Pumpkin Delight

Exploring a New Site

2012-01-29T22:01:00.001-08:00

The first week back to school was THE CRAZIEST week I’ve had in some time. It was great to see my kiddos, and they hit the ground running upon our return. However, I had a meeting after school every day last week which really limited my prep and planning time in my classroom. I felt like I was swimming up stream the entire week. I came home from work Friday night and crashed. I felt like going to bed and not waking until Sunday. But I didn’t…

Some friends invited me to visit the The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens in Pasadena. I’ve been to most of the art museums in Los Angeles, but never the Huntington.

What a beautiful day for a Saturday outing!

The Huntington was the winter home of Henry Edward Huntington and his wife Arabella, both avid book and art collectors, beginning in the early 1900s. In 1919, he signed over the property in and its contents to a non-profit trust creating the current establishment.

The 120 acres of land are beautifully landscaped into themed gardens. The camellia garden was our first stop.
These camellia bushes are enormous and so pretty.

The Shakespeare Garden

The Rose Garden is supposedly quite pretty in the spring and summer, but this time of year the rose bushes are cut back for the winter. We walked through anyways, and this magnolia tree at the start of the garden rocked my world.
The Huntington is very well-known for its Japanese gardens, but they are closed right now due to renovation. We did visit the Chinese gardens which were still very nice.

Our main reason for visiting was the Sam Maloof exhibit – The House That Sam Built is part of Pacific Standard Time, a collaborative project organized by the Getty.

Sam Maloof was an influential woodworker in the mid 1900s. His work helped lead the way in the California modern arts movement.

A string chair!
A double music stand and chair created for Jan Hlinka, an LA Philharmonic violist.

A view of some of the grounds from the exhibit hall.

We spent at least another two hours wandering around the Huntington’s home and a few more of the gardens. Since I was only armed with my iPhone, the battery died very quickly. I had to stop taking pictures for the rest of the day.

I enjoyed my first visit to the Huntington. It was a great day. Although, we probably didn’t get to see half of it. There is so much to do and see. We’ll have to go back in the spring when the rose garden is in bloom, and I want to be sure to spend some time in the library which houses rare books, manuscripts, maps, and other British and American history and literature materials – I’m sure that will be a day’s visit all in itself.

The End is Here

2012-01-22T23:02:00.000-08:00

As nice as a month long vacation is, it is brutal when it’s over. I’ve gotten so used to staying up LATE and sleeping in and basically not having a job and playing all day. What a shock to my system 5:30 tomorrow morning is going to be! I spent the day sulking and trying to make my remaining few hours of vacation last as long as possible. It didn’t work. It’s already my work bedtime. I don’t like work bedtime. Vacation bedtime is so much more fun. But there is good news…Only 48 more days until spring break!

Before turning in for the night, I’ll leave you with this video. The song, which is a favorite of mine, has been out for a year or more, but I just happened upon the video today. It makes me smile…

So I Had a Little Emergency…

2012-01-20T00:11:00.001-08:00

It was late last night when I decided to head to bed. Before doing so, I let the dog out so she was set for the night. Since she’s a nut and can not help but drag dirt and grass through the house, I stop her at the back door and wipe off her paws before letting her come inside. While standing in the doorway with a towel, her wiggly butt somehow maneuvered it’s way to the door pushing it over the top of my foot. At least I think that’s what happened as the tremendous amount of pain and spurting blood may have affected my memory a little bit.

The metal weathering material under the door somehow sliced my big toe/nail in half. Yah, that’s right, in half! After the initial shock of what happened, I screamed bloody murder and hurled myself to the ground. It was so painful. It was also the middle of the night, too late to go to the doctor. Thankfully, I didn’t die right there on the dining room floor, so I managed to wrap up my toe and clean up the puddle of blood that had formed under my foot. I didn’t sleep much so was able to get up early this morning and get in to see the doctor.

What a miserable morning! Three shots in the toe to numb it and half my toenail removed. Ick! But luckily, no stitches! Other than some twinges of pain, I feel much better albeit the giant wrap on my toe that has made it triple its size – only to fit in flip flops or slippers. I guess it could have been worse, but sheesh, what a night!

Hopefully, I’ll be able to wear real shoes by the time the first day back to school on Monday.

Tasty Tuesday (At least it was still Tuesday when I began writing this post)

2012-01-18T00:05:00.000-08:00

Tonight I had some friends over for dinner. It was a super casual night, but the food was really good. Let me share the best parts of the menu with you…

To start, I made Pulled Pork. I have posted this recipe before. It is delicious. I must restate that there are a ton of ingredients, but don’t let that scare you away. Really, most of them are spices that we all have in our pantry. As usual, it was a hit!

Next was a “winter” salad. I took some ideas from two winter salad recipes I found online and made up this one…
Roasted Tomato Salad
Ingredients
10 ounces (about 1 pint) cherry tomatoes (or substitute grape tomatoes)
6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil – split
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar – split
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
1 stem fresh rosemary, or dried rosemary will work
¾ head of red leaf lettuce, washed and torn
¾ head of green leaf lettuce, washed and torn
1/2 cup pecans, toasted
Shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano, for serving

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Place tomatoes on a rimmed baking sheet. Add 2 tablespoons oil, 1 tablespoon vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and the rosemary (if using dried – sprinkle on the tray, not on the tomatoes, after tosssing), and toss.

3. Roast until tomatoes are soft and beginning to collapse, 20 to 25 minutes.

This was my favorite part!

4. Transfer 4 tomatoes to a cutting board. Gently crush those 4 tomatoes. Separate skins from pulp and discard skins and rosemary. Save remaining tomatoes for later.
5. Scrape tomato pulp and liquid into a bowl. Add remaining 2 tablespoons vinegar. Add remaining 1/4 cup oil in a slow, steady stream, whisking until emulsified. Season with salt and pepper.
6. Combine lettuce, and pecans in a large bowl. Toss with 1/4 cup of the tomato vinaigrette. Top with reserved tomatoes and cheese. Drizzle with remaining dressing. Serve immediately.

I had to do the last part right before serving, so didn’t get a photo of the finished dish, darn it! But trust me, it looked and tasted wonderful.

Lastly, I found these amazing Salted Caramel Butter Bars on Pinterest this week and just had to make them for dessert. Knowing that they are made with shortbread dough, I was a little apprehensive, thinking they would be difficult. They were not. The recipe is very easy.

