The new Carnival of Education is up now, over at the Education Wonks. Click over and find out what’s going on in the world of education. We owe it to our children to keep current. Those who don’t, can’t complain.

The semester is over for me, and I don’t go back until after Christmas. I can relax and enjoy the Christmas lights, and I can do some of the planning I just didn’t have a chance to do, before. Our budget is nonexistent, so there’s very little shopping in store, but I am going to do some Amazon-surfing and maybe some Ebay-window-shopping.

I do have to put the grades into the computer and configure the final averages. The program we use will allow me to enter all the grades as percentages, and the spreadsheet thing lists them all as percentages, but the program won’t average them. It just gives me total points, so I have to divide the big number into the small number for each student. I’m sure Blackboard has a button to push that would do this for me but so far I haven’t found it, and I’m afraid my numbers will all disappear if I explore the options too thoroughly. Don’t laugh at me; it’s happened before. Schools purchase software, just as they purchase everything else, according to the lowest bidder, and we get what we pay for.

Today’s test that I was so in a wad about last night? It went off without a hitch. I ended up with an essay test (the kind that really separates those who know from those who had planned to wing it) and the last two students were finished within two hours. One student finished in less than a half hour and she still did well. Good student. Speed isn’t always an indicator, but this time it was. I had another student who finished in about forty minutes and DIDN’T do so well. Life is full of choices.

My favorite question was #12: What is the difference between knowledge and wisdom? Explain.

I got some really good stuff for that one. Great stuff.

I was going to relax, have a sandwich, and watch Going My Way, but Best In Show was on top of the stack and as I looked at the films I was seized with a desperate need for a Christopher Guest ensemble fix. Geniuses. Absolute geniuses, every one of them. Not living next door to them, and not being their best no-talent friend who gets to hang out with them anyway, is killing me sometimes. I suffer from Guffman Envy.

This time of year, I am completely obsessed with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Their Christmas music is so good, so differently good. . . . well, there are no words. Check out these videos. Oh, and don’t forget this one. Such style. Such quirky, whimsical style. Such classy, different arrangements. I love it.

Then, my beautiful Belle gave me Il Divo and Diana Krall, so I gave her the book I was going to give her for Christmas after I read it myself, but now she gets to read it first.

Ah, Christmas. Everybody’s house is beautiful with a glowing Christmas tree in it. Driving down our country road is like watching a widely-spaced Norman Rockwell infomercial. Which would be somewhat creepy, admit it.

Does the husband of one’s niece have any kind of specific geneaological title? Enquiring minds want to know. Enquiring minds also want to know what the big hairy deal is with all these people supposedly obsessed with Brangelina and K-fed and all these other celebrity couplings who will, apparently, do anything for PR, including breed. Who cares? I mean, ultimately, who cares?

There is no candy in this house. We’re both diabetic, but even so.