Well, there are only about 9 more days until the election. I thought of driving over to Pennsylvania and helping drive people to the polls, but I'd already signed up to work counting votes here in MA. We've seen narry a presidential commercial on our television stations around here. The only way we even know there's an election is if we watch the news. I"m making myself sick by reading all the coverage and worrying about the fact that Bush might get re-elected. If that happens, then I worry about the whole world. I'm serious.

Well, today the Iraqi papers showed the photos of the US abuses in Saddam's old prison of torture. I don't think I've been as ashamed of being an American ever before in my life.

Up until now, I've supported staying over there to help the Iraqis. After all, we were the ones that made most of the messes. We ought to clean them up. I thought!

Now, I think the only thing to do is get out of there before all the people rise up against us. We need to get out. I'm even wondering if we'll wake up in the morning to chanting crowds yelling, "Go home! Get out!"

Hello, everyone. I got to teach art for 1/2 a day this morning. It was great fun because I got to do my own thing, so I used my little decoders. It was just the right amount of time as well because I could leave at noon and get many other things done. Too bad for any of you who didn't come to our house for supper tonight because we had some delicious red lentil soup. I think it tasted better than usual for some reason. Maybe because I've been laying off the sweets and junk food. That always makes regular, healthy food taste much better.

Well, Sally and I didn't make any cinnamon rolls. We made some strawberry-rhubarb pies. We did, however, have some rolls at an Italian restaurant last night. They looked lquite a bit like cinnamon rolls, and, unlike the rest of the meal, they were quite good. For such a high priced meal, I was truly disappointed.

Hey, and now Sally has joined us! Wahoo! Maybe this is going to be interesting after all. Right now I am at the Hilton St. Louis Airport Hotel. John got us this place with one of his nice 'deals.' David is enjoying working on another computer right across from me. I guess nowadays you can find computers anywhere--at least anywhere where more affluent people gather. This place has a nice pool, and D. and I were regretting not bringing some sort of swim wear because the pool is empty.

We loved Jane's house. Nearly every room is decorated with sports stuff. Quite amazing actually that there is so much variety, but I'm sure they have only a sampling of what is out there.

Now, our only biggest problem is getting up before four a.m. and getting to the ariport for a 6 a.m. flight. Whew. Maybe it's time for bed.

More later.

brer

Hello Brer! You are probably on a plane right now. Good thing Jane has a treadmill so you can keep up on your goal. I think I'll come home this weekend for a visit, and hopefully we can make some more cinnamon rolls!!

Hey! Welcome to Bill. I'm glad I checked my BLOG just before going to Jane's. I'll add more later.

I'm trying to decide what book to take with me when I fly to Jane's tomorrow. I need something that's lightweight. Something that's interesting. I'll probably take two or three books--one that's more ponderous, like one of the books Sally brought home from Newsweek. One is about the Iraq war (do I really want to read about that?)--the other is about how the miracles in Genesis and Exodus can be explained scientifically. That's the kind of book I enjoy reading, but maybe it brands me as a skeptic or apostate or something. I'm more sensative about that nowadays. I know there are a lot of good classics I should read, but all the ones I look at don't seem too appealing. We'll see.

I've been doing very well at my plan to use the treadmill every day. I don't notice that I'm any stronger or any more firm or anything like that. I'm certainly not any less fat, but that could be because sometimes I take just a little pile of chocolate chips and put them on the cup holder and just eat them as I tread. That's pretty counterproductive, isn't it. I don't know how much good I'm doing just treading a fat body along. Maybe that's doing more damage to my heart than just sitting around with a fat body. Hmmmm! The food has got to go. But, I can tell you what the problem is. It's that I've been on two excellent diets where I had all kinds of control and lost 25-30 pounds. Then, I just gained it all back. The second time I gained it back much faster than the first. It's too discouraging to try to diet again with those two big fat failures. It makes me sympathize with smokers or alcoholics.

