y=mx+b

Yup, that's the formula of a line.  I'm sure you think this is a clever tie-in to running hills or something equally as funny, but alas, it's not. It really is just the formula for finding the y-intercept when you already have the coordinates and know the slope.  Why is this the title of today's post then, you might be asking.  Well, since it is summer and I have free time galore, I decided to fill that time with some good old professional development.  It sure was nice to have vacation while it lasted.  Ahhh the good old days.  Anyways, so I signed up for this middle school mathematics class because there were extra spots open and I figured I could use the PDPs.  Turns out though, they actually expect you to KNOW middle school math.  Now isn't that something?  We spent the majority of today graphing lines and find line stories and I was woefully lost.  Newsflash, algebra is not my strong suit.  Everything made sense when there were numbers in place, but then the person leading the class took away the numbers and turned everything into letters, and there I was, staring at the page like a cow in a tornado.  (Alright, that's a terrible metaphor, but basically, I was lost and had no idea what I was doing there.) And so here I am, googling all the different ways to find the y-intercept.  Which is all great except that it still doesn't make sense when I replace the numbers with letters, so I don't really know what to do about that.  Just be glad I'm not teaching children how to solve linear equations!

Anyways, I'm taking a break from solving line equations now and just throwing in a quick update since I missed two weeks again.  Sorry about that, but I am rather busy, and I'm pretty sure about 10 people read this anyways.  If you're interested in the woods runs, two weeks ago was the 2nd tour, which was fun but HOT.  Well, not so much hot as it was high humidity.  It was 6.5 miles of struggling through sweat and dodging slippery rocks because it had just finished raining before the race.  I do like the tours, even if they do have an elevation gain of 720 feet.

Last week was the regular old 4 mile run that always falls around the 4th of July.  I'd love to say it was easier than the tour, but I'd be lying.  By all means, it should have been easier, but for me it wasn't.  That run goes up by Stone Tower and Steel Tower, which are both large hills. I don't know, it could have been the heat again, or perhaps I've just given up at running consistently because I found myself walking quite a bit again.  At this point, I've taken on a whatever attitude towards it, which obviously isn't helping.  I've even been walking the bits of the Battle Road trail in Lexington, which is just ridiculous because it's fairly flat there.  Hot tip: Great spot for Poke stops if you're playing the hot new game of 2016.  There's one at every historical marker and if you've been on that trail, there are historical markers basically every 20 feet, and that's no lie.

Aside from the running, I've been catching up on months worth of missed reading.  I hit up all those must read book lists that Buzzfeed publishes, compiled a list of books that seemed most interesting, and hit the library.  Some of the books I ended up with were just new releases that looked good when I picked them up, others are from the lists, but in case you're wondering, here's what I've read so far.  Sorry, I don't record the author, only the title, so I can't help you with that.
-Lilac Girls
-Carry On
-Lovecraft Country
-Midair
-Modern Lovers
-The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
-Kindred
-Pym
-Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles)
-Scarlett (The Lunar Chronicles)

So far I've enjoyed reading all of them but obviously I've liked some better than others.  I'd recommend them all, but fair warning, most of them are kind of bummer stories, turns out, and not great beach reads.  Carry On would probably be ok on the beach, but the others aren't exactly light-hearted fluff.  Still, if you're bored, check out any one of them for something to do.  I do suppose I should get back to lines now, so enjoy the pictures until next time.

Oh ya, we went go-carting too. That was fun, but surprisingly tiring.

Just a picture of the beach.

After 6.5 tour.  My shoulder looks ripped, but I don't feel like it does the sweat justice, I really was covered.

4 miles, not as sweaty.

WARNING!!!

There is a picture of my blister following this, so if you do not want to see it, don't look any further!

This stupid blister has been on the side of my foot since the Boston Marathon. I've done everything to make it go away and it just won't.  I honestly think the only solution at this point is to get new running shoes.  I've tried taping, soaking, lotion, everything I can think of to get this thing to go away and stop reappearing and nothings worked.  So if you have any other suggestions, please, I'm all ears!

Snow place like home

Whooooeee it has been a long week or two.  Honestly, the days have all but blended together with all the snowstorms and school cancellations.  February has never seemed shorter, and that's saying a lot, since it's already the shortest month!  Seriously though, if the snow could quit, I'd be a little bit happier.  There's pretty much no place left to walk, park, or drive if another car is coming at you.  It's getting out of hand.  Yet, we are intrepid, we carry on.  What else can you do, with all this snow around and talk of another storm or two heading this way? The good news is, it's almost February vacation.  The bad news is, it's almost February vacation.  I make this next statement with the knowledge that teachers in the state of Massachusetts will be calling for my head, but it's about time we did away with February vacation.  Let's be honest, we just got back from Winter Break, and with the SEVEN snow days we've had in the past 15 days, this vacation is a bit of a joke.  What the students could really use is 5 more days of work.  Besides, we're one of the only states that still has this vacation hanging about.  I say scrap it, start school earlier than the Wednesday before Labor Day, and use March for Spring break.  It would solve SO many problems. But, who am I to change things?  Alright, aside from the snow days, there's no where to run, so I've been spending a lot of quality time with the treadmill.  I don't love it.  Also due to the snow, I missed 4 days of being able to workout.  I know, that's insane! At this point though I've made it up and I feel like I'm back on track.  Wouldn't you know it, that means I'm getting a cold.  I can feel it coming on.  My nose is stuffy/runny, my eyes are itchy, and things hurt.  Fantastic.  Nothing like a good cold to start vacation. Since I don't have a new goal in the near future, I decided to work towards upping my punches at boxing.  I started low today with a total of just over 3000 punches. My goal is to try and add on at least 100 more punches each week.  I only need to track one day, but I might track all and just pick my best.  Except Sunday's because that's a 12 round class and that would feel like cheating.
Completely out of the realm of working out, but back on the snow day thing, I made one final pair of shoes a couple of weeks ago.  I went Little Mermaid themed, just to see how it worked out,  They came out alright, but I'm not sure I love them.  However, I did want to try and fix the paint chipping problem I had on the first pair.  The paint on the rubber part of the sole chipped off as they were worn around, so I wanted to try and fix that.  I saw a trick online that if you sand the rubber with fine grain sandpaper it makes the paint more likely to absorb into the rubber, so I tried that.  It looks like the paint held up a bit better, but still chipped off in places.  At this point, I'm beginning to think it's the sealant that's chipping it off, not the actual paint.  Anyways, I'll add a picture of those in a minute.  Finally, the students at my school are number one in the city for the math program we've been doing.  Yes, that's right, number one! We're third in the state, and in the top 100 in the nation! There are some days when I feel like I'm doing a real bad job teaching, but learning this made me feel like I must be doing something right.  I'm very proud of the school and I love being able to brag about the students.  Tomorrow they're getting a special award from the school committee, which is very exciting.  So, that's it, snow city in a nutshell. Enjoy the pictures!

Punch counters

Icicles and ice dams 

Way to go Tracy School!

Snow pile...it's gotten a lot bigger since this picture