The one where Charlie learns to tell time.

Last night, Charlie and I had a talk.

"You are not to wake me," I said, "until this clock says seven-zero-zero." I held up my cell phone. "And when you wake me up, do not stand on my shoulder and put your cold nose in my face. It's not polite."

Charlie moaned (as he often does) and nosed his way under the covers.

He is turning into a bit of a pain in the neck, what with all the opinions and grumbling and waking me up at 4:00 am on a Saturday. He used to sleep until we woke him up- around 10 or 11, when I felt sure it was bordering on dangerous for him not to eat breakfast and go outside.

This morning, Charlie woke me up by standing on my shoulder and putting his nose in my face, as always. But imagine my surprise when I looked at the clock. It read 6:59. He almost made it, which is about all I can ask of a dog.

The one where we DON'T buy season passes to Splashtown

I am basically beside myself excited for summer. Lazy days at the pool, at the beach, and warm, warm weather. Evening concerts in the park, picnics, and day trips. Camping, hiking, and taking Charlie to the dog park. Rich and I are in the process of making our second annual summer list of things we want to do and accomplish this summer. And this year, we are actually going to put things on the calendar since we are much more likely to actually do these things if we have them on the schedule rather than relying on our spontaneity. Of which we have none. Because we are old, old farts. (I'd had a sneaking suspicion that we were old farts for a long time. This was confirmed at the Valentine's Dance, which we chaperoned at school on Friday night.)

Anyway, does anybody have any good suggestions for fun things we should do this summer? I'll be sharing our list soon, after we've finished formulating it.

The three questions I am asked most often by my students are:

1) Are you married?

2) Do you have kids?

3) How old are you?

No matter how many times I answer these questions, the kids either forget (pretty likely) or don't hear (also pretty likely), and so it seems as if the same students are asking these questions over and over again.

I have a picture of Rich and me on my desk, and the kids are totally fascinated by it. I don't know if it's the interracial thing or the shock of figuring out that I have a life beyond the school day or that I know people they don't know, but they are constantly asking me about that picture and who the handsome young man in the picture is.

Just the other day, a boy saw the picture while getting a Kleenex from my desk and asked, "Miss, is that your boyfriend?" (He sounded a bit incredulous, I might add.)

"No," I replied, "that's my husband."

"Wow!" he said. "He looks like a really cool guy."

"He is," I answered.

"I mean, he looks like he really likes basketball!"

"Uh.... okay?"

Here is that image, where it is clear that Richard is a huge sports fan.

Nothing says basketball-lover like a pair of khakis.

The one where we don't go camping

We were thinking of going camping this weekend to honor our dead presidents and the day they got us off from school. Trying to decide whereto go tonight, I pulled up the weather report only to see this:

California went and decided to have some weather after all. It is even supposed to rain in the MOJAVE DESERT this weekend. No camping for us, I guess. Maybe s'mores in the microwave instead?