Rather than going to church today, we decided to use the wedding tent, still set up with tables and chairs, to have a Father’s Day brunch. The girls cooked wonderful egg casseroles while Jason cooked country potatoes. The food was wonderful. At around noon, most of the wedding guests took off to either go home or to go to Niagara Falls for the day before returning home to Ohio. Patrick, my new French friend, will be going to California next year to ride highway 1 on a Harley. We told him that when he gets to San Francisco, we could show him around (IF we’re in the states at that time – we might be in Greece and Turkey). Mindy and family left a couple hours after that. So much hugging, honking and waving! And then there were 13. We rested on the porch for a long time, since it was a beautiful day and spent the evening drinking wine and eating leftovers. Jessie made the crepes that Patrick was unable to make. They were delicious!

Wedding day!

My oven obviously didn’t reach temperature because my pies were filled with liquid – tasty liquid, but not what I’m used to seeing. It also made things hard to transport. We got to the house around 9AM along with most everyone else. There was still a lot to do, so most of us worked right up to the noon wedding. Right before the ceremony, my mom was a little panicked because someone had forgotten to make coffee. She tasked me to do that. My sister Mindy had also arrived overnight and was tasked with cooking 500 shish-kabobs plus a lot of potatoes and bread. She couldn’t do it alone so I helped her out. I took care of the coffee, potatoes and bread in the kitchen. I also washed dishes so Mindy could reuse them to hold the completed shish-kabobs. We worked right through about 15 minutes of the ceremony until we could leave things alone for a while. I still saw most of the wedding. It was simple and lovely – right out on the deck of my parent’s house overlooking the lake. With the wedding done, Mindy and I kicked it into high gear. We also had the three sisters to help us, since their job was to serve during the wedding reception. They transported stuff and put everything in fancy silverware while we continued cooking. Dinner was served and it was very delicious. Everyone raved about my blueberry pie. I was surprised that no one touched my apple pies, even though I thought they were the best pies out there. The shish-kabobs were awesome too, so good job Mindy, Monique and Patrick. Patrick was to cook crepes later on, and he did try, but he set the fire alarm off at the apartment while attempting to do so, and the building had to be evacuated. There would be no crepes. It was OK though because we were stuffed. We worked a little of that food off with dancing. We learned some swing dancing and then learned some traditional French dances. It was so fun being around all these French people. In the evening, Barbara and I left the party to go and pick up Jeffrey at the airport. The drive was no problem and Jeffrey quickly arrived. It was so nice to see him again. We got home at midnight and went to bed.

Today would be a work day. This was the day that we would prepare everything for the wedding. The bride’s mom, Monique, had some rather grand ideas. The French contingent and the Ohio contingent had arrived overnight so now we had 30+ people when we gathered at the lake house. Courtney would stay at the house to set up that place, while Barbara and I went with Monique, three French people, and four Ohio people to do food prep in the kitchen of St. Luke’s Church in Penn Yan. The kitchen could comfortably fit four and six with less comfort. Three sisters from Ohio started making pie crusts and Barbara made a broccoli salad while the rest of us went to BJ’s (a big box store) in Geneva. Of the group, I was the only one who had ever been in a big box store before. They were a little overwhelmed. I helped them navigate and I wound up finding most of the items on the list as well. We couldn’t find all of the items though, and others were simply too big, so we went back to the kitchen and a few of us joined the kitchen crew while Monique and Patrick (French) went to Tops down the road for those last few items. I will tell you that our shoppers were not that efficient, so we were really behind on the food prep. Monique and Patrick were gone for a very, very long time. Our pies had been prepped for at least two hours before they came back, and they were still missing some items, like Cinnamon, which we needed for most of the pies. While we chopped vegetables, Monique and Patrick went back to get cinnamon and tapioca. We still couldn’t make the pies when they got back because now it was time to clean up and go to the reception dinner. We would have been even further behind, but the rehearsal itself was cancelled due to rain. All of us went to our apartments to change to nice clothes, and then we went to the Esperanza for dinner. The location was wonderful, but to me, the food wasn’t very good. Others though were impressed. To each his own I guess. For dessert, we went to the house. We had cookies, coffee and wine. At dusk, those of us on food prep went back to the church… in our good clothes, to complete our work. I made the pies, and then chopped a whole bunch of onions & peppers for shish-kabobs. We never did get to the salad Nichoise. We cleaned up the kitchen, moved all the food to the vans and got out of there by midnight. Barbara and I cooked two pies in our apartment until 1:30AM. The Ohio girls worked on their food items until 4:30AM. Monique and Patrick never went to sleep. They spent all night skewering and marinating shish-kabobs, about 500 of them.

