Packing for two reasons:

1) moving downtown.
2) going home to Alberta for a visit.

The amount of time I have spent sorting my stuff so far has been ridiculously lengthy considering the amount of stuff I actually have.

I have not been sleeping well for the past month or two. Maybe it's the bed. Maybe it's the stress. (One paper to go.)

Well, all of my classmates (and the professor) in my curriculum course know about this problem now, seeing as we had a discussion on energy drinks, sleeping, and remedies during our 'night out' this week.

Well, I took the bus to the EGSS Winter Social last night at Megalos Restaurant. I was the first one there, which was strange, considering I had to travel from the middle of nowhere. I had a turkey sandwich, since most of the either entrées were mostly red meat or pasta (which I am taking a break from).

I also had a cocktail. Yay, more alcohol for a body that doesn't like it. But their drink offerings were not that great.

Wet snow seems to be more common in Kingston than real snow. Yesterday it was extremely windy, today it was just cold. And I hate waiting for the bus.

Well, I can't believe I'm going to be homeless in less than two weeks. Time to start looking. Again.

Winter is finally here, I have finished my T.A. duties, and my cupboard is empty - what a great weekend.

Today I went to Loblaws to buy some ice cream. It takes me about a month to go through a tub (2 L), and I eat it with my bananas.

There I met the SGPS vice-president (external), who also happens to be an M.Ed. student. He was shopping for clothespins with Grandma (among other things, of course).

Then I saw one of my PROF 101 students. He just finished his practicum, and he's a construction technology major. One of the projects his students were doing was to build a house...and then sell it.

Right after, a woman said she was waiting for my advice! Yes, me the culinary expert! She was trying to decide on which package of Mediterranean rolls to buy (since they were $4.99 each). I told her to go with the cabbage-wrapped ones.

What did I buy? Ice cream, macaroni & cheese, a jar of sandwich dressing, and a box of four-cheese risotto.

I sat near the centre court at Cataraqui Town Centre (pronounced Ka-ta-ra-kee, Ka-tara-kway, or Kata-rock-way depending on who you talk to) for about 30 minutes, just observing. This is part of an informal research exercise that I'm supposed to do for the educational research course I'm taking. I found it too busy to write anything meaningful, but I tried.

If you don't want to join in the controversy, just ask for "The Cat [Centre]". People will know what you're talking about.

Mac OS X 10.5 is out tonight! I'm still pondering whether to drop the $79.20+GST+PST for it, or if I should just get it with my next Mac. Maybe I'll just wait for 10.6. There's nothing in the new version that I think I absolutely need.

You're telling me now, after I've eaten these on an occasional basis for the past two years? Are you serious? Good thing it appears that I'm smart enough to follow the cooking instructions on the box (people, learn to read), otherwise I wouldn't be writing this at the moment.

I am under stress again...but this time I'm not getting paid (much) for it. I have about 50 more assignments to mark (~4 page essays on an equity/exceptionality issue), a paper to read and discuss ("facilitate"), a chapter on experimental validity to read, another paper that I have to critique and write an analysis for, and finally present a lesson that underpins some scientific theory. Fun!

Every time the Canadian dollar goes up, I get a little poorer. That is because most of my savings is in U.S. dollars.

The Charlotte Checkers signed forward Neil Poulsen from Queen's University. Not the Queens in Charlotte. The one in Kingston, Ontario (Canada).

So one of our own is headed south.

Well, the following leaves only one possible solution: potato chips and a pop for lunch!

Deadly allergy excludes most sandwiches from Grade 1 class

Today my MacBook is 400 days old, so I decided to reward her by bumping up the memory from 512 Mb to 2 Gb! Now it's ready for Leopard.

The RAM that I removed (2x256 Mb) had some white stuff on it, I have no idea what it is. Maybe I was fine having 512 Mb the whole time and this stuff was causing my computer to crash randomly.

I bought a new mouse today! It's a Logitech MX400 laser mouse. Hard to believe that I've been using the trackpad on my notebook for almost 13 months. It's not cordless, and it's not a notebook-sized mouse, but it works great!

According to StatsCan, Canada now has a(n estimated) population of 33 million people!

The population increases by 900 every day, taking into account births, deaths, immigration and emigration. Does not take into account any illegal immigrants.

110 km away from my favourite store.

If there's anything that sucks about being on a Mac, it's their web browsers.

Either you have:
- Safari, stops responding when you refresh a page randomly (particularly with multiple tabs open); also has a useless bookmarking system
- Firefox, which only sucks up more memory and system resources over time, and eventually stops responding when trying to do trivial things like close a tab; or
- Camino, which doesn't like Gmail very much, cannot handle Windows Media files properly with the Flip4Mac plugin and stops responding on occasion when you're ready to Quit.

I hate them all!

I found out that you can't 'undelete' files from MacOS X once you have emptied the trash. You're totally out of luck if you secure empty trash. Take it from me, I spent five hours last night recreating a presentation in Keynote after deleting it accidentally, thinking it was an older version of the file.

This article was pretty humourous. And, on top of that, the guy didn't actually do anything illegal; he just wanted to scare some of his fellow campers. Great way to spend a summer vacation.

