Happy Holidays!

Which to marathoners in Houston means, "Which awesome holiday party did you have to leave early so you could hobble thru your long run with some respectability?"

For Gaslight in 2008, thankfully, none! The hash Christmas Party? Way fun! Roadrunner party? Danced the night away! Christmas at my house? And my birthday? Totally fine! That has to be the best thing EVER about running a fall marathon-your long runs do NOT freak you out. Why? I've done my long run, so put that in your pipe and smoke it-I'm still recovering!

Let's just see how that translates into my performance on January 18, 2009, but I'm not sure how much a ballbusting December would have helped, really. But anyhoo, my point being, i was left in peace to enjoy my holiday season.

Prior to my departure to Charlotte, (miss me??)I did join my fellow roadrunners last Saturday for John's annual Loooong Run. Blasphemy, some may say, to put off hugging the uber-niecelettes until after one. Last.Twenty-one. Miler. But you gotta do what you gotta do, right? It's not going to run itself!

I do not have to remind my fellow Houstonians of the weather on said Saturday morning: 72 degrees. Yes, we swam our last long run. I spent some quality time with Simon as we plodded through the Tanglewood subdivision. (note: I LIKE Tanglewood! Nice place! So pretty! A little Stepfordish, perhaps, but golly a nice layout.)

Ahem. My last six at marathon pace was a little off, but hey, if it's 72 degrees on 1/18, we'll set off for a 3:30 and LIKE it, right? Maybe. I might still try for 3:20, but let's not be silly. What was my point? basically we made it 21 miles, I was able to speed up at the end, the biscuits were fluffy and the hot tub was bubbly. In an uncharacteristic brush with restraint, I declined adult beverages in favor of returning home to finish packing.

And you know what I forgot?? Guess.

No really, guess.


My damn driver's license. In case you ever place your state ID into a tiny, beaded bag for a party and neglect to have it at the airport, they WILL let you on the plane with 3 other "validish" IDs. I think the saving grace was my Debit card with a photo, my Costco card with photos (have I mentioned lately how much I love Costco? More love!) and my checkbook. Yes, I had a wallet full of cards and a checkbook, but no TDL. And they give you a minor bagcheck and bonus patdown for free!

Roadrunner Holiday Party

A couple of weeks back, but produced some festive photos, no?

I think this was our best club Christmas party in years!

Partygoers reveling in holiday cheer









We had the usual "meet the members" blackout bingo:

Eddie handing our gift certificates to "winners"



I think some members were disappointed by the heavy hors d'ouvres instead of a dinner buffet, but this kept everyone mingling.







A new addition was a dejJay, (groundbreaking, I know) which everyone enjoyed.










The secret to a great cocktail party? Not too many chairs!
Lana and I trying to not look our age

Um, oh, hi..

remember me?

I have a barrage of excuses for not updating, including but not limited to:

• extreme busyness with actual school business, i.e. planning an editorial study, creating novel tests and grading compositions (you're jealous..I can tell already)
• daily cross country practice, including two this week (watch me push the munchkins)
• a freaking cross country MEET the night before grades are due (and waiting for an hour for parents to show)
• training, for that thing, what was it? ...yes, the Houston Marathon.
• preparing for the Drips arrival, (houseguests living n Bahrain) They are plenty low-maintenance, but I did have to straighten up. A little.
• Many, many, holiday parties. I know, poor me, harriette socialite.
  

Pair that with the fact that half the time it has been effing cold, which means the inside of my 90-year-old house remains frigid much of the time, making it very unpleasant to type. So there.

OK, I'll Play...

4th folder, 4th photo.

Ironically, it's the same (or similar) to the photo at the bottom of my blog's front page. See?

2005 was the Year of the Conference...sigh. I miss 2005. First, Parker (former principal) send a group of teachers to a Service Learning Conference in Long Beach, CA.

Sat in the front row (dork) to hear Erin Gruwell (Freesome Writers' Diary) as the keynote speaker, and met the women from Kids Consortium in one the breakout sessions. They were so dynamic, I began jonesing to attend their summer conference in Bethel, Maine. Lo and behold, Parker approved my request. I flew into Connecticutt and spent a few days with High Maintenence, then drove north to Bethel, which is ski area about 2 hours NE of Portland. The photo is of a water park taken from a bridge (yes, I parked and walked to it) over the Bethel River.

The Summer Consortium was great-workshops on how to plan and execute service-learning projects with students, interesting speakers, great people. I think I was the only teacher from outside the Northeast, much less from Texas!

The research shows great things about how this type of work increases kids' "assets" and empathy. Texas, however, does not have a required service component in secondary education..your best best is plan a unit in elementary when you have the kids all day. Unless you can weave the project into current cirriculuum, teacher buy-in is unlikely.

Remember the Middle School Summit last month? The kids at Pin Oak take a SL class, which as far as I can see, might be a decent reason to work for HISD. (I don't).

I must say, hearing this made my day.

"Mr. Buck Fought Back"
By PEGGY O'HARE and ANITA HASSAN
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Dec. 6, 2008, 7:24PM

Officials said the deer, named Mr. Buck, was a favorite of schoolchildren at Bear Creek Pioneers Park.

Officers arrested a 23-year-old man in the decapitation of Mr. Buck, a beloved deer at Bear Creek Pioneers Park's wildlife sanctuary who authorities have since learned fought back as he was attacked last month.

Brandon Eugene Gregory was arrested at his apartment late Friday by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department officers and Harris County Precinct 5 deputies. He is charged with taking a wildlife resource without landowner consent — a state jail felony offense. His bond is set at $5,000.

Mr. Buck's severed head was recovered in a white chest freezer at Gregory's apartment in the 13300 block of West Road, said Sgt. Johnny Longoria with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Special Investigations Unit at a press conference at Beer Creek Park Saturday afternoon.

Along with the tools used in the slaying, Longoria said authorities also recovered the bodies of two additional improperly tagged deer on the apartment patio that had been taken from an adjoining county.

The November killing and mutilation of Mr. Buck shocked animal lovers across the Houston area. The 8- to 10-point buck was comfortable around people and let park visitors scratch his chin.

A park ranger found the white-tailed deer's headless carcass in a pool of blood Nov. 25.

Authorities have since learned Mr. Buck did not go down without a fight.

During a confession, Gregory told authorities he jumped the fence that night. When he was about 15 feet from Mr. Buck, the deer lowered his head and charged toward him, Longoria said.

The deer then knocked Gregory to the ground, pinning the man in the upper leg with his antlers, Longoria said. Gregory allegedly pulled Mr. Buck towards his body with his left hand and used his other hand to fatally stab the deer with a knife, Longoria said.

"It sounds like self-defense, but he (Gregory) shouldn't have been in there in the first place," Longoria said.

Gregory told authorities he used the knife-and-bone saw to sever Mr. Buck's head, before using bolt cutters to cut the chain-link fence to flee the scene, Longoria said.

He told authorities he would have taken the deer's entire body, but his injuries, which he described as being deep enough to fit half his pinky finger through, were too severe.

After all the publicity the case garnered, Gregory told authorities he was did not go to a hospital for fear he would be caught, Longoria said.

Gregory could not be reached for comment Saturday. His girlfriend, who answered the door at his northwest Harris County apartment, became tearful and said she could not talk to the media.

Longoria said Gregory did not give much of a reason for the killing, except that he had a great admiration for the deer's antlers and that he wanted to see exactly how tame Mr. Buck was.

"If he wanted to see how tame he was, he should have just come up to the fence and fed him like everyone else," Longoria said.