I went back to my dentist yesterday morning so she could do a crown build up. I got this one free of charge since I've had so much work done in the past few months. She wants me to get my last permanent crowns installed but I haven't come across a suitcase of money this week so I'm trying to be very gentle with both teeth until January 1 when my insurance starts over. I really like going to my regular dentist. She is so gentle with me. She even humors me and tells me I have wonderful teeth. She even laughs when I say, "Yeah baby...tell daddy he's got a full head of hair now too."

In other news the state of Colorado recently announced the preliminary educational budget cuts for next year. $1.2 billion statewide. Now that number will decrease pretty drastically but it's kinda like saying, "Education is gonna get cut by $137.3 brazillion gagillion." It's sad indeed but you almost have to chuckle at a number like that. My allergies have been bothering me a bit this week and I am feeling one serious aspect of the budget crisis. Cheap ass Kleenex. It's like 200 grit wet sanding paper. First...I gotta double up because one sheet gets destroyed with a gentle blow. As dry as it is in Colorado, you gotta put some effort into your blows. Sometimes you gotta get a running start. Cheap Kleenex doesn't stand a chance and I think it creates a safety issue with flying, rock hard boogers in the classroom. When those things get dislodged, they can move baby. Another area where the budget cuts are killing me is with pencils. My students can't keep track of a pencil to save their life. I'm going through pencils like Bodhi goes through peanut butter. To make matters worse...my students are the ones that break their pencils when they're pissed off. Today a student looked me dead in the eye and broke a brand new pencil that I had just given him just to try and piss me off. The joke was on him though as I laughed when he was having trouble writing with a 4" nub and I told him if I couldn't read it I wasn't gonna grade it. It's good to be the King.