Friday after school and after Colin got off from work, we went down to Nashville to spend the night. This was sort of a spur-of-the-moment thing. I needed to do some birthday shopping for Katee (whose birthday is the 23rd), and I wanted to go to Nashville because there are stores there that aren’t anywhere around here. Plus, Colin and I both have had a few long, tough, busy weeks of work, and a little trip seemed like a fun idea. PLATO testing has worn me out. Plus last week I had a professional development training after school and then two other days I stayed late to help teachers with their webpages. Enid went to school with me a lot last week, but I was so busy that she mostly just sat around my desk. I finally finished PLATO testing on Friday, and getting out of town was a reward of sorts.

When we got to Nashville, we went straight to the Opry Mills Mall. I got a lot of shopping done that first day. I got a really cute bag for my laptop at the Sanrio store. When we went back to the hotel that night, Colin and I tried out the wireless internet access and played some games. We also made a late night run to the McDonald’s because I was starving. We got Happy Meals. The toys have really gotten pathetic over the years. The toys used to be good. Anyway, Enid made a new friend from our Happy Meal (See the picture here.)

Saturday morning we went to Rivergate Mall and did some shopping there. We also went back to the Opry Mills Mall. I wanted to go to a few more stores, and I wanted to go back to the Sanrio store to pick up one more thing, and I’m glad I did. Guess who was at the Sanrio store? Hello Kitty! Enid had her picture taken with Hello Kitty herself! It was cute. You never know when you might see a celebrity in Nashville.

Colin, Enid, and I ate lunch at the Aquarium restaurant. This was our first time ever eating there. It was really neat! So many fishies and sharks and stingrays and scary eels! I took a lot of pictures (see some here) and Enid enjoyed seeing some fellow sea creatures. She was also happy no one wanted to eat her! She also made a new friend- a beluga whale named Hazel.

We drove home from Nashville yesterday and rested for 45 minutes or so once we got home and then headed to the races. My dad did a lot better last night! In the first race, he came in 3rd place out of 11 cars. In the second race, he came in 5th place out of 22 cars! He’s getting a lot better.

Today I’ve been playing around with my laptop. I’m going to be mailing Enid back to Bubs tomorrow if I don’t have to stay after school for some reason. I’ve had fun with Enid, and I think it’s time she moves on now so someone else can enjoy her.

Right now I am typing this on my brand spankin’ new laptop. A laptop I got for FREE, yes FREE people. OMG. I can’t believe I actually got it. I will write about all of the grand details tomorrow.

Today was a pretty okay day. For one thing, I got a laptop. The other neat thing is that I got two autographed books for free. Here’s what happened:

Kentucky author, Leigh Anne Florence, visited the 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders today. She visited our school last year. She writes a series of books about her two dogs, Woody and Chloe, and their adventures in Kentucky. Woody and Chloe actually travel around with her. She does a pretty neat presentation. She’s also super nice. Today, I got a phone call from one of the teacher who told me the “speaker” needed a laptop to connect her laptop to. I assumed the “speaker” was Leigh Anne, and I was right!”

So, she comes down to the lab and says the teacher was mistaken. What she really wanted was a second laptop to use in the gym to show the Woody podcast on so she could run the podcast simulatenously with her slideshow on her laptop. Well, I couldn’t do much for her. We don’t have internet access in the gym or a wireless connection in the school. She said that was okay and left. She came back a few minutes later and asked if I could just download the podcast and burn it to a CD she could play on her cd player. There wasn’t a download link or anything for the podcast. It just plays straight from the site, so I wasn’t sure I could save it to my computer. Luckily, I was able to. I burned her a cd. To thank me for helping her, she gave me two of her books for free and she signed them for me. It was pretty cool. She told me after it was over that the cd worked like a dream. I was glad I was able to help.

I had a pretty boring PD after school about PLATO and its use during ESS. We didn’t learn anything except that PLATO is just as frustrating if not more frustrating than we thought. They didn’t even give us any drinks or snacks either! I didn’t get home until 5:00.

But when I did finally get home….my FREE laptop was waiting for me! How exciting! All three of our computers are now connected to the internet, and Colin ran a cable into the living room so I can watch TV and do the internet at the same time! Oh, Heaven! I am so super excited about this laptop. It has a built in webcam and everything. It is an HP, of course, and is running Windows Vista. Vista is okay so far. It is slow like I have heard from others, but overall I think it’s decent enough for me. It’s just so amazing to own a laptop. Way better than that old Apple iBook that Rachael is so envious of.

Right now, I am super tired, thirsty, and in need of a warm shower. I am going to have sweet laptop dreams tonight! :sleepy: