Time for an update. I am not even going to spout promises of trying to keep it updated and such. Updates will happen when they happen. There is just so much going on during the day and by bed after all the homework and dinner stuff is done, I am usually ready for bed.

I had parent-teacher conferences last week. Those went well. Lydia also was the recipient of Student of the Month for her class. She was quite excited and it was well deserved. She works hard and has a good attitude. She loves her teachers and they like her a lot. Andrew received SotM for his class in November.

I have been riding motorcycle quite a bit lately which is nice. I bought it with 252 miles on it, and now I have 1300 miles on it, so I have put 1000 miles. Not much by car standards, but that is a fair amount on a bike. We are to be getting more rain starting Friday, so that will curtail the riding no doubt. I may ride tomorrow if it looks like the rain will hold off. I have no desire to ride in the rain.

Christmas was good. We took a trip to the Midwest and visited Mark's family in Missouri and Illinois. It was very nice, but alas, no snow on Christmas which was a bummer. We wanted snow. Traveled through Roswell and took in the sites there at the Alien museum which was very fun. The art museaum in Roswell was nice as well. We also ventured to Carlsbad caverns which were absolutely huge! What amazing caves! I have been in quite a few caves now and this definitely was the biggest of them all. It is the biggest because it didn't form the normal way most caves do. Our tour ranger also happened to be a geologist so he waxed on about the formation of the cave, which I am sure bored the begeebers out of most of the group, but was actually quite interesting.

School at campus is back in session. It is just plain busy these days all the time. There is no down time hardly due to the addition of one more lab class. You wouldn't think that would make the big a difference, but adding a third class capability to be running simultaneously creates a lot of extra work and a lot more need for "MELISSA!" moments. This in turn, keeps me away from getting a lot accomplished toward getting labs prepped for the next week. It can be pretty stressful at times now. Sometimes my patience wears pretty thin, and I feel it. I try not to show it, but I know it does. In light of that is the lousy budget here in CA. There is talk of cancelling the summer session of classes all together. I have no idea what that would entail for classified like Mark and I, but we will see. The brunt of the savings would be coming from parttime faculty salaries. They are not happy about the possible proposal, and I don't blame them. Push has come to shove though, so we shall see what happens. There is some decision expected to come about today.

We did manage to see a movie! Gran Torino with Clint Eastwood. It was quite good. Lots of "fucks" in the movie, but what can you expect? It is a Clint movie afterall and it involves a gang. It is a pretty good story. I vote you should check it out. I did see a preview for another movie I want to see now as well, but it doesn't come out until April! Dammit. "The Soloist" starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx. It could be a pretty damn good movie if it is done well. I hope it is.

must head out.