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2004 Steve Rossi. Original content on this website is copyrighted
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| ..New
page I just added : Useless Facts of the Day. Click
Here to check it out. |
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12/30/05
Pet Peeves : People who can't wait 30 seconds for someone crossing the road. Stupid Commercials. |
Just
want to thank the witch in the Mitsubishi Montero (with a dent on
the back driver side) for trying to run me over as I crossed 2100
So on my way home from the Chevron last night. Well, ok, to be honest
she did her best not to run me over, short of respecting the fact
that the little flashing white guy on the sign meant I had the right
of way. And I did walk out in front of her knowing full well that
her intention was to intimidate me into waiting on the curb. But,
hey, the light said to walk and, frankly, she was going slow enough
that I would have survived to see the smile on Robert DeBry's face
when I was wheeled into his office to talk about our settlement.
But alas, those pesky credit card bills aren't going to get paid
off, but I did get to swear real loud. As she swerved out around
me, my hand giving her the -You're #1- salute, I noticed that her
window was open a little bit, which triggered the involuntary "Scream
the 'B' word" reflex. I'm pretty sure she heard me, but I'm
positive all the cars waiting at the left turn heard it. |
Saturn
Ions may be great cars, but they need a less annoying advertiser.
Granted, a triple-A front crash rating is a good thing when your
teenager is taking out the family car, but who is stupid enough
to blindfold an 8 year old and give him a bat to swing at a piniata,
right next to their brand new car? So what if the doors are dent
resistant, what about the glass and mirrors on them? Next they brag
about how quiet the car is, showing a scene of a guy who looks like
he's falling asleep at the wheel. Cool, hate it when road noise
interrupts a quick nap on I-80. Finally, are there full service
gas stations anywhere anymore? They tote the great gas mileage of
the car by showing one drive up to a pump, dump garbage in the trash
(at least they didn't throw it down on the ground) and drive off
leaving the attendant standing there with the nozzle in his hand
looking dumbfounded that they just drove off. Somebody's lost in
the 70's. |
Finalemente
: I updated the family tree, and realized that a lot of the pictures
are kind of old, and probably should be replaced with more current
(and flattering) ones. Please, if you have, or want to take, a better
picture of yourself, or anyone in the family, please e-mail it (or
them) to me and I'll replace the old one. If you want to see the
picture I have of you (or just want to see the family tree)  |
12/29/05
There
is one thing that I just remembered that I forgot that I learned
during the family Christmas. We now know the gender of two of the
three Rossi grandchildren that will be born in 2006. Lynda and Todd's
daughter Paige is going to have a baby brother and Jeff and Amy's
son Camden is going to have a baby sister. We won't know about Jenn
& Scott's first until early in January, but I'll let ya know
as soon as I do (or as soon as I remember that I know at some point
when my computer is accessible). |
12/27/05
Had
a great Christmas. Almost the entire family was there, including
the oft-absent Hugo, Julia and Raffi. We missed having Jenn there,
but the ambulance business 
can't shut down even for Christmas. Many a great gift was received,
the ultimate being the hand-painted picture of Alex and Lynda as
a child walking down the boardwalk at Yellowstone Park (Lynda took
classes and then painted it herself from a picture taken when we
were there a long time ago). Of course I was partial to the t-shirt
I gave Danny with that picture on the right on the back of the shirt.
Thought I reluctantly admit that Lynda's surpasses it by far. Up
at the land one time I made a comment about how I wasn't going to
bother bringing food any more, since everyone always brought enough
for everyone, and I usually ended up just bringing mine home. During
the conversation it was decided that I would just be in charge of
bringing something for dessert for everyone. Well,  Jim's
gift to me is going to help facilitate that agreement, he gave me
a Dutch Oven dessert making kit, with the Dutch Oven, the makings
for the first dessert (coconut-pineapple cake, with coconut rum)
and several other recipes for Dutch Oven cooking - laminated and
in a binder so they'll survive camping. I looked through the recipes,
there's some great stuff there! And on top of the wrapped present
were two elves roasting marshmallows over a 'fire'. (see picture
on the left). A great Christmas, and really the best part was being
with the family. (I love you guys). Anyway, hopefully we'll be going
up to the land sometime soon, so I can make that cake (first time,
hopefully there won't be too much of a learning curve and the cake
will be edible...) |
12/24/05 Encore
| New rules for
2006 : |
Santa
pictures from the annual trip with the ex-students (who are now
seniors) :
|
12/24/05
Happy,
Merry, Joyful
Hope you all have a fairly decent, not so bad, tolerable and at least non-life-threatening holiday season. |
12/22/05
It started
out as the grande-finale of the Wild-Bunch Secret Santa. They
got Dave Hart (a counselor) to cover my 3rd period while I went
up to the meeting to eat, drink (cocoa) and exchange gifts. Mr.
