LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!

So today was the last day of school for me (Jared). Its always bittersweet in a way, since you will be leaving people you work with, laugh with, and make fun of for the next couple of months. Today we all stood in line outside the office waiting for pizza, chips, and soda. But, soon enough, we'll all be standing in line waiting for plan books, white out, and attendance slips--not to mention this shady guy asking if you are going to sign up to join the union again (Hi Mike). Next year will be an interesting one to say the least. Actually, it will be more like a clusterbomb of sorts, with renovations and construction going on, not to mention a presumably new schedule of teaching "blocks." Thus, all classes will be 80 minutes instead of 45 minutes. This, according to the idiots in Washington and Augusta, will make kids grades go up. But this is not a ranting blog . . . .

Amanda has been hard at work in keeping up with the demand of her new hobby of birding (isnt there a scientific name for this? I think its orinthology or something). At any rate, she barely can keep up with keeping the feeders full. Just last night, as I watered the tomato plants, she filled the feeder by the barberry bush, and then, when I got home at 3 today, the feeder was empty. The birds love the barberry bush because, one, it is huge, two it is thorny and nothing can bother them when they hide in there, and three, there is an all you can eat buffet right beside the bush. Amanda loves her birds, and it is great to see her so excited about our new daily visitors. We've also been hard at work at keeping things watered, since we have had a lack of rain. We planted new hollies, rosebushes, thyme, and grass (the drug kind) and we're trying to make all of it grow.

We've got to give a "shout out," as these people call it, to our family in New Jersey--Aunt June and Uncle Bob, Keith, and Steve, Michelle, and Emma. And lets not forget Abby, one of my favorite animals in history. She is a 140 pound (I think) Newfie. This year has been a particularly trying one in the Goldsmith household--my mom has been treating for breast cancer, I have been sufferning from count choculitis, and grandmom has been in the hospital, mostly intensive care, since New Years Day. But seriously, this has been some year. It seems like every weekend throughout the winter we found ourselves down in Portland, visiting grandmom. One of the only bright spots, as far as we could see, was the realization of seeing the "zoo" from New Jersey more, as they came up several times to visit a VERY sick grandmom. For Amanda, it was a chance to visit with her family and go over the "good old days" when they used to steal Yoohoos in grandpop's basement and walk around in his golf shoes. And Jonathan got yelled at. And so did Keith. For me, it was a blessed opportunity to get to be with a part of my family I seldom get to see or bond with; it was a chance to connect and feel truly part of the family. And bond we did! Through my incessant charm (haha), I was able to cajole Emma into both liking and talking to me. This was some feat, considering how for the first three years of her life, I was, essentially, a non person. But now we are great buddies, and we go in the pool, sing crab songs, and pose for pictures. Amanda and I cannot wait to come down in August to have pork roll, Gay-tanos (sp), cheesesteak at Pat's, tastycakes, and fun times in the Dovey estate. Oh and crabs too.

Oh yeah, two more quick things:

1. You know those stupid stickers everyone has of Calivin, from Calvin and Hobbes, peeing on the Yankees or Fords or Red Sox? Why does everyone have that? And why does he pee so much? What does he drink? He is so rude and indecent and he pisses me off (pardon the pun). I want to have a sticker of Calvin peeing on the Ford logo, with Calvin, above, peeing on Calvin peeing on the Ford logo. Now that would be something.

2. Check out the "Obama" song on Youtube if you get a chance. Besides the Obama fan being . . um . . .nice . . .its a funny song. The chorus goes "I've got a crush on Obama." What I think would be funny is to make a parody of the song called "I've got a crush on your mama." This would be a parody of a parody, and that would rock.