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10/08/05
Far
be it for us to plan an outdoor family picture that would fall on
a day it doesn't rain. Yup, we actually got almost the entire west-coast
Rossi family together (short of Dad, Julia and Raffi) for a family
picture. We were going to take it in Murray park, under the trees,
on the grass, out in beautiful nature. No such luck, it just had
to rain. Oh well, being the adaptable group we are, we just changed
venues and went downtown to the Wells Fargo Building, where Jeff
has an office. Actually, I think the pictures will come out pretty
cool, got some nice backgrounds there. You'll see them when we get
the CD with the pictures on it. Anyway, I did find out some interesting
information while we were milling about. Seems there is going to
be a Rossi population boom in 2006. All of my married neices and
nephew are going to have offspring in 2006 (and I'm pretty secure
in saying that none of the unmarried ones are). Amy is due sometime
in March, Lynda in May and Jenn (she and Scott found out just today)
think she'll be due in mid-June. Now, if Amy can just hold out for
an extra month or so, and if Jenn goes into labor a few weeks early,
maybe we can have all 3 on the same day. I have it all planned.
May 1st. Or maybe the 5th, friday is a good day to have a baby.
Now I just have to get mothers & babies to go along with it.
Hey Amy, think you can hold out until the 14th, then all 3 could
be born on their grandmothers birthday? Or how about everyone work
it out for the 17th of April. Their great-grandpa would probably
love that. Ok, I've rambled on about impossibilities long enough,
time to just say "Congrats to Lynda & Todd, Jeff &
Amy, Jenn & Scott." Bye. |
10/06/05
I've
been fighting a cold this week, so I haven't been quite as prepared
for class as I like to be. Today in 2nd period I was introducing
the new section, we were reading it together as a class. The section
involved an activity that used some stuff that I didn't have right
on hand. I scrambled to get everything we needed, slick and smoothly
like I always am in class. We get back to reading when Vance raises
his hand and asks "Mr. Rossi, do you read these things before
we get started?" There was no disrespect in his voice at all,
just a simple question. Kids told me later that I was beet red from
laughing so hard, but I did get ahold of myself and explain to him
that he was right, I hadn't gotten prepared because I was feeling
a little sick. |
Bidding for
fire rescue : 1.4MB video clip. Gatorade®
mistake : 1MB video clip. |
Donald
Rumsfeld is giving president Bush his daily briefing.
He concludes by saying: "Yesterday, 3 Brazilian soldiers were
killed in an accident'
"OH NO!" the President exclaims. "That's terrible!" His staff sits stunned at this display of emotion, nervously watching as the president sits, head in hands, Finally, the President looks up and asks......... ''How many is a Brazillion ??!' |
10/03/05
| TODAY'S INSPIRATIONAL THOUGHT
Some people are like Slinkies ... Not really good for anything...... But they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down a flight of stairs. |
(circa April 2005) |
10/02/05
|
10/01/05
So, wednesday at p/t conferences when I didn't have any parents I went over to bug Ms. Kerner, who also was parentless. When I said something about reading material, she opened a magazine and ripped out an article with a picture of what looked like a chorus girl; boa, feathered hat and all. Well, inbetween parents later I took the picture, attached it to a blank sheet of paper and wrote "Ms. Kerner in "Catalina" at La Cage, this weekend in Vegas" and gave it to her. Well I realized the wit I was up against when I went into my room later that night and found this on my desk. And I didn't even see her sneak in and put it there. By the way, thanks to the principal, Rob McDaniels, I've lost my first name once again. At the last faculty meeting when I got a ROPE card (addressed to simply "Rossi"), he clarified for the entire faculty that I'm one of those people who always end up going by a single name. Thank God Alex wasn't there or that one name would be "Slim" instead of "Rossi". |
09/30/05
And
the winner of the "Thinking Outside The Box" contest :
Alex. He e-mailed me the correct answer the very next morning after
posting it here. The only other answer I got was from Lisa. So,
congrats Alex, you win the prize which is.....um, let me look around
the room, (a roll or painters tape? nah, it's been used........Emergency
Preparedness Handbook? no, it's like 5 years old......dirty clothes?