And they are TO DIE FOR! In fact, I’m bringing the leftovers when I go work at school tomorrow because I do not trust myself left alone with their salty-sweet goodness.

A Winter Movie Post

2012-01-16T01:34:00.001-08:00

Tonight the Golden Globes were presented in Hollywood to honor 2011’s film and television. Watching the award’s show isn’t really a priority for me. I like knowing who or what received the honors but I don’t like all the extra entertainment that makes the ceremony 3-4 hours long. Sometimes, if I’m very interested, I’ll record the show and fast forward all the extras. This year however, I didn’t have much of an interest. Many of the movies nominated weren’t shown in more than a theatre or two in Los Angeles before being nominated. It seems odd that they can be nominated even if no one has really seen them.

Since my winter break lasts a month, I’ve been to quite a few movies. I love going to the movies when I’m on vacation. Unfortunately, since my breaks coincide with kid breaks, about half the movies out while I’m on vacation are kids’ movies. I did manage to catch some good flicks…

J.Edgar – Leonardo DiCaprio was outstanding as Hoover. I can’t say it was a great movie because Hoover was such a sad, angry little man which was depressing, but it was very interesting and very well done.

New Year’s Eve – I must admit, I had no desire to see this movie. Some friends and I went to see “Valentine’s Day” a couple of years back and it was awful. NY’sE seemed like a very similar, ensemble-cast romantic comedy. I was finessed into seeing it, convinced I wouldn’t like it. But actually, it was kind of cute. Not an award winner, but it did entertain me for the two hours.

My Week with Marilyn – The story of Marilyn Monroe’s 1950’s trip to London. The movie was well done, and I thought Michelle Williams did a great job playing Monroe. It was a nice movie and not too long or drawn out.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy – Since my alter ego is an international spy, I liked this movie a lot. It is based on author John le Carré’s George Smiley books. It takes place in London during the Cold War where Smiley is tasked with finding a double agent in MI6. It’s slow moving, and you must pay very close attention because there are a lot of characters and flashbacks. I found it fascinating.

We Bought a Zoo – Based on a true story, a widower decides to move his family to the country and buy a dilapidated animal park. Matt Damon makes my heart go pitter patter, so I would have liked this movie no matter what. However, it was a very nice movie. The little girl who played his daughter is adorable and the animals are the stars of the movie. I’m a crier at anything sentimental so I cried during the entire last half of the movie. It would make for a really good family movie night.

War Horse – WOW! This movie was incredible. Based on the Broadway play which is based on the book, Steven Spielberg directed this movie about a boy and his horse. It is epic! The movie spans the time of the birth of the “war horse” to the end of World War I. The horse is amazing, and the boy trains him to be even more amazing. The horse is then shipped off to war where he continues to be amazing throughout the war. Being a horse lover, I cried like a hundred times during the movie. If you are an animal lover, bring a tissue. I’ve heard the reviews say that it is very gory, but I thought the war scenes were quite tasteful. The gore is implied more than shown…in my opinion. GO SEE IT!

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – I read and LOVED the Stieg Larsson trilogy which begins with TGWTDT. The trilogy was so freaking exciting that it has basically ruined every other book I’ve read since – I can’t seem to get that adrenaline feeling back that I had reading those three books. So this movie was highly anticipated. I saw all three of the Swedish films, and they were so well done and so true to the books. I was a little weary of “Hollywood” remaking it as they always seem to mess up the great books, changing details that shouldn’t be changed. Alas, this version was also quite true to the book. There were a few minor changes or things left out, but that is forgivable. Journalist Mikael Bloomkvist (Daniel Craig) and quirky P.I. Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara) solve the “murder” of Harriet Vangar. The cinematography is gorgeous and haunting. I went home and ordered the three books from the library again, feeling the need to read them again. So good!

Joyful Noise – Ehhh, this was the only movie I’ve seen so far this winter that I didn’t thoroughly enjoy. I probably wouldn’t have seen it, but my mom was in town and wanted to go. Dolly Parton and Queen Latifa play a pair of church choir singers. The movie and the music are pretty churchy, but it was well sung. If you’ve seen the preview, you’ve basically seen the movie. I do need to mention that I did cry at the end of this one too, but that’s just because I’m a big baby, not because it was emotionally riveting.

Descendents – Again, because it stars George Clooney, I’d probably have liked Descendents regardless. Based on Kaui Hart Hemmings' book of the same name, a work-a-holic father must begin parenting his two daughters after his wife is involved in a very bad boating accident. Hawaii is a main character in this movie as the family visits three of the islands for various reasons. It wasn’t a fast paced movie, but it was very real – issues that real families face. I saw this movie twice -once with friends and once when my mom came into town as, ironically, it WASN’T playing in Hawaii. I think this is a tear jerker for most, but after the death of my dad in Hawaii and the spreading of his ashes in the ocean on an outrigger, this movie hit very close to home. I was a mess…both times! While writing this, George Clooney received the Golden Globe for this movie. He did a good job, but I think Leo should have won. Sorry George.

Shame – Actor Michael Fassbender plays a sex addict. His sister (Carrie Mulligan) is messed up in other ways. It’s basically artsy porn, which is fine. I’m just thankful I didn’t take my mom to see that one.

With one week left of vacation, there are three movies that I still want to see…
Contraband – with Marky-Mark Wahlberg
Haywire – Another spy movie
Iron Lady – Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher

Did you take in any movies this winter?

Disheartened (or the post where I don’t like jerks)

2012-01-11T23:47:00.001-08:00

Shortly after beginning winter break, I received a message from one of my colleagues who had gone to our school. There had been some vandalism on campus which included the trash cans having been set on fire.
Our school is located in a neighborhood where the majority of the families are low income. There may or may not be a correlation, but this is not the first time we’ve been vandalized. In fact, upon hearing this news, I was relieved that it hadn’t been more destructive. No one’s classroom had been broken into.

That was until yesterday. I received an email yesterday from our Assistant Principal that another colleague’s classroom had been broken into, and her laptop and built-in projector had been stolen. The AP suspected that the corner classrooms were the target because of their limited view.
Being one of those classrooms, the technology in my room was removed and locked up.

