What I meant to say was...

...my beer was awesome, and my guests were even better. But I think the moment has passed now and lets face it, it was my beer...so I liked it better. I'm only kidding friends! I've had a few people come to visit and kinda ignored some of the fun stuff that happened when you have friends around. So...let's just say, I wasn't as great as when I visited her in NYC, but I do enjoy getting to see my old friend Beth. And as nice as everyone was about the taste of my beer, I'm thinking there is room for improvement (and next time I think my roommate will decide against adding a few drips of hot sauce to "his" bottle). Don't worry, there were plenty more where that came from. And even after a few days in honor of ol' St. Patrick...there is more Irish Stout to make it through a mad mad mad month.

That's right kids...its March! And if you know me at all, then you don't need an excuse as to why this month will be scarce with entries. Not only is Spring Break upon the fine District of DCPS (cough), I'm pretty tired of seeing students to be completely honest. I need my break, and I'm toughing it out. As soon as Thursday afternoon hits, I'll thank my employer for giving us Good Friday off and celebrate by locking my TV on CBS for 3 weeks of great basketball. Now before I step aside to analyze my brackets one last time, I think its appropriate to update the Tournament Countdown at: 1 Day, 13 Hours, 17 Minutes and 37, 36, 35, 34...Seconds...no, not Jack Bauer, but the closest way to a man's heart is Chuck Norris' fists (or college basketball in my case!) Alright, there are a few more upsets that I have to predict. I promise I'll post again soon...I mean, I am going to Vegas next week...who wants to miss out on that!

p.s. Sorry about the out of place score box...but I'm going to try and fix it so it fits somewhere in my blog...I mean, at least then you'll know what I'm doing!

Bottles and caps and just clap your hands

...just clap your hands. Where its at? Hiding in the closet for two more weeks! Ready to go.

Cleanliness is close to Godliness

The bottles are cleaned and being filled with the beer of questionable goodness. Ok, so I have no idea whether it will be good or not in two weeks. No promises on the quality, but I will have several friends around to tell me whether my beer ruined St. Patricks Day. I'm hoping after I do this enough, I'll be better at keeping the process from being tainted. So far that's been my biggest concern. Ok, keep bottling.

Its Alive!

No seriously. And I woke up to a little mess to clean. Those dang yeasts worked hard last night and I'm betting I'll have to clean again after work. Don't tell my principal that I'm late to school because of beer. Actually its not beer yet, so I guess I'm clear. Alright I'm finally at school.

And now we wait...

It has its resting place for the next week. And I will go find mine now that I've cleaned up. I'm so nervous I could puke. I feel like I did it right, but I don't have high expectations for the first go. As long as it appears to be beer, that will be something! Alright, goodnight and if I cared enough I'd watch some Oscars. But someone will tell me tomorrow anyway. Wow. I can't believe I just brewed my own beer...I hope this turns out alright.

The day is almost over

Siphoning into the fermentation vessel. Just cool it down and then the yeast can go to town.

Retraction: rookie mistake.

Oops...I meant mash. This is the wort. And it just has to cool a bit, them it'll be ready to ferment!

Step one:

Now thats what I call wort.

Did I ever tell you the story about...

Only the most beloved and honest friends and family will tell me that I am a terrible story teller. I've come to live with it, as it has been said: its not mean, its honest. I feel that with all the visitors I have had and activities that I have mentioned lately, I may have left some things unexplained. I have no real intention of making any of that more clear, but I'm merely warning you that this entry will be a hodgepodge of connections to past entries.

I made mention of a certain summer job opportunity a few weeks ago. Little did I know that it was going to start such a stir among my friends and family. Sorry to report, the position has been filled. I was too late. But at least I didn't look like this guy! I may have a new lucrative hobby however.

I am rather shy when it comes to blogging about alcohol related activities, depending on the views of my readers. But, I am announcing a shift in blog-self-censorship: I'm brewing my own beer! That's my new announcement (sorry Kellie...you can still scream if you want). I have loved beer since I was allowed to drink it (Confession Sidenote: I drank beer once about a month before I turned 21...oops...but if it makes you feel better, the beer was terrible!).

So, I decided to put on hold any desires for a Nintendo Wii so I could rock out with Rock Band. Or ideas about becoming an astronaut (yes, that is a hobby for teachers I hear). My new hobby: homebrewing. It was quite the investment, but my financial advisor was over-ruled by my longing for good tasting beer. No promises that I will actually make good beer for a while, but it will be a step up from the lack of East Coast micro-breweries, and the over-abundance of Euro-beers. I'm looking for a change (no that hasn't been trademarked by Obama yet) and I am looking for a hobby other than needle-point. Who knows, maybe I can make some new homebrew friends. I'll keep you updated on the progress...unfortunately the process takes a while (kinda like me posting to my blog!)

In the meantime, a friend of mine sent me the link to a pretty funny blog that I thought I would share with you...because of its direct connection to how white I am. Some of my favorites: Co-ed Sports, Recycling, Irony, the Sunday Times...classic. If you didn't know, I like to make fun of myself! Enjoy.

Standby for major life-changing purchase announcement!

I'm stuck...again...

So the funny thing about my job, is that its ridiculous! Wanna know why? Oh, you already know. Well, if you didn't hear that DC was waiting for the end-all-of-ice-storms, then you would've been sad to hear that the freezing rain wasn't that big a deal. Apparently it was bad enough for all the teachers in the district to just plain skip work. That's right, I showed up to work on Friday being one of two teachers from the 15 employed at our school. Small school I know, but when no one shows it feels REAL big REAL fast. By the time the bell rang there were 5, and a 6th showed up really late. The good news was several parents acted in the same defensive pattern. The best news being, that we were not required to teach students that weren't ours. I had a pretty calm day, though the admin hated babysitting in the gym I bet (sorry they owe me) because this morning I am sitting in a teacher
training for a web-based math curriculum. Yup. On a Saturday no less. Standby...I may freak soon!

A Happier Note

I'm not sure if you noticed, but the last entry was a little angry. And though this week wasn't any less difficult or stressful than last time I wrote, I did do something fun this week.

Thursday night, I went to my favorite coffee place, to see a concert. If I haven't told you about Ebenezer's, and you don't know about the Service Station in Spokane...let's just say its coffee served with a little Jesus! Its owned by a church (coincidently, one that I have attended a few times lately) and last time I went to their Saturday service, I saw a flyer for Brandon Heath.

Its funny that I think of him related to the Northwest all the times I've seen him, because he's from actually Nashville, but he is a great Christian songwriter/guitarist. He told a lot of the stories behind the songs (including how he found Christ at Malibu...no not CA...I thought about a shout out...but I was doing my best Wallflower act that night squeezed in a corner), he also played a bunch of songs that hadn't been recorded or performed for anyone yet.

Not bad for a Thursday night, but it did make me miss Spokane (ewww...did I just say that?) Alright, back to work...my weekend job of preparing for my weekday job. Speaking of jobs, my roommate sent me this link as a joke...but I don't think they expected me to apply. I'm hoping I hear back from them...because it would be the best summer job of all time!

All in a year's work...

...alright, my first year of teaching isn't even over with and I'm already amazed at the crap I've had to deal with: from paperwork to Human Rejects...I mean Resources, political gesturing from administrators to blanketed "grounds for termination" threats, I can only imagine what is still left to be experienced in teaching. Though this may be a heightened experience because I'm in DC (no I'm not using any performance-enhancing drugs), I see the latest drama as just another surreal feeling.

What is it you ask?: oh, yeah....they're talking about merging our school into another school, effectively closing down our building (the real estate will probably be worth millions...or a billion dollar rich-man-shopping-complex...or a sweet place for somebody's office). Let me start by saying: I will still have a job no matter what. Same teachers, same students, different overcrowded building...this is only a possibility. The consolidation reflects an attempted change in the past poor spending habits in the district. So, our new Chancellor (appointed by the mayor) has plans to shake up a lot of things. Long story short (which I am incapable of pulling off): the Chancellor is a political-economic head of a community-family-child based organization, and it will be hard for her to be liked at her job (sorry, no sympathy from me...I'm a middle school math teacher!)

Why did I tell you all this again? Oh yeah, because all you jerks in the northwest keep getting snow days, and late starts while my "white n nerdy" self was trying to look inconspicuous at a meeting with the Chancellor herself! She showed up to hear community input about pro/cons of consolidating another school over our school. Essentially its a purely business/numbers decision, and teachers-parents-community members tried to pull on some heartstrings. Now I'm just starting to sound negative, but its a little of my honesty. I guess I'm making this sound like a really bad thing everyone should worry about, and its not! Actually, I just wanted a snow day or a nap rather than this big showy meeting during my lunch hour! I guess I'll have to settle with tomorrow being Friday...not the same.

(note: I didn't link to any stories about the DCPS school consolidation plan because the un-biased ones are all on washingtonpost.com but you have to have an account. So feel free to search on your own, or just ask me) And here's another link to go along with my unintentional theme.

The first one from the right is my dad

And the other guys have been enshrined by the bathrooms at the National Portrait Gallery. I've been pretty excited for my dad to visit me this weekend because I knew we'd end up doing something fun like standing in line for the bathroom to see Colbert. Actually we will probably continue to do a few lame tourist things and not look like idiots too much. But thats the best part about having the biggest dork for a dad...you look a little less dumb when he's around. Alright off to do more exciting stuff. I promise no more toilet pictures.

This will scare the neighbors

Since we had spring like weather this week, my roommates and I decided that we should just pretend its summer. So we had a fire in the backyard fire pit and roasted some marshmallows while I smoked my pipe. Both our neighbors came out and were actually quite jealous, not scared. Meg does like her mallows on fire, and Brett just likes to play with fire! It was a fun night. By the way, no comment on the Seahawks game.

Back to school...

and I think I forgot about my New Year's resolution already.

My resolution: to have a social life.

The last 24 hours: about 4 hours of sleep, and about 37 minutes spent outside of my apartment/my classroom. 7 of those walking to and from work. The other 30 spent going on a run. Not part of my resolution...so, take that you over-eager-Resolutioners! (Side note: I only went running because it was 69 degrees outside in frickin' January. I hear you West Coasters are loving the snow! It'll be 72 tomorrow.)