ought to at least wash them first........brick from the original
Free Wheeler building?...guess I'm going to have to put off awarding
the prize until I find something better...) ...um, which is still
a secret because I want to award it to him at the big "Thinking
Outside The Box" ceremony next week. (yeah, that sounded good,
they'll all go with that). Alex said that it wasn't that hard for
him because he spends so much time in the UK, and is always dealing
with time zones and the 'if it's 5:00 here then its what time there'
kind of calculations. Yes, the key is that the math is done on a
time base, rather than base 10 which we are all used to. So, for
example, 7:00am plus 9 hours ends up being 4:00pm (7+9=4). 7 hours
before 2:00pm was 7:00am (2-7=7). I was impressed with how quickly
I got a response on it, it took me a while to figure it out. So,
congrats again to Alex, and sorry it took me so long to mention
who and how quickly it was solved. |
09/29/05
Baby
Boom : Congrats to Lynda & Todd and Jeff & Amy. Looks like
it's gonna be a banner year for the Rossi family, population wise.
Especially if Jenn & Scott get what they're hoping for and join
the foray. 3 new Rossi grandchildren. Can the world handle it? |
09/28/05
| More scenery pictures
from Danny and the Moab trip : |
It's
a small world, Episode 392.7 : Nyla runs the Title I at our school
and I was up there schmoozing with her yesterday when she gets a
call from her son. When she's done she comes out of her office with
a Dr. Pepper and says that her son said to give it to me. See, he
was in my class up at Churchill, when I always had a Dr. Pepper
in my hand, and one of the things he remembered from those days
was crushing all the cans I had collected over the year (and that
was a lot of cans). Now, you'd think that working with the mother
of an ex-student wasn't that big of a small-world deal, and I'd
agree. But today he came to the school to help his mom with Parent/Teacher
conferences (she supplies all the goodies for the teachers and parents),
and he brought his girlfriend. I say hi to him and when he introduces
his girlfriend he tells me "and her father knows you too."
So, and ex-student, who is the son of one of the people I work with,
has been dating Mike Dubek's daughter for the last 3 years. Mike
Dubek, one of the original owner's of Free Wheeler Pizza, where
I got my first job after high school and worked for most of the
15 years between high school and becoming a teacher. Man, the statistical
probablities are staggering........... |
09/26/05
Thinking outside the box : The counselor, who used to teach physics, came into my class today and before he pulled out the student he needed to talk to he started writing these problems on the board. They are all true, first one who can explain why gets, hmmmm, well, something. Just e-mail me your ideas HERE.
And check out
the messages to God from an e-mail I got : And the hint
about the pictures worked, here's the first set of pictures from
Danny of the trip. |
09/25/05
Well,
the pretty much the whole family went down to Moab this weekend,
except for me  .
I couldn't go because I had to work at the Chevron on Saturday day,
so I pretty much would have had to drive down there, turn right
around and come back. Bummer, 'cause I'll bet they had a great time.
Maybe they'll send me some pictures to put on here (wink, wink,
nudge, nudge). Haven't been down there in a long time, I have to
admit that part of it is I'd rather head up to Duchesne instead
(where I have a my own camper, my own bed, my own stuff and no strangers
to annoy me). But either way, we tend to have a lot of fun when
we go camping, even if I do piss off the 'hostages' by throwing
orange peels under a tree. Oh well, hope you guys had a great time.
Just heard the dryer buzz, time to put some clothes away......... |
09/24/05
| Lego® Church,
|
09/22/05
Good
night at the Chevron tonight. First, there were a couple of 6 packs
that had a couple broken bottles in them, and the beer guy wrote
them off and gave them to us. Mindy, the manager, didn't want them
so she let me and Mike split them. Free beer, nice perk. Then later
I tell this one pump that all the pumps are pre-pay and I hear back
from her "Chill out dude, I like totally know that." Ahhh,
"The Simple Life" comes to Sugarhouse. To top it off,
at the end of the night three guys, who probably just got their
drivers licenses, come in and one of them heads to the bathroom.
