The Whomping Willow

It has been an interesting couple of weeks, what with planning our upcoming trip, watching Le Tour at the Mount Bakery at 5am, and adventures such as we found Tuesday night.

Jamie Paxton is a Harry Potter fanatic. It is really rather scary. As part of her Harry Potter support group, we decided to go to the midnight opening of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Tuesday night... in costume. Jessica Luce suggested that I go as the Whomping Willow, which really isn't a character, just a tree that whomps anything that comes to close. I don't think the suggestion was an insult, but it was a good reminder to everyone of my tree-like nature.

So there we were, at the Burlington Mall, my costume consisting of a branch taped to my head and one in each hand for which to whomp any Harry Potter character that might cross my path. As we entered the cinema, I whomped all the people waiting in line for the 12:30 showing. We made our way to our theater, and I promptly whomped any muggle that commented on my appearance.

When we entered the theater, shouts of "It's the Whomping Willow!" were heard between the roar of applause I received while walking down the aisle to the front row, whomping everyone I passed of course. I then stationed myself in the front corner of the theater and whomped any and all passersby.

Much to my surprise (and delight) a costume contest was announced. 30 people lined up in front, including Jamie in her Ginny Weasley outfit that she already owned, and Kristen in an amazing homemade Hedwig (owl) costume. As a worn out movie theater manager explained the rules of the contest, he slowly backed closer to me. I inched towards him, and to the immense pleasure of the audience, gave him a prompt whmoping. I don't think he liked it very much.

The contest consisted of polite clapping and whoops from friends for the first few competitors, and when it came to my turn, the crowd burst anto an uproar for a good 10-15 seconds. During this time, I managed to give the theater guy another solid whomp or two, as well as the entire front row. By some jdging shenanigans, it was announced that there were three finalists, myself, a creepy guy dressed up as Severus Snape, and a genuine 10 year old Harry Potter. The movie theater manager kept saying it was a tie, and I had to win the overwhelming support of the audience 2 more times before he said "Unfortunately.... I think we have a winner..... The Tree." And there was much whomping among the people.

The grand prize was a 5 by 10 foot banner advertising the movie. Creepy Snape sidled up to me and told me he would give me 50 bucks if I chose the one with Hermione on it and gave it to him. Alas, I had already promised Jamie Paxton the Harry poster. Anyway, as Mark later pointed out, anybody willing to pay $50 for a larger the life poster of an 18 year old wizard girl is probably better off without it.

I did kind of feel bad that the kid didnt get it, but any kid who's parents buy him a full wizard outfit and take him toa movie at midnight is doing pretty well for himself.

Happy Birthday Jessica Cake

I like to bake cakes. Jessica is particularly lucky because her birthday falls at the right time for me to spend a day or two baking her a cake.

This year's cake - Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake

Last year's cake - Pistacio Petit-Four Cake

Both from Smittenkitchen.com

Garage Sale

On Saturday Tommy and I had a garage sale to purge and make some cash for our trip. We each made a guess of how much money we would make: Tommy ($135), Morgan ($125). As you can see, we did not have high hopes.



It turns out that we made quite a bit - double our guesses! It makes me tempted to have another garage sale - although Tommy would oppose.

Some sale highlights:

• Marrionette puppet I made in 1998: $1


• Van Gogh painting I made in 2000: $1


• God Bless America hair clips: 25 cents


• Beanie Babies: 50 cents each


• The Full House Game: $1


• Dream Phone (the game): free!

As the day progressed the free pile got larger and larger - until everything was free! We set the rest of the items closer to the road (about 6 boxes) and when we came home from dinner everything was gone except for 3 dirty teddy bears. Success!

Middle School Challenge

Today I experienced the most fun five minutes I have ever had with middle school students. It was the Middle School Challenge Run, a competition between Shuksan, Whatcom, Kulshan and Fairhaven to see who can get the most participants at a 2.3 mile fun run in Whatcom Falls Park.

A little background: Shuksan always gets last place. The highest number of students we have had particpate is 55. Respectable, but not enough to compete with Whatcom or Fairhaven. Those other schools have such a higher level of parent involvement, and their students are, in general, so much more involved with school activities that it is hard to compete against them in anything. Their track teams are three times the size of ours, if that's any indicator. When Whatcom or Fairhaven wins an event like this, it is just an ordinary day. It is expected. If Shuksan could win in event that is all about participation it would be HUGE.

