What do Kubla Khan and Cheese have in common?

In Madison did Eric find
A tasty cheesy treat well-fried.
Within the cafeteria
Behind the plexiglass clear shield
Held waiting under heat.
So first he asked to have a bowl
And then he tasted new delight.
Crispy with a melted center,
Yellow, not that mozzarella.
Though close cousins the two do be,
A stronger personality –
More individuality.
But oh! That gooey goodness did go know I not
And I did decree within that place that day!
A savage a place as I have ever known
For foodstuffs’ lives depend on fickle students
And their tastes do wax and wane amongst many!
From this place I would save my new favorite treat.
As if in my power it had been to save them
A mighty fountain of my willpower
A deluge in the comment box commenced
Did soon sway the gods themselves to my mind
And within a week fried cheese curds had returned.
That with music loud and long,
I would taste in my mouth,
That crunchy crust, that cheese ooze!
And all who saw would want them then,
And all who smelled them, not resist.
For all who came on fried cheese fed,
And ate the cheese of paradise.

Ok, Brett, now you have to win!

Silly me, I thought that Favre was a non-issue. I actually thought that it was now down to Jackson and Rosenfels and I was wondering how well we could count on them to hand off and throw a pass once in a while. It seems that Favre is now a Viking. Everything I've seen said it was pending a physical today, but if he was going to fail a physical today, it would have happened anymore. I feel a little sorry for Rosenfels. Jackson has had enough chances to prove himself and we can't spend any more time waiting for him to develop. I remember when Favre was a newish quarterback and I always looked forward to the games we'd play the Packers because the Vikings defense always feasted on his wild throws. Little did I know then that he would develop into one of the best QB's ever. Even then, Favre was exciting. I don't get the same feeling from Jackson and have been giving him the benefit of the doubt these past few seasons. But even with Adrian Peterson consuming the opposing teams' attention, he couldn't manage to make the throws he needed to make. Rosenfels, even though he hasn't been a great QB in the past, made this move with the idea that he would be able to compete for the starting position. But, this is professional football, and you need to be the best at your position on a team to start and if a team can get someone better, you're out of luck. I think the saddest part is that Favre is the best QB we have now, even at 40. We've had how many years since Culpepper imploded to develop some talent? At least we didn't go after Jeff George!

Saying all of that, the Vikings are a better team today than they were yesterday. Show us the wins, Brett.

New Marathon Plan

Grandma's is too far away and will cost too much to run. More specifically, it will cost too much to travel and stay for the weekend in Duluth. So, I have decided to run the local marathon in May instead. The River Towns Marathon will be on Saturday, May 8, 2010. I'm putting my goal out there right now. I want to run it in under 4 hours. I think that's a realistic goal. I would love to do it in 3 or even under 3.5, but I'm just not sure I can do that at this point. Closer to the actual date, I'll reevaluate this goal and see where my training is. 9 minute miles would put me at right around 4 hours. 8 minute miles would put me right around 3.5 hours. I have not raced any 5k's lately (I plan on doing one in September), but I can't seem to get a training run of 5k in 8 minute miles, so I'm not sure that I can get that pace for 26.2 miles in May. We'll see.

No more travelling!

Ok, the two trips to the relatives are done for the summer. We had a great time in both Wisconsin and NJ, but I am done travelling. Actually, I'm done staying away from home for a while. The travelling itself was actually pretty good. We took the trip to WI in one shot each way. Of course, we got out to eat and stretch a few times, but we did the 12 hour drive each way without staying in a hotel (at least $200 saved). Both of the kids were really good in the car, and they slept through the sloooooow traffic through Chicago. As for how they slept in the two states, it left a lot to be desired. In WI, the little one slept great, but the other one kept crawling into my wife's twin bed and proceeded to try to sleep sideways and gave her a nasty bruise on the leg. In NJ, the older one slept great, but the little one screamed like a banshee at least twice each night and required multiple car rides to get settled down.

Now that we are home, we've had two good nights to sleep and I don't plan on taking them anywhere else anytime soon.

It was good to see some good things from the Vikings last night. It looks like Sage is putting the pressure on Tarvaris. I hope the QB competition will bring out the best in the team and we get a good QB out of it this year. I think I'm actually rooting for Sage because Tarvaris just hasn't shown much of a spark, ever.

One full week left until school starts. I really am excited about this year. I have three major goals (and none of them have anything to do with PSSA scores).

1. Stay positive - I'm not getting sucked into the complaining cycle or letting middle school students determine my mood.

2. Play - I have a lot of tech toys to play with this year and I plan on using them as much as possible.

3. Relax - This is similar to #1, but I got way too uptight in the classroom last year. By staying positive and playing, I want my classroom to be a relaxed place where I and my students feel comfortable and enthusiastic about learning.

Great Technology and a Broken Shifter

I had a great week of tech workshops at school. I'm pretty excited because my classroom has an interactive white board, I have a new laptop with some administrative rights, and I'm working on a tech heavy, interactive school year. After four days of great tech workshops, I hopped in my manual shift car without power steering and the shifter broke. I'm currently stuck in first gear and anything much over 10 mph gets me close to redlining the tachometer. I managed to drive back to school and, much to my surprise, I have wireless internet access in my classroom. That was a nice surprise considering I don't have an ethernet cable to plug in with.

Hopefully, the tow truck will be here soon (they said half an hour), so I should pack up and wait with the car.

Faulty microwaves and plumbing

What a weekend! Yesterday, our microwave oven starting giving long, loud beeps, putting F3 on the display and refusing to work. I checked the manual - nothing. I checked the website - nothing. General Electric does not want us to know what their fault codes are. I, however, was not so easily daunted. I continued searching and found that it meant that the keypad had a short in it. I also found that replacing that keypad would be an extremely annoying project, so I called in a professional. He can't get the part until midweek, so we are without easy leftovers until then.

Last night, we got home from a great wedding that was under a tent amid some serious thunderstorms and as we were brushing our teeth, the sink stopped giving cold water. The hot water worked fine. I checked the other faucets and nothing upstairs would give us cold water. Downstairs, everything was working fine. Unfortunately, all of our tubs/showers are upstairs. At least one toilet is downstairs. The plumber is coming tomorrow.

To top it all off, the sad rumors have come true. I heard that SciFi was thinking of changing its brand to try to distance itself from its own reputation for Science Fiction. That in itself is cause for mourning. But they did it in the oddest way. No longer named SciFi, they are now SyFy, which I can't help but pronounce in my head as Siffy (rhymes with spiffy), and that makes it very difficult to take the channel seriously. I have noticed a decline in their programming as it veered more and more away from science fiction and added all of that ghost hunters, etc... junk. I am saddened.

Grandma's Marathon 2010

Well, now would be the time to commit. It's scheduled for June 19, well after school is out and planning now leaves no good reasons not to do it. Do I commit now? If I wait, I won't do it. If I do it, I'm doing it right this time - no pulled muscles at mile 17. The 34th Grandma's Marathon in Duluth, MN will be held at 7:30 am on June 19, 2010. Who's in?