Tiger in a Tree and Other Backyard Beauties

My indoor cat let himself out and climbed a tree. He has an incredibly original name -Tiger (cuz, you know, he looks like a ...)
The rest is what one of my favorite bloggers, Candace calls "photographic diarrhea". Why am I so amused at that tag? Must be my inner kid.
Work life is very busy and annoying (not the children of course they can't help it, but the other teachers, the ones that do not like dealing with 'student support services' aka special ed and especially the kids that go with it).
Yikes! Did anyone follow that?
I'm short and sweet (but actually tall and cranky!).

Tagged by an Emissary of Heaven

My favorite priest tagged me. How can I say no to that?

4 jobs I've had:
pathology assistant
Histotechnologist
DNA image analysis tech
Special Ed teacher

4 countries I've visited:
Italy
U.K.
France
Germany

4 places I'd rather be:
Zoppola, Italy
Chincoteague Island
New York City
by a creek in a forest, any forest

4 foods I like to eat:
chocolate
pasta
bread
heirloom tomatoes

4 personal heros:
Oprah
Jerry Rice
Rosalind Franklin
Alicia Appleman-Jurman

What one thing would you change if you could change the world?
Eliminate fundamentalism of every stripe. (Hey, we're just dreamin' here)

What tangible, sentimental "treasure" have you hung onto the longest?
A book called The Joey Story. It's about a dog and it's dog-eared too.

Oh, My Aching Back!

Sometimes the ebb and flow of life rolls up into a tsunami and knocks you down on your ass.

And that is where I'm at right now -down but not out.
Test Case had an electrical storm in his brain, bashed his head and scraped his face and shoulder. He was in public with a friend and the paramedics who were called by a bunch of onlookers wanted to transport him. He hates that even though he knows they only want to help him. At the time I was taking Warrior Princess to the doctor for an ankle x-ray (luckily it's not broken, only bruised at the growth plate). The friend called FootballPlayinMan who was able to zoom over, sign off and take his brother home. FPM called and said Test Case looked bad but seemed to recover faster than usual. Asked about it later, Test Case says he 'forced' himself to come around faster because of all the questions the paramedics were asking him and people were looking at him and he was embarrassed. The crest of the wave is building now.

Stress goes to my back where I had a disc removed 15 years ago. Earlier in the week I did something to it (who the hell knows what -alien abduction perhaps?). More stress and the wave reaches its apogee. I cannot move at all or sleep even due to severe pain. So here I am laid up on the couch after visiting the doctor and begging for darvocet. Darvocet is a fucking miracle drug to me right now. Smaller waves are breaking now. School starts tomorrow and Wednesday FPM goes back to Oregon for college. WP is extremely excited about starting 7th grade. She got a math teacher one of the brothers had. Naturally she's heard horror stories, however she met this teacher at orientation and has wisely declared she will maintain an open mind and what do her stupid brothers know anyway, right?

JO Results

Well, let's see, the Pirates didn't get shut out. The last game was a competition of the cellar dwellers and they managed a victory. Warrior Princess shot a goal from both her left and right hand (that was huge).
(side note: she's a lefty which confers a certain advantage in many sports, being able to shoot and pass from both sides is fan-flippin-tastic.)
WP has the ball here, looking to pass:


It was a good experience over all. Many of the girls showed tremendous growth in their abilities.
The older girls came to their games and cheered them on, made tunnels, showered them with good vibes and modeled good sportsmanship.
Big Picture Idea: In competition you learn many things about yourself and you find out just what it takes to be a winner. You discover how to be a graceful loser. (You decide again that you really do love water polo and want to sign up for the fall session.)

Here are the older girls making a tunnel for the 12U girls:

Water Polo Junior Olympics

This tabby must be the goalie, because only the goalie is allowed to touch the ball with two paws. Not only that, where the heck is the goal box?
Hey it's still a cute picture.




Hubby and I have traveled to San Jose where the Warrior Princess is competing in this big-ass tournament. She is a novice player, but was invited to join the competitive team (12U) after playing a little rec ball early this summer. So she continued to swim for her swim team, play rec water polo as well as comp ball. She's a little hard body right now.
Unfortunately, her team might be the Bad News Bears of water polo. Now, don't get me wrong this Junior Olympics thing is a big deal. Teams from all over the country are competing. Most of the teams are older girls 14U, 16U and 18U. For the twelve year olds this is an experiential thing. (WP is only 11, not 12 till Nov.) In their last game they got spanked pretty bad by the Davis team. Many of the girls on our team are novices. We'll see how it goes. Anyway, we will be in San Jose through the weekend. C U L8R!