Nothing much

Well, this one won't be as long. I have been hoping to post pictures along with the posts, but no dice so far. I have also set up an account on Picasa.com, with a few pix, but I haven't figured out to link this blog to it yet. I'm surprised; for the last few years, the Googlenet (gmail, google calendar, OMG who's excited for Google Voice???) has anticipated my every need and desire, creating conveniences I didn't even know I needed. This is the first time it has let me down.

The most eventful thing that happened lately was starting our shift at the cafeteria a couple weeks ago...Peter and I have "volunteered" to be the adult monitors/helpers at dinnertime on Fridays, at the cafeteria where all the students eat. Two Fridays ago, the dinner special was room-temperature Spam and a heaping portion of white rice. What could be better? I'll tell you what; all that, PLUS a sizable dollop of ketchup administered by yours truly. Yep, I was CKO, chief of ketchup operations, and it's a more complicated job than you might at first think. How much ketchup is appropriate for a hefty slice of Spam and about two pounds of rice? You tell me. And do I give more for boys and bigger people? How much does difference does ketchup make to one's calorie intake? Is there enough for 350+ kids at my current rate of dispensation? Should the condiment grace the expanse of white rice like a bloody wound, or would a well-behaved dollop be more aesthetic?

These questions and more ran through my brain as I stood at the end of the line and sized each individual up for their respective ketchup consumption. I certainly knew what I would want (symmetrical dollop, 2 inches in diameter, directly in between Spam and rice for optimum distribution, of course. But I'm not picky), but I couldn't read their minds.

Pshell, meanwhile, was on guard duty, making sure kids didn't walk out the exit still holding cups or silverware. No small job, to be sure, but it didn't have the far-reaching consequences and manual labor (literally...my hand was sore for two days) of mine. Anyway, at the end of the meal service, after about 45 minutes of looking at and smelling this food, we were quite ready to dig in to our double portions; apparently teachers need more processed pork product than growing teenagers. With all the practice, I raised the squeezing of ketchup to an art form for my own plate.

Apart from that, we're working hard and there's no foreseeable end in sight to that part. We are finishing the quarter this week (Oct. 16), but it's pretty much business as usual, trying to laugh a lot and keep things fun. Well, mostly they laugh at things I do, both intentionally and unintentionally...it turns out that when I am trying hard to explain something, I have tics of which I was never before aware. And then there are the times that my voice rises in pitch uncontrollably, like a puberty-stricken young boy. They enjoy that as well.

So, I hope my effort to make the minutiae of our daily life more interesting was successful, because there ain't much else to tell. My best to everyone, and I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but it's late and there's grading, not to mention eating, to do. But no ketchup...no ketchup.