We left Kevin’s house right on time at 9:30. The drive was seven hours of “fun.” Barbara rode with Kevin in his car to keep him company while Courtney and I rode in Kevin’s van (which we will borrow for the next month!). We listened to loud rock music to keep us awake and interested. We also made fun of Kevin and Barbara who looked like a couple of Italians from behind – both used their hands a lot! Eventually, we got to the lake. We greeted the family and spent some time with them. As it was getting dark, we were taken to where we would be sleeping for the next couple of days: apartment/dorms at Keuka College. The place was musty but spacious. Our floor had a definite slant to it so one hiked more than walked around the place. We wanted to get some food items for tomorrow morning, so we made a trip over to Penn Yan to get groceries and then back for the evening.

Yesterday’s flight to DC was completely uneventful. I really like Virgin America as a carrier; it was my first time flying with them. Kevin got us at the airport and then we ate at Famous Dave’s (BBQ). The evening was spent watching “Kindergarten Cop.”

Today we got a late start because we were still on California time. The GPS also let us down. It could not find the train station. Once we got on the train, we made it over to the DC Zoo. It was larger than we thought, and because we had to be at the Pentagon by a certain time (about an hour before Kevin left work), we didn’t see the entire zoo. We’ll have to come back later. Courtney really liked it. We made it to the Pentagon and Kevin walked us all over. Included in the tour was a quick look at his office. Gee, and I thought Silicon Valley cubes were small. Kevin’s was maybe 4’x 6’. When the tour was over, we headed over to the Pentagon Mall for a “quick” visit. Three hours later, both Barbara and Courtney had new fashions. I had sore feet and a few less dollars. On the way home, the school called to offer me a long-term sub assignment. This was not the temp position I was looking for, but it does get me sort of into the school. In November, they have to give me temp status (with higher pay) if they want to keep me through Christmas. I’m hoping that the teacher doesn’t come back, ever, which is always a possibility when teachers have babies. Let’s hope for the best! Kevin cooked a wonderful meal when we got home! The evening was spent reading. Tomorrow, we would drive (in the rain) to my parent’s house in New York.

As predicted, I did not get a sub job this week. I concentrated instead on the two things I needed to get done this week: An Adult Ed Bible Study and planning for our upcoming trip next week.

On Monday, I did get to go out to lunch with my old start-up company buddy. It was nice to see him after a year or so. He spent lunch not trying to convince me to resurrect the start-up, as he had done last year, but to try to convince me to join a city government because they needed program managers. His two brothers are now working for the city and county. On Tuesday, a different friend tried to get me to join his company as a consultant, also doing program management. Wow, I didn’t know that I stood out so much as a program manager. I’ve always done it as part of my management function, and I have the degree for it, but to me, it’s always been of secondary importance to chip design. Alas, these jobs are starting to look good because there are no teacher prospects so far, and my money is finally running out. To date, I have responded to nine high school positions and two college positions, but haven’t heard from any of them. The same thing happened last year. And yet, I have faith that I’ll wind up as a teacher somewhere next year, just maybe not at the school where I want to be.

On Friday, I got super ambitious. I got up early, climbed up on my roof, and washed my solar panels so they would produce electricity again. I nearly killed myself getting off the roof. I then helped my wife close up her classroom for the year by cleaning appliances and moving heavy things. When I got home, I decided to do a wood project. The project itself was easy and basic, but it required most of my bench tools which were both heavy and buried deep in a closet. The act of moving them alone got me tired. And then the pieces of acrylic I had cut (so… not entirely a wood project) somehow had the protective paper lining baked into the plastic so I spent about three hours soaking and scraping that off so I could see through the acrylic. While things were soaking, I took apart the kitchen sink drain, since it was leaking, applied plumber’s putty, and then reassembled it. This was not as trivial as it sounds, and I pretty much used my last ounce of energy to complete the job. I was sweating so bad, and got so dehydrated that I had to gulp down three glasses of water (and I didn’t pee for the rest of the day!). Just as I was finishing up the wood project, it was time to go to a graduation party. The party was fun, and lasted until bedtime, but I was beat.

Next morning, Barb and I had to get up super early because we had volunteered to set up food vendors for my high school’s graduation. It was the only way we could get into that graduation to see our students because we didn’t have a grad of our own and no one had invited us. This turned out to be a brilliant move. Not only did we have fun setting things up, but we were also ringside when the graduates walked out. We said “Hi” to several of them.