Also in the news, the media has been obsessed with iPhone monthly bill statements as thick as novels. That's why I opt for electronic statements, when possible.

I discovered a (sponsored) web page -- written by a Queen's student/alumnus -- that describes life at the university and Kingston for the incoming student, titled: "Queen's University Guide". Pretty valuable tips.

I went to campus for the first time since I arrived. It was a 4 km walk to the Faculty of Education building to meet my program advisor and the manager for graduate studies. After that I saw the Kingston Penitentiary, which is on the shore of Lake Ontario on my way back to the registrar's office on the main campus. They have torn up University Avenue and a part of Union Street, which are important traffic routes through the campus. Even those on foot are inconvenienced, and they have created breaks in the construction zone to allow pedestrians to get around. I do not know if they're going to have it all ready in time for the Fall Term.

I drink a lot of milk, even if I'm partially lactose intolerant. It is fortified with vitamins and a good source of protein, and I don't mind the taste. Anyhow, coming from the U.S., where I could usually get a gallon (3.78 L) of skim milk for less than $3, it shocked me when I went to Montreal and found out that a 1 L carton cost 1.38, and a 4 L bag cost 4.63. Well, that wasn't so bad, thank goodness for price laws established by the Quebec government ... then I came to Kingston, where prices range from 2.03 to 2.74 for a 1 L carton. And these are grocery store prices! Unbelievable!

The most economical solution is to buy the 4 L bag (3 bags of 1.33 L each) for about $4 and a plastic container to store it in. I realize that in western Canada and in the U.S., we are pretty fortunate to have 4 L (or 1 gallon) of milk sold in convenient plastic jugs (although it isn't as environmentally-friendly).

I was walking down Princess St. in Kingston yesterday. Some woman comes up to me in the opposing direction and says, "Jesus loves you, Sir." I darted to the side to avoid starting a conversation or from making contact with her. Then, I crossed the street to make sure.

Along with the panhandlers asking for change and cars just zipping by, this is just like Ste-Catherine Street in Montreal, without the French.

For the past couple of days there has been a lively discussion on the CBC web site regarding the 1-cent piece.

One of the more humourous comments comes from Mark I., from Toronto. He writes, "A gas attendent [sic] asked me if I had a penny. I gave her a quarter and told her to let the next 24 people go".

I have previously written about the awkwardness of the 25-cent piece in Canada and the U.S. (Where is the corresponding $25 banknote?)

All I'm going to say is that if you're going to get rid of the 1-cent piece, you may as well get rid of the 5-cent and 25-cent pieces as well, bring back the 50-cent piece into circulation, and start rounding everything to the nearest decimal place.

It would be nice if we could also bring back the $2 note, too.

I have arrived in Kingston. I left Montreal at 9:41 a.m. on VIA 57, which departed from Track 13 at Central Station, carrying well over 70 kg of baggage with me
* along 675 m of sidewalks in east Montreal to Cadillac station from my temporary home
* descending 12.2 m of stairs to the platform
* transfer at Berri-UQAM station (ascending 5.9 m)
* up 22.6 m of stairs at Bonaventure station to surface level
* about 100 m of walkways to the baggage terminal at the station

The advantage over last time is that checked baggage service was offered on this train, so boarding and deboarding was quicker. I did take a taxi when I arrived in Kingston, though. The driver's credit card machine wasn't working, and he told me he didn't need a tip because it was Saturday. So I paid in cash.

I talked with a woman in line while waiting to board in Montreal, who is from Brockville. It turns out her son is the guy who kicks his friend in the Nissan TV commercials that have been playing in Canada and the U.S. recently. He is a "fight director" for theatrical plays, one of six in the country. He is paid pretty well, and works in Toronto. And her daughter is a UofA drama graduate who is moving to Vancouver. Interesting stuff.

Well, 51 days after I applied for a room in residence, I finally got offered a room on the consecutive education floor at Jean Royce Hall Residence. If this had happened 50 days ago, I probably would have accepted it immediately. But I have had time since to do some calculations.

The residence fee is $5,149 for eight months (September - April), plus the ResNet fee ($155) and Residence Student Government fee ($80). Total cost per month: $673.

I think I will probably pass on the offer, thank you very much.

The last few posts have not been very interesting, I know. But that's how a vacationing in a big city without any real purpose passes.

There was an incident on the weekend where my sister was trying to buy a one-way ticket from Montreal to Edmonton, when the price mysteriously went up from $249 on Friday to $394 on Sunday.

I went to the bookstore (Chapters on Ste-Catherine at Stanley) where I found a couple of books to add to my reading list:

Lullabies for Little Criminals, by Heather O'Neill (Montreal author)
Special Topics in Calamity Physics, by Marisha Pessl (Asheville, N.C. author)

Today will be the last post for a while, because I will be away from the computer until I get to Kingston.

I have been reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows this past week whenever I was at home. So far, I am about two-thirds of the way through. Harry is still alive, and so are his two companions.