This year, a supermom with girls on the track team headed up the promotion, and I was led to get behind the event as well. 3 weeks ago, with about 50 kids signed up, a teacher announced that he would run laps for any student that beat him at the event. I got on the intercom and announced to the school that I would let the students shave my head if we got 75 students. A few other teachers made friendly wagers, and the student body got on board.

Today at the event, we had a lot of kids come out. The run/walk came and went. I was awarded "Most Glory-Hungry Teacher" by my colleagues for being the first adult to finish. My pride would not allow me to let a Shuksan student beat me!

An hour later, we gathered around for the announcement of which school had the most participants cross the finish line. 4th place with 90 odd students: Kulshan. 3rd place with 119: Fairhaven. This meant that we had eclipsed the Shuksan record and set a new standard simply by not being last! With a lot of buldup, they made the announcement...

"This years Challenge Run winner, setting a new city record with 166 particpants... Shuksan!"

And there was much rejoicing among the people. They called for a school administrator to come up, but I couldn't see one, and a fellow teacher started pushing me toward the stage. I pushed through the crowd of kids, grabbed the massive trophy, and hoisted it above my head. Then I faced the crowd and started screaming. The kids started freaking out too, and as the announcer continued to say things about how well Shuksan had done, I just kept screaming and shaking the trophy in the air.

Some kids standing in front of me wanted to touch the trophy, so I started walking through the crowd, yelling for all of the Shuksan students to reach out and touch the trophy. It was hilarious and awesome. Some moms yelled at me to pull all the kids aside for a photo, so I led them with the trophy and we gathered into a huge excited mass and took pictures. Then we screamed some more.

Seattle to Frankfurt

Last Monday we bought one-way tickets to Frankfurt, Germany. We depart September 1st.

This will start our 7-month trip through Eastern Europe, India, & SE Asia.

What I am most excited to see/do:

• Beaches in Croatia
• Pyramids in Egypt
• Jerusalem
• Christmas in Austria
• Camel Festival in Bikaner, India
• Kite Festival in Jaipur, India
• Biking around Angkor Wat in Cambodia
• Eating in Thailand
• Limestone Karsts in China

TB from the ER

Tommy woke up this morning with chest pains so we drove all over town looking for open walk-in clinics in an effort to avoid the ER. Our efforts failed and we spent a few hours (and probably quite a few hundred dollars) in the ER.

In the ER room next to ours (the same room with a curtain in between) was an Indian family with a sick and crying baby. After a few rounds of questioning the family about the baby's condition, they mentioned that when they were in India last month the baby had pneumonia and spent 7 days in the hospital. After thinking for a while, the doctors thought the baby might have gotten TB in the Indian hospital. They quickly transferred the family to a quarantine room and disinfected the entire area. This left us a little unnerved because there was only a sheet separating us from TB Baby and they didn't think to clean our area or move us. So watch out, we might have TB. We'll try not to breathe when you are around.

The doctors said Tommy wasn't having a heart attack and he didn't have a collapsed lung so they sent him home. He decided to spend his day off in luxury at his parents house and I went to school.

I had called for a sub to cover the first two hours, which was WASL proctoring and that I wasn't sure when I would make it back to school. So after I dropped Tommy off at the lake, I drove out to Deming. The secretary told me to go home because the sub was counting on a full day. So I turned around and came home and enjoyed an unexpected day to myself!

One Month Later

Tommy hasn't posted since March - he has been waiting for me to post something becuase some people are calling Tommy a blog-hog. The truth is, I am blog deficient.

Here are some highlights from our lives:

- President's Day Snowshoeing with Justin & Alex.

- My dad sent us a box of citrus fruits from Arizona. I made citrus sorbet with my fantastic kitchenaid ice cream maker.

- I helped my mom clean out her attic. Many of the items were placed there circa 1980. Jessica, Andrea and I put on a fashion show. Morgan in a rouched green hippie dress. Jessica in a tailored blue striped bell-bottomed suit with red floral collar and matching red halter top. Andrea in a green flannel "lounge" outfit that my mom made (notice that it is one piece!). There was also a large box full of baby shoes.

- For Andrea's birthday gift I taught her how to make homemade pizza. Yum.