Make - Up Days!!

I am back, again, at work after being off almost all last week for the Hurricane Ivan threat. (Yesterday felt like the first day all over again!!)

Now, we have FOUR make-up days that we have to fit in before the end of the semester.

We already have two emergency make-up days "scheduled" at the beginning of our Christmas break. Ok, that's fine...I can deal with that. The other "scheduled" one is at Easter...fine, I can deal with that, too.

However, since we need to make them up before the end of THIS semester, the Easter one won't work.

So, guess when they might have us make the other two up...Nov. 1 and 2. I would be fine with that, however, I have had a trip planned to New York with my whole family since June for that weekend, since I was suppose to be off of work!!!

These are not designated "make-up" days. Nov. 1 is a "holiday" and Nov. 2 is "election day" on the official school board calendar. I don't think I would have scheduled a trip and bought plane tickets with even the threat of having to work those days! You think anyone will listen as I plead my pathetic case?!? (I doubt it, too! That's why I am venting in this 'blog' of mine!!) I haven't found out the final decision, but it's not looking good. I will just have to use my sick days and make up lesson plans for a sub. Fun, fun. Thanks Ivan.

Anyway, 37 days until I get back to New York!!!! I can't wait. I hope the weather is wonderfully cool and the leaves are changing in Central Park!! It'll be a blast!!!

Hurricane Ivan a "dud" in New Orleans

We have survived Hurricane Ivan! The news isn't so good for our friends in Gulf Shores, Alabama, though.

We had lots of powerful winds yesterday and last night, but we didn't get more than a few drops of rain, if that. God was on our side this time.

People are just on their way back in town from evacuating to other cities. I'm sure the traffic is going to be pretty bad, considering all the people that left. We had made our decision not to evacuate early on and luckily it paid off for us this time.

I have posted pictures on my website that I went out and shot yesterday on the levee of Lake Pontchartrain, which is located a half a block away from our house. You can view them here.

Thank God again that we were spared of getting hit by this monstrous storm.

A Character name Ivan

There is this vicious character named Ivan about to be knocking on our door here in New Orleans. As Glenn said, all of those people's prayers in Southern/Central Florida must be being answered. They couldn't take another one and I wouldn't wish it on them in a million years!

But here in NOLA, the weathermen are making everyone crazy! They get you so nervous! There is one, Bob Breck, who would have you evacuating to Alaska, as my friend Lauren said! We can't even watch him!!! I am just waiting for Nash Roberts to come out with his magic marker in his garage and tell us where this thing is really going to land. He is the only one I trust. He's an expert on hurricanes and he's old school, which I like better than these 'doppler' people!

For hundreds of years, we have been avoiding "The Big One." See, if and when we do get hit by the big one, New Orleans will be completed gone. We are below sea level and we are the shape of a soup bowl, so we would be destroyed. I guess that's why the weathermen feel the need to scare us, but I just don't think that Ivan is the big one...I hope I'm right about my feeling! Only time will tell. As of now, we are riding this sucker out, but if that changes, I hope we come home to everything we left. I'll be in touch soon.

Labor Day

Today is Labor Day! We had off of work...yippee!!! (I know, I haven't even been back long enough to really be ready for a holiday, but it was so nice to be off!)

This weekend was a good one. Friday, I went out to eat with Lauren at DeAngelo's. It was really good.

On Saturday, we were worried about Glenn and Tammy with hurricane Frances, but we talked with them and they seemed to be ok.

Later, my mom and I went shopping to get her something for her birthday, since she wouldn't tell me what she wanted. We succeeded and I got her a new pair of jeans for the winter and our New York trip.

Then on Sunday, we celebrated her birthday. We had a great day...we went to Mass, then we went to the club. Uncle Ken, Aunt Liz, Kenny, Ryan, Scott, Ma'Ma', my mom and I went. Ryan, my mom and I were the only ones to go swimming, though. Ma'Ma' cooked chili and hot dogs that were good. Later that night, we had our traditional Sunday night "therapy" with Miss Phyllis and Mr. Billy. It was a very nice day and I think my mom really enjoyed her birthday. Pictures are posted on our website and can be seen here.

Today, I slept late (which I love doing) and woke up to check my email, only to find that I was not able to receive any emails. It seemed as though I could send, but nothing was coming in to me...So, all day I had been restarting the computer, calling Cox, reading the online help site for Microsoft outlook, and racking my brain as to why we couldn’t receive emails…

Well…I went away from it for a while and came back and all of a sudden the light bulb went off in my dead brain of mine…

I didn’t have SpamPal running!!!!!!!!!!!!!! UGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had been reading Glenn's post-it note all day that is on the monitor reminding me to run SpamPal before opening outlook, but didn’t even realize that it wasn't running and I didn't think that had anything to do with it, but of course it did!! So, I guess we only can learn from our mistakes! I had no idea that SpamPal would prevent ALL emails from coming in, I just thought it might not catch some spam. Funny little thing, huh? Sometimes I just hate technology!! You can't live with it and you can't live without it for sure!!! I'm just glad I got it working again!