Friday Photos

A look back at the week, Monday through Friday, through pictures

Our district didn't have school on Monday of this week. It was a nice break for the kids.  The last day off of school that students had was Labor Day (I think? Maybe there was one additional one). It seemed about time for another one. We didn't do anything exciting at home but the day didn't warrant exciting activities; the goodness was in sleeping in and not having to go anywhere. Alyssa did a run on her own (no xc practice) and spent time with a friend.

Speaking of friends, on Monday a friend texted me that she'd left some cookies for us in a container in our mailbox. I couldn't get outside to the mail box fast enough and am ashamed to admit that I was a little bit disappointed that the cookies didn't look like the chocolaty goodness that I was hoping they'd be. They looked fall festive, though, and I knew they'd taste good (my friend who brought them to us is an excellent baker).  Before I could try one, my friend texted me that the cookie type was brown butter, oatmeal, pumpkin with chocolate chips and a brown butter glaze. YES! They did contain some chocolate. And what flavor combos! They were incredibly good. 

I mentioned that I've been making air fried French fries lately. So when I saw this "fry cutter" gadget on clearance at Kroger, of course I was drawn to it and debated purchasing it. I don't find cutting potatoes for fries to be *that* onerous but on the other hand, if it saved me ten minutes and potentially slicing/ nicking myself with the knife (as happens on occasion when cutting veggies) then it would be a justifiable purchase. I bought it and tried it out the next day. Dud. Did not work as advertised. (Though I am not completely ruling out user error...) Disappointing but I was functioning pretty well without it so I guess I'll carry on without it. And I didn't lose too much money.

Something I did lose the very next day that was not small potatoes (no pun intended) was my Kindle. I mean, I didn't lose it as in I could not find it anywhere. Rather, it stopped working. The Kindle was only just out of warranty years old (that is between one and two years old). So frustrating. My first Kindle lasted about ten years and this one lasted about 15 months. I got on Amazon right away to order my Kindle's replacement and it arrived in less than 24 hours, thankfully. Now hopefully the third one is a charm like the first one. I've got books to read… I need a good Kindle.

My two Kindles- I haven’t thrown the bad one out yet in case it revives itself.  I didn’t notice that the one I ordered isn’t the same size as the one that went bad until it arrived.

I planned for upcoming trip to Erie, PA. While doing all sorts of searches related to the travel as well as my time there,  an important one was figuring out long the trip was going to take. 

This result cracked me up. Why would anyone chose to drive for 5 hours and 55 minutes when the same destination can be driven to in 4 hours and 46 minutes? I am all for options when I travel and sometimes do take a route that will take me slightly longer if I know that I prefer the roads on the longer route but the key word there is "slightly." The only scenario where I could see choosing the hour and nine minute longer drive option is if I was severely dreading getting to my destination!

While I like the cozy concept of fall and winter, I don't like to actually be cold. We had some mild temperatures this week which was lovely especially knowing how truly cool and then cold weather will be here within the next month or so. 

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I subbed three days this week and on the last day of the week that I subbed, I walked into the classroom in the morning and saw this- a mostly clear teacher's desk. That was a problem because normally the teacher's desk is where sub plans are placed by the teacher if the teacher knows in advance that he or she will gone the next day as was the case here. I didn't panic (yet) because I figured the teacher had emailed her sub plans to another teacher who hadn't printed them yet and that was the case. It was just odd because I've subbed for this teacher numerous times over the past few years and I've never walked into her room without sub plans being on the desk. Just the idea of twenty five students being in the classroom, looking unexpectedly at me at the start of class and me staring back at them with nothing to tell them because I don't have plans fills with anxiety! It was all good though.  I got the plans (I *knew* I would but until I saw the plans, I could't relax) and it was a good day, all in all (days in school are never perfectly smooth but this one was better than a lot of them). Anyway, I took a picture of the desk to send to a sub friend saying, "I HAVE NO SUB PLANS!" I knew she'd feel my almost panic!

I asked Donnie to go through pictures that were posted to the school's cross country facebook page as a couple of parents with great cameras, lenses and know how take pictures at meets and post them to the page (what a kind thing for those parents to do!). I wanted to see the pictures for an end of season project. Donnie said he spent about an hour culling through posts to find pictures of Alyssa, bless his heart. Found a few good ones of Alyssa...

The season will be over soon which is not a bad thing. She started conditioning in early June so... she's sort of done with it mentally and physically, too. She'll probably run over the winter but she'll definitely give herself a break after the season is done.