officially employed

so i officially have a job for next year, pending a whole slew of bureaucratic nonsense regarding lincensure etc. i'll be teaching 2nd grade at this school which is exciting because i really wanted to teach 2nd grade seeing as i already have a lot of experience with that grade level. plus i just dodge the standardized testing bullet seeing as virginia only starts such sillyness in 3rd. it's a beautiful school, the building must be 50+ years old but still in good condition, and the staff i've met are friendly. plus one of my classmates from g dubs has also been hired there so we're like, taking over the school in the name of george washington. sweet. of course, the one downside is the intense commute which should take somewhere between 30-45 minutes, but i'll survive.

in other news, bastista has begun to shed away his tail skin. this is a momentous occation because he has shed his head and body twice now without shedding his tail (little known fact, many lizards don't shed all at once like a snake). we were a little worried that his tail growth was stunted and that batista would develop a tail complex, but then again, he never sees other uromastyxes, so for all he knows, he's the most well hung lizard around. in any case, it's been apparent for the last week or so that he was going to shed his tail and i've been anxiously awaiting this moment so i could post some wicked shedding pictures here, but the whole process was lack luster this time, so here are some pictures of batista shedding from a couple of months ago, we can just pretend:





the totally gross part about all this is that he instinctually eats his skin after he sheds it. in the wild this would prevent him from leaving behind any clues that say "hey, this way to a tasty morsel" to predators, but in captivity there's just an "oh my God, he's eating his own skin!" factor.

in addition, i'd like to post this yahoo news article just because i think it's hilarious. oh, are you wondering about that rhino picture up there? i dunno, i just thought it was cool.

memorial day

i'd have to say my memorial day weekend officially started when i got in my car to pick caroline up from the metro friday afternoon. it was one of those moments when you start up the car and the radio kicks in just as a kick ass stong is starting, and the kick ass song that started out memorial day: banditos, by the refreshments, a song i don't think i've heard since LAST summer. what's more exciting is that this was the beginning of dc101's top 500 "modern rock" songs memorial day countdown and damn, i'm a total sucker for big radio countdowns. in any case, i guess the songs were all voted upon through the website for the last two weeks, so you know it's accurate. i think anyone could guess what number one was because it was the perrenial topper of any "modern rock" list, yes, the trophy went to smells like teen spirit. actually, nirvana made it to the top 5 not once, but twice! totally wack, especially since neither green day nor g&r made it to the top 10 once, i never liked come as you are much anyways. of course, you have to wonder about the criterion for qualifying for the countdown, i mean, bob marley vs. finger eleven? what type of comparison is that? the cranberries vs. crazy town, U2 vs. the hives. sheesh. in any case the fun is all over now, at least until veteran's day i'm sure. anyone crazy like me can check out dc101's definition of awesome "modern rock" can go here. i'm just glad the toadies made it to the top 50.

of course, i actually spent very little time listening to the radio this weekend, dispite how much i managaed to rant about it. caroline and i hiked around the potomac, hung out on a sail boat, and consumed half a dozen crabs as well! we also finally got a chance to see pirates of the carribean 3. we saw it at the uptown and i highly suggest viewing it there. it was preceded by the transformers preview which was also incredible to see on that screen. perhaps the most exciting part about the transformers preview is that i heard the old school transforming sound from the cartoon which is like totally cluch for the success of the movie. as for pirates, i mean, they shot a zombie monkey out of a cannon, how could i diss on a movie like that? i was pretty impressed with the way the movie opted for the bittersweet ending to the love story as opposed to the uber-happy disney ending, as could have been expected, y'know, disney produced the movie. i suggest it, i mean, if you enjoyed the other two that is...

in any case, i'll leave you with a memorial day mix that caroline put together. i thought it was pretty sweet, except, of course, for paul simon, ew.

long live rock-the who
everybody wants some-van halen
rock n' roll aint noise pollution-AC/DC
rock and roll band-boston
its a long way to the top-AC/DC
ride it, my pony-genuwine
come monday-jimmy buffet
nobody told me-john lennon
we're not gonna take it-twisted sister
when the deal goes down-bob dylan
aqualung-jethro tull
sweet judy blue eyes-crosby stills nash young
highway song-blackfoot
jet airliner-steve miller band
slip sliding away-paul simon

the date

so, it's closing in on the year anniversary of when i proposed to caroline, and luckily, she accepted. back on that wonderful august day last year i thought i had it all planned out: a two year engagement! i figured this would be a decent delay of the inevitable reality that is the insanity of actually planning a wedding. but my peace has come to an end, yes, this is the beginning of the end of our engagement: we've set a date. to occur on the 19th day of july 2008, caroline and i finally will be married, and guess where it's all going down! MFing TENLEYTOWN. how freakin' sweet is that? maybe just to me. we are doing the actual ceremony in an episcopalian church in tenley then doing the reception at a mansion currently operated by the adubon society called woodend. heh, wood - end - get it? fun fact: the guy who designed the mansion also designed the jefferson memorial. and i'm sorry, you're bound to hear me repeat that fact ad nauseum until about a year after the wedding.

at least this gives me an excuse to create a corny countdown clock:

photographic evidence

so i sifted through the 200 pictures from caroline, my sister, and my mother's cameras and narrowed them down to four "blog worthy" snapshots. i did, however, post some additional ones on my myspace, creating my first ever myspace picture album... weird... let's go to the photos:


on the mall, take note of the baby blue hood


the family and i, love posing with that faux diploma


george and martha visiting graduation


wooooo

so yea, i've never done the whole writing something on your mortar board before, so i figured with what's probably my last chance, i'd represent ric flair.

in other news i read to the 2nd graders i student taught with yesterday. we started a chapter book called toad rage. a quote from a review on the back of the book reads "it's like the odyssey, but with toads." i'm not sure about that but it certainly was tongue in cheek for second graders. i also hung around and helped them find information for these research papers they're doing about endangered animals. have you ever looked at a close up picture of a california condor? intense.

reading

so, one of the beauties of my time off during the summer is that i actually get to read for fun again. i had intended to get down to some reading over winter break, and even though i did get a chance to read a pretty entertaining unpublished manuscript written by an uncle, i didn't feel like i had really fufilled my literary goals. it was over the winter that my father recommended one hundred years of solitude to me and it's been since then that i've been running around declaring my intentions of reading "one million years of solitude" or "ten thousand years of solitude" or some other similar iteration to anyone who inquired about my summer plans. this book was preempted in my summer reading queue, however, by another, the water is wide which is a memoir of a young twenty-something in the 70's, Pat Conroy, who teaches a year on a small island off the coast south carolina whose population of poor black folk, time has seemingly forgot. it's one of those, teacher goes in and does good for under privledged kids stories, but i have to say, it's better than most. if you're into memoirs or literature about teaching, i'd totally recommend it. it preempted solitude because i received a signed copy of it from my future mother-in-law and hey, signed books get priority in reading for me. does that make sense?
the real point here is that yea, last week i finally got around to starting one hundred years of solitude and i've really been enjoying it! not only because it's a great book (although i was initially weary - this is first time i've ever read a book that's part of oprah's book club) but it's just nice to relearn the joy of reading. i haven't read a book that's not about education in so long, i almost forgot what it's like! oddly enough, though, most of the books in my summer reading queue are about education, at the top of the list are the montessori method (because i have a masters in education and i was never required to read it, wtf) and growing minds on becoming a teacher (because it's demanding a reread from me, and kohl is one of my personal heroes). the top non-education book is the talisman, by stephen king and petter straub, recommended to me by alex kargher like three years ago but i've been hesitant of because of the massive time commitment a 6,000+ page book requires. i recently had the opportunity to buy it for a buck fifty though, so it looks like i'll be soon taking the dive.

also, i graduated

so, there was an original series star trek marathon on today and i just dragged myself away from what could have been the sum total of my activity for the day. i have to say, i got to catch a pretty sweet episode. the crew of the enterprise are on a mission to investigate a lost colony in deep space. once there, they find that there's only one survivor, a brilliant scientist. of course, he's gone mad and is trying to create a perfect society of androids to live in a maze-like network of underground tunnels! in any case, kirk saves the day by playing mind games with the androids, including a scene where a passionate kiss from him drives a female android crazy! bad things always happen when adroids experience love.

before my trek indulgence for the day i got caught up playing civilization III, a game that took up momentus amounts of my time like last summer. it was fun to revisit, but it also lead to me getting bullied by the freakin' iroquois at ten in the morning...


i ended up paying him off, he chastised me for my "craven acts."

but i suppose the real story here is that i graduated this weekend. i twin ceremonies on saturday and sunday morning. saturday was a "recognition ceremony" where i got to do the ol' name called, walk across stage, shake hands with strangers and smile with just my school of 500 graduate students. sunday was the actual graduation which took place on the national mall and involved all 5,000 people graduating from GW this year. it was a pretty impressive scene, although, it took 45 minutes just to get us all seated. the speeches were good and wolf blitzer got an honorary degree. at one point two people dressed like george and martha washington sauntered onto the stage and gave us their blessing. apparently this happens every year... pictures are to come...

my chicken little story

so, the aforementioned rat that lives in my walls/ceiling has taken it's ruckus to a new level. as you can read in my previous post, my primary worry was that the ceiling tiles may not hold up under the weight of what seems to be a sizable rodent. today, my worst fears came true when i heard a large crash and found one of my ceiling tiles on the floor in the living room. i'm sorry, rat, this means war. among the crimes this menace is guilty of:


busting our trippy lighting structure


attempted assassination of our resident tiki guy and squirrel

of course, this drove me to explore above the ceiling tiles. to my disappointment, i didn't catch of glimpse of a rat while i was up there, but then again, i have no idea what i would have done if i had. i took some pictures, of course, and put together this little montage. for anyone who's ever been in our apartment, have you ever wondered what's above those tiles? well, check out what one of our walls would look like WITHOUT THE CEILING TILES!!!

zack attack

so, as caroline's leaving the apartment this morning, she turns to me and says "dude, the clue episode of saved by the bell is on, start taping it." so, i fired up the vcr, thinking i would watch only a few minutes and save the rest to watch with caroline later, but who was i kidding? in this episode, lisa turtle has won a murder mystery themed weekend vacation in an old mansion and has taken the gang along. the game turns into a real life mystery and of course, there's only one man who can solve it, that's right, good old zack morris.
now, you didn't think there would only be one episode of saved by the bell on every morning at 8, did you? no, there's definitely a full hour. i didn't really intend on watching the second one until i heard two words "zack attack." oh yea, mockumentary/fantasy episode about the gang forming the cheesiest freaking pop group ever. for those of you who need a memory jog on the zack attack and their hit song "friends forever", let's go to the video:



i highly suggest those of you with netflix throw these on your queue, i've done the research, these episodes are on the fourth disc of the seasons 3&4 collection. YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO ADD IT, SO JUST DO IT!

i also got practical things accomplished today, including but not limited to getting my bike tuned up. now that thing can stop on a dime. totally sweet. i found out, however, that my favorite bike mechanic/hardware store (the one in dupont by second story books) is moving soon because the building is to be renovated. it seems like this is happening all over dc and it freaks me out when places i love are replaced with big snazzy condo buildings. but i digress. i also unlocked dr. mario in super smash brothers melee, which means another summer goal gets checked off the list.