So far, with regards to September, I have:
1) been unofficially registered for Fall term
2) found a room to rent, a fully-furnished basement complete with bathroom

But the following still needs to be done:
1) meet with Program Advisor
2) send registration form and photograph for identification purposes
3) work on lesson plan presentation
4) pay tuition
5) buy a one-way, VIA rail train ticket

This week, the sun is out in Montreal. Yesterday, I headed out early to Parc Mont-Royal and went for a walk.

The course coordinator for the course I will be assistant teaching called in the afternoon. I guess it's time to do some work now. I still don't know when I will be heading for Kingston.

Today it is raining pretty heavily in Montreal. I have not done anything too interesting lately, except walk from Parc Jean-Drapeau, along the Lachine Canal to the Lionel-Groulx metro station early Wednesday morning. That is a long walk, and I took a nap once I got home.

I am thinking about all sorts of things, but not really getting anywhere. Should I take heart in my horoscope for today?

Vous vous en faits beaucoup pour votre avenir - la pension ou la retraite, les enfants et leur aveni, la vie en général, votre réputation, etc. Relaxez!

Maybe today is the day!

My sister is here in Montreal with me this summer, although she has her own place, a room at the residences at Université de Montréal. To get there from my studio apartment it takes about 45 minutes by public transportation.

I am trying to organize my priorities this month, although I am having some difficulties completing them.

1. Get registered for courses (all two of them) this fall.
2. Go through orientation for the course in which I will be a T.A.
3. Pay the tuition.
4. Find a place to stay in Kingston.
5. Make the move west with my stuff.

Last Friday, I left Raeford, and after a two-day journey, arrived in Montréal. After returning my car to Dick Shirley Mitsubishi in Burlington, my hosts brought me to the Amtrak station, where I bid adieu to them and began my journey north. Here are a few highlights:

The train left Burlington at about a quarter to ten. My first moments were a little anxious, since 1) the train started moving before I could even get my bags put away, and 2) I must have annoyed other passengers for trying to plead my case with the stewardess about bringing more than two carry-ons. The sequence of events had happened faster than my mind would allow. The conductor told me to calm down as he punched my ticket.

The ride to Richmond was long...almost 6.5 hours (1.5 hours late). In Cary, a couple of twin boys headed to Philly boarded, and about 10 minutes passed before one asked, "Are we out of N.C. yet?", a question that was answered as the train passed the N.C. State Fairgrounds, and the other said, "Hey! We were just here yesterday!" (Crossing the state line wouldn't take place for another four hours.)

Along the way, the conductor made two separate announcements: First, there is a long line-up at the Café Car because one of two microwaves stopped working, and it was probably caused by the microwave technician; and after 1 p.m., the train is limited to a maximum speed of 59 mph because of the expansion of tracks due to the heat, particularly CSX Railway tracks, which are notorious (among train enthusiasts, anyway) for being not-so-well maintained. As a result, the conductor said, this train is usually late, but today it is going to be latER than usual.

I checked my baggage in Richmond, hoping that I would not have to look after them until early next morning in N.Y. I was told by the ticket agent that I needed to go into the back room to lighten up the suitcases with the baggage guy. One was 6 lb over; the other 2 lb. I had a conversation with the man as I opened my bag, pulled out a canvas bag and a couple of books from each, and voilà! He let me play with the balance that they use to figure out the weights. The man (a black man named Bennett) asked about my job as a teacher, and I asked him about his job. Next time, he promised that he was going to speak to me in Chinese.

Two hours later, the train to N.Y. finally arrived (1 hour late). We were told that checked baggage would not arrive on time because the assembly was missing a baggage car. We had the option of having it arrive next day, or take them as carry-ons and setting them at the back of our train. So a couple of Amtrak agents helped me with the not-checked-baggage-anymore bags, including Bennett. The time was made up by reducing the layover in Washington, and we were back on schedule. I didn't go outside because I wanted to watch my belongings, and it was nice to have (virtually) a whole car to yourself. The other few that stayed behind probably didn't even know we had stopped, for they were in a pretty deep slumber.

I caught a few winks (that is about 1 hour) between Wash., and N.Y. while listening to some music. At 2 a.m., we arrived, and there were no baggage handlers down to help, so I tried out my arrangement I dreamed of during my sleep. It was better. I walked about half of a mile in all to get to the waiting area, most of it backwards. There was probably a shorter way, but I was not familiar with the place. You find people of all types there, including homeless trying to catch some sleep.

I doodled and observed others for a few hours before napping for about 30 minutes before wandering to Dunkin' Donuts (the place that involved the least walking and dragging) for breakfast. When the train arrived, the handlers at N.Y. were not very nice (probably because they were overwhelmed with requests for assistance, and they were severely understaffed), so I had to move everything on my own. In N.Y., dozens of train departures happen during rush hours (sometimes simultaneously), so you have to make sure to listen to the announcements about where to line up, or which platform to go to.

The train to Montreal was also long (12 hours), and I passed the time sleeping, listening to music, reading (hey, I got through a whole book!) and wondering what am I going to do once we arrived. The beautiful scenery of Lake Champlain was on the other side of the train, so I had to settle on seeing what was on my side (which was nothing).

