rockover

As you know, Azucena has gone back to school to teach. She's at Taylor Middle School teaching 6th grade math for 2 classes and 6th grade Pre-AP for 1 class (I think she gets off easy. There are 8 periods in a day and her math classes are double periods). 
She has a NASCAR theme and has contacted NASCAR to see if they have stuff lying around that would help out for class. Turns out, they have a program for classroom activities. There are several books on the Science/Math of NASCAR and other goodies that will help her out. Just did a search on NASCAR classroom and found an article on nascar.com of a Pennsylvania teacher using NASCAR math in his 4th grade classroom. One of the first things Azucena did was take apart a recent race that was won and lost on fuel mileage. She explained through the video how a crew chief miscalculated and his driver dropped 30 spots and how another crew chief got it correct and his driver won. Kids were impressed and wanted more.
She's also got a pet student. She's got him pasting, drawing and other stuff to help her with her teaching.
And finally, being her first year, she's getting a lot of stuff that will stay with her throughout the years: microwave, scanner/printer, etc.
Unless you are on Facebook, you'll probably miss out on famouse quotes like this:
I had a crazy good first week. My mentor told the principal that she is
"in awe of me." I'm not doing things perfectly, but I've really made a
connection with the kids. I end my day with Pre-AP which is great because
these kids really want to learn. A quote in their exact words, "You can't
leave us hanging like this!" Azucena

We have RATS again. Oh yeah, 3 this time. Bernadette, Blondie and Vivian.
Annie went out of town again to visit her mom in California and left us with these 3. She shouldn't be gone for more than a month or two, but so far, these are behaving much better than Shawn and Dante did. Don't have to worry about them losing weight. Annie's been getting better at not giving them chicken every day, so now they are eating the dry dog food right away. Burnadette likes to bark a bit, but so does Papas. Nothing has been chewed up yet.
Two more things. The cats have a bigger crap than the rats and Papas has found a new smell. Can't get him in trouble, per se, but it is going to get him in trouble. Buddy is oblivious to the whole thing. Either he's gay, or he's really snake bit with them from when they chased him the first day or two.
 
House update. Don't know if I mentioned that Azucena painted the spare bedroom and computer room while being layed off. Right before school started, she also painted the loft. Individually, these colors may not be the best to use, but when you put them next to differently painted rooms, then it doesn't look bad at all.
We've had two hail storms this year, probably two more than we've had in the past 5 years. We finally got someone out to look at the house and they are going to start replacing the shingles pretty soon. Just glad they didn't start on it on Wednesday. A storm blew through Round Rock like we haven't had in forever. Strong enough that it snapped our umbrella in half. Didn't knock down as many limbs as I was expecting especially with the drought we are having.
Speaking of weather, It's been hotter here at 10 pm that in most other places during their peak. We're finally getting more than 2 days under 100 since before summer. No wonder we don't have water. How would you like to go boating and see trees under your boat. That's how low the water is getting on the lakes. The sand bars have now turned into islands and all the public boat ramps have been closed.

UT Football is about to start. Yesterday ESPN went through quite a bit of programming to promote the Heisman candidates for this year. UT is 2nd in all the polls so if they win out, they should be in the Championship at the Rose Bowl. I still think if McCoy hadn't gotten the shoulder stinger his freshman year, they'd have played for the championship and then last year, would have won it if it weren't for two screw ups in the final seconds against TTU.  Oh wells, maybe they can do it this year.