The time we saved a goose

Our little "walking club" gets together after school to walk at a nearby park. The park is a lovely place, with a pond and an assortment of critters swimming around. The fish, turtles, frogs, and ducks are fine by me. In fact, I enjoy them. The geese, though? All 416,000 of them that call the park home? The ones that poop all over the place? And hiss at you? And snap at you if you get too close? Not a fan. This video perfectly illustrates why I don't like the geese at the park:

Yesterday, we saw a man holding one end of an incredibly long piece of fishing line. He explained to us that the other end was attached to a goose in the water. The line had gotten wrapped around his little foot, and the man was trying to help free it. The goose wanted no part and swam off, so the man had to give up. Fast forward to 20 minutes later. A whole posse of geese crossed the track right in front of us, and we noticed that one of them looked really strange, very agitated. Eagle Eye Teri saw that the goose had a (very, very long) piece of fishing line wrapped around its foot. It was the same one...what are the odds?

I was very sad for him because I thought of the unhappy life a goose would lead with yards of fishing line wrapped around his leg. We grabbed onto the line and got our keys ready to try to cut it. It was kind of like walking a dog on a leash. Except, it was a goose...on a fishing line...who really, REALLY did not want to be walked. He turned around to give us the stink eye a few times. Before we could start cutting, he flew away very abruptly. We were disappointed until we realized...we were still holding the fishing line! The entire thing broke right off his foot when he flew off. He honked just a bit as he flew away, and while I'm not fluent in Goose, I imagine his victory cry was similar to...

To top it off, we also saved a teeny, tiny, absolute miniscule little frog (also spotted by Eagle Eye Teri) from being squished on the track. Bless his heart, he was so little he must've just graduated from being a tadpole the day before. I hope he stays where he belongs (not where the big tall people get their laps in) and lives a happy, healthy, croaky life.

I'm thinking that we should form some sort of superteam and hire ourselves out to help animals in need. In the meantime, I'll be waiting by my mailbox for my thank you note from the goose. Looking back at the first video, I'm guessing that thank you note won't ever make it. Dumb ol' goose.

A Fred-ism

I have a student that, for privacy's sake, I call Fred. Fred is a trip. He says at least one thing every day that makes me glad I got out of bed that morning. We had this conversation in the lunch line yesterday and it still made me smile today:

Fred: Ms. Johnston, lunch smells really good today!
Me: It sure does.
Fred: The smell...I mean, it's stuck up in my nostrils but I don't mind it because it's a good smell.
Me: (I got nothin'. I give Fred a confused look that is meant to convey "Why on God's green earth are we having this super strange conversation?")
Fred: You think the lunch ladies would like it if I told them about the good smell?
Me: Sure! It would probably make their day.
Fred: (to the lady fixing his tray) Your lunch smells great today. The smell is stuck in my nostrils, but I'm okay with that because it's a good smell. Thanks for making a good smelling lunch.
Lunch lady: (She's got nothin' either. She looks at Fred as if he's suddenly sprouted an extra eyeball.)

I had to take Fred by the shoulders and walk him away since he started pointing to different areas of his nose to further make his point. Good heavens. It's the little things that make me smile.

hummus: yummus in my tummus

I don't write much about my students on here, but not because I have no material. I just don't want any concerns raised about confidentiality. It's not like millions of people read my silly little blog, but I try to keep my professional life, well, professional.

With that being said, I must share this. I have a student I adore. He's a regular, goofy, 10 year old boy, but he understands my sense of humor and has a really quirky sense of humor himself. I need to recount the conversation we had on Monday. For the sake of privacy, I'll call him Fred.

Fred: Ms. Johnston, have you ever had hummus?
Me: Yep. I really like it. Have you?
Fred: My mom just bought some yesterday and we already ate a lot of it. It's my new favorite thing in the whole world. She packed some with crackers in my lunch.
Me: Sounds great! I'm glad you have a new favorite thing in the whole world. Now get to work.

Fred was so excited he even wrote about his hummus during our free write time. On our way to lunch, I walked past Fred in our line and stopped so I could hear what he was chanting under his breath: "Hummus! Yummus in my tummus!" I told him that was very creative, and he said that he had spent all morning trying to make something rhyme with hummus. Bless him. No wonder he didn't get his math assignment finished. He was too busy trying to figure out how to make hummus rhyme with something...anything!