This second incident in two weeks has irritated the hell out of me. It’s so frustrating that someone thought it was ok to vandalize – anything really – but a school of all things. Whether the person who did it was a student or not, it makes me angry that human beings are such jerks! We are supposed to be an advanced species, but we are the only ones who stoop so low and act like jerks. I know there is probably some sociological reason for vandalism and other a-hole behavior, but I don’t really care about that today. I don’t have tolerance for that behavior or the reason behind it. We’ve all had bad things happen to us, but we aren’t all jerks. It’s so disheartening when a place that you and your colleagues work so hard to keep nice for the kids and the community is treated so poorly. Grrr!

Tasty Tuesday

2012-01-10T05:00:00.000-08:00

This past weekend I had some friends over for dinner and made these super yummy, super easy brownies for dessert. I saw them on pinterest, but the link associated with it is a pot website – no they are not magic brownies! Although I guess you could make them as such.
So I came up with the ingredients based on the picture I saw.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Brownies
Ingredients
1 box brownie mix – I used Ghirardelli Triple Chocolate
1 set of brownie mix ingredients – i.e. egg, water, oil, etc. Check package for exact.
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup peanut butter chips
1/4 cup chocolate chips – I used dark chocolate

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare a 12 cup muffin/cupcake pan (or two 6 cup pans) with cooking spray.
2. Prepare brownie mix as directed on package. Evenly distribute mixture into cupcake pan. Fill each cup about halfway.
3. Bake brownies in preheated oven for about 15 minutes. Oven times vary, so use a toothpick to check – slightly wet means they’re done.
4. While cooling, tap on the middles of each brownie to make them sink.

5. Heat peanut butter in the microwave for about 40 seconds, or until melted.
6. Spoon peanut butter into the sunken centers of each still warm brownie.

7. Sprinkle peanut butter and chocolate chips over the tops.
8. Let cool completely before removing from pan.
I was a little worried about getting them out of the pan. I ran a knife around the edge of each cup and they popped right out. Made 12 brownies.

They were really very good. Writing this post made me hungry for one. Too bad I sent the leftovers home with my guests.

The Witching Hour

2012-01-08T02:57:00.001-08:00

When I’m working, the most exhausting time of day for me is the first hour or so after getting home from work. Depending on the day, it could be as early as 4 or as late at 6. Upon arriving home, Rigby sits at the back door trembling with excitement, barely able to contain her happiness that I am home. Making her wait until the door opens all the way is about all she can handle so when I tell her she can come inside she flies through the house, slipping and sliding on the hard floors, knocking over furniture and flinging dirt from those crazy feet. For the next couple hours, she is a complete and utter nightmare. While I’ve spent the day working my butt off, she’s spent the day sniffing around the backyard, sleeping, and basically building up energy. Therefore, when I am least interested in playing and entertaining her is when she needs it the most. As much as I just want to sit on the couch, we HAVE to go for a long walk in order to survive the evening.

Being on vacation, I’ve been really good about taking Rigby out for a long walk in the morning when we get up. When I’m home, she spends most of the day inside with me, and I often throw the toys around for her to play with. What I’m basically saying is that she’s been getting a lot of exercise throughout the day since I’ve been on break. That doesn’t seem to have curbed the late afternoon craziness. Starting about 4PM, this dog is nuts, and it last a couple of hours. She’s been so rotten. “Miss Thang” has chewed up a pair of shoes, dragged the kitchen towels around the house, and dug through the trash.
She tore a loaf of bread out of it’s package and ate it and ripped up a kitchen sponge. Just today, I frustratingly said, “I’ve kept you busy all day! Why are you acting like this?” But she was too busy pulling the kitchen rug through the living room to hear me.
Once it’s after 6:00, she is such a mellow, well-behaved dog. Those two hours of the day are going to be the death of me. I’m hoping that she’ll grow out of this “phase” once she turns two. I think that is next month, so fingers crossed.

Guilty of Another Cardinal Sin

2012-01-03T00:08:00.001-08:00

A few months back, I wrote about my bout with gluttony. After getting that one under control, I’ve been on the straight and narrow. That was until today when I jumped into the sloth pool.

Winter vacation started a week ago. Between family in town, Christmas, traveling, and other general busyness, I didn’t feel like I was on vacation one bit. Then two days ago, I came down with a brutal head cold. Casino air/smoke and a cold don’t mix well. I came home yesterday, took a giant swig of Nyquil, and slept.

And slept. My alarm was set this morning for 8 am because I had people coming to do some work on my house. When the alarm went off, I sleepily checked my phone and had a text saying they weren’t coming until tomorrow. That was the beginning of the end for me. The bed called me back, and I went, still in a Nyquil coma.

The remainder of the day was spent either in bed or on the couch with my new favorite thing (a gift from a student). I had many plans for the day that included errands and around-the-house projects. I also had every intention of getting up and doing those things even with the canceled appointment. Alas, not one thing was accomplished unless you count stuffing Kleenex up my nose and feeding the dog - which did require getting out of bed/off the couch, so I will count that one. Oh, and I also caught up on the final three episodes of Boardwalk Empire, finally! And all I have to say about that was, “OMG!”

This laziness is so out of character for me. Even if I’m just hanging at home I’m still doing something. I never just watch tv or sleep during the day. Today I did both. I even multitasked that a few times. However, I think it did me some good. My sinus headache has retreated, and my leaky faucet of a nose has turned off for the time being. Tomorrow is a new day with people coming over and errands to run, plus lunch and a movie with some friends. I think with another several hours of sleep, I can do it!

A Year In Review

2012-01-01T22:05:00.001-08:00

It’s the beginning of 2012, which brings the 2011 Calendar Challenge (from The Kathryn Wheel) to a close.

As I’m sure is the case with everyone, December was extremely busy. This “Christmas Ribbon” gave me more room to write than I’ve had with the squares. Since I always have so much to say, I liked that!

With only two pages left in this year’s art journal, I was able to do a little journaling.

The journal is complete. Even though I had a love/hate relationship with the paper in this premade journal, I really like the way the paper looks crinkled and grungy.
Here are all the calendar pages for 2011.

I enjoyed this challenge. Looking forward to starting over for 2012. Happy New Year!

A Little New Year’s Trip

2011-12-31T06:00:00.000-08:00

We headed to “Sin City” yesterday to celebrate the New Year. My aunt has a condo just outside of town where she stays a few months in the winter. So a large group of my family were invited for a visit.

