Big News & Happy Bday Curtis

Curtis got a job offer yesterday from a school in SoCal to teach physics and math! It was his birthday present a day early. We went to Paris last night for dinner to celebrate. (Only in Vegas can a trip to Paris be done in a single evening and no airfare required.) He's getting the details from them and has a meeting with his head of school to see if Meadows will fight to keep him. I doubt they will, though.

Since the old administration was lined up against the wall at Christmas, the mood of the school changed dramatically. Many teachers have left or plan to leave at the end of the year. There also seems to be an effort to get rid of anyone hired by the old administration. Of the 7 teachers that were at the new teacher picnic, 1 just moved up from the middle school, 2 have already left and 1 has already been replaced but was allowed to stay to the end of the year with his replacement. Curtis seemed to be next on the list.

The new principal had been asking around about the status of Curtis's masters (which ain't happening). The weird thing is that he did not ask Curtis, but instead asked his department chair and the debate coach, who is Curtis's friend from high school. When Curtis tried to talk to the principal, he said he needed copies of Curtis's transcript. Curtis printed out a copy of the Berkeley unofficial transcript and gave it to him. Later the principal said that he need an official copy (why?).

In the meantime, other teachers noticed that the school had posted an ad in the newspaper that listed several open positions. Two of the positions no one knew were vacant, including Curtis's! In an email sent to all the faculty, the principal said that one teacher had decided to leave, though it hadn't been publicly announced before the ad appeared and that there were "credentials issues" with Curtis that he felt could be worked out, but that the listing was necessary to "protect the school." Never did he actually communicate directly with Curtis. Curtis heard through the grapevine that the principal was showing around some resumes for Curtis's job.

The whole thing has been very bizarre. The story is that all teachers are supposed to have masters degrees. But Curtis's friend from high school has only a B.A. and there is an arts teacher that doesn't even have that. There are also at least 2 other core subject teachers that left a Ph.D. program without a masters like Curtis did, but somehow only Curtis is getting this treatment.

As his friends at school have announced that they were leaving for better jobs at other schools, Curtis tells them, "hey, do they need physics teachers?" Well, one of the guys said, "actually, they do" and told them about Curtis. They asked for a resume and flew him to SoCal last week for an interview. Beckham wanted to go too and was sleeping on Curtis's pillow in the suitcase when we went in to finish packing. We kept everything quiet, not wanting to rock the boat at school. We didn't expect to hear anything for another couple of weeks because they were interviewing other people. When they called last night, they said that they had moved up one interview and were willing to cancel the rest, if Curtis takes the job. Curtis says that it's a big relief to feel wanted after being somewhat of a pariah at school. He's tired of students asking if he's going to be there next year and having to reply that he has no idea. At least now we know that he's got a job SOMEWHERE next year.

Ash Wednesday

We went to the 6:30am Mass to get our ashes before Curtis had to be at school. Today it is required to abstain from meat and to fast. I'm exempted from the fasting requirement due to "medical condition" and good thing, too! There wasn't time for breakfast before church and within an hour after waking up, I was so hungry that I felt sick. Being pregnant during Lent is hard. I normally give up something for Lent, but I've already given up many things that I enjoy such as beer, stinky cheese, raw fish, and sleeping on my stomach. I finally decided to give up sweets, which is tough since ice cream has been my crutch the last few months. But by the end of Lent, I'll be carrying this baby in my arms instead of on my bladder. Curtis can have the traditional Italian Easter dish (deep dish pizza with sausage and hard-boiled egg). Me, I'm having tuna rolls, blue cheese, a big dish of ice cream, and a beer (of course waiting 2 hrs before breast-feeding). Oh, it'll be heavenly.

Happy Mardi Gras!

Today is Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, or as it's known in England, Pancake Day! Traditionally, people did not eat butter or eggs during Lent which starts on Ash Wednesday, tomorrow. They would make pancakes as a way to use up their eggs and butter. In the spirit of the holiday, Curtis and I had pancakes for breakfast. I also saw that IHOP is giving away short stacks of pancakes today until 10pm nationwide. I may go over there for lunch. Nothing tastes better than free food.

Time Waster for Star Trek Fans

This just caused me to lose most of a morning (Thanks a lot Lemming). Wil Wheaton is posting summaries and reviews of random Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes. It's hard to believe it's been almost 20 years since that show premiered. I remember absolutely loving Wesley Crusher. My excuse is that I was only 8 years old at the time. There's only a few episodes up so far, but the writeup of each one is fairly lengthy. Don't click on the link unless you don't have anything important to do for the next few hours.

Checkup AOK, 6 weeks to go

So, the other pregnant woman at the school baby shower developed problems and went in for an emergency C-section yesterday. I keep telling my tummy not to get any ideas, since she was a few weeks ahead of me and each week makes a big difference developmentally.

