Okay, let's see. On Friday I had a bunch of stuff to do, so I made a grocery run on my prep period. The closest grocery store is the FoodMaxx, which I've never been to. It's one of those ones that advertises its low low prices, and it's located in an ethnically diverse poor area (ahem, about a block from my school). Anyway, I go in because I need veggie boullion, black beans, a lemon, a green bell pepper, some jalapenos and cornmeal. Well, I go up to the place and it has those gigantic wide shopping carts like at Costco, so at first I'm not even certain they'll have a produce department. But they do. In fact, it's enormous. They have a HUGE selection of produce, including stuff I've never seen in either my usual grocery store or the asian grocery. There are mangoes and papayas galore, and HUGE bins of fresh garbanzo beans, which I've never even seen. (They come in their little green fuzzy pod.) So I find everything I need, but it's not in that great shape -- like my lemon is flat on one side and the bell pepper isn't particularly snappy. But whatever. Then I go hunting for boullion. Well, it's all kind of spread out. There's a Mexican foods section where the boullion things are printed in Spanish. I'd use them, but they only have chicken and beef. Then over by the soups there are more--three different brands--but still no veggie. In the spice aisle there are more still, but no veggie. I give up, figure I can use various spices instead, and start looking for cornmeal. Well, they have it in spades, different brands and everything. They have hominy and fresh masa. You want cornmeal products, they've got it! In looking around, I also notice that they have all kinds of other stuff I've never seem elsewhere; there are these Indian meals that come in a little foil packet that I've gotten other flavors of at Trader Joe's and the Co-op, but never this many varieties! I didn't even know there were like 12! And there's a whole rack of Persian spices that I had previously looked in about 6 stores for before finding a store near my house that had them. They also had these HUGE freezers like at Costco or any other big box store, and the place was designed like a big maze -- once you turned the corner past the produce aisle, there was only one way to get back to the beginning. Anyway, I'm going to go back when I have more time and explore the whole place. It was pretty cool.
Anyway, with all my ingredients, I made Cuban black bean soup and banana fritters and cornbread for dinner. Monkeygirl came over and we watched "Thumbsucker." I had mixed feelings about it. It was well-acted and stuff, but had a strange Oedipal theme that creeped me out, and the direction was a little strange. For example, no one ever talked above a whisper. And the teacher (Vince Vaughan) was totally unrealistic. And what was with the girlfriend? There was something clearly wrong, but her story was never fleshed out.
Saturday I tidied up a little and ran some errands, then went to my cousin's 4th birthday party at Round Table. There was pizza and a mermaid theme. It's always nice to hang with my family. In the evening there was sushi, then I rushed a quick workout in. I ran into my Boompah, which was kind of funny, because I picked a stationary bike, started putting my stuff down, took the foot straps off the pedals... I noticed that the whole time an older guy on a bike a few feet away was looking at me, but I was studiously avoiding looking at him. Until, of course, I realized he was STILL staring as I was getting ready to ride. I turned to give him a hard look, and of course discovered that it was my Boompah (stepdad, to the uninitiated). Then after my workout I stopped at the Co-op and ran into one of my students! Sunday morning I read the paper, then went and worked out again and took the yoga class. The chick last week must have lulled me into a false sense of security about how hard yoga really is, because this lady was ROUGH! My legs were shaking and by the end I was having to stop and rest. I'm sore today. She kept having us do "chair," which is just a squat that you stay in forever. Then I went to Trader Joe's and ran into a co-worker. It was the weekend of running into people.
Mom and I spent the rest of Sunday attacking the monster overgrown shrubs in the backyard. There was a mock orange that was about twenty feet tall (they're supposed to be a shrub) and a big messy bottlebrush that was closer to thirty. The pile of yard waste in front of my house is about the size of an SUV. I still really need to do a LOT more landscaping, putting plants in, taking this shade thing down, jackhammering up the patio, hauling all that away and pouring concrete... It's going to be a huge project. We really still need to finish the kitchen, but I'm considering doing some of the outdoor stuff before it gets too hot and doing the bathroom this summer so we can be inside in the AC.
I guess that's about it. I'll be a little busier this week (my computer class starts), and then it'll taper off, since my 7th period will end. I have to go now and submit the paperwork to prove I'm a "Highly Qualified Teacher," (which basically means I have a credential). They need my subject test results, my credential, and my B.A. Basically just because I've submitted this twice before and am feeling a little bitchy, I'm also copying my CBEST, SSAT, and M.A. and submitting those, too. Not highly qualified, my sweet ass!
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