Considering it can seem to take days just getting out of LA County, it’s just about a 4 hour drive into Nevada. A lot of people think the drive is ugly, but I rather like it. The desert is quite bare and brown this time of year, but the mountains are a sight.

Each range we passed was so different than the previous. Some are so rocky, some are rounded, some are light in colors while others are dark.

The desert is always a good bet for sunsets.

I am a sucker for a good sunset, and the mountains turn purple. Beautiful

Since we are not staying at a hotel/casino, our time gambling is limited. That’s fine by me. I love to play the games and chat with the dealers, but I can’t stand losing my hard-earned money. When I do play, I’m frugal. So when we went out last night, I was expecting to play for about an hour; figuring I wouldn’t last more than that. How exciting it was then to have out-played everyone else at craps and then black jack, tripling my winnings!

After all was said and done, I came home with two of these bad boys and some change. Now I have to decide, do I end 2011 richer or keep playing since it’s not my money anyways…we shall see!

Happy New Years! I hope 2012 is happy for everyone!

Happy! Merry!

2011-12-23T05:27:00.000-08:00

This is about all I could muster up for a blog post on the night of the last day of school. Hopefully, these can bring a few laughs to those of us who are still ~~stressed about~~ preparing for the holidays…

Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah!
Happy New Year!
Enjoy!

Random Thoughts

2011-12-15T23:57:00.001-08:00

Tonight was my book club’s monthly meeting/holiday party. We had a great time gossiping, eating, drinking, and exchanging our favorite kitchen utensil gifts. Oh, and we talked about the book for about 5 minutes. After everyone left, every fiber of my being wanted to just go to bed and leave the clean up for the next day. But really, waking up to a messy kitchen from the night before is the worst. I sucked it up, cleaned the kitchen, dining room, and living room. It felt like the dishes multiplied, but alas it’s finished, and I can wake up to a fresh start.
There is one more week left before winter break. If this past week was any sign, I foresee this next week to be just about the slowest week of my life. Ugh. The kids are pretty high, and I’m pretty tired. I hope I make it.
Last weekend, I did a little Christmas shopping and have come to the realization that I am the worst Christmas shopper in the whole world. I left the house with a list of items to purchase and only came back with half of them…because I forgot to buy the other half. I drove right past a couple of stores on my list and couldn’t remember to stop there. I did, however, come home other things that were not on my list, for me!
Also, I wrote my Christmas cards over Thanksgiving. Since then, I have gone to the store three times with stamps on my list and all three times walked out of the store without them. At this point, it will be a Christmas miracle if I can get those cards sent out before New Years.
Our temperatures the last couple of weeks have been cool. As a matter of fact they have been quite a bit lower than our normal. I am loving every minute of it. It actually feels like (almost) winter! There are two things about it that I don’t care for though…First, washing my hands at school. I wash my hands almost a million times a day because of those germy, touchy 2nd graders. Most of the water faucets at school don’t have hot water. With these cooler temps, that water is COLD. When I started this point, I had two things to share, but it’s past my bedtime, and I can’t remember the second thing. If I remember, I’ll add it.
Happy Friday!

Smelling Smoke

2011-12-12T00:03:00.001-08:00

I went out with some friends this weekend, and one of them is a smoker. This person wishes they were not, but is, so needed a cig break a time or two during the evening. I woke up the next morning and smelled like smoke. My hair was smoky, and the clothes from that night made the laundry hamper stinky.

Smoking in Los Angeles is pretty much prohibited everywhere other than your own home. As I’m not a smoker, it hasn’t disrupted me at all, and in fact has made going out to dinner and bars more pleasant. I know so few people who smoke these days. Because of that, when I am around it, it’s quite apparent.

What’s funny, is that growing up I was around smokers ALL THE TIME. My dad smoked, my grandparents smoked, my cousins smoked, and so much of the general public smoked. The smoke smell was just a part of my life. I’d have friends comment about smelling smoke on people or places. Up until the last ten or 15 years, I had no idea what they were talking about. Now that, due to health reasons or laws, less people smoke and there are fewer places to smoke, I know what clean air smells like. I am also quite aware when I am around smoking now.

It’s so rare nowadays to have students come to school smelling like smoke, but when one does they are easy to identify. I used to be that kid. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one back in the day, but I was still that kid who came to school emitting smoke fumes. Our house, car, clothes, hair, everything was smoky. The food we ate tasted like smoke. I also had terrible allergies and asthma growing up in a smoker’s home.

Even though I do not look down upon anyone who is a smoker (I’ve seen my fair share of successful and failed attempts to quit smoking and know it’s terribly hard to quit), it is rather nice to not smell that way anymore. The smoky smell brings back a lot of childhood memories (both good and bad), but it also reminds me that I’m glad I breath relatively clean air most of the time.

Creating for Pay?

2011-12-08T23:42:00.001-08:00

Over the last month, I’ve become increasingly addicted to Pinterest. It’s silly really, but there are so many good art/craft/recipe/home/style ideas it’s not even funny. However, I think what has taken up most of my time has been the school/lesson ideas. I’ve been teaching second grade for ~~a million~~ eleven years and have been looking for some fresh inspiration. Pinterest has it, and since creating an account I’ve spent so much time online looking for great ideas.

Through my searches, I stumbled upon some lesson and activity sites that host teachers who create materials and want to sell them. This floored me a bit. I’m not sure why, since people sell everything these days, but seeing teachers selling ideas seems so strange for some reason.

The teaching profession has always been about sharing ideas. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve handed a colleague a lesson and said, “FYI, I tried this with my kids, and it went well, feel free to use it.”. In fact, just today I receive an envelope from my district writing partner that included some materials she wanted to share, while at the same time I also emailed off about six lessons to other 2nd grade teams in town. Since teaching is about the kids, and not about who created what, it doesn’t matter where it came from…if it’s good, shouldn’t all kids have access to it?

It also might irritate me a bit that some of the things I saw on the websites were materials that I have given away at presentations, for free. Sure, I’m probably not the only one who had those ideas, but posting activity instructions that are identical, word-for-word, to the ones I created and gave out doesn’t seem quite ethical. Actually, I could care less about them being posted, or even shared as someone else’s ideas, but making money off of someone else’s ideas isn’t right.

