the ego band-aid

Chloe: (to Hyrum) Mommy poured me a lot of milk because I’m a big girl, and she poured you a little milk because you’re a little boy.
Hyrum: (immediately bursting into tears–his new trick) Me not little boy! Me big boy! (boo hoo hoo!)
Rik: Don’t worry–you’re a big boy too.
Hyrum: (recovering; quietly) :sniff: Thanks, daddy… :sniff:

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Who Picks Up Our Trash

Who picks up your trash? Waste Management? The City of Wherever You Live? How about your neighbor? Your response would probably be, “Only if I threw it into their yard. Which I don’t. Really.” Well, my neighbor does. Sort of.

Let me explain. I’m going to tell you another “Only in Wamego story.”

Saturday I started making calls, trying to get my trash service finally started (Especially after the Thanksgiving holidays, it’s starting to reach critical mass in my mudroom. Yes, I have a mudroom. But that’s another story). So, in Wamego you have three choices for trash pick up (Why three? That’s another story. Though it sounds pretty interesting. Something about a city trash company and a man who may or may not be in Aruba with a lot more money in his pockets). So, now we have three choices. Or as the nice City lady put it, we can choose from a local company, a not so local company, and a national company. But everyone chooses the local company, no pressure.

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got time to kill? go for a ride!

I first saw this little toy on deviantArt.com a while ago and had a bit of fun with it. Basically, it’s a little flash toy that let’s you draw a line–any line, with as many dips and bumps and drops as you want–that then becomes the slope for a little sledder to take on. It’s loads of fun, but terribly difficult to keep the poor little guy on his sled, which, I suppose, is half of the fun. In my last run, he flew off his sled about a third of the way down, but then slid on his tummy through the next half of it! I laughed out loud. In the office.

Who knew that it would become so popular that Time magazine would do an article about it?

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Welcome to Wamego

I bet in Los Angeles they don’t give out toothbrushes to say “Welcome” (In fact, I know they don’t, since I’ve lived there too). They do here in Wamego. If they weren’t vying for Oz Capital of the world, I’d say they were trying for “Dental Health Capital” of the world. I say this because in our “Welcome to Wamego”Bucket (yes, I said bucket), we got two toothbrushes, toothpaste, dental floss, and no less than five doctor/dentist fridge magnets. I know it’s beginning to sound like a catch phrase, but I have to say it: “Only in Wamego.”

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Drive Safely

Today I saw a motto (a saying, phrase, or principle sometimes found on a car) in action, and I wanted to publicly commend the women in the tan compact vehicle for showing drivers everywhere how she truly felt. It was a slow day, so it called for a slow drive. I didn’t mind. The speed limit is 30 everywhere in Manhattan, Kansas (20 in school zones), and since the good police force is willing to enforce the speed limit quite exuberantly, I obey. So did the nice man in the older brown pickup truck. He slowed down (it was a red light). He stopped. He looked both ways, twice, and proceeded to make his cautious right hand turn. The nice lady behind him let him know he was going a little slow for her taste. First it was the horn (Don’t we all just love that sound? No matter how many times I hear it, I still get all choked up inside). Then it was the finger (not the thumbs up, letting the guy know he was doing great). Lastly, it was the obscenities (like the old guy could hear anything with his classical music blaring and windows rolled up).

As she passed by, I read the license plate cover her car was proudly wearing (unless it wasn’t her car, and she was in a hurry becuase she had just ripped it off). Would you like to know what it was saying? I bet you could guess.

Drive Safely.

Back at you babe.

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how not to respond to a serious/sensitive situation

Very recently, we had a rather negative experience in the middle of what was otherwise a really great homecoming weekend. It upset us so much that we decided something needed to be said, and so we did. Well, Michelle did, and I edited it. She had the fire and the drive, so I made the logical decision to get out of her way and let her run with it.

Since then, we’ve seen some rather interesting consequent actions made by others involved in this whole affair. Some have been commendable, others downright laughable.

In light of all this, I thought it wise to compile this little case study on How Not to Respond to a Serious/Sensitive Situation.

Rather than make you chase down links or spend even more time reading my endless dribble, I’ll just include the letter that Michelle wrote to the editor of the K-State Collegian regarding the incident, just to make sure you’re up to speed.

Editor,

We were appalled by members of certain fraternity houses at the K-State All-University Homecoming parade. What should have been an enjoyable time was marred by vicious comments made by two fraternity members as they passed. While others there shouted “Purple Pride,” these two shouted “White Pride.”

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why i’ve got a tough job

I’m an ESL instructor. For the uninitiated, that would be English as a Second Language. I work with international students that come to the States to learn English at Kansas State. Sometimes they stay on to earn their degrees and sometimes, after finishing our program, they go back to their countries to get better jobs.

Whatever their motivation, it’s quite the chore. Most of our students are Middle Eastern or Asian, neither of which have language backgrounds similar to English, so that’s the first obstacle. Their cultures are also fairly different, so the cultural adaptation takes them a while as well.

As such, ESL instructors are always looking for things to make our jobs easier. Fun material, catchy lessons, involving topics to discuss. There’s a lot of material out there, and a lot of it is just plain dull. So, finding something of value is a real treat.

What I’m going to share with you next is a real treat, but not for the same reasons I’ve already mentioned.

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michelle’s in print!

Finally, Michelle got a letter to the editor into the K-State Collegian. The article pretty much explains everything, so there’s no need for any background. We had just about given up on getting it into the paper since we had sent it in last Friday night (the 27th of October). Who knew it takes the newspaper almost a whole week to go through their letters to the editor?

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