Wrong answer...?

Hi! I am back…after an 8 month hiatus. And it was not because nothing happened, I have been lazy.

In the past couple of days, I have twice “failed” a test that normal people pass, including my friend, her co-workers, sister, brother, brother-in-law, dad, uncle, and cousin. The first time was when my friend Amanda forwarded me the email, and the second was at dinner when my brother-in-law told a story.

The story is along this line: At your mother’s funeral you meet a man and fall deeply in love, believing him to be your soul mate. He leaves before you can get his name, phone number, any contact information—nothing. The next week you kill your sister, why?

Normal people say things like: “you were so heartbroken you killed her out of rage,” or “she started dating the man you met.” In a scientific study, it was proven that psychopaths answer along this line: “you thought he might attend your sister’s funeral, you wanted to see him again, so you killed your sister.”

When I first read the email, I immediately answered that I killed my sister so he would come to her funeral. I came up with no other answer. I am a psychopath! When I told my friend who emailed, she laughed saying only one other person she knows answered it as a psychopath would. When my brother-in-law told the story, the rest of the people at the table did not even get close to the psychopathic answer. I was getting really stressed out because they were no where near close! I am a psychopath and highly strung.

However, my brother-in-law’s mother gave the psychopathic answer and she is the opposite of a psychopath! My mom and grandma have not taken the test as far as I know. Anyways, aren’t psychopaths also geniuses?

Prom Queen

Both my sister and brother won a state championship in high school, my sister in tennis and my brother in hockey.  I did not.   And they like to bring that up every so often.  Especially now that I am coaching tennis.  But I was Prom Queen!! And neither of them were even on the Prom Court!  Ha!  

So it was my sororities 80's Prom Informal, and part of the reason I won was because Caitlin was caught stuffing the ballots in her favor.  But, I was still Prom Queen, and as you can see by the picture I deserved it!  (And you can see I was still in my awkward phase that all began with the bangs/mullet.)

The "chaperone" is cousin Jannie.  She actually was the chaperone of the dance, so she just dressed the part and really looked like a chaperone.  Sorry Jannie, but consider this payback for Teddy Dog Show...

Thoughts...?

To begin, I teach at a Catholic high school.  The students have to wear uniforms everyday except for Fridays and other special days.  Overall, the school is great, but very conservative.  A mom called me an atheist and an Obama supporter in one accusation!!

Tonight, at our usual Tuesday night dinner, I started talking about an incident at school involving dress code, a detention, and making a student change his shirt.  Immediately everyone jumps on me for being a mean teacher!  Now maybe they were siding with my grandmother, who thinks and tells everyone that I am the meanest teacher in the world, to earn brownie points.  But here is the situation and then I would like to hear your thoughts--am I a mean teacher or did the family jump on the black sheep once again?!?

This student likes to push the limits.  He is nice, but a does not like to follow any rules.  Previous examples, when he was on Academic Probation he had to meet with all of his teachers once a week to catch up.  He never showed up once, and every teacher arranged his/her schedule to accommodate for him.  He asked me if he could have my cell phone number and we can meet at a Starbucks one Saturday to study.  And his school polo was never tucked in (dress code violation) and had multiple warnings and detentions for that as well.

 Today was one of the days when the kids were allowed to wear jeans and a green top if they donated money to a charity.  This student comes to school in jeans and a Pabst Blue Ribbon St. Patty's Day shirt. (For those who do not know, PBR is a cheap, nasty beer.) For violating school policy,  I wrote him a detention slip and asked the Dean of Students to make him cover up his shirt somehow.  Now, was I a mean teacher by punishing a student who wore a beer t-shirt to a Catholic high school?!?!

Thoughts...?

Fourth time is the charm!

Yea!  For a few weeks I have been on a kick of trying to make a really good soft pretzel, but have failed on all but one attempts.  The first time, I put wax paper in the oven and almost burnt the house down... oops.   The next two times were not good, too bland.   But today, I found a new recipe, thank you Alton Brown!  

I know the picture does not show how good these are, but trust me, they are goooooood!  And, they are almost gone...

Now, I need to work on making dips for them!

FunFetti Cupcakes Take 1 results

Results: They looked good, but they can taste better. My roommate Betsy I think hit the nail on the head when she said that they tasted more like sugar cookies than cupcakes. I found a new recipe that I think will solve the problem...I will keep you posted!! (Haha, see how funny I am)

Annie Cooks

Part of my Middle Child Syndrome is that I have all of these creative ideas in my head but when I try to execute them they fail miserably.  Especially when it comes to arts and crafts, and all I want to do id be like Martha Stewart.  But my sister is awesome!  Check out her blog, she will make you things!! (janiebaby.blogspot.com) However, when it comes to baking, I do pretty well.  

My friends from college and I have a slight obsession with FunFetti cake mix.  So this weekend I tried to make my own FunFetti cupcakes from scratch.  Here is what they look like...not too bad.  I am taking them to work tomorrow for a taste test.  I just hope that I am giving the box mix a run for its money, or at least some where close. 

I love my Snuggie!

Yes I have a Snuggie! Yes I love it! Yes, you should be jealous that I can knit and read AND keep my arms warm!

Teddy Dog Show

Here is a story that I think best defines my life as a middle child…everyone refers to it as Teddy Dog Show.

I will just cut to the chase—I sound corny when I try to build something up. So one day in the summer, not sure how old I was, but my sister, Janie, and cousin, Jannie, were all playing together. We decided that it would be fun to put on a dog show, more like a horse show, with Teddy.

We turned our backyard into the ring, and we made all the jumps from the pool furniture, floating noodles, trash cans, really anything that we could find. When we started to discuss who would be what, Janie quickly stated that she would be Teddy’s trainer, the one who gets the glory when he would do well. Janie then assigns Jannie to be the commentator because she was taking riding lessons and would know what she was talking about. As for me, I became a jump. My job was to just stretch my arm and leg out to the trashcans and wait for Janie and Teddy to jump over me. It was made very clear to me that only I could do this because I was the tallest—I believed them. I took the job very seriously, thinking that I was playing an important role. But, in the end, I got no glory, no recognition like Teddy, Janie, and Jannie.


It was not until a few years later when I watched the video that I realized how nerdy I really was. And it is so typical of me, Janie, and Jannie even to this day: Janie always had the most powerful position, Jannie was always the brains behind it, and I was always just there doing the jobs that no else wanted to. Another example is when we made a contraption that would pull people and put it on Teddy. We duct-taped rollerblades to a Radio Flyer, made reins and a harness, and put them on Teddy. Janie got to ride, I ran next to Teddy to make sure that he kept going. Typical.