Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday - to my sister, Liz, who is 28 today, and no longer in her mid-twenties, by any stretch of the imagination.

Wednesday Night Blues...

I just emailed Jan McCombs about how much I missed Bar-B-Q and Cheerwine. These people here in New York have no concept of the finer things. However, they have a casino, and that partly makes up for it. This is kind of a "no-week", it's just "blah." Things are fine at school, temperatures are starting to go down, and this week has just sort of passed us by. The only excitement is from the cat, who sticks his paw under the door every morning at 5:00 a.m. and pulls the door, banging it loudly. This makes Brody and Hooper bark until one of us gets up and lets them all outside. The kids at school asked me today if we were going to dissect anything in Science this year. They always ask that question. One of the kids asked if we could dissect a cat. I said that I thought I could make that happen, especially if certain early morning behaviors continue! Next week should be more exciting...I'm doing a couple of fun activities with the kids, and October is here, finally. We're working on Latitude and Longitude this week, and it's about as exciting as Roach Motels. We are supposed to spend around 10 days on it, but the kids have had it before, so we're moving on. Volcanoes and Earthquakes are next, and with Mt. St. Helens close to another eruption, this unit should be more exciting. On a side note, Doug calls Mt. St. Helens: "Mt. MooFooBooSa." I'm thinking about writing my next book about Doug and the way he recreates our language. For instance, "Antibiotics" are known as "Superfluzzen," the "Chevy Equinox" is called "Chevy EggNog," and "Barbara" is "LoveNest." We need a camera on him at all times. We could sell the footage to ABC and all be super rich. It's getting late, though, so I'm heading off to bed. I hope all of you are well, and I hope to talk to you soon! -Mike

The crayfish in Liz's room. Her kids are doing a project with them for the next six weeks. Liz has adapted well to having live animals in her classroom, and I'm very proud of her for letting them live. Maybe there is a perfect world after all. 

More of the crayfish in Liz's room.  

Funny Pictures...

Just some pictures I thought were funny. Liz especially liked the cat driving.

Funny picture #1. 

Funny picture #2. 

The End of Summer...

Before everything wilted and died, I wanted to take some pictures of Doug and Barb's yard. They've got all kinds of plants growing, and I thought they would make good images. In a couple of weeks, I'll add some of the leaves changing, they're already starting to turn.

St. Anthony and flowers... 

Berries on a vine... 

The Apple Tree... 

Doug and Barbara's Hydrangeas... 

Sun through the trees... 

More of the Brumpton Garden... 

Happy Birthday!

Today is my dad's birthday, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

I just thought this picture was neat. It reminds me of how I feel at the end of the day, when I've done noisy (but effective and wonderfully enriching) labs all day. Obviously, I'm the shark. 

They seem to be having way too much fun. I'll make sure it never happens again. Of note in this picture...an inclusion teacher (in purple...)who stays the WHOLE period, and travels with just THIS group of kids. It's very helpful! 

Here are the kids working on an experiment in class. We've been working through the steps in the Scientific Method. 

Tigers!

A local zoo was showing off its baby tigers today in Amherst, and Doug and I went up to look at them. The two were named Sebastien and Shantel, and were about 10 months old. The woman said that she could bring them up to the school for the kids...but charges $100 an hour...we'll see about that!

Me with the tigers. Note the caution tape! 

Doug with the tigers. 

Sebastian and Shantel resting. 

Sebastian the tiger. 

Websites for School

I thought I would post the websites for my school, and my classroom, in case you want to know what's going on.

The School's website is: http://www.starpointcsd.org

My website is: http://www.checkwithmom.com (Click on the penguins, type in "mrfisher" with no punctuation or spaces, and click "OK".)

We've had a good week. Liz has been enjoying her new car, and we're thinking of going to see "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" sometime this weekend.

Family is so important...

Except when they look like this...

Just another day... 

TGIF!

Happy Friday!

Another view. To celebrate the new car, Liz and her addiction enabling Father went to the casino for nine hours. Barb and I had Chinese in their absence. 

This is the new car we got when I went grocery shopping and Liz and her father just went to "look" at cars. It's a Chevy Equinox, but Doug calls it the Chevy Egg Nog. 

This is Doretha...and she's the new Teacher of the Year for KCS! Congratulations! Liz and I are proud of you! (And we'll call you tomorrow!)

This is a crayfish. Liz had a workshop today where she learned how to use them in her classroom. She only screamed twice, and only dropped it on the floor once. She can now hold on to it without hyperventilating or squeezing it to death.

This is a picture of the Pit Bull puppy that Liz's Cousin, Caitlin, brought over for Labor Day. Brody and Hooper wouldn't leave her alone. 

Here we are with Sandy at a mall in the middle of the state. It's somewhere on I-90. 

The park beside Tonawanda Creek (Which is really a river...) flooded by Frances.