Wednesday, April 27, 2005


Vocab Test

Class Artifacts

Perhaps some day when I am no longer teaching, or I am teaching at another school, I will look back at this collection of documents and be astonished that I ever did this.- - with these people.

Keep in mind, if anyone stumbles across this blog unawares, I am an SAT teacher in Atlanta, Georgia (and no, southerners are NOT dumb, just these students). When I say SAT, I mean for the test; it's not some new kind of special ed. So I am scanning some of the more, ah, REMARKABLE papers from this week's batch and posting them.

Thursday, April 21, 2005

Warning:

What I would like is to have a T-shirt printed that reads: Warning: Today I am taking a vacation day from: (check all that apply)
*being the bigger person
*being too sexy for my shirt
*suffering fools gladly
*grasping at straws
*productivity
*rationality
*squelching my inner bitch
*acting my age

Monday, April 18, 2005

Fok Ken Chow Mai Fun

We went to this restaurant on Saturday, per a recommendation in Creative Loafing:

Chicken Soup for the Chinese Soul It doesn't get any cheaper or better than Hong Kong BBQ
BY CYNTHIA WONG
Those who favor Chinese restaurants cleaned up and pretty should go ahead and strike Hong Kong BBQ off their list. Located in the food court of the Chinatown Mall in Chamblee, the tiny fast-food stand is all business, no frills. Ducks roasted to a rosewood lacquer dangle from hooks behind a glass window smeared with a mosaic of fingerprints and grease. Slabs of barbecued pork in a metal pan soak up drippings from the meats hanging above. The detritus of hacked-up soy sauce chicken clings to the blade of a cleaver wielded with ferocious accuracy and efficiency by the restaurant's cooks.
Ex-pat central: A large, hand-lettered sign referring to the hanging ducks and pork reads "For display only." Posted for the benefit of Anglo diners, the sign is tacked up on the barbecue station window and has no Chinese equivalent. The food court itself — dingy, careworn and populated with older Asian men arguing loudly, sipping tea and thumbing through Chinese newspapers — recalls the hawker centers of Hong Kong and Singapore. It's not hard to imagine the food court is one of the few places in the Atlanta area where Chinese expatriates feel fully at home.
Duck, duck, pork: Diners are informed their meals are ready by way of a cheerleader-like announcement over a P.A. system. The barbecued meats might be the best I've had in Atlanta yet. Barbecued duck (1/4 duck, $3.99) has crisp, tawny skin glistening with soy and honey. It's rich, livery and butter-tender.
Rice dream: Custard-like congee (rice porridge, $3.29) is velvety with the starch of broken rice. Shreds of salty pork and wedges of bouncy preserved eggs dot the creamy landscape. Hong Kong-style wonton noodle soup ($3.79) boasts rich, dark chicken broth as a base for a tangle of fine egg noodles and wontons plump with a treasure of gently curled shrimp.
Go bananas: Banana leaf squid ($6.99) isn't cooked inside the leaves, but presented on one. Underneath a crunchy egg batter, slices of squid are astonishingly tender. A coating of brick-red chili sauce provides heady fire. We'll return to Hong Kong BBQ for a go at the soy sauce duck wings and roast pig on rice. With nearly 100 items and filling portions, you could make a second career of eating your way through the menu. What glorious work it would be.
Hong Kong BBQ 5385 New Peachtree Road (Chinatown Mall food court), Chamblee. 770-451-7277. Daily, 10 a.m.-10 p.m.; closed Wednesdays. Entree range: $3.29-$8.29. Cash only. No alcohol served. Lot parking.

Ms. Wong did not mention that this restaurant also offers a dish titled: Fok Ken Chow Mai Fun which sounds vaguely like a strange interpretation of Bite Me. Also this was the most AUTHENTIC Chinese restaurant I have ever been to, which means that A) they offer dishes such as Pork Kidney and Pork Stomach Rice Congee and Assorted Meat on Rice (I don't know which one to be more afraid of) and Braised Fish Head. I am really, really worried that in Hell they might serve Pork Intestine with Black Bean Sauce. Also they butcher their pigs THERE. IN THE RESTAURANT, and I know this because I saw two whole dead pigs carried into the restaurant, perhaps to be turned into Pork Intestine Combination.
This food court also contained several other restaurants, one of which didn't bother to post a menu in English at all, but had covered the surrounding walls with numbers and then chinese script in what was clearly a menu. This restaurant was called something Hot Pot. All of the restaurants had exclusively Chinese people eating there and had menus posted entirely in Chinese with rather grudging English subtitles here and there. Also there was a nice outdoor garden at which one could dine if one so wished.

