Ha ha, not that you’d notice, it’s rained on and off for a week. My backyard is a soggy mess, the pool hasn’t gotten above well, freezing it seems. We’ve all been staring at the four walls driving each other nuts.

Conor will be six next week - yep you read that right, 6yrs has past since you heard me bitching and moaning about how being pregnant was not my favorite pastime. Keep your fingers crossed the sun will make an appearance next weekend for our planned barbecue (why do I still insist on spelling barbecue with a qu instead of cue?).

School is over for another year, the new principal was a hit, I got a new fancy shmancy smartboard and a new laptop, so the year wasn’t a complete loss.

Now it’s full steam ahead preparing for summer camp. Radio station is already set up, need to go down a few more days this week to finish and hopefully I can relax for a few days before starting on the 29th.

And guess what…M will be working with me all summer. No hanging out day in and day out on the xbox, no strolling the streets with boredom, he’ll actually be earning some cash this summer.

Talking about the xbox, my addiction hasn’t faltered, I’m still  in front of it shooting up terrorists any chance I get. Damn, I don’t remember the last time I watched tv - is there anything good on these days?

Me, well this week I’m ok, previous weeks not so much. I can’t lie to you, life without my dad just isn’t. It sounds extreme I know but I’m having a little difficulty picking myself up and getting on with things. When my mom died my focus was on my dad, keep him happy, sympathize, pat him on the back, hold him up, hug him when he cried. Now it’s all about me, I don’t need to be strong for someone else, and I don’t seem to be able to be strong for me, I have no focus, more time to think, and when I think I cry.

Anyway, like I said this week I’m ok. I got through his Birthday, June 17th without a hitch, I made it through Father’s day I’m hoping things will get easier, I don’t like feeling this way.  I did however cancel my July trip to Wales. I just can’t. Walking into that house void of my parents, seeing familiar things, too many memories all at once … maybe next year.

Now I have to pop over to facebook, did I mention my ddiction to mafia wars :)?

Listening to teachers whine about how they have so much more work these days, pisses me off. Tell me, what other job can you think of that has  170 paid vacation days per year? $46,000 min starting salary/yr and they only work 195 of those days. With annual increases the max they earn is just over  $100,000/yr - seriously, from where I stand, there’s no cause to whine.

Granted, Catholic school teachers get paid a lot less but when you take into consideration the Catholic school system is obsessed with half days, I think they’re well compensated. eg by the end of this school year out of the required 175 instructional days at C’s school, 52 of them were half days (almost a 1/3 of the school year) - a half day is getting out of school anytime between 11am and 12.

By comparison,  NYPD start at $43,000/yr and get 27 paid vacation days AFTER 5 yrs of service.

All I can say is WOW!  I wouldn’t mind if they went after people who really ruin my online gameplay by exploiting glitches in the game (which could be rectified if makers of the game would patch them as they surfaced), using modded controllers (shooting a million rounds per second from a 45) and lag switches (freezing me but allowing them to pump a million rounds/sec out of their 45), but come on, who gives a crap if someone justs wants a big gamerscore and thinks their cool with all their achievements?

So MS answer to those who increase their game score illegitimately is to reset the score to zero - (they’re calling it ‘gamerscore corrections’) then they  put a big permanent scarlet letter on the profile labeling them a cheater. What a total waste of resources - I’d prefer they put more effort into fixing the seemingly endless problems with their console, a complete redesign would be nice loading the console with parts not bought from a 99c store.

I pretty much agree with everything in this article. Cheaters come in all shapes and sizes, why stop at only those who use ‘game saves’? There are loads of achievements accessible with the help of friends eg having friends purposely throw a match so you get the ‘3 of a kind’ achievement in Rainbow Six Vegas 2,  having friends purposely fail in RB2 hero so you can save them and get the ‘band savior’ achievement. There’s even a longwinded glitch to get the expert achievment in Guitar hero 2 - but seriously, what’s the point?

Prior to my 7th year at school, homework, quizzes, tests and exams were nonexistent. Plain and simple, we didn’t get them! We were taught each day in class, we learned together in class as a class, nothing was taken home, we didn’t have book bags. This was elementary school.

At age 11 everyone took the ‘big’ exam - the eleven plus - it pretty much consisted of everything you had learned in school up to that date. The results of that exam determined whether you went to the ‘Grammar School’ (the ones who passed) or ‘Secondary modern’ school (if you didn’t pass). It’s not so wildly used now, somebody somewhere decided that no child should feel they weren’t as intelligent as the next, the beginning of the ‘everyone is equal and special’ era.

Then came Grammar school (junior high). In my first year I studied history, geography, biology, physics, chemistry, mathematics, English language, English literature, religion, German and French then you chose from woodwork, cooking or needlework - I don’t think I left anything out.
By the end of my 2nd year in junior high I had to choose what I wanted to study for my remaining years at the school. I had to choose 5 subject excluding Eng. Lit, Eng. Lan. and Math - I chose Geography, Physics, Biology, German and French.

Danger - spoiler - sort off

It’s always been a rule of mine to give a movie a miss if I’ve read the book, especially if I enjoyed the book.

So why oh why did I break the rule and watch “Twilight” - what a load of garbage. The first question I have to ask is “did the director even read the book”?

Things I thought important were left out, and major things happened that weren’t in the book - like the other vampires attacking and killing humans TWICE just didn’t happen.

It was one disappointment after the other. The acting was atrocious, Edward was not how I imagined, Johnny Depp (regardless of his age) was more along the lines of my perfect Edward. Robert Pattinson’s fuffy eyebrows did nothing for me, and failed miserably to look intimidating - dude, you’re a friggin vampire, show some teeth!

Even the Cullen’s house wasn’t what it was suppose to be - big white and in the middle of a meadow turned into huge glass tree house surrounded by…well trees.

After seeing the movie I now think of Rob P rather than the gorgeous Edward Cullen - the fantasy just isn’t the same.

Where in hells name did the school year go? Holy crap, it only seems like yesterday I was whining about another school year starting. Minus all the days off and half days from now until the end of June, I only have 15 more days to work before summer!

Kindergarten is almost at an end for C, my baby will be going into FIRST GRADE and M will be a Junior in high school. By next week both will be out of college, working in a job and supporting me in the lifestyle I’ve always wanted to become accustomed to - lol sure, I can dream..

Is it me or is the world spinning faster?