Kittens and other information

So, the kittens are possibly the most adorable things ever and Karel is a loser for never coming home to see them. I think that this is probably the last week that we'll have them (Tycho is going to his home on Friday and I think the girls might go to theirs then or sooner). Tycho tried to sleep with me last night. It was so cute. The kittens totally make me want to get rid of the fuddy-duddy old cats and keep the kittens in their places.
Today we had a baby shower for our 8-8 civics teacher. The team got together and bought her a car seat. I had to go pick it up since I was the only person who lived near a Babies R Us. Carseats come in big boxes. It was difficult getting it into the room. I hurt my elbow on the door and tore out a chunk of skin (that I didn't realize I had removed a large portion of my elbow epidermis only a couple of hours later when the missing skin had already scabbed over). The baby shower was fun, but it took a lot of time (like 4.5 hours out of my work day). Even thought I stayed until 6:00 pm, I still got very little done. That's not true, I just have so much stuff to do that it seems like I have made minimal progress. However, my grades are done and I just have to make up a unit test, organize a whole seven weeks worth of activities into a chronologically ordered binder, make new seating charts, clean out my student desks (and my desk), put number stickers on the desks and books, make lesson plans for next week, make sure all my students are set up to take the practice SOL on the computer, and clean out my closet. Damn. I need four more work days. Oh, and I need to grade a whole set of paragraphs, two prefix tests, and a vocab test for all of my classes; things I didn't do this weekend because I was celebrating Ben's birthday.
Ben's birthday was fun. On Friday we had dinner at his house and then people played poker (I went home to sleep around 9:30). On Saturday we had to go shopping for baby shower stuff in the morning (and we didn't' get started until noon because someone slept in late) and then went to a barbecue at his old house (which was really lame, by the way, but I did get to see Shansby and grade some expository paragraphs). On Sunday I had to go shopping for more baby shower stuff. Then I went to Ben's and didn't grade papers while watching the Redskins game. I thought it was Ben's birthday so I should cuddle with him instead of working. Then we went to The Melting Pot for dinner. Mmmm...but not as mmmm as it usually is. I think the combination of being a Sunday and a holiday left the restaurant with less competent staff and leftovers instead of tasty food. But it was good, and I had nice company, so I'm not going to complain too much.
I love Ben. He is great. I think we should elope now.
Ben asked me if we secretly eloped if I would be able to keep it a secret. I said no. Can you imagine me keeping that a secret? Hello! I can't even not tell someone what I got them for their birthday. I think it's because I'm bad and in constant need of approval for my good deeds.
Teaching is much less tiring when there are no kids there.
I get to vote in a presidential election and on a regular ballot for the first time tomorrow. Hurrah!