A mini vacation and some errands...

This morning Brad and I took a little mini-vacation to Sanibel Island. My family used to vacation there during spring break from 1994 to 2003, so the drive over the causeway bridge feels like a trip over the rainbow. We ate breakfast at the Lighthouse Cafe, a little place my family has eaten at many times before. Before we were seated we had a 45 minutes wait, so we went over to the Surfrider where we used to stay to check out how they are doing post- hurricane Charley. Aside from a thinning out of vegetation, they have recovered nicely. A few roofs were blown off but have since been repaired. It was great to see the place again!

The Lighthouse Cafe has pictures of lighthouses from all over the world on the walls. It's a neighborhood place with three waitresses working like mad, and it's only open from 7am to 3pm. We had to wait a few minutes to get menus because they only have so many, and they were all in use. It was fun. Brad enjoyed his Denver Omelette and I had great whole wheat blueberry pancakes.



















They were so good that they made me fall asleep. (Not really. Open your eyes, Kath.)









Afterward we went into the shops next door. One of them had this lovely flamingo made from a coconut and some pink-painted wire. Hilarious.














And here is the actual lighthouse. For those of you who know Sanibel, remember that the lighthouse is at the tip of the island and used to have about 30 feet of beach around it. It now has about 5 feet of sand. You can't walk from the fishing pier around the lighthouse without getting wet. So sad that Charley took the sand away.








After we left Sanibel and came back to reality, we stopped at Staples to pick up a few more school supplies I needed. This picture is hard to see, but in the middle, between two parking curbs, is a little tree trying to grow from the asphalt. The determination of this little shrub is remarkable. It reminded me of the book, "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," except now its, "A Tree Grows in Staples' Parking Lot in South Florida." Poor thing. I almost wanted to water it, but wouldn't that just look funny to water the parking lot?

After Staples we went up to our storage unit to try to find a box of books I need for school. Hooray that we had our wits about us when we packed that thing up, for we put it right by the door and didn't have to unload the whole stinking storage unit. We then went over to school and rearranged my desks. (I needed Brad's help because I wrenched my back this week picking up a box of paper. Have I talked about the paper situation? All of our supplies are charged to our teeny $100 budget. Yes, I have $100 to spend for the year on anything I need for my classroom. I also will receive a check for another $100 as a "we're sorry you have to work here" consolation prize. Did I say that out loud? I mean, it's to help offset our out-of-pocket costs. Since we're in Florida and education is by law FREE, we cannot require students to bring anything to class. Many will go buy our "suggested" supplies, but if a student cannot or will not, we have to supply them with whatever they need for class. Hence I have stocked up at the back-to-school sales and am the proud owner of 1000 pencils, a penny each, thanks to Kmart, and 100 packages of notebook paper, fifteen cents each, thanks to Officemax, their 10 package limit, and five trips to Officemax with Brad last week. Thank you, God, that your economy is not the world's, and that you supply our needs, even on meager salaries!)

Anyway, we set up the desks in a cool U shape. At last count I will have classes of 10, 17, 18, 27, 30, and 30. Above is the front of the room. Here is the left side of the room, and below is a picture of the back of the room, complete with Teacher's Pet.