September 23, 2013

I actually made it to school closer to eight o'clock this morning, like I wanted to. Since the beginning of the school year I have been leaving my house at eight o'clock, or later, because I don't really need to be there that early, but that adds up to over an hour every week, which adds up to however much lost income over the course of the year. So my goal is to start getting there closer to eight o'clock, which is when I'm supposed to get there anyway. I'll probably screw up tomorrow but today was a start.

I didn't have any scheduled MAP tests today but I did have a few different sessions. One first thing in the morning, another mid-morning, and one in the afternoon. During one of them I accidentally loaded a Reading test instead of a Math test and I didn't catch it until the girl was almost done. But I got lucky in two ways. First, it was a first grader and they take two shorter tests instead of one big test (although they end up answering seventy-two questions, almost twenty or thirty more than the older grades, the tests are easier), so she didn't take too long and I was able to have her take the test she was supposed to take. Second, she scored almost twenty points higher on the Reading test the second time around than she did the first time, and that score seemed more accurate than the first score because she is a pretty bright kid. So we're having the first score deleted and we're going with the new score. Happy accidents.

The rest of my time at school was spent working on my spreadsheets, fixing a few laptop issues for students, and solving a couple computer issues for one of the resource teachers. The day actually went by pretty fast, ignoring all the time I spent watching kids take tests.

After school I didn't do much and then I made dinner. I reheated the pasta I had last night and made roasted Brussels sprouts. I have wanted to try them forever and I finally made them. I rinsed them, cut them in half, and then threw them in a bag with olive oil, garlic powder, a little bit of salt, and lemon pepper. Then I laid them out on a pan and put them in the oven at 400 degrees for thirty minutes. I followed the instructions a little too closely though, and probably should have pulled them out some time before thirty minutes, because they turned out a little mushy. And I could have gone with less seasoning. But they turned out pretty good. I'd like to try it again sometime. They reminded me of a mix between broccoli stalks and asparagus. I don't know if that sounds appealing but I thought it was decent.

After dinner I got around to watching my sister's cross stitch. I took way too long getting around to that and will probably miss her birthday, but I'm finally making the effort to get it ready. Tomorrow I will be able to iron it. I also want to stop by Hobby Lobby after work tomorrow and see about possible mounting materials. I've got quarter-inch foam core board but that seems too thick. I don't know. I also want to see if they have batting material because I think the cross stitch might look better with it. So that's the goal for tomorrow. Maybe even attempt to mount it.

The rest of my night was spent watching a couple episodes of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, part of a GTA 5 livestream, and almost finished watching the first episode of Sleepy Hollow. I am intrigued.