In Montreal, I managed to get my stuff to the subway platform, which is about 70 feet underground, and then back up at my destination (trust me, it gets easier with practice). Various people offered help along the way, but I told them I could manage. Along the street I was about a tenth of a mile away when a man came out of his house, watched me struggle down the broken, uneven sidewalks for a few seconds and said he was going in that direction anyway and took me to the house in his car. I thanked him for the ride.

My temporary place is a duplex (common in Montreal), where the landlord lives on the bottom floor and rents out the top floor. It has two bedrooms, a living room, kitchen and a bathroom. The couple is Ukranian-French-Canadian and is (mostly) retired. The man, Émile, worked in drafting/computer-aided design but now works late nights on the weekend as a doorman for a condo complex in downtown (to try something different); the woman, Daria, is 75 but looks much younger. For now, she cooks and prepares meals for a family.

More to come in a future post.

My friend G., a teaching colleague from Europe, has quickly become American by shopping regularly at Wal-Mart. We went there yesterday to pick up some groceries. I have avoided shopping at Wal-Mart since January 2006 as a New Year's Resolution. But I went inside to see how things are, and how they're priced.

First of all, you'll notice that very few prices end in 0, 5, or 9 unless it's on rollback. These are the values that other stores normally use, and Wal-Mart is too special for that. You're saving every cent possible by shopping here, after all.

So, if you are looking for a box of Kellogg's Mini-Wheats (Strawberry Delight), where's the best place to get them? I usually get them from Food Lion or Harris Teeter, where it costs about 3.29. Enter Wal-Mart, with its everyday low price: 3.12. Not bad...until you see that at Target, it's 2.89. When it's not on sale! The lineups are also shorter at Target.

A box of Michelina's pasta dinners costs $1 at the grocery store, but .96 at Wal-Mart! A box of Stouffer's Corner Bistro paninis is 2.81; not 2.80, because, good heavens, that might cut into profit margins.

The truth is I find shopping at Wal-Mart with its penny-pinching pricing strategy not worth the additional time spent waiting in line at the checkout.

I was in Graham on Thursday, visiting with some of my host's relatives. We passed through five counties to get there. Add that to the eleven I passed through the day before and that's quite an adventure. Since I'm leaving N.C. in less than a week, I became ambitious and decided to make a list of all the counties that I have passed through during my time here (in alphabetical order):

Alamance (Burlington, Graham), Anson, Bladen, Brunswick (Sunset Beach), Buncombe, Burke, Cabarrus, Catawba, Chatham, Columbus, Cumberland (Fayetteville, Hope Mills), Currituck (Corolla), Dare (Kill Devil Hills), Davie, Durham (Durham), Edgecombe, Forsyth, Guilford (Greensboro), Halifax, Harnett (Raven Rock State Park), Haywood, Hoke (Raeford!), Iredell, Jackson (Cullowhee), Johnston, Lee, McDowell, Martin, Mecklenburg (Charlotte, Huntersville), Montgomery, Moore (Aberdeen, Pinehurst, Southern Pines), Nash, New Hanover (Carolina Beach, Wilmington), Northampton, Orange (Chapel Hill), Randolph, Richmond, Robeson (Pembroke), Scotland (Laurinburg, Wagram), Tyrrell, Union, Wake (Cary, Raleigh), Washington, Wilson

bold type denotes endpoints of trips I have made
That is 44 counties out of 100.

A couple of posts back, I mentioned having great plans for the FICA tax refund.

I went to Kill Devil Hills, N.C. with a colleague for a couple of days. It was a 250+ mile drive from Raeford, with a stop in Hope Mills to pick up said colleague. North on I-95, and east on U.S. 64 (which begins as a four-lane divided highway with controlled intersections, and eventually downgrades to a two-lane undivided highway with no shoulders). There are two long bridges to cross, one across the Alligator River, and the other across Croatan Sound.

First, I had my seafood fix there: crab, scallops and oysters. We stayed at a beachfront hotel (with no ocean view, since it was on the first floor) that cost over $150/night. For breakfast, I had a waffle that I made myself with a self-serve waffle maker.

You can tell whether someone is a local by looking at their license plate. The three letters begin with OBX (for the Outer Banks).

I got my first sunburn in a year, but the very next day there was a downpour. I got my car stuck in Corolla (pronounced co-RALL-a), where N.C. 12 ends and becomes a beach access road, where you can't get very far without a 4x4, since it's all sand. A truck with Pennsylvania tags helped pull us out, which happened just before the storm came.

The Wright Brothers national memorial was a nice place to see the "birthplace of aviation"...or is that Ohio?

The First Flight High School (yes, this is a N.C. public school) in Kill Devil Hills puts Hoke County High School to shame.

By the end of the trip, my friend realizes that we spent way too much money and doesn't know how he'll come up with rent for next month...but that's another story.

Hey Samantha,

Welcome to North Carolina. You are going to enjoy the weather, and the hospitality of the folks down here. But don't forget where you grew up (knowing you, you probably won't).

Love,
King

Yesterday I went to the Finance Officer at the board of education and filled out a form requesting a refund of the FICA/Social Security taxes (7.65% of gross salary) that I paid since the beginning of this year (over $1,000). Because I am leaving before 183 days of the third calendar year (2007) have passed, I am eligible for the refund, so long as I promise not to return to the United States for the rest of the year. Hopefully the money will be deposited within a week. I have some great plans for it.