Sometimes I wonder why anybody would want to do anything other than teach 5th graders.

Because I do enjoy hummus myself, I decided to make some tonight. It turned out to be most tasty and figured I'd share the recipe. It's so ridiculously easy I think I'm going to have to make it all the time. You know, so I'll constantly have something yummus in my tummus.

Black Bean Hummus
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 garlic clove (I used two 'cause that's how I roll)
lemon juice from 1/2 lemon
2 tbsp tahini (I didn't have this, couldn't find it, and don't even really know what it is, so I substituted olive oil)
1 tsp cumin

Dump everything into a food processor and pulse until the texture looks good. I added a little water to thin it out a bit.

That's it! You could substitute a can of any kind of beans for the black beans. Healthy, easy, and most definitely yummus.

I want to guard and protect your heart.

I've been debating whether I need to devote a post to this, and I've decided yes...yes I do. I've been watching "The Bachelorette" and I'm no longer ashamed. It's just too good to not watch. I'm sure it's edited, scripted, whatever to make it more entertaining...that doesn't bother me. Last night's episode was a glorious, cringe-worthy train wreck. I loved it! Some highlights:

• Weatherman: Homeboy needs some serious self-esteem work. All I kept thinking while he called himself a schmuck, more than once, and cried (wept!) on camera was, "You're going to want someone to date you in the future. She's probably watching right now. Stop this. Stop this immediately." He was also giddy about getting to audition for "The Lion King" on Broadway. It was sweet...very sweet. Get my drift?
• Kasey: Oh wow. Kasey really hopped onboard the crazy train last night. Ali is a better woman than I am. She kept a straight face through not one, not two, but three impromptu serenades by Krazy Kasey and his Kermit the Frog voice. (At the beginning of the season I was hesitant to think unkindly about his voice because I thought he might be kinda deaf. Not so much. That's just his actual, real, non-deaf voice.) If that had been me, you would have seen a Julie-shaped cloud of dust as I vacated the premises. I don't do crazy. Ali doubted his sincerity, so Krazy Kasey decided to get a tattoo to prove her wrong. Because, you know, what's more sincere than a tattoo you got to impress a girl you've known for like 2 weeks? He got a shield in front of a heart because, as he mentioned about 37 times last night, he wants to guard and protect Ali's heart. He also got 11 studs in the shield to represent the 11 guys left standing; they're all like brothers to Krazy Kasey. That was news to all of them since none of them like him, but whatever. The funny part: Krazy Kasey never got to show Ali his sweet tat. She gave him a rose because, after he took her advice and finally stopped singing, she appreciated that he was more normal and less over-the-top. Yeeaaah. Surely she'll send him home upon seeing his shield of love and protection, and Krazy Kasey will be walking amongst us again. Watch out, ladies!

I'm glad to get this off my chest. Now I can gather my few remaining brain cells and (maybe) accomplish something productive today! No promises, though.

Titan goes to Target

I had to write this down before I forgot...I ran into Target for a quick second this evening. I was cruising the toothpaste aisle when a blood-curdling scream grabbed my attention. I turned around to see a little boy (maybe 3 years old) laying in the floor, screeching, and hurling bottles of mouthwash across the aisle. I stared in alarm, and his mother looked on in a mix of horror and awe. He was pitching himself the fit to end all fits. (Apparently I used to throw awe-inspiring fits myself...the stuff of legends, I'm told.)

Poor Mama just stood there trying to decide what to do with her Listerine-chunking child. She finally said, "Titan, I don't know why you're acting like this! What's wrong?" Uh, allow me. Titan??? I'm a fan of naming your child something that 12 other kids in their class won't share, but seriously? The kid is probably so very displeased that he's named TITAN that he just couldn't take it anymore. It might have also just hit him that he'll never find a little license plate with his name on it at Alvin's Island down at the beach, and he decided to fight back. Regardless, I hit the road and left Titan to his tantrum. I must admit, I said a silent prayer of thanks when I got back to my Titan-free home :)