Had another checkup with my doctor today. The assistant commented that I had gained quite a bit of weight since my last appt :( but that she didn't think I had been gaining enough weight so overall she was pleased :)

Part of the problem is that I'm retaining a lot of water. My dr commented on how swollen my feet are. I've noticed swelling of my hands and feet for the past week. But, she said it's not anything to worry about, just uncomfortable, since my "blood pressure is gorgeous". At least some part of me is still gorgeous.

Who Owes Who?

Went to childbirth education class at the hospital this weekend. I didn't want to go alone, so Curtis agreed to come. As the labor nurse was going over all the gory details, he leaned over and whispered "You so owe me". I pointed out to him that he just had to hear about this stuff, but that I was going to have to suffer through it. Yeah, he's definitely got the easy part.

Baby Shower

Curtis's school had a potluck baby shower today at lunch for us and another couple who both work at the school. She's due with a girl two weeks before me. The food was shockingly good. Lots of homemade things, which surprised me. They had taken up a collection and each couple got a Babies R Us giftcard and 4 smaller gifts including a supersoft blanket. Almost everyone had to rush off after lunch to go teach, so I got to make a few more rounds of the food ^_^

Las Vegas Women's Fair

On Saturday, I decided to go to the Las Vegas Women's Fair while Curtis was at baseball practice. These types of fairs usually focus on women's health and wellness as well as family and children's resources. I should have known that Vegas would do things differently. Some things were the same like the domestic violence shelter booth, the fertility center, and the special appearances by the stars of soap operas I've never heard of. On the other hand, there are not usually so many free alcohol samplings (I missed out) including a new type of vodka that was being served by pouring through this awesome ice sculpture. Sorry for the poor quality of these pictures, but I only had my phone with me.

The main entertainment was "American Storm (as seen on VH1!)". They were a male strip show. I'd never actually seen that type of show before. (I lead a sheltered life.) It surprised me that the guys started out wearing suits and ties. I would have thought they'd wear something more fantasy-based, but then again, men look good in suit and tie. At first 3 guys danced around and then took off their jackets (racy), ties, and then shirts. Surprising number of tattoos and (ick!) nipple piercings. Then a different guy came out and went down to his boxers. He would also jump down from the small stage and hugs women in the crowd and took up a victim, I mean volunteer, to terrorize. It was all rather silly.


They also had another, smaller stage set up for demonstrations. While I was there, the demo was Pole Dancing by a company called "Stripper 101." The woman explained that she offered lessons in pole dancing, lap dancing, and transitional moves including music and costume suggestions. Then she did a demo of the types of moves you could learn. I was impressed that she could hang upside-down on the pole, twirl around it, and slowly move down it all at the same time make it seem somehow attractive.

SuperBowl Highlights

The Party: Just the two of us and the cat chilling at home.

The Food: I made Buffalo Legs using drumsticks instead of wings. There was also tortilla strips and my own recipe of nacho cheese sauce as well as his and hers salsas and sour cream. He got beer, I got lemonade.

Favorite ad: Torn between "I'm your bank manager and this is a robbery" and the beard combover. You can see all the ads here.

Worst $2.6M ad: The moon office. I mean, why the heck was there zero-gravity? On the MOON?! Ooh, wait, there was also the icky medicine ad to help men pee.

Favorite moment: Screaming at the Bears quarterback for throwing to a man being covered by three opponents instead of continuing to run down the empty area of the field. Curtis loves me when I'm totally being a guy.

Least manly moment: Curtis's dad missed the first half of the game because he was attending a play. I mean ON SUPERBOWL SUNDAY! *We* persuaded the women in charge of religious ed to move class so we could teach and still watch the game.

Worst moment: The halftime show. BOR-RING! The artist formerly known as "The artist formerly known as Prince" and some random marching band.

Operation HH

I've never been accused of being the fitness-buff in this relationship. Ever since the day I got trapped in the kitchen with sciatica pain, I've been going to the gym 4+ days a week. The boy has had one very good excuse after another for not being a gym regular since Thanksgiving. He finally announced that he was over his cold and feeling better and looking forward to going back to the gym. Then followed a week where he didn't make it to the gym even a single morning.

So, in the style of nagging wives everywhere, I decided that he would be my next project (after having finally cleaned the apartment and beaten the final boss in the Spyro the Dragon game). This week marked the launch of Operation HH (Handsome Husband). I finally got him to sit down for a haircut (he had been pretty shaggy), started physically handing him a vitamin every morning, and setting my annoying cell phone alarm for 4am. It's hard to sleep through the annoying alarm, your wife talking to you, and the cat coming to purr at your head. This week he's been to the gym 3 times in the past 5 days plus baseball practices. I think of it as vicarious weight loss, since I'm forced to gain weight for the next 2 months.

And in other news...

our priest was arrested yesterday after a 6-day manhunt. (the article) The victim was the singer at the Mass we usually attended. We found out when it was on the front page of Saturday's paper. It's really the most bizarre thing ever. He's a really nice guy. Now that he's in custody, maybe we'll hear some explanation of why he suddenly flipped out.