So… while I was out and about on campus looking for name tags, I ran across the principal. He told me that there was going to be a Social Studies teacher out on maternity leave for the first semester of next school year and that he was putting my name in as the guy to fill in, not as a long-term sub, but as a temporary employee. He was also hopeful that I would then continue on in a Social Studies/English capacity in semester #2 and become a permanent employee. Well this was certainly good news. The teacher still has to fill out the official documents, but he hopes that she will do it this weekend and then they can call me on Monday. It’s not a done deal, so I’m not going to jump up and down about it yet, but it sure sounds positive. I think the principal feels a little bad about me not getting that other Social Studies position. I truly feel that he “hid” the position for me for as long has he could, but then the district office found out about it and placed another guy (a friend of mine) without consulting him. He said that he didn’t want it to go down that way, but that this temp position would still get me in. He told me not to apply to other districts because this was a special school, he wanted to see me in this school, and that I would be much less happy elsewhere. I tend to believe that. I’m hoping to get a phone call on Monday.

On Friday, I finally got a sub job in Social Studies. This is quite a rarity, as my friend Annie tends to get all the Social Studies jobs. What’s really cool about this job is that I was subbing for my daughter’s teacher, and that he had requested me based on her input. This was the first time I have ever subbed in any of my kid’s classes. It turned out that her class was by far the worst of the bunch, but it was still fun. OK, it was as fun as watching students quietly study for the final can get. I read about half of my current book. I did have, in my daughter’s class, one student brought in by security. He told me that he still needed to get a tardy pass. I gave him five minutes to get it or I would mark him absent. He didn’t come back, so I marked him absent and called security on him. He arrived soon after with security. My daughter says that he does this on occasion.

The weekend was nothing to write home about. I don’t expect to get any sub calls next week, as it is finals week.

The field trip to Stanford went great yesterday, and all the kids loved it. And what could go wrong with bringing 60+ kids to Stanford by way of two transit busses, a train and a shuttle – each way. The kids (and the two teachers and six chaperones) walked at least six miles, and I think I might have walked eight.

Since the transit system can only realistically handle about 30 kids during rush hour, we split up our two classes by taking busses 20 minutes apart. Almost immediately, problems started to happen. There was major construction along our route (BART is coming to Milpitas!) so the first bus was 20 minutes late and our bus, the second bus, was also 20 minutes late. Fortunately, somewhere along the line, our bus made up 14 minutes, but that still had us missing our connecting bus. No problem though, our bus driver told us that a different bus also went there and that it was literally right behind our bus. We ran off our bus and ran onto the other bus. We got to the train station with nine minutes to spare. We didn’t see the earlier group, so they had made their train as well. Once we got off the train, we just missed the shuttle bus so we had to wait 20 minutes for the next one. This was going to put a crimp in my museum time. Truthfully, it would have been better for us to walk the 0.9 miles to get to the museum, but no one wanted to walk there.

Once we got to the museum, another 10 minutes were spent putting backpacks away in lockers, since they were not allowed in the museum. Once we got going, my little docent tour went great, though in every room, those “look around for 2 minute” periods between what I was talking about were often 10 minute periods. No problem, we were on a somewhat flexible schedule, and whenever group two was ready to start, Barbara would finish the tour with group one. That didn’t happen because group two was running about 30 minutes late from eating lunch and they were a VERY slow group when walking from one place to the other. By the time they arrived, I had 25 minutes to show them art, and this included stowing their bags. I got the kids moving faster, and we got everything stashed in 5 minutes. With only 20 minutes left, I concentrated only on the Rodin collection. I actually had more time to talk about Rodin, since we weren’t seeing the rest of the museum, so it was a really good lecture, if I don’t say so myself. The kids and the chaperones were mesmerized. I even picked up about 10 adults who were simply in the museum at the time. They thanked me after the tour was over.

After that, I marched group two to the visitor’s center where the campus tour was to start. Group one had not appeared yet so we texted them. They had taken their time getting to lunch (seeing additional Rodin sculptures along the way), so they were now eating while walking about a mile to the visitor’s center. When they arrived… about 20 minutes late, we started, again in two groups. Our tour guide was good, but the kids were so tired from walking that they didn’t seem interested and didn’t ask any questions. I was impressed that our guide walked backwards the entire time (for around three miles) and never fell or hit anything, even though we were walking across streets and through bike and pedestrian traffic that also included poles in the ground. We saw the newer sections of the campus (engineering, computer science) and the original buildings, including the very beautiful church on campus. I had never been in this church before, so it was a highlight for me. Eventually, we wound up at the very fancy housing and frat house section. These places were palatial! After the tour was over, we had only 25 minutes to get clear across campus to the train station, so we were not able to go to the book store. The students were bummed about this. We got on a shuttle bus just as it was about to leave. This was fortunate because when we arrived, our train was scheduled to be there in just two more minutes. Group two would not make it, so they would take the train 20 minutes later… in theory. In actuality, our train had had mechanical issues and was now running 20 minutes late. Two trains were now scheduled to arrive at the same time. Group two arrived and a few minutes later, so did our train. We all got on. At the train station in San Jose, group two went straight to the busses. My group had several who needed to use the bathroom, and one student had left his backpack on the train so they had to run back to find it. I took most of the group on the next available bus. My wife, plus four others, stayed behind to look for that backpack. As my group pulled into the transfer point, we could see the teacher from the other group literally pushing kids onto the next bus. It was packed to the gills. We would wait for the next one in 20 minutes. We waived to group two as they drove past us. While waiting, my son called. He is now graduating on June 13^th, so if he takes the redeye to New York, he can attend his cousin’s wedding with the rest of us. This was good news! Also good, my wife showed up before the next bus arrived. Alas, the backpack had been stolen, so the student was out a backpack, about $10 in cash and some food. We caught the bus and made it back to the school in an hour. It was now 5:30 and we had been going since 8AM. It was a very full day!