Or maybe I’m just bitter that the thousands of files I have saved on my computers at home and school haven’t made me any money. Perhaps I should get on that…

December Is Here

2011-12-03T16:13:00.001-08:00

It’s amazing that it’s December already. It doesn’t feel like it’s almost Christmas, but at least the weather has cooled and the 80+ mph winds are making it feel like winter. The Christmas tree went up last night.
It’s the first tree since adopting the puppy, so we shall see if anything is still standing by Christmas…so far so good.

Since November is over, it’s time to share the monthly calendar for the Calendar Challenge at The Kathryn Wheel. I saw this color palette in a magazine a few months ago, and it reminded me of fall, so I used it for November.

I had hoped to spend my week long Thanksgiving holiday working in my journal, but most of the time was spent on my Christmas cards.
It was worth it though as the cards are made, written in, and addressed – just need to buy the stamps.

I’ve been playing around with some bookmaking. There are just two pages left in this year’s journal, and I am on the hunt for a new one. I’ve been disappointed in the paper that was in the last few, so I thought, “Why not make my own.” It’s been kind of fun to be making books, and I foresee several MORE blank books lying around my house in the near future.
The little one was the easiest, as it was just one signature with a really simple stitch.
But with only one signature, I can’t add too much paper to it. That will bother me.

The larger one was more work…
There are four signatures that needed to be measured and punched.
Then sewn together with linen thread The signatures were smothered with bookbinding glue and clamped to set the binding before the bookboards were wrapped in masa paper that I had watercolored and bounded with gaffer’s tape. Other than a few crooked folds, I really like how it turned out AND it has my favorite paper inside it. The next one will be better.I like the way they both turned out, but I will most likely use the larger one to start 2012.

I also played with some collage this past weekend, just for fun.

2011 had its shares of ups and downs, but now that it’s just about over, I wonder how it got by me so quickly. However, looking forward to seeing what 2012 has in store.

Five Things

2011-11-30T23:40:00.001-08:00

I haven’t done a meme like this in quite awhile. I like them as I don’t have to think of a topic, and since it’s a Writer’s Workshop prompt…I’ll do it! Maybe I’ll expand upon one or two in future posts.

Five Things You (Might Not) Know About Me…
1. I am fascinated with the mafia. I know organized crime is very bad, but I find it all very exciting. I can’t be the only girl who fantasizes about being married to the mob…can I?
2. I don’t like to watch other people fold paper. Seeing them run their fingers over the fold, making a crease, sends chills up my spine.
3. I have extremely high expectations of people and how they respond to situations. When someone doesn’t live up to those (however irrational) expectations I take it as a personal affront. It’s not fair of me, but I do it anyways.
4. I never received an “F” during the duration of my schooling until the last semester of my senior year of college. I FINALLY turned 21 and had to register for a lecture-based computer class that started at 8:00 in the morning. Once old enough to go to the bars, I spent most nights going out that year. Needless to say, getting up for an 8:00 class didn’t happen. The easy “A” turned into a FAIL due to attendance. I was so stupid, but I had so much fun.
5. There is a gun in my house, but it’s hidden in a closet because it scares me too much to even look at it.

Five Things I Know …
1. The book is usually WAY better than the movie.
2. I know all the words to Bad Bad Leroy Brown by Jim Croce. I can sing it for you right now…just ask.
3. Ice hockey rules – yes, even icing.
4. Reading a map is quite easy for me, and I actually enjoy using a map to figure out where to go.
5. Growing up riding horses I have a wealth of knowledge about them. Facts about their anatomy, their care, equipment use, etc. have taken up permanent residence in my head. As a kid I even won awards for this knowledge.

Five Things I Don’t Know
1. How to take a compliment – Compliments embarrass the hell out me. It doesn’t matter if they are superficial or genuine. If you want to see me turn bright red, say something nice to me.
2. How to say “no”. Even if I don’t want to do it, I will because I feel bad saying “NO”.
3. How to play an instrument. - I LOVE music but do not have a musical bone in my body. Music is a foreign language that I’ve never been able to grasp. I admire musically inclined people.
4. How to pack – I worry that I’m not going to have what I need that I always over pack.
5. How to garden – I so envy people who have green thumbs. Mine is brown, just like my plants.

Five Things I Believe
1. Credit card bills should be paid in full every month.
2. Laughter is the best medicine.
3. If you want something, you have to work for it. For most of us, it doesn’t just fall in our lap.
4. It’s better to be single than in a mentally or physically abusive relationship.
5. Believing in god isn’t synonymous with being a good person, just as being a non-believer is not synonymous with being a bad person.

Tasty Tuesday

2011-11-29T04:32:00.000-08:00

I found this recipe on Annie’s Eats who adapted it from a Martha Stewart recipe. I’ve never had a savory cobbler before. Anything with cooked tomatoes is a winner for me, and this was a winner!

Tomato Cobbler with Gruyere Biscuits
Ingredients
Filling:
2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp. unsalted butter
2 medium yellow onions, thinly sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. fresh thyme
3 lbs. cherry or grape tomatoes
3 tbsp. all-purpose flour
¼ tsp. red pepper flakes
1½ tsp. coarse salt
Pinch of black pepper

Biscuit topping:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
8 tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 cup grated gruyere cheese, plus extra for sprinkling
1½ cups heavy cream

Directions:
1. To prepare the filling, combine the oil and butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until cooked down and caramelized, about 20-25 minutes. Stir in the garlic and thyme and cook until fragrant, 1-2 minutes more. Remove from the heat and let cool.
2. Preheat the oven to 375˚ F.
3. In a large bowl, combine the onion mixture, tomatoes, flour, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper.
4. To make the biscuit topping, combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender or two knives until the mixture is crumbly and small clumps form. Mix in the cheese. Stir in the cream with a fork until a sticky dough forms and the dry ingredients are incorporated.
5. Transfer the tomato mixture to a 9 x 13-inch baking dish. Sprinkle the biscuit dough evenly over the tomatoes. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese over the top if desired.
6. Bake until the tomatoes are bubbly and the biscuit topping is golden brown, about 1 hour.
7. Let is set for 10-15 minutes before serving.
A couple of notes…
- I halved the recipe and used a square baking dish because there were just two of us eating.
- It made a great main dish with a salad, but would also be nice as a side dish.
- The time change has made dinner time very dark and there for my photos are kind of blown out. My trusty iphone takes great photos, but not in artificial light.

“Injured”

2011-11-27T00:40:00.001-08:00

As my week’s vacation is quickly coming to an end, I have a lot to post about, but no desire to do so at this time. So instead, a quick post about Rigby.

Rigby, who is crazy, cracked a claw a week or so ago while acting, well, crazy. I noticed that it was beginning to bother her, so I took her to the vet on my first day off. Thank goodness it wasn’t anything too worrisome. The vet had to trim the claw pretty far back and therefore wrapped Rigby’s foot to keep it from bleeding. Because it was pouring rain that day, the foot was also wrapped in plastic to stay dry. From the minute she was brought back out to me, Rigby wouldn’t leave her newly wrapped foot alone. In order to keep her from chewing off the plastic and the bandage, Rigby was fitted with an E Collar, otherwise known as “The Cone Of Shame”.

With the E Collar, Rigby acted as if I had actually cut off her entire foot. She barely moved, and if she did she’d walk a step, stop, lift her foot up, and look pathetic.

Because her nose is so long, she had to wear a larger cone which was really too big for the rest of her. She didn’t have an understanding that she was wider with this collar, so ran into the doors and wall corners. When she walked up the stairs, she’d drop her head because it was heavy, and then get stuck on the stairs. About half way up, I’d have to hold the cone up so we could finish our ascent.

On the second day, she became even more pathetic, and whenever I sat down, she climbed into my lap, cone and all.
I tried to catch up on 2 months worth of Boardwalk Empire and ended up watching just one episode through her plastic cone.

Finally, on day three, she AND I got sick of the cone. I had sent her outside for her morning '”business”. It was raining and muddy. Rigby walked out to the middle of the grass and then just stood, lifting her paw. I went out in the rain to persuade her to finish up. She continued to stand on three legs. So right there, in the middle of the grass, in the rain, I tore off the plastic and the wrap, and took off the stupid hat. That’s all she needed, she bounced right back to being nuts.

I’ll have to hold onto that E collar for when I need a break from the crazy.

Tasty Tuesday – The Nekked Burrito

2011-11-22T06:11:00.000-08:00

Some of the fresh Mex restaurants have been touting the low carb version of the burrito aka the Naked Burrito…all the burrito goodies without the tortilla. Here’s my version…

The Nekked Burrito
Makes approx. 4 bowls
Ingredients
2 boneless/skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces. (I seasoned mine with this and cooked on the grill.)
1 15oz can black or pinto (I prefer black, but forgot to buy them at the store so used the pintos in my cupboard.)
1 large tomato, chopped
1/2 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 cup white rice, cooked according to package
1 bunch cilantro
2 limes
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 cup Greek yogurt

Directions
For Beans
Add beans, chopped tomatoes, and half the onions to a saucepan. Bring to a boil, and then reduce heat. Cover and simmer while preparing rest of ingredients, at least 30 minutes.
For Rice
1. Cook rice according to packaged directions.
2. While rice is cooking, add 1/2 cup cilantro, 2 tablespoons lime juice, garlic, and olive oil to a food processor and blend until chopped.
3. When rice is cooked, add cilantro mixture while still hot and mix.

For Neeked Burrito
Layer 1/2 cup rice, 1/2 cup beans, 1/2 cup chicken, and 1-2 tablespoons of cheese in a bowl. I topped with 1-2 tablespoons Greek yogurt laced with lime zest (mix 1/2 cup yogurt with zest of one lime) and some cilantro sprigs.

Some Notes…
- I know there are some ~~weirdos~~ people who greatly dislike cilantro. I don’t get it because I add it by the handfuls to my Mexican food. But, if you leave it out of the rice, you’re good to go.
- After making this with pinto beans, I made it the following week with black beans. They were both very tasty.

But You’re the Parent!

2011-11-20T21:07:00.001-08:00

I contemplated writing on another topic this week, but that will have to wait. This past week, I attended some parent/teacher/assistant principal conferences with a few of my students. Every year, there are a handful of kids that are not where they need to be academically and are at risk of being retained if they don’t progress enough by the end of the year. By law, we have to notify the parents of this in a formal conference (in addition to our regular parent/teacher conferences) at each trimester, before the final decision is made. Luckily, this year’s kids are pretty close to where they need to be, and the conferences I had were more of a wake up call to both the parents and kids of what they need to do to end the year as readers. All of these conferences were reminders that reading will only get better with practice, and that practice can’t just be at school. Also, some of the kids needed to be told that if they did not put forth their best effort at school, they would not be moving on with their class to 3rd grade. The majority of the parents are concerned and promise they will do what they can at home.

One conference was a bit different though. J, who is one of my best behaved students, is at risk this year. She has all the foundational phonics skills she needs for decoding new words, but her reading fluency is limited which means her reading is very slow because she’s sounding everything out. What she needs is PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE. When we told this to the parents, who had a two year old and a new born in tow, they showed concern and agreed with everything we said. But then the mom, who is maybe 25, told us that she tells J to practice reading at home, but J refuses. “She refuses?” the AP and I asked. Yes, she refuses and tells her mom “no”. Both the AP and I looked at J and told her that if her mom tells her to practice, she needs to practice to get better. Then I remembered that I met with Dad earlier in the year, and he told me the same thing. At that conference, the dad brought J with him and wanted me to tell her to listen to her mom. I did, J smiled and nodded, and continued being a good citizen in class. Well, in the midst of the conference, we find out that J doesn’t listen to her mom about homework, chores, or helping with her brother and sisters either. She also gets mad when she’s told that she can’t go play until her homework is done and storms out of the house to go play anyways. Both our mouths dropped. We told J how appalled we were in hearing that, and that if she wanted to go to 3rd grade she’d better get it together and start listening to her mom. This was so shocking to me. I’ve had parents of poorly behaved students in my class tell me that their child doesn’t listen to them at home, but never one of my best behaved students. This little girl is such a good citizen at school, I would never have guessed this was going on at home.

Every time I’m told, “He/she just doesn’t listen to me,” at a parent meeting, it irritates me. I’m no parent, but I think as the adult, the parent is the one who is supposed to be in charge! But for some that’s hard to do, especially when there are no consequences for not listening. Some kids are, by nature, good listeners, but for others they need some type of motivation whether it be a positive reward or negative consequence. That may mean that the video games are taken away, or the tv is taken out of his/her bedroom, or you fly out the door after her and bring her back by her ear.

