Someone Was All Dressed Up

Mister John, aka Daddy, aka Mr. Erb, was dressed up for graduation last week.  Yeah, he's a bit blurry here but he's that way in real life too.  The graduation was for Mary Star's class of 2013 and all went well.

Some day Mary Jane and Betsy Jo will graduate high school as well.  Lots of pictures and crying (by Mommy) then.

Survived!

Getting to and from Mary Star today was no easy task.  Nothing like stalling in the middle of traffic a few different times.  But I made it.  Assuredly I made it.  I won't be trying that again any time soon but it can be done.

Got home right in time for baths.  Ah, nothing like Mary Jane and Betsy Jo splashing about.

"Cold water time!"  Yes, indeed... nothing like being able to drink some cold water from the tap after a nice long warm bath.

Humble Pie

 Earlier last week I was tabbed by my principal to be a contestant in the pie eating contest during our Homecoming pep rally.  I happily volunteered as I am always willing to volunteer for such strangeness.  And I've never been one to be too bothered by doing something that may look awkward or embarrassing.  Sure, other teachers might be... good for them.  If they don't want to look like the boys in that picture on the right, that's there own prerogative (Bobby Brown agrees).

During this week, the principal had often mentioned to me, "It's a good thing you have a sense of humor, John."  Didn't think much of it because I tend to have a decent sense of humor.  At least I have the ability to laugh at myself.

This afternoon before the pep rally I changed into a Mary Star "spirit shirt" which esentially is a navy blue t-shirt with a logo on it as opposed to the purple collared shirt I was previously wearing.  Hey, if I'm getting chocolate cake on it, I better change accordingly.  Some of my "contestants" who were seniors called me out and said that they were going to beat me.  I taught most of them as sophomores so they know how incredibly competitive I am by nature.  Yes, my name was the one attached to the teacher's bracket for punt, pass, and kick last week (whee, won again!).

(On a more related note to this website, Heidi just hopped between by feet... nothing like the tickling of whiskers on a hairy leg.)

Today the pep rally looked quite spectacular as the gym (a "temporary" one at that) was tranformed into a larger representation of Alice in Wonderland.  This year's theme dealt with Wonderland and, yes, I did dress as Tweedledee in the rally seven years ago for the same themed rally (hey, new crop of students, I guess they have the right to repeat once in a while).  I stood on the side with a few teachers and parents before the dreaded pie-eating contest.  As we were all called up, I slowly walked up there, high fived the appropriate staff and random students.

The tables were set up with three in a line, parallel to the students in the bleachers.  Two students at the left table, Mr. Erb in the center table, and two students on the right table.  I sat there in the center, waved at the crowd and smiled for the Yearbook camera people.  Then of course the blindfold but not before I saw my luscious chocolate cake.  I was then blindfolded and was told the rules and off we went.

Some music blared in the background and the crowd went wild as our announcer, Fr. Nick, was calling the play-by-play action.  My face dived into the chocolate and swirled around from left to right, just as the Internet site told me to do.  OK, I'm quirky and competitive enough to read the instructions on HOW TO WIN A PIE-EATING CONTEST.  I knew I was doing quite well as I seemingly was swallowing more than I was breathing.

Then after a few minutes of getting pie here, there, and everywhere (including up my nostrils!), the "pie-eating song" ended and Fr. Nick declared a winner.  Internally, I felt a little bummed because I had not reached the crust yet... I still had a little more chocolate and whipped cream to get too.  But then he declared the magic words: "Our winner is Mr. Erb!"

Immediately I raised my hands in triumph.  Score another victory for Mr. Erb!  I took off my blindfold to see that both tables as well as the students were no long there.  Under the guise of the noise and my blindfold, they retreated to leave me all alone in the middle of the gym.  Ah, silly Mr. Erb eating a chocolate pie like a madman!  This all registered in my brain in about half a second.  I could have been mad but I was not.  Instead I looked straight ahead at the cameras and knowing that I had a completely chocolate-covered face, I raised my hands again in triumph, and pointed them forward in a I-da-man pose.  (Hey, when the jokes on you, I'll laugh; when it's on me, I'll laugh more.)

Hopefully the Yearbook kids will send me a copy next week so I can attach it to this not-so-brief blog this evening.  It's 8:30 now, a full six-and-a-half hours after the contest and I can still smell chocolate as it must be half way up my sinuses by now.  Yeah, ew.

And yes, I don't think I'll be eating any chocolate for a few weeks... whethere it's Halloween or not.

The Big Soft Fluffy Friend: Pengoon

Mary Jane and Betsy Jo realize that summer is upon them when none other than the Pengoon mysteriously appears in the house.  The large penguin mascot of the Mary Star Decathlon program materializes over summer and Christmas break.  He sits on the large rocking chair and quietly asserts his need for a can of tuna.  This naturally irritates TV Turtle and Sharkey who both want their share of fish food as well.  The penguin is quite placid but he does seem to intimidate the other stuffed animals with his rotund belly.  He also frightens Mommy when she sneaks off to the bathroom in the middle of the night and the suddenly he creeps in under the covers. For some reason, she blames Daddy for that when it was really Pengoon trying to get some warmth.