I was in Fayetteville today, and decided to stop at Target to get an iced tea from the Starbucks inside. Black passion tea, sweetened.

I parked next to a Honda, with the car idling, and a boy sitting alone inside playing a video game (with the air conditioning on, I imagine). Fifteen minutes later (after a bit of browsing inside the store), I returned to see the car still there, idling, the kid still entertaining himself. Okay, so you have a fuel-efficient vehicle, and it might be 90ºF outside, but that still doesn't excuse you from contributing to global warming needlessly. Leave your kid at home, he looks old enough to take care of himself.

Some storm named Barry decided to drop by this weekend, thereby spoiling all weekend vacation plans.

The last day of May ... and so begins my last month in the United States. I am happy and sad at the same time. I have a few more traveling plans before I leave.

I was in Wilmington a couple of days ago, just to get away from the mundane life in the city that is Raeford. Wilmington offered a mix of different things at the same time: a beach, a riverwalk, a busy downtown with a historic district. Fayetteville offers none of the above.

Wilmington is an easy 97-mile drive from here along N.C. 20, N.C. 87, and U.S. 74-76.

An Air Canada flight from Calgary to Hamilton with a temporary stopover in Ottawa on Canada Day costs $239, but let's say you don't want the Ottawa-Hamilton part, it costs $249. Go figure. Why don't I just "forget" to board the plane when I get to Ottawa?

School is out! And not just for the Memorial Day weekend!

For two days (Wednesday and Thursday) last week, I worked in my classroom one last time. The grades have been submitted, the textbooks counted, the desks stacked; and the cabinets emptied out.

We had a faculty luncheon at Western Sizzlin in Fayetteville on Wednesday afternoon. And that's that; time to move on.

So for the past week I have been proctoring end-of-course tests. Which means I pass out test answer sheets, booklets and scrap paper, wait silently for about two hours for students to finish their tests and then count them up. Not a valuable use of time, but you gotta do what you gotta do. Two more days of class left before the end of the semester, both "testing" days.

Yesterday, I went to volunteer at the Raleigh Arts Festival, known as "Artsplosure", and to a VIF picnic in Durham, at the Amphitheater near the Eno River. Caught up with some fellow teachers, and made plans to meet one more time before the summer begins.

If you are getting directions on Google Maps for cities separated by an ocean (example: New York to London), read the steps carefully. And don't forget to bring your swimming trunks on your trip!

I watched the Survivor:Fiji finale last night. I was disappointed by Dreamz's choice to keep the immunity idol, given his promise to Yau-Man. Why would he think he would have the slightest chance of winning the big prize after that? His decision would look so bad to the jury. And that's what panned out.

The Senators won tonight. I watched the entire game. It looks like the Cup has another chance of coming home to Canada!

I was just thinking...if you went and bought something in Canada that came to a total of $1.06 (in Alberta, that would be $1+GST), and you only had a five-dollar note (a "Laurier"), you would get the following as change:

- one $2 piece (toonie)
- one $1 piece (loonie)
- three 25-cent pieces (quarters)
- one 10-cent piece (dime)
- one 5-cent piece (nickel)
- four 1-cent pieces (pennies)

Names are written in parentheses because the Royal Canadian Mint does not call them as such.

Anyhow, that is a total of 11 coins for your pocket, which is 1) the most you can receive as change ("monnaie" in French) only from spending a note, 2) using the fewest coins possible, with at least 3) one of each common coin denomination.

The end is near!

My hosts are on vacation this week. So (virtually) the whole house is mine. I watched some movies on DVD, "Keeping the Faith" and "Save the Last Dance". They were given to my by my colleague, E., who has since returned to her home country with a whole load of things that she didn't want to take back. I may end up passing these to someone else, since I have baggage weight restrictions as well.

My weekend lesson plan is as follows: Staple final exam pages together. Watch Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals between Ottawa and Buffalo.

I didn't go anywhere this weekend (maybe tomorrow?) because it's raining throughout the region this afternoon.

This is teacher appreciation week at our school. After school, teachers were given a House of Raeford turkey. The principal told us to thank our superintendent for the gift. There was also an apple in our mailbox, but I gave it to a colleague since I cannot eat apples.

I shelved plans (again) to spend a day visiting South Carolina's state capital, Columbia, because of the weather. Rain was forecasted, and that wouldn't go over too well with their slogan: "Smiling faces. Beautiful places." Oh well, maybe next month. I keep saying that...there's a list of places I need to visit before the end of June...

I just want to get these last six teaching days of school over with, and then imagine being in a different place.

After everything that happened in Blacksburg, Va., I guess the news is now focused on toilet paper! First, Sheryl Crow tells people to use only one square per sitting, it is rationed at a Kansas jail, and finally, as kindling!

Personally, I don't believe in buying expensive brand-name toilet paper for the sole purpose of flushing it down the toilet.

There are only 13 teaching days left until the end of the school year. My plans for the weekend: to attend the Fayetteville Dogwood Festival. I thought about going to the Day at the Docks Festival in Holden Beach, but I still haven't made up my mind yet.