His buddies walk around the store and then decide to keep him company
in there (at the new store it's a big bathroom, so he was behind
a stall door). Well, I've been waiting for them to come out and
gotta pee, so I figure I'll just go in there and kinda hurry them
up. I walk in and ask them if they're done in there and they say
they're just waiting for their friend, so I hit the other stall
and do my stuff. As I'm at the towel rack drying my hands I hear
from behind the stall "I'm afraid to flush this thing."
No response because his buddies have left, so he sticks his head
out and says it again before he realizes it's just me and him in
there. Classic look on his face when he realizes he's talking to
an adult instead of his buddies, I've seen it a thousand times.
So, I tell him to just flush and we'll deal with it (hey, I'm off
the clock, Mike and Joel are the ones who are going to have to clean
the place, not me). Anyways, it didn't make a mess, but the kid
made a hasty retreat out to his car anyways. And who says second
jobs can't be fun........ |
09/21/05
Got this in an
e-mail today. Not sure if I've seen it before, but just figured it
couldn't hurt to post it. It came in an e-mail titled "A
New Way To Carjack...."
|
|
Cooking
Class : Day 2, Blueberry Pancakes. I'm stuffed, no dinner for this
guy, ate it all this afternoon. Got an unofficial second teacher,
Amy. She's helping me out and getting her dinner there too. When
I told her that I feel guilty getting paid when she's not, she says
"Well, I don't have to be here, you do, and it's kind of like
dinner theatre." So, I'm thinkin', hmmm, Dinner & a Show.
I think I'll rent a place downtown, hire a bunch of 13 year olds
and set it up so the kitchen is in the middle of the seating area.
Hmmmm. Now if I can just get around the child labor laws....... |
09/20/05
24 kids, cooking utensils and 6 hot stoves. You'd think it was cruel and unusual punishment. But I had a great time. We made quesidillas on the first day of my after-school cooking class. Tomorrow we're making blueberry pancakes. Monday went great, the kids made some good food, had a good time and even did a terrific job of cleaning up after themselves. The kids got out at 4:15 and I was out of there by 4:30. Definitly a success, and in a lot more demand that I had expected. Had 28 kids on the roll, and Dave told me there was a waiting list of 22 more in case any of the scheduled ones didn't show up. Anyway, Amy, Larry's "work wife" (Larry is the one that coined the phrase and referred to Gibb as mine), hung out and helped me, mostly with eating the food and getting ice for the 2 kids that forgot a pan on a stove could be hot. (nothing major, neither even blistered). Then today I had to fill out my professional goals for the year and meet with the principal. Teacher's have to renew their licences every 5 years now, and the last year is the Summative Year. That's where I'm at now. Gotta prove that I'm growing in my profession, and had at least 100 hours of professional development. This is only the first step of a process that will take all year, but it went well. I get to pick my goals, the principal just signs off on them as being real and not just some bogus thing to get through recertification. I decided I needed to make better use of the time in class, less time off task & avoid the 'dead' time at the end of the period. I also needed to work on better aligning my curriclulum with the state core (read CRT Tests used on 'No Child Left Behind). Anyway, I miss the people I worked with at Brockbank, some of them a lot, but I have to say this was a good move for me....... |
09/16/05
More from the "And I wanted to be a Jr. High Teacher?" file :
|
|
Three
new funny video clips : Gas
Fill, New Mouse
and the Magic Chopsticks.
Check 'em out, and remember they may take a while to laod up........ |
09/15/05
I doubt you would remember this, but when you taught me in eighth grade, we had a discussion about nonverbal communication. It was rather short. Now I have found a place where this is applicable. In the picture that I attached to this e-mail, is Bush, now you can see he is gazing down, his face is a nice shade of red, and his lips are compressed. A gaze pointed downward may convey a defeated attitude. It may also reflect guilt, shame, or submissiveness, as when distorting the truth or telling a lie; facial flushing is often caused by embarrassment, shyness, anger, or shame; and lip compression may signal the onset of anger, disliking, grief, sadness, or uncertainty. I'll let you reach your own conclusion about this. -Victor |
Thoughts: Great
answer from today: 7th grade foreign language exploratory, with
map of the British Isles on the board and the countries marked with
single letters. A kid yells out "What's the 'w' for?"
