CafeChatNoir

I did move the strap out of the way so she doesn’t get caught on it.

What a box of crickets might look like:

Spot will be staying here for the weekend.

I also find it insanely difficult to shoot photos through glass.

About 3 inches in less than two hours already…

I love it.  (Read on, there is some old lady commentary after the photo.)

For you young’uns that may be looking at this photo and thinking, “Huh?” – waaaay back in the dark ages, we got hardback textbooks for just about every class we had, and we had to take these books home to read and do our homework.  Since these books had to be re-used from year to year, a stamp very similar to this was used on the inside cover, detailing the state, school district or county, and school that the book was issued to – and then each year, the student who had the book added their name to the list, with a notation of whether or not the student received the book in good condition or not.  It was always super cool if you got the book of an older student that you knew.  (Even better in high school when it was an older student that you might have had a crush on.  Then it was FATE declaring that you should be together forever.)

At the end of the school year, the teachers would collect up these books and compare the condition of the book in June as compared to when you got it in September.  If the worsening condition of the book exceeded “normal wear and tear”* then your parents would get dinged for the cost of a new book.  (Mind you, if a book wasn’t utterly destroyed, it would still be used again, but the county would collect some sum anyway.)

Nowadays, you have tons of worksheets & lightweight papers & notebooks and such to take home, and they’re actually tailored for the exact math, language arts, or spelling level you are in.  These are nothing like hardback textbooks, so this may be incredibly foreign to you.  (As well as much easier on your still-developing musculoskeletal-system.)  Really, we took all these books home all the time.  We even had to make our own book covers for them out of paper grocery bags.  (Another product you may not at all be familiar with.)

We also walked uphill both ways in a blizzard to get to school.

I shit you not.

*We never figured out what really constituted “normal wear and tear”.

I hope to get some action shots this week.

They were on #256 when I arrived.  The joys of Saturday banking.

I love Sunday breakfast.

The view on the stroll home from the pub.  (And a reminder my cell phone is *not* a real camera!)

But I’m very excited that I now have a USB cable that will prevent the dog from pulling my phone onto his head multiple times a day.

At least I don’t give out toothbrushes at Halloween.

Eggs, Cheese, Croutons, Bacon.  It’s awesome.

Today just wasn’t a photogenic day, compounded by the fact that I only had my cell phone.  My camera is somewhere within 5 feet of me – of that I am positive, but I can’t seem to be able to put my eyes on it.

But I got home after a not-exactly-grueling day with some seriously adorable preschoolers, took a nap, and decided I was ready for a snack.  I poured myself a little bowl of cracktastic Pepperidge Farms Toasted Sesame Sticks.  These things are seriously dusted with crack powder as the last stage in preparation, I am sure of it.  I have been known to sit down and eat a half a box of these things without even realizing it.  As I poured them, I thought to myself, “I should take a quick snap of these.  Sure, it’s silly, but I would like to share the awesomeness of these ridiculous little cracker sticks with the rest of the world.”

But, we had last minute guests, and chatting ensued and us girls went out for a beer.  My snack sat in it’s little chipped ramekin on the side table of the couch.  When I returned, I thought to myself, “Ooh, I still have my sesame sticks!”

Moxley is a very good dog, but some temptations simply prove to be too much even for the best of dogs.  Like a bowl of crunchy snack goodness left conveniently next to a couch that he is allowed to sit on whenever he wants.  This was all that remained: