Author: Andy Smallman

Here’s a picture of Stephanie, our niece, with her goat. The picture was taken in Spain, from where Stephanie recently returned after spending a month. Stephanie has spent much of the last couple of years in Spain teaching English and being happy.

Being happy is a good thing.

Stephanie prefers teaching English in Spain to working in a cubicle in the United States.

Again, being happy is a good thing.

Anyway, Stephanie was visiting a good friend in Spain when several goats were born. She got to name this one. The goat is all white. Stephanie named her Snow.

This reminds me of hearing about Melinda’s childhood dog, an Irish Setter. It’s name? Red.

People can be so creative!

I’ve long gotten a kick at how kids draw pictures of me. For instance, today’s image. It was drawn by one of my students many years ago, back when I was a teacher at The Little School (this means it was way back last century, probably in or around 1992). I don’t remember the circumstances surrounding the drawing, but I do remember asking the 10 or 11 year-old artist if I could have the picture. I think she was flattered that I wanted it.

A year or two after PSCS got started, probably in 1995 or 1996, I was making my first personal webpage and included this picture of me on it. And, say, want to know one more thing that I love about it? A few days before it was drawn I was playing basketball and had taken an elbow in the eye, giving me a shiner. The young artist even included a hint of that black eye in her drawing. See it?

Like me, you probably recently visited and read the Wikipedia entry for Omaha, Nebraska. There, you learned that the TV dinner was developed in Omaha. Learning that, you likely took some pride in the fact that you were born there.

What? You were born in Omaha? So was I!

Like me, were you also pleased to learn that the Reuben sandwich was conceived by a chef in Omaha?

Were you at all disturbed that the verb “conceived” was used to refer to the creation of a sandwich?

I was.

Melinda & I just got back from the monthly PSCS Board meeting. Considering I’ve been going to bed about this time every night for the last couple of weeks after already having had a couple hours of down time after school, I’m really tired. It’s amazing to me how long it is taking me to fully recover from the flu.

I suppose another factor is how busy I’ve been administratively at school. It’s re-enrollment and admissions season for us, meaning there’s a lot to do.

Anyway, you’ll have to deal with this brief post and this photo that I just took seconds ago with PhotoBooth. 🙂

As many of you know, Chloe attends Quest University in Canada and is linked there with longtime boyfriend, Alex. Alex is also a 2010 graduate of PSCS. His parents, Deb & Peter, recently relocated to Japan as part of Peter’s work with Costco.

Anyway, Deb is visiting from Japan and dropped by PSCS last Thursday to say hi. She picked up a few things Melinda had set aside for Chloe, and then took off for Quest to see Alex & Chloe. Today she sent Melinda and me a couple of pictures from her visit.

It looks like they had some good weather there in British Columbia. Thanks for the photos, Deb!!

A while back I made the acquaintance with a person who goes by the online name of Fish Astronaut. I found his website and liked his simple drawings. I asked if he might be willing to provide illustrations for one of my online kindness classes. To my utter delight, he jumped at the chance.

Since then, he’s provided me several dozen drawings for my various kindness classes over the last couple of years. I’ve passed on a few bucks to him, some of the money people have donated to Melinda and me for providing kindness classes.

I was pleased today when I received an email from Fish with today’s blog photo, one wishing me good health after my recent bout with the flu and ongoing cough.

Thanks, Fish!

Ella, Melinda & I finally saw the new Les Misérables movie today. It’s been on our To-do list since it came out on Christmas Day but a lot of things kept us from attending. It kind of dawned on all of us together early in the afternoon that we were free today.

We enjoyed it a lot, I can say. The book is one of my all-time favorites and Ella has long enjoyed many of the songs from the Broadway musical. We walked out of the theater with plans for me to read the book aloud to her. That will be fun.

If you haven’t seen it, the last main scene, when Marius and Cosette come to find Jean Valjean slipping away, is quite the tearjerker. Consider that your only spoiler from me.

Man, that Victor Hugo thought up a pretty good story.

Ella was on school-approved independent study today, each Friday during winter term going up to the mountains to ski with Melinda and her grandparents. For Ella, this means she missed the on campus opportunity to make macarons.

You know about macarons, right? The delicious French sweet treat made of egg whites, sugar and various flavorings.

Anyway, Ella’s friend Chloe (not her sister) made her a couple and sent them home with me. I’m not saying she made three for Ella, no. There were only two on this plate that I brought home, along with the to-the-point note. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Years and years ago, I recall having a cold. But I was invited to a party and really thought it would be fun to go. My friend who invited me (I mentioned him here before – his name is Kevin and he holds much responsibility for Melinda and me meeting) promised to make me a Nyquil cocktail. I don’t recall all of what he put in it, but I remember it was green and had a licorice kind of taste.

That may be all I remember about that party.

So here I am, coming up on two weeks since I started to feel sick. My fever has been gone for a week but my cough persists. What helps? A little Nyquil at night.

Several years ago Melinda and I added the costs of a regular house cleaner to our monthly budget. We realized that if we tightened in other areas, we could afford it. Now, twice a month, we have someone come in who changes our sheets, cleans our bathrooms & kitchen, and mops & vacuums the floors.

As the years have gone we realized that having a house cleaner is the best marriage counseling we could have. With the house clean, we are less likely to get into one of those pesky marital arguments that, really, at its root, is about someone not cleaning up. So we get the results of couples counseling AND a clean house. Nice!

To illustrate today’s post I’m using a photo I took from Melinda’s and my Happy Hour excursion last night, another form of counseling, perhaps.