From personal experience, I know that having some sense of fear about breaking the rules was really all I needed to be fairly well behaved. I knew, up front, that if my behavior was not up to par I’d be punished. That could range from being grounded or spanked when I was little to losing the horse or not being allowed to drive the car when I was a teenager. Some of these kids think they have the rights to all of these things, and as soon as that happens, of course the parents lose control. This little girl, at 7, already has the control. I’m nervous to think what she’ll be like as a teenager. Thank goodness I don’t teach teenagers!

Tasty Tuesday

2011-11-15T05:00:00.000-08:00

After a gluttonous few weeks I could not take another meal out and had to start cooking something other than PB&J sandwiches. I’ve gotten my kitchen mojo back, so have a few weeks worth of recipes to share. I think this one of the best…

Lemon Garlic Chicken Skewers
Ingredients:
3 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
Zest of 1 lemon
3 cloves garlic, pressed
1 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
salt and pepper to taste
2 boneless chicken breasts cut into 1 inch pieces
Directions:
1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the olive oil, lemon zest, garlic, parsley, salt and pepper.

2. Add the chicken pieces to the bowl and stir to coat the chicken with the marinade. 3. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
4. To prevent ~~starting a fire~~ burning the wood skewers, soak them in water for 20-30 minutes before use.
5. Heat grill to medium and lightly oil before cooking the chicken to keep from sticking.
6. Add the chicken to the skewers and place them on the grill, cover, and cook for about 8 minutes, turning once during cooking.
The chicken cooks quite quickly and evenly like this.

I served them with a tomato and cucumber salad dressed with balsamic vinegar, olives, and feta.

For leftovers, I mixed the chicken with the cucumber salad and served in a toasted pita. The chicken was just as light and tender the next day as it was hot off the grill.

I loved this recipe so much that I’ve already made it twice. So easy and yummy!

“The Noise-ies”

2011-11-10T22:54:00.001-08:00

Each year the students in my classroom have a "thing” that makes them stand out from other years’ students. Last year, they were naughty. The year before, they were immature and bouncy. The year before that, they were respectful, hardworking and very bright. This year…they are noisy. And I don’t mean noisy because they talk too much…they do, but that’s not what I mean. Really, the majority of their noise comes from learning, thinking, and mostly reading. Everything that goes in and out of their head also comes out of their mouth.

During math time,all the practice we do that involves counting also involves 24 second graders counting out loud with all their might. Each morning, they spend the first two minutes of the day practicing their addition and subtraction facts. If someone walked in during those two minutes, with all that purposeful counting, he or she would think I had completely lost ~~my mind~~ control of my class.

Reading is the noisiest time. If they are all reading something at the same time, the classroom sounds like a busy playground. In reading groups, where they surround me in a semi-circle, I am often blown into the wall behind me with the force of their words.

Second grade is such an important year for reading. It is when they (hopefully) move away from learning to read towards reading to learn. Every year, there are always a handful of kids who read out loud, as they are developmentally in a different place than the others and still need to hear themselves read. This is the first year where the entire class is in that place.

Let me tell you, that place is noisy. I run a pretty tight ship and excessive talking is not tolerated, unless it’s part of learning, and even then it must be kept to an “inside voice”. For the last month, we’ve been REALLY working on whispering when learning, or quietly mouthing the words they say with the hopes that they can start learning in their heads, rather than out of their mouths. However, it’s been slow going. If I forget to remind them to read or count or think “quietly”, they do not. This year, I’ve had to adjust my noise tolerance as they need the talking to learn.

But at least I know they ARE learning…I can hear them!

It’s Been Fall For Like 5 Minutes

2011-11-06T20:19:00.000-08:00

Summer in So. Cal. seems to be lasting longer and longer these days. We were still in the 90s (gasp) well into late October. In fact, it was 89 degrees and WINDY on Halloween. So the cold front that moved in yesterday, bringing a short storm along with it, was kind of nice.

my drive home from work Friday evening

I took Rigby out for a long walk after being cooped up all day.

The skies are particularly picturesque after a storm, plus everything seems so clean and fresh.

The strong wind (30-40 mph) knocked some pods off the magnolia trees.

A new toy?

Now we’re probably done with summer for awhile…fingers crossed!

A Current Pet Peeve (In 8)

2011-11-03T05:00:00.000-07:00

In a hurry, I followed behind (multiple) you(s) in the giant parking lot with little to no traffic.

You drove a bit past the parking space and then stopped.

Your car shimmied some as it reversed into the parking space.

A little too far to the left, so you pulled forward and backed in again, this time a little too far to the right.

During the third back in, I slipped behind you shaking my head and pulled (front first) into the parking spot a few spaces down.

After collecting my things, I locked the door and walked towards the entrance, passing you on the way.

You were still backing in your car, and I wondered why the f@$% you didn’t just park forward like a regular person.

Most of the time, it’s just easier to pull in and back out…it just is!

This post is in response to Mama Kat’s prompt, “Do a post in 8 lines.”

Ten Months Down, Two To Go (or There’s Only Four Pages Left in My Art Journal!)

2011-11-02T22:34:00.002-07:00

The problem with doing the Calendar Challenge over at The Kathryn Wheel is that I’ve counted down the months left in the year more than I think I would have done otherwise. I can’t believe we are two months away from 2012!

I’m not really happy with October’s calendar at all. I did not execute my initial vision for it very well, and then mucked it up by trying to doodle spider webs all over it. I didn’t spend the time on the doodles like I should have so they just look sloppy to me. AND, I completely forgot to leave room for the 30th and 31st…duh! Oh well, it is what it is.
I did work on a few other pages which I was more pleased with.

I cropped this some and then blurred out the text as it is a bit more personal than I’m willing to share in a post.

Since I’ve done some small traveling this past month, I also spent some time working in my Sketchbook Project sketchbook – Travel With Me. After my visit to the Brooklyn Art Library and seeing all the amazing books, I’m not doing justice to this project at all. But I’m still having fun with it.

This month I realized that, even though there are two months left, I am running out of room in my 2011 journal. My left brain tells me to just limit myself so when December 31 arrives, I can put that journal away and start fresh in a new one for January. At the same time, my right brain is stressing out because I have two vacations coming up before 2012 and will want to work in it during all that free time. That in turn is stressing my left brain out. Up until this year, I worked randomly in 2-3 journals, but I’ve really enjoyed working in one this year – having everything in one place. I will most likely sneak behind my left brain’s back and a start the 2012 journal early.