It's probably rather jejune of me to mock other cultures or find amusement in what they eat; God only knows what they think of something like a HAMBURGER, or meatloaf, or lasagna; or find puerile amusement in the fact that some of the foods sound like Dirty Words but I can't help it. Sorry. By the way, I had Barbecue Combination, which was Ribs, pork, and duck. All of it was normal looking- I also badly wanted to take some of the duck heads with me home, you could play good pranks with them. You could, for example, slip one into an unattended purse at a party; put a bunch of them in a medicine cabinet so that when someone opened the medicine cabinet in the morning they would all fall out; attach one to your car antenna; Put one in your husband's pocket; tie one to your rearview mirror; Put one in your neighbours' mailboxes. But I didn't.

What else happened? We discovered one of Daniel's previously unrevealed quirks; I did not know that he would not ride in anyone else's car. Trey offered to drive the Treymobile but Daniel refused so we went in their car. We went to the Colonnade, which was probably the diametric opposite to the Chinese restaurant in terms of decor and food and familiarity. Trey and Daniel split a 24 oz steak; Sandy got a seafood platter, despite not wanting half of what was on it; I got pompano with Krabmeat stuffing and a white wine-cream sauce. It was fabulous as always. Trey and I wore interesting outfits; Trey said I was the Red Dot and he wore his goth coat and cowboy hat and was Cowboy Vamp and I wore a red blazer, red shirt and red corduroy pants.
Daniel was impressed with the size and cheapness of the drinks. Sandy liked the food a lot. We shall definitely have to go back-

We went to see Fidelio; Rob could not go and then Trey could not go, so Daniel went in his place and then Daniel's allergies acted up and he did not like that too much. It had beautiful music, somewhat reminiscent of Pastorale, especially in the overture- and a HAPPY ENDING. Very rare in opera. I hate the Civic Center, though, our seats are like a thousand miles away from the stage and the sound is terrible. It feels like I am looking at the stage through a microscope and listening to the production through a wall. I don't know WHAT the Civic Center was designed to host- but nothing that I can think of.

O and Trey acted up on Saturday; he came home and was saying, You SUCK, over and over again, to some non existent entity in the dining room. I can divine to some extent why but the rest of it is a mystery.

I would like to note that on the check-in check out list for Monday the 18th, next to Miss Darleen Bolton (one of my students)'s name, the reason for her arrival at school at 12:51 is listed as Spellbound. Interesting.

Diva otherside

Diva Front

Diva interior

Goodbye to All That

This weekend I finally sold Diva, the Cutlass convertible which has been sitting without being driven since 2001- I placed an ad in the Auto Trader for $49 last week? the week before? and got a lot of calls, one of them resulting in $1000. The people came yesterday from Spartanburg SC to look at the car and decided to buy her- she started right up when they put a battery in her.
I wondered a little why I had held on to that car so long, and then I remembered how special she was. There were a lot of wonderful memories that were created in and around that car- I wonder if it was a function of my age- or was it more a function of the car? I think it was a function of the car, because I can only think of one interesting memory I really have that involved the Ciera which was Diva's immediate predecessor.
I remember buying the car in February 1998 and driving around with Julie of Yuli I love you I not gay fame- with the top down and the heat on-
when the alternator died trying to push it to the side of the road and getting it stuck on the railroad tracks and then the train came, but was able to stop in time-
driving around with Ed and the Finns-
driving around with Ed-
(a different) Jen's Halloween party with Ed and Paige and we got pulled over and they searched the car-
That time I was driving home from that crazy party in Cobb county and fell asleep at the wheel on 85 South and nearly wrecked and spun the car around on the highway-
Rosie's two year old daughter being impressed and going OOoohh at the top going down-
That horrible night Paige had to rescue me-
Letting Scott drive the car the one time we went to Buckhead-
Driving to the mountains with Trey and him sleeping next to me in the car-
Trey taking her out when he had no business doing so and then she died, and had to be towed, and that was why the top wouldn't close anymore.
Taking her all apart to get to the turn signal switch inside the column when the problem was a simple flasher-and not being able to get her back together-

Was she a good car? In the sense of holding up well, no- something was always breaking off or somehow going wrong, which was why I finally bought the Omega. But was she the kind of car to inspire memories and affection? YES. The Air conditioning never worked, which may not seem like a problem in a convertible, but then when it's raining and muggy, it's not nice- the horn never worked, and the door panel on the right side began to come off- and then the right hand mirror got broken- there were other things that began to disintegrate, too, like she leaked oil, and quite a bit of it, and it was going to cost $800 to fix, so I declined, Now I can't really remember, because of the length of time since I've driven her, but she gradually shed more and more bits, and rather expensive ones.

