So long sweet summer...

This was a great Labor Day weekend, with a beach trip every afternoon and evening until it poured today. There was a concert series at the ocean front. We saw Sister Hazel Friday night and Kevin got this awesome shot of the Neptune statue in the background:

 

On Saturday, we went to the beach with Ricky during the day, then saw Marcy Playground and Tonic at night time. Because Ruby got towed and we were not exactly in the happiest mood (although a very nice lady from Yonkers gave us a ride to the impound lot), we took only one picture... of all the bikes on the boardwalk before the show:

We went to the beach for most of the day on Sunday, then went to see the Black Crows at night. This was the only show that wasn't free, but for some reason no one was checking tickets. We managed to get a seat in the sand at the back of the concert for most of the show, at no cost:

 

...but after they played for awhile we decided to try our luck and move a bit closer:

This would have been great, except they only played one more song and never played the big hits, like "She Talks to Angels". Kevin was raging, but I was kind of indifferent because as soon as the show was over there were fireworks. We experimented with the firework feature on my camera. Here were the best ones:

  

  

We were actually kind of happy that it rained all day today because cleaning was long overdue and the dog missed us. Good thing that she can now go to the beach legally no matter what time of day it is, since it's after Labor Day. We spent the evening at the Raftery's for Kev's mom's birthday dinner, which was a really nice way to end a good weekend. First day of school tomorrow!

A Word From Our Sponser

Credit where credit is due, providing the inspiration for my blog today allows Kevin some air time on one of his favorite topics... beer.



Raf has been busy preparing more delicious meals for yours truly. A couple of my top faves:


He says it looks like throw up. I say it looks like heaven.

I affectionately referred to this one as a love omelet until I realized that Kevin was just bribing me to go to the beach instead of cleaning first thing this morning. The house is filthy, but the beach was nice and the food was nicer.


He says, "Don't say I never got you flowers."

After the beach, we spent some time playing with Maddy. Here is one of her most famous moves, the Twist:




Here's how JP feels about such shenanigans:


In fact, he was relieved to be having a few minutes peace from getting attacked by Maddy and blamed for Kevin's sneezes. Notice the clinging for life.

Trailer Park and Ted the Monster 2

As promised, here are pictures of my humble school abode. The exterior view:



She's a looker, huh? Here is a panorama of my side. I have a roommate (ESL teacher) who gets the left side of our lovely double-wide:


My "office", carefully created to give myself the illusion of a cubicle so I go home instead of staying at school all day/night:



Here's a close up of my new awesome organizational strategy. I realize that this is exhilarating for me only, but I gotta say, there is something really great about having a space that no kid will touch/rearrange/break:


Here are my trailer animals, mostly gifts from previous students. They give me that cozy feeling when the seven air conditioners are whirring:


This is my one and only bulletin board. The plan is to leave it there and never change it for as long as I work at Centerville. Anyone from PA ever heard of Kaplan's differentiation by depth and complexity? Pretty cool stuff:


Lastly, here is my inspiration wall. This is a compilation of things I cut out, great quotes, and pictures of/from former students:


And when I come home (by 3:30, I might add), what is waiting for me? Maddy being attacked by Ted the Monster!