Tuesday, April 14, 2009

What's On Laura's Mind Today?

Hooray, I am done with my bloody taxes finally. Yuck. I HATE doing taxes. Luckily I've found an inexpensive (and relatively idiot-proof) online way to do everything, and e-filed both my state and federal returns. No trip to the post office! Woot! Also, refund! WOOT!

Top Gear. Seriously. I would love to watch this show every week, but the only way to get it in the U.S. is to pay major ducats for turbo-cable with seven billion other channels. Which, I mean, I'm not gonna lie, I would totally love, but it's bordering on a hundred bucks a month. And I love Top Gear, but really.

My students are the BESTEST. I wish I had the time to go into detail about why each one of them is so precious to me, but I don't want to try your patience with that many words. As crazy-making as kids can sometimes be, not a day goes by when I don't laugh with total delight at something one of them does. I mean really. My eighth graders especially are just the joy of my life.

Passover! My community group had a great time doing a little Passover seder this past week. It was a blast -- everybody came over to my house and we rigged up as many spots as we could and did an extremely abbreviated version of a typical Messianic seder, since a normal one can last 3 or 4 hours! Good food, good company, and a cool insight into the last meal Jesus ate with his disciples.

Did you know that Deadliest Catch is Discovery's most popular show? If you've watched it, you probably understand WHY it is, and if you haven't, you're seriously missing out. It's got the perfect reality-show alchemy: honest-to-goodness peril + salty, interesting characters + million-dollar rewards. Crab fishing in the Bering Sea is truly one of the world's most dangerous jobs, and not a season goes by without the captains hearing the crushing news that one of their sister ships has gone down in a storm. The captains themselves are hilarious -- tough, smart, foul-mouthed, third and fourth generation fishermen. And the million-dollar payout isn't a prize sponsored by advertisers, but the actual earnings of the captains and crew. Watch it! It's seriously addictive.

Spring in Louisville is gorgeous when it actually shows up. Last year, we had the shortest spring EVER -- freezing cold followed by two weeks of nice weather followed by blazing hot summer. But this year... it's been rainy and fickle and crazy, with thunderstorms and cool weather. Great stuff! The dogwoods are starting to bloom right now too. Ahhh...

3 comments:

Some Dude said...

Ah, yes. Tax season. I also filed online. Don't get too excited about that tax refund, though. It's your money, which you have been loaning to the government, interest-free.

The seder sounds like a cool idea.

Also, the weather has been teasing us a little here in Michigan with some really nice weather this weekend, followed by cold and crappy today.

Jonny said...

If you like TopGear and Tasmania, maybe you would like Eric Bannas new movie. I havn't actualy seen it yet. It's about his car, and Jeremy Clarkson is on it.

One Salient Oversight said...

Did you see the episode where Top Gear goes through the American South?

Part of the "rules" that they had to do was to drive their vehicles through Alabama without being attacked by the locals.

To encourage the locals, each driver was able to daub another driver's car with offensive words.

Thus three cars drove through Alabama with the following painted on them:

"I support Manlove"

"Hillary Clinton for President"

"NASCAR sucks"

They got a lot of evil looks while on the freeway, but then they decided to fill up with gasoline at a local filling station.

At the filling station, the owner came out and started screaming abuse at them. She then called some friends and 2-3 pickup trucks of men drove up and began throwing stones at the Top Gear people (including the BBC cameramen).

They were very glad to get out of there. It was hilarious and frightening at the same time.