But as I say, she was the sort of car which inspired memories and created them. I've driven the Omega just as long and there are only a few particularly memorable things that have happened in that car- the one is when I was trying to collect the rent from the drug dealer who was living in the rental house and chased him in it and Heather and Trey were in the car and Heather strongly objected- - and of course we had the accident, but that is really not particularly Memorable.

Some cars seem somehow destined to create great memories and experiences. The convertibles, certainly, seem much more likely to do so. I suppose in some ways I should be thankful for that, because some of the memories have not been so good- but then others, like watching Trey sleep while I was driving back from the mountains, are really only possible in a convertible. They don't have that magical aura in a fairly ordinary four door sedan like the Omega.

Thursday, April 14, 2005


Treymobile 4

Treymobile 3

Treymobile rear seat

Treymobile

Treymobile Interior 2

Treymobile interior

Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Sin City

I forgot to note yesterday that I am selling the Cutlass (Diva) because I don't suppose the Car Fairy is ever going to come along and fix it magically overnight, and the Car Elves have thus far declined to repair it in the middle of the night (probably because of the neighbourhood I live in) so it is time to sell it. I put an advertisement in the Auto Trader and so far have gotten several calls; hopefully it shall sell soon.

Yesterday Trey took me to see a movie- Sin City- concerning which some conservative columnist was railing about the violence and sex therein. Now that is flatly idiotic; no one should go to see a movie entitled "Sin City" without expecting, well, SIN. If you go expecting to see "Lassie," then you're an imbecile. That being said, I don't think it should have been rated R, it should have certainly been rated NC-17. I figured out that on average, there was an Extreme Act of Violence every 7 seconds, because I counted from one to the next. (I counted an Extreme act of Violence as someone being not simply shot, but being shot in a particuarly graphic and unusual manner and having lots of blood, that sort of thing.) Not only that, but there were extremely adult depictions of sex, nudity, etc- there wasn't what you would call a lot left up to the imagination. There was a lot of shapely lady flesh being shown, that is, what flesh wasn't at the same time being shredded, mangled, bloodied, penetrated, devoured, drowned, stomped, dragged, pummeled, and so forth. Many, many people were also decapitated during the course of the movie.

I don't know if I liked it or not. It's not a movie that I would wish to see again. It's not a movie that I would like to see a sequel to, either, but I will give it this; it was more entertaining and less idiotically saccharine than, say, "Neverland." It was interestingly shot and acted- a very good on screen translation of the graphic novel style, but I believe Hollywood is now going to substitute mindless, increasingly graphic violence/sex for nuanced stories and acting, or on the other side of the coin, trite emotional silliness (heartwarming, ecch) for nuanced stories and acting. So that is why I don't see movies in the theatres anymore. The last movie we saw in the theatre prior to this was that movie about the Japanese children who were abandoned, and that was fairly good-
Now on the other hand, I did very much like Mildred Pierce, which I saw on Saturday evening when Trey was at work- it has Joan Crawford in it and a very interesting and realistic story line. Perhaps it wasn't so realistic 50 years ago, but now the story of the divorcee trying to make it and then the vaguely scummy men, like the heir who had the name but not the money, and ungrateful daughter seem very realistic now. I liked the way it was shot, too. It was a very involving movie- I suppose I am very old fashioned in preferring old fashioned character development to lots of noisy bang-bang stuff. O Well.

Monday, April 11, 2005

Trey becomes a Real Person

Rather like the Velveteen Rabbit, although much less depressingly, Trey is turning into a Real Person, as several people have noted; He bought a car on Friday. We will post pictures of the car tomorrow; he got a 1994 Ford Taurus wagon with 121,000 miles on it and paid $1,600 for it at the auction. Almost everything works except for the two rear windows and the rear defogger which needs to be re-soldered. Even the air conditioner works! It is in very good shape and has four new tyres on it. I insisted on a station wagon on the theory that a wagon would be better taken care of than an ordinary sedan- - it is probably harder/less tempting to abuse a station wagon by drag racing it or whatever. The auction also is not as cheap as it used to be; I was hoping for great bargains, but the thing runs beautifully- it pulled strongly all the way home from Newnan very quietly and without shaking or shuddering or smoking and shifted well. We considered several cars before this one fell into his price range- but one we rejected was a minivan which was being wholesaled by Nigeria Automotive Sales. Now if the Nigerians are giving it up- you know it's no good. Don't ever buy anything used from an immigrant (or people who lived through the Depression) because they will eke every last squidgeon of life out of it before giving it up.