The Pengoon showed up one day sitting on the bar in the den.

Along with the Pengoon this year is Deborah the Zebra (pronounced the British way of course, ZEB-ruh), the mascot for the Mary Star Decathlon team #2.  Deborah was initially introduced to the family for Mary Jane's first birthday party.  She was an immediate hit with the girls but alas filled a more important team role as mascot.  Deborah and the Pengoon sit atop Mr. Erb's closet in the back corner of the room.  The proudly watched the Mary Star teams win a combined 42 medals last year.  Strong mascots indeed.

Deborah!!!

In the picture, Mary Jane and Betsy Jo sit down in front of the two mascots for the photo op.  Mary Jane and Betsy Jo are the human mascots for teams one and two, respectively.  Thus the picture actually has the right human and animal mascots lineup up. 

In the brief video, Mary Jane attempts at putting Daddy's (aka Mr. Erb's) hat on the Pengoon.  After some failed attempts, she decides to place it upon Deborah's instead.  A for effort, MJ.  Wait, let's stick with the theme: gold medal for effort, Mary Jane!

Busiest Day of the Year

The Academic Decathlon has come and gone for another year.  I'll talk about it more tomorrow at some point but Mary Star did quite well again, managing to win 41 individual medals as well as four team medals too.  Lots of high fiving, blowing it up, and smiles all around.  I love watching hard work get the appropriate rewards.

O Christmas Tree

Mr. John played tackle-the-Christmas-tree this afternoon and lost.  According to him, he was involved in some sort of Christmas tree promotion at Mary Star.  But according to this picture leaked out by an unknown source, polar bears attacked the San Pedro campus and bit his finger.  Miss Jill didn't seem to believe him but who knows what happens when Christmas trees appear.  Heck, I know someone who had a sister who was bitten by a moose once...

Mary Jane's First Visit to UCLA

As accidentally mentioned in Miss Jill's blog, I took Mary Jane on a tour of UCLA this afternoon with two former Mary Star students of mine. I tell my sophomores every year that if they get accepted to UCLA and plan to attend there, I will give them the tour myself. And I did that today will Mary Jane tagging along.

Boy, she was tired by the end of the day. So am I... nap time here as well.

The Pengoon Returns from Extended Vacation

The Pengoon can no longer rest idly in the back yard or sleep in the purple room during the summer. It's school time again! And the valiant penguin needs to return to Mary Star to lead his Academic Decathlon team to victory. Well, it's mid-August so maybe it's just leading them to study well. In any case, the Pengoon has left Chez Erb to return to San Pedro leaving certain unnamed stuffed animals quite relieved. They feel overly threatened by the fish-eating giant.

Mary Star Decathlon Rocks the House!

I will update more of this in days to come but our three teams won a combined SIXTY... yes, SIXTY individual medals. Three students: Christina Szeibert, Allison Read, and Kathy Fernandez won five individual medals to pace the Stars to an incredible score. Team #1 finished second overall (darn you, Flintridge Sacred Heart). Team #3, composed of only freshmen and sophomores finished in second place in their division losing only to Alex and Rose Pilibos (looking at you, Raffi!). Freshman wunderkind Brigitta Szeibert won five medals.

Oh, so many medals to brag about... but more in time to come. I'm just hoping to get some sleep tonight. Luckily little Mary Jane went down easily tonight so I'll fix a bottle for her 2am feeding shortly.

But until then, joyous victory!

Penguins Tend to Relax on Sundays

The Pengoon is spending his vacation in style. For much of the year he sits atop Mister John's (aka Mr. Erb) mobile school closet. But for a few weeks during Christmas and summer break, he gets to chill with the family. Of course that brings the annual conflicts with TV Turtle and Sharkey as they all want to eat fish. And clearly this proves to be a greater problem as the Pengoon is much larger than them. Never discuss issues of biomass with Decathlon penguins, television turtles, and cloth-toothed sharks (they get a bit testy). Furthermore Shark Week comes on just in time for the fish eating conflicting every year. This year the three have bonded and have enjoyed watching all the Shark Week programming. This has left Miss Jill and Mister John a little worried as the new programming for 2010 dealt mostly with shark attacks on humans. When either Jill or John walks by, they all turn their heads to look at them like the ghosts did on the Ancient Mariner's ship (what, you haven't read "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" lately? you suck!).

In the afternoons, Pengoon gets out and lounges in the back yard. Good for him, he deserves a good rest from all the action inside. Besides, in about ten days, he'll be back at Mary Star and surviving all the sophomore madness. And he also knows that January is coming soon enough: the Decathlon awaits. Mister John (aka Coach Erb) will be ready to bring him into battle. And nothing drives fear into other Decathlon teams than the Pengoon. Because they know Mary Star is coming. Well, that and the onslaught of parents that come.