So I asked if anyone knew the name of the country next to England
that was part of the UK and started with W. Three kids yelled out
"Wisconsin!" sigh. Lisa (the friend, not the sister). |
| Some really cool
pictures of the Blue Angels Air Force Team, |
09/13/05
Fun
day at works today. Steve Martin transferred into my class, and
I found out that Samantha Stevens is on our team, though she's not
in any of my classes. And then at the Chevron some guy pulls up
out in front of the store, opens the car door, sticks his head out
and pukes all over the pavement. And I had the pleasure of hosing
it down. What a day! |
|
Got
this in an e-mail today, and I figured that some of the people who
read my site might want to help:
|
09/11/05
So,
you pull up to the pumps at a gas station, and there are orange
cones in front of them that say "Wet Floor", and it's
dry and mostly sunny out. What do you do? Well, if you are like
the 20 or so people that came into the Chevron today, you ignore
them and go ahead and run your card in the machine and wait several
minutes for it to, well, still not clear. One of the guys that I
told (over the speaker) that the pump was broken, then pulled up
to the one in front of him, which also had orange cones. That's
when I started saying "all the pumps with orange cones are
not working." 3 pumps out of 16, you wouldn't think that would
be a major deal, but it was. Other than that, it was a pretty fun
day. |
09/10/05
Laundry day today, and I found this in one of my pockets, got it at the faculty meeting yesterday.... Subject : Prisons vs.
Work
|
09/09/05
Week 2 over and done with. Took a picture of the whole Stinger's team today. Nothing more fun than getting 185 8th graders and 8 teachers out in front of a building to get a picture of them. The worst part was that we had timed it so that we could send them straight to lunch after the picture, but it went too quick and we had to get the kids back to class for the last 10 minutes. Ever try that? Yeah, if you have, you know the meaning of chaos.
Now here's the test. What ARE the odds of 5 out of the 7 of us landing on the Group Hug? Click HERE for the answer. |
09/04/05
'Twas
the first week of school and all through the house, not a creature
was stirring not even a mouse. 'Cause I caught my traditional "let's
start school" cold and have been sleeping over 12 hours a day.
At least it's been a good excuse to lay around all weekend and do
nothing..... |
This
is why it sometimes is good to change your surroundings. After our
usual friday inservice we were chatting and one of the other teachers
told us she had a website we just had to check out. On this website
there's a guy named Strong Bad, and the part we looked (and I'm
going to send you to) is kind of a Science Theatre 2000 thing, where
you get to watch Strong Bad read and respond to his e-mails. Sounds
boring. Nah, it's not. The two we checked out were Kids
Book and Rock
Opera. We were rolling on the floor laughing. Maybe it was just
because we had gotten done with a teacher workshop, maybe it was
because we were all exausted from the first week of school. Who
knows, but you at least owe it to yourself to check it out. If you
want the whole list of Strong Bad e-mails, just |
Oh
Adele, you should maybe just click on the "e-mail me"
link right up there in the top left hand corner if you vant to e-mail
me. Dat vey you could e-mail me and den I haff your e-mail unt you'd
haff mine, no? [Hey, you, the one that's not
Adele. This is kinda personal, so quit reading it already, ok?]
Well, now I'm going to have to call you, you
got my curiosity going with that "as I was walking home from
the garage I left my car at" hook............ |
08/31/05
So
I'm on a team called the "Stingers", our mascot is a bee.
We're making a banner for our hall this week and we asked the kids
for ideas for a team motto. Got some good ones. So good that we
wrote up a note for the principal to get his opinion on which one
would be the best one to use. Here's what the note said :
And you wonder why I keep teaching........ |
08/30/05
Two
days down, 178 to go. Actually, it's been a really great couple
of days, although exhausting. I've got a pretty good bunch of kids,
3rd and 4th are a bit talkative sometimes, but nothing that isn't
manageable. We have a pretty extensive after school program, and
it seems I volunteered to teach a cooking class after school. They
handed out a form asking what you would be willing to do after school
and I checked 'bowling' because I thought it would be fun, and saw
'cooking' on there and decided that would be fun too. Well, guess
what there's more interest in? Yup, cooking. Either that or there
was someone else who checked 'bowling' and I was the only one that
choose 'cooking'. Oh well, it's gonna be fun. I just have to come
up with 16 recipes that can be made in less than an hour, are relatively
cheap, somewhat nutritious and that the kids will like. Easy, huh?
