Mikey D

~School has started again. Bleah. This year's group of sixth graders is much better than the last, both academically and behaviorally. It's nice to teach the honors math class and have them actually come in with some prior knowledge. Like if we're doing a lesson on rounding to a certain place value, and I say "let's round to the nearest hundredth", they actually know where the hundredths place is (you'd think if you're in honors math that would be something you'd know, but not the case last year...). They are overall a very respectful group, which again is refreshing. My only problem is my workload so far. I've never had as many students as I do this year (north of a 110), which may not seem like a lot, but I'm just not used to it. The grading, the parent contact, etc., etc., it's a lot of time consuming effort. I suppose it's good that I have this group this year and not last, because handling this workload would have been challenging while trying to complete my grad courses as well.

~Speaking of school, a kid got hit by a car the other day. Scary stuff, as five years ago a girl jumped out into the street and got killed. Every day when I leave the school parking lot I think that it's just a matter of time before someone gets hit because these kids have no respect for the crosswalks, crossing guards, or the rule of 'looking both ways before you cross'. Well, sure enough, the kid darted out into the street, and ran into an oncoming car. The car didn't hit him...he hit the car. And of course the car won. Now the kid is okay; he's got some bumps and bruises and a cast on his leg, so he's quite lucky in that respect. I'm guessing he'll be back in school next week. But this is just one of those things that I don't get. How do you just walk into t a street without looking??? It's baffling to me.

~I'm starting to feel good about my fantasy team. The last couple of weeks I've been trying to force a trade just because of my weakness at RB. But then I got to thinking that the weakness is only a perceived weakness, based soley on last year's performances and preseason rankings. What if Addai and McFadden step up this year? Or Felix Jones becomes a star? Well then I have no RB weakness, and I'd be upset at myself for trading away one of my top-flight WRs. Yes, they both could bomb...but wouldn't it be better to know that for sure instead of making a rash move? I think so, and that's where I'm at. And when I look over my starting roster, there's some good names, but what I like best is that practically all of them are in high-powered offenses. New England, Green Bay, Atlanta, Houston, Indianapolis, San Diego...at the very least they'll have some opportunities to produce.

~Yahoo! Fantasy Sports experts have been counting down the top fantasy offenses for the upcoming season. They call it their "Juggernaut Index". Again, this is for fantasy purposes. They have gotten all the way up to the #4 offense, which leaves three more to go. What would you guess the top three fantasy offenses were? If you ask me that question, I'd say New Orleans, New England, and San Diego, in some sort of order. Based on process of elimination, however, Yahoo! will have New Orleans, Houston, and Philadelphia as their top fantasy offenses. I guess I see the potential in Houston and Philly, but are they more high powered in the fantasy world than New England? My only guess is that because they both can produce good fantasy QBs and RBs that they jump New England. But then I think, well San Diego has Rivers, Tomlinson, Gates, and V.Jackson...which, compared to Houston or Philly, is equal to or better than most positions on their squads. Confusing...

~The To-Do list is slowing down a bit, and I knew it would. This next month is just ridiculously busy, with Adam's bachelor party and wedding, the back to school functions that seem to never end, Grace's bday, and on and on it goes. I'm still trying to work through things the best I can, but once October starts, I need to be balls to the wall with the list when I hopefully will have a few more free seconds of time.

~I think Grace is coming around to the joys of arguing. Her work stories now consist of her many daily arguments she has with customers. She has a tone of amusement when she recounts her arguments, which is good, because arguing is supposed to be fun. I'm glad she is enjoying it more. I'm working with her on starting arguments just for the sake of starting arguments, which hopefully she'll come around to in the near future. I remind her that you don't have to believe in what you argue, you just have to act like you do. Once she gets that down, work will become way more fun for her I think.

~Grace also tried to make into the Quote Book the other day. We were watching TV and Grace remarked that a guy "needed to stay away from the tanning beds", which got me laughing hysterically, because of course the guy was black. Good times. That would be totally something I could see myself saying too, and Kevin making fun of me for it.

~Mikey D