According to one of the other teachers here, I still have my “souvenir accent” from the UK trip in July, it’s enough that he thought I was from there.  Even a month later.  I know it’s faded a bit; I didn’t know I still had it at all, since I don’t hear it any more.  (That’s not necessarily the only reason people could think that–someone once asked my dad, when his accent had been back to normal for years, if he was Welsh because of some speech patterns and pronunciation details, so it’s possible that that’s where I picked some of it up.)

Maybe I could have been a linguist, because I seem to notice that sort of thing…although my vocabulary in Spanish is kind of lame, I’ve always gotten props on my accent and occasionally on “very proper” grammar, and a lot of the grammar that I know the best is what I picked up from reading directions in both languages (granted, that’s probably partly because it was the easiest).  It was one of the weirdest experiences of my life, when I’d been doing serious language study for long enough that I suddenly heard my Oregonian accent.  I have to be careful when I talk to people with accents, because I pick them up to the point where someone could think I was making fun of it if they didn’t know that accent borrowing is just something I do.

So, about two days into the trip, my regular accent sounded insanely harsh, especially the r’s.  There was only one thing to do–tone it down a little.  From there, I just picked more things up without thinking about it, until I had a complete souvenir accent.  I’m sure it didn’t fool anyone there, but people here ask me where I’m from.

Sometimes I wonder if my voice belongs anywhere.

Sometimes I wonder if I belong anywhere.

Dear Office,

Second hour is not present for class today.  They seem to be present for an episode of Springer, but that is not a subject that I teach, so as far as I’m concerned they are ditching.  Please mark them accordingly.  Thank you.

That’s not quite a direct quote, but it’s a very close paraphrase, to the note that I sent up to the office today with a blank attendance form because second hour wouldn’t get quiet so I could take attendance.  These…ridiculous little brats…

10 minutes: Try to get the biggest box in through the passenger door

5 minutes: Realize it’s not gonna happen, put the top down, and throw everything in that way.

Really, I wished I’d had the Aries for this one.  But short of that, it’s good to have a convertible.

“Is that a guy that looks like a girl, or did two women get out of that car with Just Married on it?”

“Maybe it’s her sister.”

“OK, we were already in San Francisco, California, so now we’re moving it to San Francisco, Alabama.”

This was not a correct landing as per 60-1.

Robert Kadera of Lake Villa and his 14-year-old son, Isaac, were standing outside the aircraft, a 1949 Piper Clipper, which was sitting in the middle of the golf course about 20 feet south of the retaining wall that separates the golf course from Route 22, police said.

Kadera said it was not an emergency landing, but rather, the boy was late for his tennis lesson at the Lincolnshire Club across the street from the golf course on Route 22, police said.

http://cbs2chicago.com/local/golf.course.plane.2.668950.html

Here’s a thought.  There is no degree of being late for tennis practice that would make it reasonable to land on a golf course.  Definite fail of common sense check.

No, not from me.  Chilsa is fixed so I don’t have to worry about either of the girls making more.  Which is a good thing, because Panther is kind of a tramp.  She hits on cardboard boxes for crying out loud.

However, as I was stumbling upon the internet, I found these little guys.  The couple that found and adopted a cat, not knowing about her existing occupants (Mom, Dad, and Rianna, you all remember Marmalade, right?), is looking for homes for the litter.  As of about a month ago, three were still not spoken for.  Click the kittens to go to the original story for more details.

Seriously.  Click it.  They’re at their cutest bounciest stage by now, you know you want one.  I’d ask about the orange one myself if I weren’t already one cat over the management company’s limit.

Well, this is kind of one.  Although it’s kind of a burn also.  Click pic for story.

I’m under one now, and feeling strange things going on in my sinuses.  I am a human barometer.

That reminds me of a story.  A few CAP meetings ago, we talked about another severe thunderstorm warning–apparently this guy could have used an internal barometer.  Or maybe he would have just ignored it, like the repeated advisories from the tower before he nominated himself for a Darwin Award.  We felt sorry for the plane.

As for the pilot, he at least found his mission in life:

I was glancing through CAPR 60-1 and noticed, in the “thou shalt not” section, something about “hand-propped” starts.  Does anyone know if that’s what it sounds like?  Because if it is, I can see why it’s not allowed.

My classroom’s air conditioning is out.  Over the last few days, I’ve managed to force myself to set things up anyway, but when I got home today I’d sweated through the back of my shirt, just from making and hanging posters.  The contractor who was around today says it’s out of freon.  The HVAC person was around just a few days ago, but didn’t know to fix it (it was fine in June, so I naturally didn’t report anything, and apparently no one did a walkthrough before writing up the contract).

I have to be in that room, walking around, with as many as 32 students breathing heat out, on Monday.  The forecast’s high for that day is 103F (~35C), so no doubt it’ll get up to 90F (~30C) in the room.  In which case it might be a good thing that I’m on the insurance now, since there might be a medical emergency if I have to deal with that.

Air conditioning is not optional in this season, in this state.  Dear Administrators, Get it fixed!!!