Anyhoo, things there are going great. Now, since it's almost 8:40,
I think I'll go pass out from exhaustion......... |
08/25/05
|
<<< Bonehead award of the month. This is what they painted on part of the parking lot at my Chevron. Can you guess what it's supposed to say? Tired. Sooooo tired. It's that wonderful work week before the kids show up. The body is not ready for waking up at 5:30 in the morning. Today I'm quietly working in my room, (with no windows), when all of a sudden I hear Gibb scream down the hall "Rossi, it's raining." I throw on my shoes and start running down the hall, take a quick left in the main hall, scream past the office and out the front doors to see it pouring inside the convertible. Got my butt nice and wet putting up the roof. Otherwise, it's been a great week. I'm working with a bunch of great teachers, we've been having a blast this week. Gibb and I did get to go out to Brockbank and visit with the old staff, I am going to miss that group a lot. (Looked for you there Lisa (the friend) but I guess you're still not going to be back for another week.) Anyhoo, gotta go get some sleep....... |
Ahhh,
the good old days.
I'm
disappointed in Jeep. Now it didn't surprise or disappoint me at
all when GM decided to reskin the Blazer and sell it as a Hummer
(H2). Or when they did the same to the Blazer S-10 (H3). Neither
of them are real Hummers, completely lacking the things that made
the real Hummer what it is. But today on the way to the property
I saw the new Jeep Commander. Another oversized SUV trying to be
a Hummer, and I'm sure not quite making the mark. 
The
top picture is the real Hummer, middle pic the H2 and the bottom
one is the Jeep. Any doubt that the two are trying to look like
the original? Anyway, my opinion is that Jeep was better off just
building Jeeps and not trying to copy a bad copy of the original
Hummer. 
The
Pot at the end of the rainbow?
Mr.
Rossi,
At
least the faculty meeting after school was funnier than hell.
At both Brockbank and Granite Park, the administration works to
acknowledge the efforts of the faculty and staff. We have these
things called ROPE cards (Respect Other People's Efforts). We
fill out a card for someone on the staff to show our appreciation
for something they did and then put it in a big box. Today Rob,
the principal, picked out 7 cards and our reward was decided by
"Rob's Wheel O' Fun" (picture on left).
"The Big Prize" this week was a DVD player, but on either
side of it was "A Group Hug". (see picture on right).
Rob picked all 7 cards before we got to spin the wheel, and I
happened to be the first one to get a card. All 7 of us are up
there and Rob tells us that if it doesn't go all the way around
(ala Price Is Right, sorta) we get a swift kick in the butt. I
spun it 1 click. Ha, ha, very funny Rossi, spin it again. So,
still being a smartass, as I spin it I cross my fingers and say
"Group Hug". Um. Well, I should have said "Big
Prize", because it listened to me and all of a sudden 40
teachers, 2 secretaries, a Vice- and Principal were running down
the aisle of the little theater for a huge educator group hug.
Funny enough right there, but this was just the beginning. The
second person to spin (don't ask names, I've only been there 2
weeks and I'm concentrating on the kids), got a "Yummy Candy
Bar". The third person spins the wheel and it starts to slow
down, click, click, getting closer to the "Big Prize",
click, click, it's on "Big Prize", hovers against the
bar between it and "Group Hug" for what seems like an
eternity, and then 'click', it's stopped on the hug again. Running
frenzy and then teachers and administration hugging again. Contestant
#4 comes up and the audience starts chanting "Group Hug"
as the wheel spins. 4th & 5th both end up on Group Hug. By
this time we're exausted from all the running up and down the
aisle and laughing our asses off. After all, the odds of 4 of
the 5 getting one of the same 2 "prizes" are staggering
(there will be a test on this after the story). Then the 6th person
got the Mystery Bag (a book and a timer), and beleive it or not,
the last person got the Group Hug again. Hysterical laughing.
Well, there are 16 spots on the wheel, 2 of them are the hug,
so the odds of getting a hug are 1 in 8, at most one of us should
have gotten the hug instead of 5. Great way to start off a faculty
meeting. 