Sentiments On Common Sense

Here I am on a plane over the Pacific Ocean. I have no idea where I am as the screen on this high quality 747 from United Airline is out and despite the single attempt by an animated and cute flight attendant, the movie is non-existent and I am “forced” top watch a few video podcasts and to write my blog. I am not complaining here… I just would rather dose off wth a movie.

United Airlines is not getting my positive vote on this flight for sure, and these attendants seem to really have a bad attitude. Just my opinion, but I am sure you can ask United if they get any positive votes from us in this part of the plane. From seat 43H, it just ain’t that good. Nonetheless, I am a loyal customer and I will continue till they really peeve me off.

This entry takes the writing on the road thing to a whole new level…. Say 35,000 feet. It is a heck of a lot smoother than the Shanghai highways.

I need to do a brief plug for Gourmet Geeks. Jeff Utecht and I did our 2nd installment and pulled out the old reliable Buffalo Chicken Wings Recipe (see below) with a special geeks spin to it. The meal was delicious (yes… wings can be a meal!) and Jeff and his lovely wife Uma, and my family lead by Hetta the Happy Homemaker snarfed down the chicken like it was going out of style. The recipe is a no-brainer and is super yummy. Try it.

Now…. Lester Part II

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Jake, the Moosehound, was kept very busy with Lester during the day in Saudi. He stopped tearing up the house and Lester took his days to a whole new level of following this homely and ugly kitten around the house watching what he was tearing up, and occasionally getting a good whiff of the cat’s butt for some kicks. Life was full of fun and full of “scentational” fun for Jake.

On the other hand, Lester was feeling his oats and was moving rapidly into kitty adolescence. That means he was started to act like a tomcat, and leaving little tomcat markings all over the house, spraying the windows and peeing in the spare bedroom. We didn’t have Maddie at that point and I noticed that his…. Ahem…. “nuts” were looking quite large and he was spending a lot of time… ahem… licking his nether-regions for more than just a cleansing purpose. In short…. the cat was a horny black and white monster that needed a fix.

I joked with Amanda that it seemed that he seems that his personality was based upon the fur around his little kitty testicles. One was covered in white fur and one in black. In short, Lester had a good nut and a bad nut.

I didn’t want to tell Lester, but both the good one and the bad one were doomed as the vet was coming for a visit. The Vet for Jeddah showed up, gave the cat the gas and snipped blacky and whitey off in a matter of minutes, delivering a woozy and somewhat lighter cat to my arms for a long walk back to the house. Lester had had his tomcathood chopped off in a storage closet behind the Star Market for $200.00 USD. I think we would all be surprised. I am sure he was, but thankfully didn’t blame me a bit. He’s loyal that way.

After that Lester was the most loveable, affectionate cat in the world. I was his best friend. He ignored Jake execept when the occasional butt sniff came his way, and even Amanda came to like him. We had Maddie. We sent Jake home to the USA to stay with Mom-in-law and enjoy life in Arizona. Jake’s life was full of chasing more tennis balls and he had another cat’s butt to sniff in his new home because another cat my wife fended off on her mother lived there.

Now, Lester was free (as I stated) and we have now spent more than we should have to keep this cat “tame” and his shots and even let this darn cat worm his way into our hearts. Then in early April 2003, Lester got out of the house (as he did frequently) and did not come back. This is Saudi Arabia. We were about to move into daily temps in the high 90’s to 110 F. EVERYDAY, and the darn cat disappears. We put signs out, we asked the workers on the compound to find him and yet he is just gone.

May 1, 2003 we have the scary experience of terrorism. Scary is a lame term. People… many people die. Bad people shoot, kill, maim and terrorize an entire city for a whole day. They are killed. We close our school for a week, and shorten our school year to finish a graduation for our seniors and get them off to schools and colleges around the world. I install concrete and barbwire. I turn a school into a fortress. Lester… all the while is gone. We escape to the US for a long summer of explaining to our families why we would be taking our infant daughter and ourselves back to a place where there are others who want us dead and gone. It was a long summer. We returned proudly for our last year in Yanbu. We made it work and worked that school through a tough time.

Still no Lester though and I was sure he was dead. Summers are cruel in Saudi. It is 110-115 degrees during the day. There is no water to be found anywhere. Nothing, including my car lived through the summer unscathed. I finally gave up in early September. I threw away the litter box. I gave away the cat food. I shook my head and wondered where Lester had gone or died. The very next day we arrived home as usual about 4:30 – 5:00 began to unload the car with the huge pile of baby stuff that we hauled daily and was greeted by a familiar “meow”. Over in the corner of the wall by our front door was a skinny, bald, black and white cat that was a shadow of the former Lester, but was him nonetheless! The darn cat had arisen from the dead and come back the desert. I decided right there that this cat was staying in Saudi and I needed to find a home for the cat. I was NOT going to haul this animal out of that country. He needed to stay where he obviously was fit to be.