So this is good progress; two steps forward, hopefully no steps back but he is trying. He is being the best Trey that he can be, which is a Good Thing. And not an easy thing, but Worth It. He also had a Deluxe Fit last week, replete with intermission and then Second Act (same as the first); some long, incomprehensible Fit because there was a newspaper and some cigarette ends on the sun porch. He had a sustained Fit for about three hours, and then took a two hour nap, and then got up and had more of the same Fit.

Also we listed the house; we have a different agent this time and this chap will hopefully market it more aggressively than was done previously. He told me not to do anything more to it, which I was rather doubtful about, but so be it; he said the buyer was either going to tear it down or want to fix it themselves so I said fine. The house is listed at 149,840, and if I can get very close to that with commission I will be happy.

The dinner party turned out well. I enjoy cooking immensely. We had homemade lasagna, shrimp with tarragon-cream sauce over wilted spinach, and salad with prosciutto (Alex didn't know what it was; I told him it was a sort of vegetable) and blue cheese and walnuts and balsamic vinagrette dressing which I made myself and we also had tiramisu which no one ate because they were full, and I also made a pitcher of gin cocktails which involved lemons, honey and lavender. Now I know how to make pink lemonade.

Alex requires another intervention; he stated that he thought that doing his taxes by hand rather than on the computer was "fun." "I like to add up all the numbers," he said. This frightens me. In a few years, I can see him talking about which number is his favourite to type. And this scares me! He even offered to balance my checkbook, because it would be "fun" also. I told him about my check writing method, which consists of grabbing whichever checkbook comes to hand and writing checks out of them, and I never write down the amounts or balance it either. I wait for the statement to come and remember what I spent where. This horrified Alex's little accountant mind. You have asterisks all over your statement! He said. Thsi appalled him. Right now, he wants badly to get a girlfriend, but I don't want him to meet a girl accountant and then have little accountant children, that would be scary. So he has to meet a nice, normal girl, by which I mean someone who does not use the word "fun" and "tax forms" in the same breath. Mind you, this is also someone who thinks painting on things with nail varnish is NOT fun and does not like decorating pottery or making curtains or anything interesting (and he glued his tree back together) so I don't see how he's going to meet any nice young lady.

Camilla and Charles got MARRIED, which I do not care about at all except for the fact that there exist, for some reason, COMMEMORATIVE souvenir items of the event. This to me is disgusting; I cannot for the life of me conceive of who would want to purchase an item commemmorating the wedding of two people one does not know and did not attend. I have been to baby baptisms and kept the souvenir, but then it was given to me and I actually attended and enjoyed the food/drink immensely. Probably the worst thing about the Camilla/Charles wedding items is that many of them feature Camilla/Charles' FACES. Honestly, could you pick two LESS attractive people to get married? And to leer at you from a shelf? Yuck. At least they're past the age of conception. That would be one seriously ugly baby. (insert your own ugly baby joke).

Jane Fonda has a new book out, which inevitably talks about her involvement in Vietnam. That witch. I am so envious of her being able to parlay this into an entire career- think about it. Would anyone- anywhere-still be interested in Jane Fonda if she hadn't gone to Vietnam and said what she said? What is she famous for besides going to Vietnam? Perhaps I should go to North Korea or Cuba to achieve notoriety. She hasn't made a movie in years- her exercise videos are - well, no one cares what Richard Simmons has to say, nor do they care about the Tae-Bo guy- and she hasn't been married to Ted Turner for some time and no one cares what he has to say either. If people really think what she said was wrong, they should shut up about it and stop paying attention to it; that would serve her right.

Friday, April 01, 2005

In Passing-

Ed put something up on his blog http://edshepp.blogspot.com/ that was really, really touching about his friend whom he recently found out passed away earlier this year. I thought it was very moving, so I have been thinking about death and life issues a little bit. This led to the idea that it seems, in some ways, a great waste to wait until someone passes to write such glorious tributes about them; they would much rather have the tributes NOW while they are living, no matter how maudlin or in bad taste it may seem. So perhaps we should have a weekly tribute to people we love on our website and profile a different person every week.
On a completely different note, I was thinking about having a dinner party next week.