I'm a little concerned for these movie stars who are gaining and losing weight for parts. I think the body will remember that fatness and it will be much harder for them to lose next time. Or...maybe they just have extraordinary will power. It's long been my contention that many movie stars have a free pass to heaven. Those who keep weight off, that is.

My heaven would be very interesting. It would include people who have conquered difficult challenges--like drug addiction. Maybe it would include everyone. Probably would.

Well, I guess I'd better pack.

I got a little tired of this blog because nobody was joining in on it with me. I wonder if that's what life is like for people who live alone. I wonder how they find things to keep themselves going. I've never lived alone. I don't have a clue.

Wahoo! Jane was able to get in.
I just installed a McAfee Antivirus on the computer, so I'm hoping that it might help the computer work better. I had to get around the ancient Norton anti-virus that I couldn't UN install no matter what I did. Somehow it worked, and is on my computer now.

I'm hoping John had a nice birthday. I still haven't done anything nice for my sister Elaine who got married way last summer, so I guess no one would expect that I would be doing anything nice for John's birthday. But, maybe I'll surprise them both, sometime.

More later.

Finally!!!! I am able to join the brermomo blog! Not too much exciting is going on around here. We went to Chili's tonight for John's birthday dinner. Before that, I went to the dentist for another cavity filling -- bitter!!!
Let's see if this works....

Well, it seems that nobody has figured out how to respond to this. Maybe I need to invite you all again. I'll study the "Help" section and see what to do.

Right now, I'm happy because we got a treadmill, and I'm getting a little exercise.

However, I am coming more and more to believe that sugar is the source of much trouble in my life. I think it makes me lose my memory. (I'm keeping track of this, but I've been OD-ing on sugar this past week, and the kids who live here are noticing that my memory is even worse than usual.

I also think sugar makes me feel lethargic and goal-free. I mostly want to sit in a chair and stair at the wall. That is my big goal. That's a symptom of depression also, I think, but the sugar thing is real. Maybe more minor and more quickly fixable. Just stop eating sugar. That is easier said than done, however. Especially for a tightwad like me who sees delicious packages of Valentine hearts (truffles) marked down 75% to $1. Yikes!

But the pleasure is not worth what it does to you. Finish off the heart box, and head for the tread mill. Better still, throw the heart box in the trash, but you know I never can do that. Better, even better, DON'T BUY THE MARKED-DOWN candy.

Well, I made three pans of cinnamon rolls last night. Christine came home from work and said, "I should take these over to the bakery for samples, they are so good!"

They were so good that I'd eaten about 6 of them before Christine even got home.

It's been about 15 years since I made any cinnamon rolls, and maybe it will be 15 more, because Christine and I are going to sit down together tonight and really work out a serious eating (and non-eating) plan, accompanied by exercise.

For me, it will begin tomorrow.

That means I have to gobble up that extra package of Oreos I got at the blood center today after I successfully donated platelets. Ha!

Today I taught half a day for a music teacher. Imagine my surprise when I went into the room and found another music teacher there. It was a couple of music teachers who team teach. They put two classes together and work together. Consequently, he had everything planned and I basically sat there for three hours.

This is frustrating for me for three reasons:

First, and I don't say this to brag, but just because it's true---Usually I would do a better job than they are doing, and it kills me to sit there and watch. Occasionally I get a few good ideas, but not often. Today the teacher had good classroom control using a few gimmicks and the "candy box," but the kids spent most of the time listening to him recite the words of a silly program they'll be doing in the spring. He would say the words, then they'd listen to the song, then the kids would sing. Over and over. I hated to think of all the times they'd be doing this before SPRING!

Second, they don't need me, so I sit there like a dummy. This particular teacher told me he had everything planned, and they really didn't need me, but it was a rule that they had to have me. Sometimes, he said, when they can't find a sub, the teacher agrees to teach the whole class, and gets paid the sub pay. He sounded a little remorseful that I'd showed up. It makes me mad that teachers can't just cover once in a while without getting a sub OR getting more pay.

So that gets me to the third frustrating point. I start thinking of how rotten the system is that forces these rules upon teachers and subs and kids, and how if people were only generous on the one hand, and didn't take advantage of others on the other hand, we wouldn't need these rules that botch everything up.

Today I taught half the day for a music teacher. When I went into the room, there was already a teacher in there. Later I found that there are two music teachers who team teach. So, I mainly just sat there and watched the fellow teach for three hours.

This is so frustrating to me, for three reasons.

First, and I don't say this to brag, but only because it's the truth...most of the time, I could do a better job than they are doing. This particular guy was a good musician, but he wasn't a good teacher of children. They spent the whole period singing and repeating and going over a silly little musical production they will put on in the spring. I can't imagine how many days of that there are for them in the future. There was lots of classroom control and forced listening and repeating, but no fun. And the songs were quite boring. And Difficult! Big jumps and fast notes for 1st and 2nd graders.

Second, I'm bored because they don't need me and they don't use me. There is no reason for me to be there, and, in fact, this particular teacher told me that sometimes when they can't get a sub, one of them just takes both classes and gets paid the sub pay. In other words, he seemed disappointed that I came (to sit). What a racket.

Third, I sit there thinking how rotten the system is that they can't just cover for each other once in a while without having to call a sub or get paid more. I can see how it would be hard to handle two classrooms all the time, but once in a while. Please!

I guess today we could call this GROUNDHOG-BLOG!

Why do you think anyone came up with the dumbest holiday ever---GROUNDHOG DAY? It isn't as if February needs another holiday. There are plenty of good holidays around this time of year. Why don't we just forget about GROUNDHOG DAY! It doesn't mean anything! The groundhog doesn't really do anything. In fact, it's a pet groundhog they use to predict the weather on this day, not even a real wild groundhog. So stupid! If I was teaching school, I would throw away all my groundhog stuff (except the book called, "The Big Snow') and never mention it again.

That's my tirade for the day.

Yesterday I took some photos of family members sledding down the hill outside. I brought them in to put them on the computer, and somehow got them in bmp instead of jpg---so now I can't get them to go in the e-mail. Do I have any idea what I'm doing? No! I think it's the computer playing tricks on me. I'm serious about this. It's getting a little unstable, and one of the ways it manifests this is by whimsically changing all the settings. Very frustrating.

hello to everyone reading brer's blog. i'm at the crane school of music computer lab now, doing some work. later i'm going to a birthday party. everyone should come visit my awesome but freezing apartment sometime; i'll let you all know when my recital is scheduled. until then, i hope to see many of you on the blog! HAHAHA

Well, my settings tell me that David has joined the team. I noticed, however, that he made no comments on the blogger page. Have you nothing to say, David?

I just figured out how to change the time zone on my post, so now it's correct for the Eastern US.

OK, I just invited all family members to my blog. I wonder whether or not any of them will join.

Today I'm having troubles trying to get my Norton Anti-virus to work. in order to update the antivirus, I have to get rid of the old anti-virus. But my computer refuses to get rid of the old one. So I bought an update, and it did the same thing. I tried doing an emergency check by putting it on before the machine started up, but it took all night, and never finished. Ug!
So, now I'm not sure what to do.

I'm trying to do some studying today to see how I can connect comments to my site. That way, you can share your views with me.

Now I'm going to try to do a link.
This is one of my favorite places to go.

Did my linking work? We'll see.

Hey! This is my very first time blogging EVER!
It happened on a day when I went out sledding with my kids.
I also hit high F very nicely on a song called, "The Wintry Day."
I nearly finished a project I've put off for 30 years.
I saw a white Canada Goose swiming on the lake.
And my long-time favorite politician is winning in the polls.

What more could I want!!!

Oh, I know! I found some half priced orange,yellow, and green peppers along with some half priced plum tomatoes, so I'm going to make some mild salsa! That just about makes this day perfect.