Next week….. The Tale (tail) of Lester Part III: Does he stay or does he go??

As promised the Gourmet Geeks Recipe-

Gourmet Geeks Super Bowl Buffalo Wings

24-20 wing segments (I just buy the mini drumsticks)
¼ cup Honey
5 Tablespoons of Hot Sauce (The Geeks used Cholula)
½ teaspoon of garlic powder
4 Tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
If you want it red, add a teaspoon of Paprika. I don’t think red is that important,

Deep Fry wings after coating with some sort of flour (I used corn flour) till crispy brown.
Let Wings cool.
Dip cooled chicken in sauce and then bake for about 25 minutes at 375 degrees

Remove immediately and serve with blue cheese dressing and veggies. The Geeks and the Back Channel Girls (Uma and Hetta) had a nice salad and a lovely after dinner drink. Good food, good company, good times!

I am happy to report that the debut of Gourmet Geeks (GG) was held last night and came off without many hitches besides some delays/hiccups from the challenges of the internet here in China, but my fellow Gourmet Geek Jeff Utecht is working to fix it in some way, and the recipe (seen at the end of this post) was a great hit with the back channel girls Uma the Sous chef and Hetta the Happy Homemaker (better known as our wives). Both Hetta and Uma had seconds of the soup.

The reason that the delay of the GG was due in part to many things, but primarily is blamed on my cat. The now famous and infamous three footed cat Lester. Now, before the winter holiday, Lester was a four footed cat, like most cats, but his curiosity got the best of him again, and he got caught in a large rat trap and spent a full week of very chilly nights being stuck in the bushes around our house. Thanks to the persistence of our housekeeper and nanny Ms. Zhou, Lester was saved from certain death and rescued. Sadly for Lester, having a foot caught in a trap for almost a week did its damage and he has been “enjoying” a week at the vet after having his foot trimmed back to a single toe. He now embodies the old joke that reads…

A three legged cat walks into a bar. He says to the bartender, ‘I am lookin’ for the man that shot my pa.’

The thing about Lester is that he was really adopted to keep our dog entertained when we lived in Saudi Arabia. This is really where the story begins…

We spent the first few months in Saudi Arabia without our dog and family member Jake, but he eventually found his way through a multi-continent trip and a lot of hassle by a whole bunch of people who really, really love us a lot. That is a whole ‘nother post.

Jake was a Chocolate Labrador Retriever who just left us for a better place just a few weeks ago. Jake was a huge dog weighing in at 110 pounds. He was the Moosehound for us, and his heart was filled with the kindness of a hundred dogs. Sweet and loyal, he lived for one single purpose and that was to bring back to his owners anything that happened to be thrown or dropped for him. Tennis balls were his favorite thing to fetch, but sticks, rocks, toys, and shoes worked just as well. Jake was also smart and knew how to relax. We would leave him at home for the day when we went to work (taking him along only about once a week) and we would return to a house where all the cushions on the couch on the floor, all the beds unmade and entire loaves of bread being eaten.

In short, Jake was bored, and he was entertaining himself, and knew full well he was doing big no, no’s! We would enter the door from the street where we parked our car, stepped into a house with a whining and embarrassed, head down, tail between his legs, recalcitrant dog. We just had to laugh and we needed a solution. We tried leaving the TV on for him. It worked for about one day. We locked all the doors to protect the bedding, but that didn’t protect the couches and our food supply. Frankly speaking I was worried Jake was going to learn how run a can opener!

A couple of weeks went by and it came time for Jake to go to the vet for some shots. The vet we went to was in Jeddah, which was a 3 hour drive through the Saudi desert to the south. We jumped up early in the AM, drove to the Vet. Jake’s check went well, and we were awaiting some medication to be dispensed to us along with a hefty bill when we spotted this homely, skinny kitten with ears too big for his head and a tail that seemed to be two feet long. We asked the price of the cat and they responded with the word that should never be associated with pets and in particular cats. The gentleman from the other side of the counter said twice in fact. He said, “Free. Free sir.” We decided that the kitten would keep Jake occupied and entertained and we took this “free” cat home.

The story gets good from here. Jake, the HUGE Lab cowered in the back seat while this little kitten first crawled all over him and then fell asleep in Amanda’s lap. He then made his way to our house where made himself at home falling asleep in the sunshine, using Jake as a scratching post. We named him Lester because he was so homely and skinny, and it seemed to fit him well. We also learned quickly that Lester had an evil side and seemed to be accelerating to kitty adolescence quickly, and his neutering cost us 300 dollars on a compound visit from the traveling vet a weekend a few weeks later. That was just the first dispatch of funds from my wallet for Lester and I will continue the “Tale (tail??) of Lester the Cat” in my next posting.

