athlete has felt the "curse."

2007 - Shaun Alexander - Broken Foot
2006 - Donovan McNabb - Hernia in first game of season
2005 - Ray Lewis - Broken Wrist
2004 - Michael Vick - Fractured leg the day after the game hit the shelves
2003 - Marshall Faulk - Ankle injury - never rushed for 1,000 yards again
2002 - Daunte Culpepper - Season ending knee injury
2001 - Eddie George - Career best season, but his fumble in the playoffs resulted in loss
2000 - Barry Sanders - Abruptly retired before the start of training camp

Isn't that wild?
Wikipedia: Madden Curse

Is it going to get to the point where football players don't want to be on the cover?

Oh yeah, Norma drafted (actually I did for her since the baby was trying to get to sleep) Alexander in the first round of our fantasy draft this year. Looks like I'll be trying to find her a replacement tonight! Ouch. She was off to a great start, too.
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'Border baby' boom strains South Texas

'Border baby' boom strains South Texas

As much as 80% of the babies born in two Houston hospitals are to illegal immigrants.

This is really an amazing story. It is the reason that I am so 'conservative' about this issue of illegal immigration. It is simply not right to have such a strain on the everyday services that this country provides to it's citizens.

What is the answer?
*a wall?
*deportation?

Certainly we know one thing for sure, all of the hot air from Washington, DC amounted to nothing to help this problem.

The shame of it is that the vast majority of the people coming to this country are hard working and they make a positive impact on this country. BUT, their incredible numbers of people without paying taxes to this country is a serious strain.

What other country in the world would sit by and allow this to happen? What other country would give away free services to non-citizens?

We Win!

First win in school history!
Eagles 22, Willis 17

This is pretty amazing that win could win a football game w/o seniors. Awesome.

Wish we could have seen it, but it was an away game and pretty far from home. Can't wait to hear the details on Monday.

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Aidan: Bath Time

Aidan had a ball in the bath tonight. Check out all the pictures here: Picasaweb: Aidan Sept 06 Bath



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The Dance

Last night was a hot and humid night in Humble, Texas but I don't think I came home so sweaty because of the heat. I was sweating bullets before we were about to take the field for something that I had never attempted to do on a football field before - dance.

As we waited for half time to come, I said, "Well, you have been the teacher and I have been the student, let's see if I pass the test."

It turned out going very, very well. We had a great time. The crowd really went crazy for all those dads and their daughters. I was proud to be a stand in for her. Afterwards we 'high fived' and then hugged. It was great to see how happy she was.... I was worried that she might be upset with the whole thing. I know for me it would have made me think about my Dad that wasn't there. In fact, I did think about my Dad a bunch and just knew that he was smiling down on me.

Before we walked out onto the field I thought to myself, "You know... my Dad probably searched everywhere 'up there' for Her Dad. I wouldn't doubt if they were both smiling down and pretty proud of their kids.

When we came back in and walked under the stands her Mom and Grand Mother were standing there waiting on her. But, they ran over to me and gave me a big hug. They said how much they appreciated what I did. Her grandmother was crying. She got to me pretty good. I know what they are going through in losing someone so important to them. I am just glad that I could make this a little easier.

Today I had to take my car in to get the A/C looked at. It is just shutting off from time to time. They just called and said it would cost $730 to fix. Immediately I thought to myself, "Man if I still worked in the corporate world, I wouldn't even bat an eyelash about this." But, it gave me an immediate headache. After taking a few minutes and catching my breath, I thought of last night and all those kids that I can reach every day in teaching. You know that Master Card "Priceless" commercial campaign? Well, for me... teaching = priceless.
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My Life: The Big Half Time Dance is Tomorrow Night

Tomorrow night is the big shin-dig at 1/2 time of the football game. I will be all decked out with my "50's" jeans, white t-shirt, and black Chuck Taylors. The girl's dance team will be dancing with their Dads. It will be strange to be standing in for a Dad, but I will be glad to help out my student.

I got the reminder email tonight about practice on Friday afternoon for this dance... and my stomach turned. I had actually forgotten all about it. So much had been going on that I didn't really think about it much this week.

The good thing, the song is only about 3 minutes long. I can't make that much of a fool out of myself in only 3 minutes, right? :)

It will be neat to be able to watch the football game this time. Last time I went we had Aidan there and he was so tired (poor little guy). We only stayed for about a quarter of the game. Plus, I couldn't really watch much of it.

Anyway, I'll tell everyone here in Fordee blogreading land all about it on Saturday. :) Wish me luck (please don't say "Break a leg!" I have done that 4 times already!)

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My Life: Football Season is Well Under Way

I have been meaning to post this picture, but I have been so busy with school work. Football season is well underway. It started off with a bang as my Texans marched right down the field and scored a TD. Then they picked off McNabb and it was looking "super-awesome." Then the roof caved in.

Yeah, time to "go gett'um" next week in Indy, where the Texans have never won. In fact, they have never beaten the Colts - period. No time like the present, eh?

The NFL and college football weekend was pretty great, but I hated seeing my PSU Lions demoralized on national tv against ND. The Sunday night and Monday night football games were very good. (I fell asleep before the end of daRAIDERs and Chargers, but the first game was great)

Tonight I am BEAT tired. I am heading to bed now at 9pm. Norma and I have been correcting papers like crazy. Lots of work at the beginning of the year. After the first six weeks is over it seems to get a little easier. You start to work ahead a little better. So we'll see.

Time for sweet dreams of Texans victories (unfortunately that might be the only place I see one for a while... we started with Eagles, this wee: Colts, then Redskins, Dolphins, Cowboys and Jaguars -- OUCH)
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