Well, not so much girl, but who am I to ruin a great song line?

Happy birthday to Josh, my lovely little husband, a man who was happily drinking himself into oblivion an writing the next great American novel, who is currently doing neither but is instead slaving away so that my children can have their mommy home with them, a man who never wanted to get married or have kids, who just so happened to meet a girl who never wanted to get married or have kids, and then married her and had kids, though honestly not in that order, a man with whom I share nothing in common but politics and taste in books, and that only on a good day, who none the less sticks around and puts up with my mind-blowing insanity for reasons unknown to me, a man I loved, learned to hate, learned to forgive, and am remembering how to love again, a man who abhors run-on sentences.

Happy birthday.

Once Again, I stole something from Andy:

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 9/10 correct!

I am a great big huge dork, and I love romantic comedies. They kinda make me cry at their cheesy, predictable endings. Please don’t tell anyone.

After starting 3 different books, and not having any success with any of them, I have started a book that I am really enjoying.

This is no shock, of course. John Irving could write Vogon poetry and I’d love it.

This book from him is feeling rather last-book-ish. It’s a what you’d get if you put Owen Meany, Cider House Rules, The Fourth Hand and Son of the Circus in a bag and shook it really hard. He says it’s the most autobiographical book he’s written yet, and it’s interesting now to learn what parts of his other books are from his life by reading this one.

Anyway, I like it. The story revolves around tattoos. The kind of tattoos I’ve always wanted and will never have the balls to get. I’m only 1/4 of the way through. I’ll let you know if it stays good.

Our elementary school received a nice little write up in the Rocky Mountain News today. We seem to be the bastard neighborhood school, and the local newsletter constantly bashes us in favor of the 95 % white, 90 something percent-not-poor-school we share the neighborhood with. It’s refreshing to hear nice things said, too. Nice things like this:

Parents at Teller, a small economically diverse neighborhood school in Congress
Park, are raising $30,000 this year to help pay for two programs that supplement
the DPS reading plan.
The result is that Teller students from impoverished
backgrounds are beating DPS averages on state reading and math tests. The
school’s low-income students also outperformed their peers at every other Denver
elementary school in grade 3 math and grade 5 reading.

And here’s a few more pictures while I’m thinking about it.