This morning, I left the water boiling too long on the stove and some of the water evaporated. Thus, I have managed to mess up instant grits.

I am wheezing today because of the allergens floating in the air. The pollen arrived a little early this year, and cars were coated with a powdery yellow film (tree pollen). I remembered to take a Reactine this morning but it isn't helping much. My throat is a little scratchy and I am experiencing some breating difficulties. But I know that in a couple of weeks, this sensation will pass, and I will feel better.

Well, it is the end of our spring break. I found the time this morning to complete my N.C. income tax return, and to cut a check for $306, payable to the N.C. Department of Revenue. Well, there goes my savings...

A couple of days we were well over 25ºC, and I went for a lovely stroll at the Cape Fear Botanical Garden. However, we have a frost warning for the end of this week (yes, that is below 0ºC, in April!), and I guess they will need to cover all of their plants.

In the NHL last night, Montreal won their game against Boston, while Carolina was defeated by Tampa Bay. And so, for the first time since the NHL took control of the Cup in 1927, neither finalist will return to the postseason, the Edmonton Oilers having long ago been eliminated. Of course, the story might have been different if they hadn't traded away Ryan Smyth...the Oilers have earned a total of 3 points (1-15-1) in the 17 games played since then.

Things I hate about being a motorist:

- oil changes and tire rotations, especially getting them done for a car that's not even going to be yours in a few months' time.
- red light cameras, particularly if you later get a ticket in the mail showing the fact that you were one second too late entering the intersection that day.
- gasoline prices going up 10¢/gallon in one day when the price of crude oil increases by a dollar, and then taking forever to go down by that much after the price of oil has fallen.
- driving on a two-lane highway at night with the possibility that the car headed in the opposing direction is being driven by a person who had been drinking that night and doesn't know better.
- contributor to global warming and climate change. Think about the penguins! Unfortunately, it is hard to get around without a vehicle if you live in a rural area.

Today I learned that one of my former students has been killed. She was in a car with her boyfriend at her house when the stolen gun he was playing with went off and hit her in the side. She died later of her injuries. They were both attending Turlington Alternative School for the semester. She has a twin sister who was also in my class last year.

Granted, she was not an honors student by any means, but when someone you once knew is no longer here, it affects the human condition, no matter what you thought before.

Well, the staff retreat to Sea Trail (in Sunset Beach, N.C.) was a lot of fun. I got to know a few staff members a lot better, getting to work with them throughout the workshop. It's too bad we didn't actually get to go to the beach, since it was one mile away.

We took a detour on the way there because I am certain that the signs in Lake View, S.C. were changed. Why we even went through S.C. was confusing (maps and directions provided by randmcnally.com and mapquest.com told us just that.)

The accommodations were great. High ceilings, a full kitchen, master bedroom, dining room table, two couches, drawers stacked with puzzles and things to read, and even a washer and dryer. I virtually had the whole place to myself since my roommate (an assistant principal) was always out having some sort of fun each night.

We were told that we came at the right time because Gov. Mike Easley was holding the Governor's conference at Sea Trail the day we returned home. So the staff were busy sprucing up the place while we were there.

104.6¢/L in Canada is approximately $3.41/gallon in U.S. dollars. So right now gasoline costs a little under $1/gallon cheaper in N.C. compared to Ontario.

Well, the warm temperatures went away real quick. Last Thursday we were in the upper 20s (degrees Celsius) and today we're a few degrees above freezing, and sandwiched in between was a heavy rainfall on Friday.

It was too cold to go to the zoo today, so I just stayed home and worked on school stuff.

Only at our school would you have a student:

1) tell a teacher to mind his/her own business, and that the teacher can't make student stop talking and work because he/she ain't [her] daddy.

2) asking to go to the bathroom, yet walk in the opposite direction towards an unknown location to smoke.

3) skip class to hide in the locker room with some friends where there's absolutely nothing to do except for maybe talk.

4) sleep in fourth period during instruction because they have received their free meal for the day, and they are out of energy. Yet they are fine chatting with friends during work time.

5) take out a cellphone during class to check the time (not permitted in school), when there's a clock on the wall (albeit an analog one).

But I'm not going to lose sleep over these types of students...America's future.

Daylight savings time has taken away one hour of sleep. Just in time for the beginning of the fourth nine weeks. And now, since it's still winter, we can't "spring forward" anymore, but puzzle master Will Shortz has suggested the term "March foward" as a replacement.

Today is a teacher workday, because it's the end of the third nine weeks of the school year. That means it's like a regular workday at a typical office. You go into your 'office' (classroom), sit at the computer, and enter records (grades), create reports (report cards), have lunch (at your discretion), work some more, and then at 16:00, pack up and go home without taking any work home.

I miss those days of leaving work at work...

Today our state-wide electronic attendance and grading system (NC WISE) was offline for the entire day, so we couldn't do any of the above.

The Freshman Success Academy (a great-sounding name for ninth grade students) held their awards ceremony this morning. Awards given for 'A' honor roll, 'B' honor roll, "survivors" (i.e. survived the first semester by passing all four courses) and perfect attendance.

