Rain, rain - go away

It has rained a lot here this month. How much, you may ask? As of yesterday (keep in mind it has rained today and it is predicted to rain everyday for the rest of the month) it has rain over 10 inches this month.

I have heard others complaining about the amount of rain where they live, but when I look it up, no one else has gotten even half the amount that we have here.

On a happy note - it has kept the temperature in the 80's as opposed to the 90's. Gotta love that. :)

DONE!!!

I just finished the last and final Harry Potter book. I just had to finish it (even though I have lots of work I need to be doing). I wanted to find out what happened in the book by reading it myself - I did not want to hear about it from someone else. I heard that there was an article in the Houston Chronicle today that had some spoilers in it.

That said - I will not say anything except that I loved it.

Now I really have to get some work done that I have seriously been putting off. Why couldn't the book have come out during my break between classes?

RESOLVED: Whoa - we owe how much?

As previously stated, we were told that the meter was mis-read and that the correct reading would be applied and a new bill would come. A new bill DID come, but it said we owed exactly the same amount as before.

I went to the gas company's website on Saturday and sent an email to customer service saying that we thought the new bill would reflect the correct amount we owed. Two days later I got a response saying that an investigation is pending, and to allow 7-10 for the new bill to come.

I was very impressed that not even 48 hours after I got their email, the revised bill showed up (electronically...the USPS is not THAT fast). We are very pleased that it is around the average amount of $20. Whew!

Harry Potter

We jumped on the bandwagon this weekend and saw Harry Potter for a Saturday matinee.

We loved it!

I hadn't read Order of the Phoenix since right around the time it came out and Justin had never read it. I actually think that is the best way to do it. I couldn't remember everything that was supposed to happen (according to the book) so it didn't really make as much difference to me if they left small segments out. Now that I have seen the movie, I do plan to re-read it though so I can pick up on all the little things that they may have left out or altered.

In the meantime, I started reading The Half-Blood Prince again this weekend. I really want to get through it before the last book comes out (in just a matter of days). So it will be a little while before I get back to Order of the Phoenix.

Happy reading!

Whoa - we owe how much?

We have any bills that we can set up through our bank so that before we get our electricity bill, gas bill or credit card bills in the mail we typically get an email from our bank letting us know the amount of the bill. A couple days ago we got an email letting us know the amount of our electricity bill (hate paying for central air, but sure do love it).

Then yesterday we got an email telling us the amount of our gas bill. Imagine my shock to see that our gas bill was $112. Considering that the only things that use gas in our house are the hot water heater and our central heating unit, this was some cause for alarm. For the last 2 months, our gas bill has been $20 a month and now it is suddenly over 5 times that amount. I called Justin (in Houma) to see what he thought about it.

We remembered that on Saturday, we thought there was a strange smell in the garage (where the hot water heater is located) but on Sunday we didn't notice it so much anymore. But of course now I am freaking out a little bit that we have a gas leak. What would you think - strange smell and then your gas bill is out of control?

I called the gas company and told them my concern and they said that since we smelled something the other day they would send a technician out that day (yesterday) in order to check to see if there was a leak or if there was some other problem.

About 30 minutes later the doorbell rings and the guy is here to make sure we don't have a gas leak. Luckily there was no leak and the high bill was due to a "mis-read of our meter".

The thing is - the guy acted so annoyed with me that he had to check to find out that there was no leak. Especially since we had not "officially" received a bill in the mail. I'm sorry - isn't that your job? It isn't like I called and said, "we have a gas leak, send someone right away". I explained the situation to the lady and she said "that is cause for concern, we will send someone today".

And would he have preferred that I waited a few days to have a paper copy of the bill in my hands so that if there was a gas leak, we might no longer have a house?

Can you tell that it irked me?

It is finally over, or is it?

Yesterday marked the last day that I have to go to both my statistics class and my business calculus class that I taught this summer. I gave the final exam in each class yesterday, got them graded and figured out what everyone's final grade is in the class. Now all I have to do is enter the grades into the system online, print out my grade records and go up to the school to check out.

I survived teaching 2 different summer courses at the same time!!!

Now let's see if I can survive my next summer course that starts tomorrow. Yes - you read that correctly, it starts tomorrow. Who needs a break, right?

This means that as my students were working on their final exams, I was busy writing a new syllabus. And while I would love to make cards today and do whatever I want to do, I need to be getting ready to teach tomorrow. This time I think that I am a little better prepared though.

First off - I put a note in the syllabus letting the students know that since this is a "short" summer course, we will cover as much material in one day as would be covered in a week in the fall or spring. Secondly, this class should be a funner class than the two I just finished teaching. This is Math for Education majors. It is teaching them math that they will have to teach once they have jobs out of school. It means that we will do activities in class that hopefully they can use with their own students.

And I am not giving a final exam. Yea!!! Instead, I am going to make them get up and do a presentation and teach something that we covered in the class and the whole class will judge everyone's presentation based on how prepared they were, all that good stuff. It should make my job cake, right?

Let's hope so. I am already ready for August 7th when I turn in grades for this class and have a 3 week break before classes start for the fall. How sad is that?

We are so proud...

Isn't that what you are supposed to say when someone graduates? Well - we haven't posted much about Colby lately and since he is the closest thing we have to having any kids, we thought it was high time to give him the recognition that always wants.

This past Saturday, Colby graduated from his puppy class. Yea Colby! This was a 6 week course that we did at Petco and we really learned a lot - now it is our job to make sure that we practice the stuff with him so that he remembers it. Here are a few pictures of the little boy on his graduation day.




Actually - graduation doesn't mean that Colby learned anything, it just means that he went through the class, but we think that he learned quite a bit although he still has a lot to work on. And this problem is one that we hope won't be quite so bad in 2 weeks when he gets neutered. Although we know it won't stop him from doing this, the urge shouldn't as great (that was about all he wanted to do in class when he was around this other dog named Max).

Anyway - I thought that I would also show a couple other pics that I snapped one day after church. Check out my 2 men - they are so sleepy! This is Colby's favorite way to sleep - on our laps. It makes it really difficult to get things done around the house. But he is so cute, it is hard to stay mad at him!