Not gloomy--profound!

It’s not easy admitting being wrong, but according to the comments, JV listens to “Urinetown” on a daily basis, and my daughter, the old f&b, spends her days in the scullery singing Czolgosz at the top of her lungs.

This is why some people turn off comments.

Yesterday at the school there was what was described as a mandatory meeting for co-curricular advisers. All things considered, I figured I’d better show up; for all I knew, they were disbanding activities altogether. It’s sort of strange attending a meeting of my virtual colleagues, because one or two of them know me, and to the rest, I don’t even rank as a shadowy figure, despite having one of the largest activities in the school for the last decade. A curious position to be in. Anyhow, I learned a few things and probably got a few points just for showing up, since I’m not quite sure of how they define the word mandatory in high schools. (Note to pedants: In good writing, if you use a phrase like “define the word mandatory,” there is no need to put the word mandatory in quotes or italics, because the word “word” already does the job, whereas a phrase like "the word 'word'" requires a set-off for reading purposes [there’s a sentence to send your copy editors into hyperdrive].) I also talked to the principal a little about Bump, and told him we were already getting started. He reminded me of the overtime aspect of Veteran’s Day. I’m thinking I can dump the Xerox person; we can use my little copiers for enough skems during the tournament (hell, it worked at Yale), and then I can scan the results packet and just post it on-line. We’ll save six rain forests plus one two-day overtime salary. It’s worth thinking about. Unfortunately, I hate to admit it, but I’ve never scanned anything in all my born days. Either one of the printer-copiers will do it though, according to the FMs. I’ll do some testing this weekend before making a commitment.

Since I took the afternoon off for the meeting, I also picked up a whole boatload of printer cartridges for the Epson and the new HP, a battery for my timer (which BenT tells us is no longer being sold by Radio Shack, those sons of mothers) in case I ever need it, and ordered a run of Pffft trophies. For those who have no memory for weather, I have all the other trophies I need in my basement, left over from last year. For the Pfffts I created generic awards. They say how well you did, and that you did that well at Bump, but they don’t exactly say in what activity you did it. Given that I am in turmoil over what activities I’ll be offering in the future, and I’m not sure that Pffft will pull in the 40 I’m hoping for, the idea of trophies good for any activity sounds like a good idea.

I also picked up the mail yesterday at the school, which was a packet of NFL recruitment materials. Jed Glickstein, the LD Bullpup, is the posterboy on one of these brochures, weighed down by two or three hundred pounds of Finals trophyage—now I know where I recognized him from!

When I finally got home I was greeted by Juan, Kwan, and the stoners, plus the painters. The electrician had just left (taking some of the electricity with him, I thought, until Liz started flipping switches in the circuit box) and the garage people called to say they were coming. I hied my way to the back room, where I managed to update the Bump registration workbook. So I am now ready with that. I also sent out the MHL announcement, so that’s done too. The only thing left is Bump judges, which I’ll do today, come hell or high water.

By the end of the day yesterday my cold had caught up with me enough so that I just sat with BigPod and copied over show tunes. Including “Urinetown.” I plan on listening to it every day from now on. (Except, all right, I’ll admit it: this morning I ended up listening to Night Music instead. Soon. I promise. Soon. Later. Now...)