In other news, we are only three days from the end of the first nine weeks of the second semester. Hooray!

I was in Raleigh yesterday. Sights and sounds:

- Crabtree Valley Mall - I don't even know why I go into malls anymore, I never find anything that I want...oh that's right, it has an Apple Store.
- N.C. Museum of History - Presidential portraits, Margaret Morley's photographs, more old stuff.
- N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences - my favourite museum - all of the Old North State, from mountains to the sea.
- State Capitol - self-guided walking tour. Outside I overheard a couple on bicycles who told passersby that they were from Canada, they didn't ride their bicycles from there, they were just renting.
- The Flea Market at the N.C. State Fairgrounds - I overheard a man asking at a coin shop if they would buy some paper Canadian money from him. They said they didn't need any. There was, however, a box containing low-denomination coins of foreign countries on sale: 4 coins/$1. I did find some Canadian 25-cent pieces, but that's still a 17% premium...and at that price, who's going to buy their 2 euro cent coins (value $0.026)?

Depending on the model of your car, you can unlock it remotely with your cell phone. A colleague was at the curriculum fair (open house) at our school in Raeford on Tuesday night, and her son was in Eutaw Village in Fayetteville, locked out of his car. She put the remote clicker close to her phone, while he held his phone close to the door. I guess it works if your car uses sound frequencies (she has a Honda Odyssey).

Ah, the weekend is here again. I got up at 5:00 this morning - don't want to waste a moment of it...

In the USA, you can make deposits and withdrawals with a teller from the comfort of your own car during business hours. It works the same way as going inside, except that you put your deposit in this plastic container that gets 'sent' into the bank, where the teller verifies the deposit. If you want to make a withdrawal, fill out the appropriate slip, send it in the container and in minutes you'll get your cash. However, there is a drive-up ATM that is accessible 24 hours a day nearest to the building.

In Canada, if you want to do some banking (with a teller or ATM), you park your car and go inside.

I was in Southern Pines yesterday afternoon and needed some cash on hand, and I usually drive up to the ATM because it's quicker. Yesterday, the three lanes for 'live' tellers were long, while the ATM lane was empty (which is rare). Turns out the ATM was out of order. So, I had to go inside to withdraw $20, because I don't think driving around the building and lining up for the privilege of sending documents up and down a tube would be any faster. Plus, it is bad for the environment to leave the car idling, and I did not have any checks with me (required for checking account withdrawals).

1. Get into the building and line up.
2. Wait for an available teller. [Mine, turns out, has the same name as a teaching colleague from J. Percy Page, where I was a student-teacher.]
3. Indicate that I wanted to make a withdrawal from my checking account and, silly me, did not bring my checkbook (which results in additional steps 4-6).
4. Write down my Social Security Number (SSN) on a slip of paper.
5. Show Member ID or driver's license (I left my member ID at home, too).
6. Sign the 'check' where the teller has neatly written my name on it by hand, payable to 'Cash'. (Whoever that is.)
7. Receive cash and leave.

Essentially, if you use your own checks, you are paying when you use a teller to withdraw money from a checking account. Avoid this cost by using your check card in an ATM.

In Canada, you present your bank (a.k.a. "debit") card to the teller, and it can be used to do any sort of transaction. Should you forget your account number, the teller can print out a transaction slip for you (from the computer) for you to verify.

What a great idea! I'm going to tell all my friends on Facebook about this great idea I have. On St. Valentine's Day (and her birthday) I'm going to tell my girlfriend of four months to meet me at a popular spot on campus, in front of hundreds of students, that it's over and that she can go to hell.

EDIT (04.03.07): It was fake, as revealed by the News & Observer. They weren't really dating, either.

I want to show my students a video today, but I forgot it at school (to set it to the right place when I got home) because I was in a hurry to get to the staff meeting yesterday afternoon.

I (heart) public radio.

When I lived in Canada, I listened to CBC Radio One regularly. It's still not out of reach, because I can still listen to it through their web site and through podcasts on iTunes. Students in my classroom before class can expect to hear World Report and Ottawa Morning in the background.

Apart from their pledge drives, NPR stations are also quite entertaining. I listen to North Carolina Public Radio (WUNC 91.5 FM Chapel Hill) whenever I'm in the car. Raeford is at the very edge of their reception area, so it does fade out at certain points in town. But there's always something interesting on, and it has a great selection of programs.

My favorite shows are:
* This American Life
* A Prairie Home Companion
* Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
* Weekend America
* Marketplace
* Car Talk

Another beautiful day in the Carolina Sandhills today (sunny, 50ºF). I went out to Aberdeen (19 mi away) to do my weekly grocery shopping. I didn't realize that I got four boxes of Stouffer's entrées for the price of five until I got home, thanks to the accurate price-scanning abilities of the cashier. Thanks for nothing!

This afternoon, I managed to eat a whole box of Hamburger Helper, complete with 1 lb of seasoned ground turkey, as well as a whole bag of Wise Crunchy Cheez Doodles (9 oz) for a snack, and 1/2 lb of seedless red grapes for dessert. People eat when there's nothing better to do (especially if you're a procrastinator like me)...