Good start to the new year! I have to admit that the only reason I'm still awake, is because I'm sad that my lesson planning so quickly re-claimed my life. So, I rebelled and watched the BCS Championship (let me be the first blogger to congratulate LSU...except for those of you who knew it was going to happen the moment the match was set), and now that I'm bored of that game, its time for the return of Stewart/Colbert (sadly, no beards).

And as I start to doze (not really, my sleep is still screwed up from staying up late on PST), I figured I could at least wish for you all to have a snow day. Or maybe there will be some brilliant students, who take it upon themselves. In any event, I bet this guy is sleeping better than I am tonight. There you have it...I think I ripped off enough other stuff to make for a pretty lame post! Thanks for still reading this...

The Spirit of Christmas Past

So, as I'm sitting here wishing that winter break was a month, I'm also trying to figure out some way to comment on all the things I did over the last two weeks: seeing my family, seeing friends for the first time in months, sleeping on couches and sharing beds (sorry, no picture of me spooning with my brother). In general, I felt I couldn't have spent my time any better (except for having about 24 more hours in each place I went to see more awesome people).

So, first I would like to apologize to the people I told I would see, and then never did....I feel like such a jerk. Then, I'd like to thank the people who drove me around the Northwest: Mom, Dad, Keija and Northwest Bus Lines. All this driving around, sleeping in different places most nights, and then seeing my good friends Katie and Doss (congrats on getting engaged...actually Doss and Katie are engaged to completely different people, and happened at completely different times...anyways!) it made me think of a time 365 days in the past...in a little place I like to call, Chile.

Last January ('07), I got to take an amazing trip to teach English with a few friends of mine, and I thought about it a lot when I saw a few of them, and then more when I was riding on a stinky bus to nowhere, and then even more when I was celebrating New Years somewhere other than on an airplane. But most of all it just made me think of happy times.

So, Christmas was great. New Years was great. And if I ended up seeing you in the Northwest, that was great too. I enjoyed seeing familiar faces, and just being able live life outside of the "Mr. Milliron" realm. I will have to savor that fun for now, because I have to go back to work in the morning, but I am pretty excited to see my students again. But if I start to day dream in class, it will probably be about playing with Hank and Rudy (Hank is my nephew--the yellow lab--because my sister will never have kids, and Rudy--the black lab--is the child that my dad loves more than me)...alright, honestly I won't have time for day dreaming, because I'm completely unprepared for school in the morning. Good news: My sleep patterns are completely messed up! Alright, wish me luck tomorrow...

A million ways to get to Seattle

And I chose the Greyhound that drives through Wenatchee. Oh boy! So, I've slept and listened to music (oh Apple you've saved me again) I can't imagine anything more exciting than a 4 hour trip turned 9, because I wanted to stay in Spokane another day. But it was worth it, and now I have a smaller list of folks I haven't seen in too too long. Spokane/Coeur d'Alene was just like I left it, minus a few friends I have to travel elsewhere to visit. Unfortunately I have to travel cramped next to a new passenger who got on at this lovely central Washington oasis. Good news, he brought his own BO so I don't have to share. Lunch break over, we're back on the road. And for those of you trying to stalk me via satellite, we just drove past the Washington Apple Visitors Center in N. Wenatchee. I'll be in Seattle in no time. Remind me to write about something that I've actually enjoyed on this trip..

I made it in case you were wondering

And I even got a white Christmas, as you can see from the picture. I spent a few days with mom, and overeating a bit too. So, now I have my gifts packed up and I'm headed to Spokane to find a few friends I haven't seen in too long. Bend is always a great place to visit, especially when good friends invite you over for a Prime Rib Christmas Dinner. Following tradition, we saw a movie on Christmas (a tradition I'm convinced my family started, and now has become a blockbuster release day, your welcome America). I think the general plan for the next week is to watch bowl games, play Guitar Hero and sleep on people's couches for a small beer tax. Its strange being taxied around again like I'm on a 4th grade soccer team...and mom brought snacks too! Alright I'll try to post something more interesting about my return to the Graveyard...and I'll explain what that means so you don't think I'm a
freak. Hope you all had a great Christmas!

Are we there yet?

...says the little girl running circles around the boarding podium. No little girl, you'll never get anywhere running in circles...and Santa probably won't be able to find your if we get stuck here through Christmas. I'm not that mean...but I have enjoyed making funny faces at all the babies in the airport and on the plane. I have a theory: there is a correlation between screaming babies and holiday travel. I think its because from birth we know that holiday travel is unnatural. Anyway, I meant to update my flight status not theorize...but hey, its my blog! Officially we're supposed to be only 30 minutes behind, but that was an hour ago. So its 7:30 and we might leave soon. Which is better than the guy I overheard on his cell phone say he's been in Chicago for 10 hours. Merry Christmas sir, I hope u get a Hummer for Christmas! Alright doors are closing. I hope this sends before they
throw me off the plane for being a terrorist...just kidding in case the government reads this.