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As promised… the recipe

Gourmet Geeks Tortilla Soup
6 cups of Chicken Broth (Homemade is best)
1/3 cup of lime juice
3 chilis (Hot ones!)
5 Chicken breast halves
4 cloves of garlic
1 onion
1 tbs of ground cumin
1 tbs or more of Italian seasoning or Oregano
4 cans of Mexican Stewed Tomatoes
Fresh Chopped Cilantro
Tortilla Chips

1. Cook chicken breasts in broth 20-25 minutes till well cooked.
2. Remove chicken to cool.
3. Turn broth to simmer
4. In sauce pan sauté garlic, onions, chilis. When softened add spices.
5. Add cans of tomatoes to sauce pan. When warm, add broth and lime juice
6. Season to taste with Salt and Pepper
7. Shred chicken, add to soup.
8. When heated through add fresh coarsely chopped cilantro and, serve in large bowls topped with tortilla chips, shredded cheese and sour cream.

Whew… it was a great holiday. A nice long one with those of us in Shanghai enjoying a three week break! The family and I headed back to the homestead with snow, and grandparents, and “real” Christmas trees. One can complain a lot about living overseas and being away from life in the states, but I am still convinced that working in international schools is the way to go.

A few things keeping my motivated and focused this coming year and I want to share. I am not one to make New Year’s resolutions, but I do try to keep a list in my head of the things that I am looking forward to facing and meeting aggressively this calendar year.

1. My school is in the midst of an accreditation self study through the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. We have some clearly identified outcomes that should come out of this effort which include:
• the transformation of the way we do our work (more on this later),
• a clearly articulated measure of the current operating state of our school based upon our own
• the establishment of a set of metrics of which we can measure our progress toward our vision points that can be reported out to our community regularly (more on that one as well!)
2. It appears as if we are moving toward a new school information system installation at our school. This will be a big logistical and motivational challenge for our school as we move into the mess and muss of data migration, learning of software, establishing new procedures and systems….. should be fun!
3. Planning and subsequent implementation of a one to one computing initiative. I don’t think this one will be realized till the fall of ’09, but with the selection of the right teachers and leaders we can make this organizationally transformational for our classroom programs.

I have mentioned challenge and fun earlier in this post, but I have some other REAL fun to look forward to as well.

1. I am looking forward to attending the NECC conference this summer. I think that this will be my first educational computing conference I have attended in over 7 years besides the Learning 2.0 conference this last fall in Shanghai.
2. I am looking forward to beginning a video podcast series with Mr. Jeff Utecht which is a spin off of the famed “Cooking with Jeff” Twitter session that he has been doing on a regular basis. “Cooking with Jeff…. and ANDY!” will premier next week and we are going to shoot for a bi-weekly effort. Our wives think we are nuts, but frankly speaking, this is how I learn best. I combine a fun, self-motivated activity AND I will learn the nuances of video podcasting.
3. Spend more time with my wife and children. I am hoping and praying that the road will not consume me. I don’t think it will as I see changes on the horizon on how I am going to work my “work” in the months to come.
4. Spend some time in the gym and get some exercise. Yes… that is fun too.

Communications note:

In early December I did a post about positive communications practices and thanks to Jeff “The Thinking Stick” Utecht drawing some attention to the post, I got some nice responses.

One respondant wrote…

I am a superintendent who celebrates our positives/achievements whenever I can. I even structured a commitment to celebrate into the beginning of every report I give to the school committee. A reminder goes out the week before each meeting for things administrators and teachers want me to celebrate. I summarize them for the committee, the press, and the public.

But, why do it? Competition? Economic gain? Politics? You have to watch a video that Dewitt Jones produced to understand why. I showed it to every faculty and parent organization and many community group when I began in my current school district. It was fundamental to my theories about leadership and learning. The video is Celebrate What’s Right with the World. It is expensive, but the vision in the video is transformational. I’ve watched it close to thirty times, and the message never grows old and never loses meaning for me. You can read about it and see it at www.celebratetraining.com Don’t miss it.

And Darren Draper linked me to his blog post as an example of stressing the positives to create change! Drapes Takes has some great content and I have enjoyed reading it! Thanks Darren for the comment which you wrote….

I think that if we were doing a better job at celebrating the positive, newspaper articles like the one I recently responded to would have a different slant.

Thank you to all… until the next car trip across Shanghai! Keep the focus on Common Sense!