mother's day

so, as many of you know, AU has a tradition of holding commencement ceremonies on mother's day. the common belief is that this tradition was started by ben ladner himself (supposedly someone once wrote him a sweet speech linking mother's day and graduation and he insisted they be forever joined just so he could sound good and endear himself to mothers in the audience year after year). the tradition is still going strong, even though we've long ago said good riddance to the old bastard.
so, in any case, caroline and i could not resist the call of FREE FOOD and au seemed like the prime place to find it today. seeing as we never moved more than a mile away, it was a short trip to crash graduation. but hey, after all the tuition, i deserve to get a free chicken salad sandwich and mini-quiche every now and then. we actually randomly showed up right on time for the SOC reception. for those of you out of the loop, both caroline and i happen to be graduates of SOC. it was fun visiting AU (i actually don't remember the last time i was in the mary graydon center) but also weird because i expect to see a lot of people i know and that doesn't happen as much anymore. all the same, it's funny to overhear people bitch about the same old things we used to when we were there.
campus is pretty much the same, except the market place has a panini place (wtf is a panini anyways?) and there's a huge carved wooden eagle on the quad, in front of the library. i didn't have a camera, but it is crazy and ostentatious and i'll post a picture soon...

thursday

so today concluded my trilogy of school interviews this week with one out in vienna. it was surprizingly an ok commute and a really pretty school. i felt saturated by the spirit of spring this morning, so i broke out the old robin egg blue blazer and planned the rest of the outfit accordingly. check it out, i think the thumbs up makes the outfit:



who wouldn't hire this guy

special thanks to richie, one of the perks of him staying with us is the ability to raid his tie collection.

afterwards i congratulated myself by fufilling my first summer goal: circumnavigating Roosevelt Island by kayak. my next kayaking goal: Snake Island. sounds a lot more exciting, ne? actually, Roosevelt Island is plenty exciting, it was a beautiful loop and i got to meet a totally awesome baby red eared slider turtle just chillen on a rock.

finally, seriously, i vow not to go off on tangents about the wwe or lost, but holy bananas, batman, last night's episode of LOST was awesome. definitely the best in a while. really, i feel like even though they created a lot more questions, i was satiated with what they revealed about the dharma initiative. totally sweet.

pests

so, the single oldest denizen of our graden has gone the way of the buffalo. our beloved kale plant, the last of an original four kale plants, had to be executed (by uprooting) because of a wicked aphid infestation. the plant was one year old. it was just too much... here are some pictures.



yea, every one of those little bumps is an aphid



just so we are straight on this, we're talking about a LARGE plant covered in aphids



the intensity that is my arm covered in aphids

some other plants in the lettuce patch have been infected, but we believe to have spotted aphid parasites and are considering buying some ladybugs... but then what happens when we have a ladybug infestation...

in, non-aphid news, i interviewed at two schools today and have another interview tomorrow morning... i actually wore two different ties today... madness...

alright, it's about time

phew, so, that final stretch between spring break and the end of grad school was INTENSE. but i'm done now, and i'm dedicated to chronicling my summer RIGHT HERE on blogger, starting TODAY!

so, with school out, the cinco de mayo party cleaned (thanks again to everyone who attended, great party!), and wedding plans FINALLY coming together, there's still one thing i'm scared about. WHAT THE HELL IS THAT NOISE IN MY CEILING?

as many of you may know, i have a fake ceiling, y'know like the type you had in grade school with the square tiles. so yea, its not really a big hassle but there's something alive up there, and it's like having a party nightly. right now my best guess is that it's a rat. this rat spends a lot of time around and above our bathroom and is SUPER NOISY, especially at around 10 pm. i've thought about giving it a name, but caroline is ready to go to war, and i don't want to have too much sympathy for the enemy. i've also contemplated moving one of the ceiling tiles and going after it. the real danger is that one of my ceiling tiles is perpetually soggy because there's a leak somewhere above. i'm not sure it could hold the wait of a rat and it would suck to be covered in moist ceiling tile with a rat at your feet.

here is an artist's rendering of what we believe this rat to look like:



have a nice day...