Wednesday's Hodgepodge

Joyce at From This Side of the Pond has yet again provided us with a variety of questions, also known as the Wednesday Hodgepodge.

1. Did you know there is a National Day of pretty much everything in the universe? February 23 happens to be National Inconvenience Yourself Day...when was the last time you were inconvenienced?
Let's see....most of this week.....because since Monday my car was put in the shop for leaking strange brown stuff.  I have had to rely on the transportation of others.  It is nice that I have a husband and friends who will pick me up and take me around....but inconvenient that I have to wait for them and cannot do what I want to, when I want to.  I am praying it is ready today.  Frank has got to get up and take me to school this morning.....poor dear.  I asked him if it bothered him and that precious man said, "Nope, it means more time I get to spend with you."  Have I got a keeper or what?
2. When a room in your house needs painting who does the job?
Frank is a great painter.  I, on the other hand, am not.  My friend Susan came down and helped me paint when my dad died.  It was good therapy and she is a great painter too.  Kat and Brian are coming up to paint two rooms at the parsonage.  They are earning money to go on a summer mission trip and Brian won't just take a donation....he believes he has to earn it.  I love that man!
3. Are you friends with your cousins? 
I have to be honest.  I love all my family....but as for friends I am with some and not with others.  I have around 96 first cousins....seriously. I keep up with a good portion of my family via facebook.  We live all over creation and it is easier that way.

This was my grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary and all their children....but only about half of all of their children's children (aka - my first cousins).  My grandfather was one of 14. 

This picture is just a small groupage of the family.  My mom and her sister's family and even we are not all there.  This is still a pretty large group don't you think?

4. Do you use an alarm clock? If yes-is it an actual alarm, music, or something else?
I have an alarm clock.  It does go off.  Most mornings I am already awake when it tones.  When I travel I use my phone with a song.
5. What do you put ketchup on?
Hummmm.....I love ketchup.  It is my condiment of choice.  I like it on hotdogs, hamburgers, fries, potato chips, stuff I don't like to eat (to disguise the taste), chicken fingers, a bad steak, liver (oh yeah...that falls under stuff I don't like to eat.)
6. What smells make you nostalgic? 
Pinesol, evergreen trees, rain, the ocean, something spicy cooking.
7. Have you heard about the high school English teacher recently suspended as a result of some things she wrote in her personal blog? This teacher vented a lot of frustration onto her blog. She didn't mention individual students by name but she did make some harsh comments about kids in general and their parents. 
I am a teacher....currently.  I have commented a time or two on the state of education in my blog....it is was rather generic in nature....but venting just the same. I have never mentioned parents or kids....but I have vented about generic parents and kids.   I do  have a school blog that I use for my students.  I post the days assignments there so that if they are absent they can get the work they miss.  I gave the ip address to the parents so that they can keep up with their kids.  I accept comments on it....but I have to approve them before I publish them.  I have a facebook account and don't put anything on there I don't want anyone to see.  If someone I know cusses....I hide that post the first time and block the person the second.  I do not befriend students on my facebook until after they are not my students.  There have been a few exceptions....but they are family.  I do not publish pictures of me in compromising positions and it concerns me when I see some of the younger teachers at our school putting themselves out there.  I did catch a cheater on one of my tests....during my test....because of facebook.  It was kind of funny.  She looked really strange when the administrator came and got her during the test with her facebook printout. MWAH HA HA!  As of right now our district does not have a policy.  We can't get on it at school...it is blocked.  I have friended teacher friends that are friends with a number of the kids within the class. I think it is a good policy to have, both for the child's protection as well as the teacher's. 
8. Insert your own random thought here.  
Why is it that when I am working the weather is gorgeous.  When I am off it rains?  What is the deal with that?  BTW...I have on flip flops today and loving it.  My newly pedicured toes are in heaven.