http://etothepii.livejournal.com/7536.html

Summary: Where Mycroft is an angel, Sherlock is a demon, and John is still John.

So tomorrow should be an interesting day because my sister's success at the consulate on our behalf will determine what happens next. I'm going to try to stop thinking about it (ha!) because my first paper is due tomorrow as well. I haven't been wasting my time writing that, though! I've been uploading photos now that I have a real internet connection!
( Photo spam of London! )

We had a great time in London, though it took us a bit to balance touring with recovering from the whirlwind 6 weeks getting ready to leave Austin with BetterHalf's penchant for marathon museum days with the kids' desire to just run around like madmen with my need for REAL COFFEE, which seems almost impossible to get in this country. (Someone with native knowledge, please advise! I've bought a French Press out of desperation!)

My sleep schedule is still damaged. The sun rises at 4:45 or so, and the light doesn't look any different to me at 7am than at noon, so I've lazed several mornings away, much to the irritation of my BetterHalf. He's talking in his sleep right now. FirstBorn is laughing, but she really shouldn't because she was talking in her sleep last night. Oh the joys of sharing a single 12x15 room among 4 people. Of course, we should both be asleep because it's after midnight, but it doesn't even really get dark until after 10.

Today I read books 6,7, and 8 of Paradise Lost and was delighted when Milton had Adam ask Raphael whether angels have sex. Ha!

The kids played in the Hammersmith park Japanese Gardens and then we went to the mall because they had wifi that was free and not burdened by the pesky firewall at our flat that keeps preventing me from logging into accounts. FirstBorn got chatted up on the escalator! It went something like this:

Boy: "There she is, shut up! Oh, hello!"
FirstBorn: "Hi."
Boy: "My name is..."

Then the escalator carried him away - hahahahahaha. Escalator fail.

Can't get it to load. And I have late-breaking news:
There was fight in my classroom today.

( Students...what a bunch of BASTARDS! )

It's ok. I'm drinking now.

They buyer person renegotiated the price and is back on board...for now. I'm almost afraid to talk about it for fear of shattering the deal.

I've been thinking that this is the most stressed that I have ever been in my life, but then today as I was driving 6 kids back to my house after two hours at gatti-town, it struck me that I was more stressed last year when, on our way home from comicon, our headlights went out 40 miles outside of El Paso in the pitch dark of the desert at 11:00 pm, and we had to drive for 20 minutes with semi trucks whooshing past us until we could find an exit - which we couldn't really see. We only found it by looking for the reflective light of the highway stripes, bounced off the light from other cars. It's probably the nearest I've come to fiery death with my whole family.

That's kind of how the last week has felt, but without the images of fiery death.

Today i was supposed to kayak with my kids and 4 of their friends, but Austin has decided to dump all the moisture for the year on our heads during the two weekends I have tried to schedule girl scout campouts. :( We went to the aforementioned gatti-town instead, and tomorrow I'm taking 11 girls skating until they are exhausted and then bringing them back to my house to roast marshmallows over the bbq grill and crash out on my floor watching Dr. Who.

We got our first offer on the house today, and we counter-offered. Oh gods, I hope we did the right thing. Waiting. Again.

Today, I decided to be my version of a "badass" teacher and tell children when I thought they were being rude. They always alter their behavior when I do this, but I'm still always surprised. I walked up to a couple of kids watching something on their PSP with headphones and said, "I'd appreciate it if you went out to the table in the hall to watch that because it is really rude to be so OBVIOUSLY not doing what I ask, and I would rather you be disrespectful to me out in the hall where I can't see you doing it."

They put the PSP away.

I guess it's a kind of power play, and I don't really like doing it, but it always comes out here at the end of the year when the state exams are over, and everyone has pretty much acknowledged that school is as well.

In hilarious news, I had a student in first period yesterday explain to me that her boyfriend's friend was trying to bust them up by telling her that her boyfriend had cheated on her with a girl in Ohio, but she just texted everything he was saying to her boyfriend and then told the guy that she wasn't going to let him be her Iago. Smacked down by Shakespeare.

I really do love my job some days.

We are moving in 6 weeks.

Here's me in my sari (from the trip 17 years ago - can't believe I squeezed myself into the top!)

From m's computer

So today I showed the movie version of Othello in my English 2 classes and came home to drink a bottle of wine and watch 5 episodes of Avatar:The Last Airbender in retaliation for the insanity of ( my weekend. )

I'm still hoping for India.

And waiting for word.

*frustrated*

The selling of all our worldly possessions has commenced, with a toy organizer and two bedside tables sold on craigslist ($40). We have listed all the big furniture items and anything that doesn't sell in the next week will go into a garage sale on May 15th.

The house goes on the market on Monday and we REALLY need someone to just snap it up the following week. I have no idea whether that is even remotely realistic. We have tried to price competitively, but... who knows?

I've been making lists like an utter maniac. I'm a chronic listmaker at the most uneventful of times, and now that so many things have to be completed (if we get offered the jobs) in the next 7 weeks, I have gone mad. I can't concentrate on anything else.

Thank god we are administering state tests this week. My teaching duties are relatively light (though I insisted that we finish Act 5 of Othello today.)

So for those keeping track, this week we need all the good vibes we can muster to finalize the job offers and to sell the house.

Thanks for tuning in.