Thanksgiving Humor

Recently I received a parrot as a gift.

The parrot had a bad attitude and an even worse vocabulary. Every word out of the bird's mouth was rude, obnoxious and laced with profanity.

I tried and tried to change the bird's attitude by consistently saying only polite words, playing soft music and anything else I could think of to "clean up" the bird's vocabulary.

Finally, I was fed up and I yelled at the parrot. The parrot yelled back. I shook the parrot and the parrot got angrier and even ruder.

So, indesperation, I threw up my hands, grabbed the bird and put him in the freezer. For a few minutes the parrot squawked and kicked and screamed.

Then suddenly there was total quiet.

Not a peep was heard for over a minute.

Fearing that I'd hurt the parrot, I quickly opened the door to the freezer. The parrot calmly stepped out onto my outstretched arms and said,

"I believe I may have offended you with my rude language and actions. I'm sincerely remorseful for my inappropriate transgressions and I fully intend to do everything I can to correct my rude and unforgivable behavior."

I was stunned at the change in the bird's attitude.

As I was about to ask the parrot what had made such a dramatic change in his behavior, the bird continued,

"May I ask what the turkey did?"

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

I received this in an email from my Dad.

Thanksgiving is next week...

I've been trying to think of ways to spice up our Thanksgiving. It's usually just a lot of food and good conversation, but, I guess, I've been longing for something more.

So...I hit the Internet to find some ideas. I only found three that I really liked.

1. I don't really like the tradition of everyone going around the table and saying one thing they're thankful for, so I liked this twist on that old game. Name Exchange: Toss everyone’s name in a hat, then have each person draw one name. Allow some time for thought, then have everyone take a turn finishing this sentence, “I’m thankful for _[name drawn]__ because ________.”
2. Even though it will probably be extremely cold here in MN next week, I though this idea was very fun as well. Take a photography walk — burn off the extra calories from your feast, yet pause long enough to capture the beauty of late autumn on film. I discovered a great trail near my parents house (where dinner will be) that I will definitely bring my camera and suggest this activity. The dogs will love it, too.
3. StoryCorps. The Day after Thanksgiving is the first annual national day of listening. There is a link at the top of my website for more information. Basically, they're encouraging us to interview someone about their life or remembering someone who has died. They even have a question generator to help decide on some good questions. I don't know if I'll actually do this, but I thought it was a very intriguing idea!

If you have any fun, unique ideas that you do on Thanksgiving, please share! I'm especially interested in ideas for families who don't really like ideas. :-) Sitting around yapping is what we do best! Oh, and eating lots of pie!!

Photo Tag

My friend Lara tagged her sister, Kristina, (and apparently me, too, but I first saw it on Kristina's blog today. Sorry, Lara!), and Kristina tagged anyone who'd like to do it. I thought it sounded like fun, so here is my 6th photo from my 6th album.

This is from my good friend's wedding in Aug 2004. Don't they look incredibly cute and happy and in love?? He's from Mexico, so they had a mariachi band at their reception. Very fun!

Exhilaration

Yesterday, I taught for the first time in a high school.

I was SO nervous!

BUT...

when I stood up and was teaching and interacting with the students, it was exhilarating!

Of course, I still have a lot to learn to become a great teacher, but I could see the beginnings. Plus I had a wonderful dialogue with my St Thomas supervisor. She helped me recognize my strengths. We talked about things I would do differently. It was very, very helpful...and just the confidence builder that I needed.

This experience combined with what I'm learning in my courses is making me even more excited about my future career.

(My lesson was introducing an Urban Geography unit to a class of 9th & 10th graders. I taught my lesson twice.)