Can somebody explain what this says?

Excerpt from Publication 525, Internal Revenue Service:

State tax refund. [...] you must include in your income the full amount of a refund of state or local income tax or general sales tax if the excess of the tax you deducted over the tax you did not deduct is more than the refund of the tax deducted.

Yeah, and this guide was supposedly written for laypeople.

I try to get home by 4:00 p.m. each day so that I can catch Judge Judy. One of my favorite quotations from her is, "Beauty fades...dumb is forever."

Another one: "You couldn't get a three-digit IQ from these two [defendants] added together."

Today I was driving in Fayetteville along Pamalee Drive when I saw the lowest gasoline prices in a long time - under two dollars a gallon! $1.959/gallon, to be exact.

Converted to Canadian dollars per litre, this would be approximately 61¢/L, a level we will probably never see again in Canada. Last July, I paid nearly double in Quebec City, at $1.164/L (= $3.73/gallon).

When I lived in Edmonton, going to IKEA for their $1 breakfast was a Sunday tradition. Of course, I usually had two orders. There is at least one IKEA furniture store in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal (11 total). That's a lot of stores, considering the Canadian population is about one-tenth of the States'.

Believe it or not, if you lived in Fort McMurray, Alta. or Revelstoke, B.C. you probably live closer to an IKEA than a person in Raleigh or Charlotte does. For now, at least. In a couple of years, Charlotte will finally have their own, the first between the Washington, D.C. area and Atlanta. And people down here will actually drive all the way there to shop. Apparently, IKEA needs a regional population of at least two million before it's feasible to build a store in America, and so far they only have 29.

Two recent articles about being a young whippersnapper:

1. A 29-year-old sex offender tries to enroll as a 12-year old boy in Phoenix. Officials at the school told deputies that the student looked "much older."

2. Fox announced Saturday that it is making a new game show, "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?" that will air later this year. From the Fox Entertainment President, "While most game shows measure how smart you are, this is a show that will measure how dumb you are."

And one on Hope Mills' newest celebrity:

3. A young woman sues her mother on Judge Judy for not returning money that she had put into a car loan.

Things I do not have to buy for the next few months:

- Kraft Dinner (macaroni & cheese)
- Crest Pro-Health toothpaste + mouthwash
- daily multivitamins (through next year, even)
- phone cards
- Gillette deodorant sticks

Yes, they were all on sale!
On another note, one of my New Year's Resolutions in 2006 was to avoid shopping at Wal-Mart. I didn't totally make it (I spent $31 there last year). This year I hope to make it $0.

Today is MLK Jr. Day, so all public institutions (including schools) are closed. I decided to spend the morning making a "preliminary" calculation of my income taxes for 2006. Of course, I am waiting for my W-2s, 1099s and other documents before doing the actual work.

1. I am probably due a small refund from the IRS for my federal tax return.
2. But since I am a non-resident alien, and therefore do not qualify for the N.C. standard deduction of $3000 (nobody knows why), I will have to pay the state several hundred dollars.

I will have to check with other second-year VIF teachers that don't have a tax treaty about this. Of course, now that I realize that I might have to pay, I will probably wait until late March before submitting my forms.

I went to my local credit union to ask about getting a replacement debit card. Mine had somehow worn out from the few times I did use it. Maybe it was the windshield scraping I did with it last year. They made me get one of those member ID cards that they are promoting. And my picture will be on my new debit card as well. No exceptions...even if my hair is a bit long. They had a PowerShot A400 set up to take these pictures.

I didn't smile the first time. I told her in Canada we're not allowed to smile for passport pictures because it hides facial features. But I did the second time. The picture is a little off-centered. I wonder what it will look like on the debit card. She said it looked better than the picture on my driver's license.

The lady told me the advantage is that when I use the card to buy things, I don't need to show my driver's license anymore, since the photo is right on the card.

The inventor of ramen instant noodles has died at the age of 96. It has been one of my 'staple' foods ever since I was a young child. As a starving university student, I could go through a case of 30 in maybe a month. Ready in 3 minutes!

When I came the the USA in September 2005, with $1,700 from an "interest-free loan" to last me a month, and a load of expenses to take care of (rent, car lease, insurance, etc.), I must have eaten ramen at least twice a week for dinner. At ten for a dollar, you can't beat the price. (They are three times more expensive in Canada.) Of course, with all the money I saved, I ate out (with my new acquaintances at the time), bought useless junk and depleted my savings anyway.

Today I treat it as "fast food" because it is high in sodium. Maybe once a month, as a snack, if I'm reminiscing about childhood.

I didn't volunteer at First Night Raleigh (like I did last year) because, wouldn't you know it, it was raining. That, and the fact that I didn't want to drive to the Triangle thrice in three days. But I did catch a sneak-peek at the acorn used for the acorn drop on the corner of Wilmington and Davie streets on Saturday.

At midnight, some brilliant mind in town decided to honk their car horn incessantly, and then I heard fireworks afterwards.

New Year's Resolution(s): To acquire a new language. To mind my own business more often. To eat healthier.

Song - Yusuf Islam - Heaven / Where True Love Goes