Thank God that January is over!!!! So far- to add to the original list of woes- my home computer has been blasted (lighting? power surge? who knows?) and I had the day from hell. Oh, and my husband is still sick (sicker?).

This weekend, I received an e-mail from the school secretary to say that our Title III LEP (Limited English Proficiency) funds and any other monies must be spent and the purchase orders turned in by tomorrow, February 1st.

I won't go into detail, but at the last minute I found I had 3 times the money to spend - but the purchase orders were due one day earlier - TODAY!! Here's another catch: the money was in 4 different amounts and you could not combine purposes. So, rather than being a fun spending spree, it started yesterday afternoon as a frustrating exercise in using Excel spreadsheet order forms, rejection, correction, and a surprise revelation this afternoon that there really wasn't as much in one of the funds as purported.

I spent a tense day trying to get the spreadsheet to let me alter orders (it would not!), then sending orders in, only to be told that I was spending the money wrong. I organized my classes to do grammar and reading exercises, while I worked hard to meet my deadline. During that time, I had calls from the main office announcing that a college student just "wondered" if it would be convenient to observe n ESOL class. I am normally pretty easy-going about this kind of thing, but I said NO.

After I hung up the phone from the second call (Well, when would be a good time?), I sat down, only to have a new stranger show up at the door. She was a very pleasant woman, sent by the state to help with observations. I just looked at her and said: I have $--- to spend by noon - and my students are working in their seats. She was very cool and came back 4th period.

One of my students walked into the room 4th period and asked how I was. I said that I was okay, just a little stressed. I told her that, although it might seem like fun to spend a large amount of money in one day, it was actually very stressful. She said, "wow- I would buy a car!" Hee hee...

I made three trips to the office to clarify order requirements, sent two different students out during two different classes because they would not cooperate (they had it coming for a while...), got through the mandatory monthly fire drill, and sent my final copy to the secretary. My husband arrived to pick me up.

As soon as I checked my e-mail from home, I found out that I could not cut the order on the copy of Adobe Creative Suite so close (I had even offered to pay shipping). I had already had decided to not care about anything after I sent that order in, but if she let's me buy alternate software tomorrow morning, I may.

We went to get my husband's medicine, and came back home. I had lovely fudge coconut brownies with Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream and surfed the internet. Two hilarious links sent by friends are:

The Creole Tomato, a New York City/New Orleans Humorous outreach. Their article entitled "Baskin Robbins to Introduce Special Edition �Chocolate City� Fundraiser Flavor" was hilarious!!!

The Red-Headed League's 11 minute send-up of The Breakfast Club. Very funny!!!

I also went ahead and made reservations for a rental car, which I will pick up on the Marietta side of town tomorrow. My hubby is too sick to be spending 3 hours or so on the road. And, let's face it - I'm getting antsy not having a car of my own!!!! There, I said it!!!

Good news!!! I have sold two Mardi Gras rooster t-shirts in the past two days!!!! Check out my Mardi Gras Bird store! I have brightened up the image and it looks super!

If you are someone who has read my blog before, you may have noticed that I have a new illustration to the left. It is a composite of the first 12 Loteria cards I have altered in Photoshop. I have items for sale with the whole set at my Loteria Celeste shop. Don't order the calendar yet, as I have 9 more calendar pages to design. There are also shops for individual cards:

La Rosa
La Calavera
El Corazon
El Cantarito
El Alacran
La Corona

More coming!!! What else? Oh, I found a lot of fabulous resources and podcasts on Sunday while I was scrambling to complete E-Bay orders:

CraftyPod - I listened to a podcast on glues and adhesives, and also on creative planners. Love it!

Speaking of Planners: Coaching A Go Go has an entry on day planners, as well! I may soon be chunking out my Sony Clie!!!

Claudine Hellmuth has an amusing narrative about her freshman oil painting class. She also has this thing where she makes a collage in Real Time - she is given a theme - I listened to the "Beauty" one - and she puts it together in 20 minutes. The only disappointment was that I could not find the final results by going to her blog.

I have The Crafty Chica to thank for the links. Hers are great as well!

I have to go to bed. Gilmore Girls rocked tonight, but - alas - Scrubs was pre-empted by the State of the Union address.