Kingdon had already had a bite, having mistaken a gift candle
for a fried bread type food thing. Several of us actually made
the same mistake (myself included), but he was the only one to
have taken a bite of it. Yum! Nothing like wax for breakfast.
Well, when the festivities were over I headed back down to my
room to relieve Mr. Hart, walked in while he was discussing something
with the class. I went to my desk, sat down and waited for him
to wrap up and return my class to me. He was so intent on his
discussion that he didn't even know I was there, and was oblivious
when I walked out 3 minutes later. I walked down to the front
office and quickly found myself in an official FFL game with Rob,
the principal. One more day before the winter break......... |
12/20/05
Went
ice skating with Dan, Rae, Josh and Michelle last night. Haven't
been on skates more than a couple times since the 'incident' back
in '69. Had a lot of fun, and didn't fall down even once. And no
backhand skates to the face either. That was nice. It was nice to
get back on the ice, and even though it was raining a little, that
at least meant that it wasn't too cold. I was amazed how quickly
it came back to me, just once around the ice and I had the moves
back. Not quite as proficient as I used to be, took it slowly and
wobbled a bit, but considering it's been 30+ years since I was a
regular skater, it felt reasonably natural. Josh loved it, asked
when we were going again as we were walking back to the car. Guess
we'll have to go again this winter. |
|
 |
This was one of the 'White elephant' gifts at the Granite Park Holiday dinner. Don't know why people like to give me crap wherever I go, but been that way for as long as I can remember. Have to admit though, I don't mind being portrayed with pecs and a 6-pack like that. (If it were only true!). The first white elephant gift I got was a wooden statue of Santa Claus, which fortunately was taken away from me, but the second gift was a set of super-soaker water pistols, which Berneau took away from me. And squirted me with the rest of the party. Thanks Bill. I had to trade my third gift, a set of bath soaps, for the Rossi-duck, but it was worth it. And I also got the coveted "Fun Fairy" Wand (you had to be at one of our in-services to get this) in the raffle. Several co-workers tried to talk me out of the wand, and Rob, the principal, warned me about sexual-harassment when I announced that so-and-so wanted my wand. Other than that, it was your standard teacher get-together......... |
12/16/05
2nd
Period. Jesse is on a 'dude' kick, calling everyone Dude. Even when
asking questions he says to me; "Dude, how do you do this?"
Until one time he refers to me as "dudette'. I look at him
and say "Um, I'm a dude, not a dudette". Vance, sitting
right behind him says "Prove it." Obviously he wasn't
thinking, because I just look at him and he gets all red and mumbles
"never mind." |
||
Got
a bunch of new stuff in e-mails this week, check them out..... |
Calvin
& Hobbs & Snowmen. |
Pack
of Wild Dogs Kill Alligator in Louisiana. |
Why
people would want to live in Arizona. |
How
to Stay Young. |
New
e-Mail stuff. |
12/12/05
| Mr.
Pibb : Dr. Pepper without a degree.
for more things I got in e-mails. |
||
Subject:
25 signs you are finally growing up
1. Your houseplants are alive, and you can't smoke
any of them. |
9.
Jeans and a sweater no longer qualify as "dressed up." 10. You're the one calling the police because those %&@# kids next door won't turn down the stereo. 11. Older relatives feel comfortable telling sex jokes around you. 12. You don't know what time Taco Bell closes anymore. 13. Your car insurance goes down, and your car payments go up. 14. You feed your dog Science Diet, instead of McDonald's leftovers. 15. Sleeping on the couch makes your back hurt. 16. You take naps sometimes between noon and 6 PM. |
17.
Dinner and a movie is the whole date instead of the beginning of
one.. 18. Eating a basket of chicken wings at 3 AM would severely upset, rather than settle, your stomach. 19. If you're female, you go to the drug store for ibuprofen and antacid, not condoms and pregnancy tests. 20. A $4.00 bottle of wine is no longer "pretty good stuff." 21. You actually eat breakfast food at breakfast time. 22. "I just can't drink the way I used to" replaces "I'm never going to drink that much again." 23. 90% of the time you spend in front of a computer is for real work. 24. You drink at home to save money before going to a bar. 25. You read this entire list, looking desperately for one sign that doesn't apply to you and can't find one to save your sorry OLD butt. Then you forward it to a bunch of old pals & friends 'cause you know they'll enjoy it and do the same. |
BONUS:
26. When you find out your friend is pregnant, you congratulate
her, instead of asking, "Oh, SHIT! What Happened?" |
||
12/09/05
Viva
Las Vegas : So
Pam calls me from the Hilton Hotel in Vegas tonight. She's in the
Pharmacy program at UNLV and at some medical convention at the hotel.