This morning (now the next day), I was to sub for PE, but the PE guy didn’t put me in the system correctly. I got to school and learned that they had already given the job to someone else. I’m surprise that this hasn’t happened to me more, but today, I was out of a job. I’m OK with that though – I’m tired from yesterday, I have to plan our New York trip, and I have some chip work to do. It’s going to be a good day!

Today is a holiday. The only thing we had planned was cooking steak in the evening. It was a perfect day to just “bum around.” Well, not wanting to simply lay around, watching TV, Barb and I decided to ride around on public transit and see if there would be any glitches when taking her kids on a field trip this Wednesday to Stanford. It was a Holiday Schedule (a Sunday schedule), so there were certain busses that weren’t running. This did not seem to affect us though.

The trip from the school to downtown San Jose went just fine. Our transfer was easy. We got to the San Jose Train station in 1 hour and 40 minutes, which was a little longer than we wanted, but certainly wasn’t too bad. We checked out the facilities there (where the bathrooms were, which tracks we would need to get on) and then decided we were hungry. Being that this was Memorial Day, many of the downtown restaurants were closed. The only thing that seemed to be open was a British Pub (Britannia Arms). The food there was excellent, and I was a little surprised that the beer wasn’t. Oh well, it was still a great lunch. Afterwards, we headed back and then cooked that steak in the evening, which was very yummy.

Yeah, back at the high school. Today was ELL, Honors English and Philosophy. I especially liked the philosophy class because they were studying Kierkegaard, who was a nineteenth century philosopher, but also a Lutheran pastor. I knew a lot about this! This allowed me to do a 10 minute mini-lecture on Christianity (within the context of Kierkegaard). How cool is that! The school was short on subs today so I also filled-in during my prep period in a marketing class within the Travel and Tourism Academy. Man, those kids are spoiled – flexible schedules, massive amounts of technology, and every student had an $800. chair to sit on! There were no sub plans for this class, but it didn’t matter because the students were comfortable, had a computer to play with, and apparently could leave the classroom for almost any reason. I wonder how they’ll do when they get into the real world? There are no Travel and Tourism jobs out there and few people would hire the caliber of students I saw there today – entitled, uncommitted, and lazy.

Since this might very well be my last day substituting for this school year, I made it a point to get some intel on the upcoming history job – the one that, at one point, I was favored to get. I think I made the right move by talking to the history teachers first. They had already seen next year’s roster and, without asking the school or the principal, the district office put a person in that position from their offices who needed a transfer. Usually, the principal can stop this from happening, but with him leaving, I guess the district office just pulled the trigger. Bummer – the principal wanted to put me into that classroom! There was a silver lining though, the guy they tentatively put into that class is a friend of mine, and I happen to know that he’s interviewing for an English position at another school. This English position would better suit him, so he just might take it. I’m not even sure he knows that they have penciled him in at the high school. Should he take the English position, the district office still has another person to place, but rumor has it that she’s already been placed at the middle school (which I believe to be a false rumor, since no one is leaving at that school). So we’ll see, but it looks like I may not have a job at the high school for next year – at least not immediately. The high school teachers are asking for a part-time guy in history who may also become a full-time person with the addition of some English classes. I’m certainly that guy, but the district office may not add the position. This job, if it does happen, has two issues: 1. It wouldn’t open until after school starts in all likelihood, 2. There are no free classrooms anywhere on campus. The history teachers told me to stay positive, but also apply to more than just this district, since there may not be a job for me this coming school year. Again, bummer.

Well, it’s a three day weekend. All the teachers are happy about that. I also get to celebrate baptisms with all of my god kids (young and old) at a Chinese restaurant tonight!