Standing at the Arthritis booth she looks over at the Breast Cancer
booth, and there standing talking to the people at the desk is a
Klingon and a Ferengi (two different species of Star Trek aliens).
Now, to you and me it may seem unusual to see a tall, warrior type
alien with ridges running down the middle of his face, along with
a squat, big eared weasel looking guy chatting up the Breast Cancer
booth, but in Vegas, especially at the Hilton which houses "The
Star Trek Experience" not too many people were taking notice
of them. Except Pam. She just had to call me, knowing I'd appreciate
the image. Then, while she's talking to me, she all of a sudden
starts laughing because, she later tells me, these two full-costumed
aliens decided to try out the plastic "this is how you check
for lumps" boob display on the counter. Now, some of you may
not get the irony of this situation, but for those of you who were
(are) Star Trek fans, especially if you watched "Deep Space
Nine", the image of a Ferengi, a Klingon and a set of fake
Human boobs, well, it's just ironic. |
Sam
Malone ("Cheers"), Mormons and flowers. (video)
Santa Clause has a run in with "COPS". (another video)
Man, seems like the holiday season brings out all the weird video
clips. |
12/07/05
Ever
spent 2 1/2 hours with 30 seventh graders in a room, without power
or heat? Well, I did. This morning. Power went out right around
8AM. Around 8:15 the head custodian (one of the people with a walkie-talkie)
came around and told us that the power was out all around us, and
that UP&L was sure that they would have it back on by noon.
NOON? Oh, yeah, and we were all to stay with the classes we were
with until the power came back on. Now, fortunately we were already
up at the computer lab, because for those of you who remember my
classroom has no windows. At all. But we couldn't stay in the computer
lab because, well, just imagine what 45 middle school kids (there
were three classes in the 2 labs hooked together) who are bored
out of their minds could do to computers. So I sez to Ms. McQueen
(special ed teacher) I sez "You got room for my kids in your
room too?" Nope, because special ed classes aren't made to
hold more than 10 kids. Fortunately Ms. Wallace (shop teacher) invited
me and mine down to her room, where she even had things for them
to play with that were meant to be played with. |
Stuff from
e-mails : Born in the 30's to 70's and an uplifting story ( |
12/06/05
You've
been
Elfed! |
And
you think you've had a bad day? See the photos :
(more e-mail crap that I'm happy to pass on.) |
12/05/05
Couple of interesting
news articles this week, proving that Utah is an weird place to live
:
|
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| More videos : 9-1-1 Call and X-mas lights (both need sound turned up) |
12/04/05
Fun
with Frostbite : So, I'm out on the snowmobile marking
the south road (seldom, if ever, used) to the campsite. I'm getting
on and off the machine to put up these fluorescent orange pieces
of ribbon, and lo and behold my feet get a little bit cold. The
toes on my left foot are completely numb by the time I get back
to camp. So I head into the cabin where we have two heaters going,
take off my shoes and stick my feet up to a heater. Ten minutes
later my feet are all warm and toasty, except that one of the toes
on my left foot is still numb. And instead of being all pink and
colorful, it's sitting there like a hunk of raw chicken dangling
off my foot. Of course I just calmly sit there until Alex is done
with his wood cutting and casually ask him what he thinks of the
situation when he comes into the cabin. Hell no. I yell out the
window at him "Alex, come look at my toe please." As he
walks into the cabin he asks me "Is it white or black?"
to which I respond "It looks like a piece of raw chicken dangling
off my foot." "Good", he says, "You just have
a mild case of frostbite, it'll come back. Now if it were black,
then it wouldn't come back." It came back, I'm looking at it
now and it's all pink and colorful, more like a toe than chicken. |
Pictures
of Paige's Birthday and Halloween,
Pictures of today's trip up to the land,
A video of Alex on the Snowmobile,
A video of the fire in the cabin stove that several rodents subdivided
into condos,
And finally, a video of Paige blowing out her birthday candles,
|
(FFL,
for those of you who are out of the loop -like I was until 11:00
this morning - is the Finger Football League - see picture). By
the end of the first quarter I was down 3 to 13, and remain- ed
behind by 10 at the half, 7 to 17. My offense kicked in in the
3rd quarter, rallying to 13 points, while my defense kicked butt
preventing Rob from scoring at all, ending the quarter with a
mere 4 point deficit at 13 to 17. Unfortunately I couldn't keep
up the momentum of the 3rd quarter, with both teams gaining 4
points in the 4th, ending the game at 17 to 21. Not a bad showing
for a team that had never played the game before. But Rob has
promised me a rematch at the Grizzly Bowl in early 2006.