Happy November!

Photo App Recipes

2011-10-30T11:25:00.001-07:00

I’ve written before about my obsession with the photo apps on my iphone. And now Dave, over at Clearer Reflections, is hosting an online project for those who have this addiction. It is called Dave's Apps Recipe Book. It’s a chance for phone photo editors to share their work and the “recipe” they used to get there. Here are mine…

Having just returned from NYC, I’ve been playing around with those photos anyways.

I enjoyed shooting the carousel in Central Park. This is the original.

This is the edited version.
Horsey Recipe
Using the app 100 cameras in 1
- Photo was enlarged and cropped
- In the “madness” effects, “the light fell between the trees” was chosen – saved
- In the “zen” effects, “when I was dirty and you laughed” was chosen - saved
Using the app Pic Grunger
- Aged Effects was chosen (style – gig, strength - 60 percent, border – on)
- Saved

In Brooklyn, we passed by this amazing wall on the way to the Brooklyn Art Library.

This is the edited version.
The Graffiti Recipe
Using the app PS Express
- Image was cropped to remove shadows
- In effects, “vibrant” was chosen
Using the app Pixloromatic
- In effects (light bulb) “bocea” was chosen – saved
- In the effects (light bulb) “worn” was chosen
- In border “dirt” was chosen
- saved

Wow! Now a good excuse to spend a couple of hours on a Sunday morning screwing around with photo apps. Woot! Woot!

Another Day (Or Two) Running Through NYC

2011-10-29T00:43:00.001-07:00

After sleeping in, we got a little bit later start on the second day in New York. We weren’t quite as manic as the first day, but we did venture into every corner of the city…
A quick ride into Manhattan

and then a walk to Central Park
It was a beautiful day!

I especially enjoyed the carousel.

I love beautiful skies… and to laugh!

Bethesda Terrace (1863 – that’s old for us!)

Fun!

After a quick bite of lunch, we took the subway into Brooklyn to visit the Brooklyn Art Library. I’ve been wanting to visit this storefront for the last couple of years, since signing up to participate in the Sketchbook Project.

Rows and rows of filled sketch books…I was in heaven. We signed up for a library card and spent about 2 hours at the reading table checking out more and more books.
They are all amazing!

We finally had to pull ourselves away and head towards Union Square for dinner at Max Brenner, …a chocolate restaurant!
My college roommate Rachel lives in New Jersey now. She met us at the restaurant for a quick visit.

After dinner, Rach and I shared an ice cream sundae with chocolate and peanut butter sauce.

And Jill and Tracey ordered this chocolate fondue party! Being a chocolate lover, Jill was in heaven!

We rolled out of Max Brenner and made our way to the PIT (Peoples Improv Theater) for a show. Tracey has some friends who perform there regularly.

After the show we were off to more shopping in Time Square and then to bed. It was another productive day!

On Sunday, both Jill and I had a later flight home, so had a few hours which we made the most of…
The Museum of the Moving Image currently has a Jim Henson exhibit.

Sesame Street and the Muppets were such a big part of my childhood, seeing all of Henson’s hand drawn designs and reading stories about his creative process was so interesting. The exhibit was very well done.

After playing around in the other exhibits, it was time for a late lunch and some last minute visiting before heading to the airport.

It was a whirlwind trip, but well worth it.

The Big Apple

2011-10-27T05:00:00.000-07:00

Some friends and I met up in New York City for the weekend. New York has never been my favorite city to visit. I’ve been a few other times to see friends who live there, and I find it rather claustrophobic and so crowded. However, I had a plane ticket that needed to be rebooked in the next 6 months, some friends in the city, and another friend in Virginia who was willing to fly there as well…the weekend was booked and highly anticipated.

I made the mistake of not packing my real camera because I didn’t want to carry it around. The iPhone didn’t take any pictures that I would enlarge and put on the wall, but they did capture the highlights of an amazing time…

We stayed in Astoria which is a lovely neighborhood in Queens. I taught with Jill when she lived here in California before moving back to the East Coast. Her sister Tracey, who also lived in LA for awhile, is an actor and photographer who lives in NYC. Tracey took us on a wild, fun filled weekend!

After we all arrived Thursday night and Friday morning we were ready for our “running” tour. The only time we stopped was when I yelled, “Wait, I’m taking a picture!”
- The best part about being in a big city…taking the subway!

- A stop at TKTS to purchase Broadway tickets for later that night
- Lunch at South Street Seaport with views of the Brooklyn Bridge

- Battery Park to see the World Trade Center Globe Memorial and the Statue of Liberty

I had never made a point to see the Statue of Liberty when I was in New York before. We didn’t have time to do the museum, but at least I got to see it.
Battery Park
- We passed through Zuccotti Park which is the home of the Occupy Wall Street protestors.
I think I understand what the protest is about, but I wondered as we walked by if, one, how many of the protestors actually knew what they were protesting, two, how many of them would be jobless even if we weren’t in a financial mess, and three, how long it had been since they had taken a shower.
- After fighting our way through the protestors, we found our way to Canal Street to buy purses, (which I guess is ironic to a point). - and then had dinner in Little Italy.

- Books of Wonder was next – Have you ever seen the movie “You’ve Got Mail?”. The children’s bookstore that Meg Ryan runs in the movie was based on Books of Wonder. Well-known children’s authors and illustrators visit on a regular basis and sign their books. It is like a candy store for those of us who love children’s literature…

They had signed copies of The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. It took every part of me not buy it. It is such a wonderful book, but I already own it AND it weighs as much as a brick and I didn’t want to carry it home in my luggage.
- We wasted some time in Time Square before the show started.
Time Square is the epitome of what I don’t like about New York City. It is SO crowded. The lights and busyness are fun, but I don’t like being bumped into!
- It was then time for a Broadway Show! We saw Billy Elliot, which was wonderful.
I do like that theatres on the East Coast are very, old, ornate, and usually smaller than their West Coast counterparts. Our seats were half price, and they were great.
- We headed back to Time Square for some shopping after the show, before making our way home for the night.

And that was just day 1!

Procrastinating?

2011-10-24T21:35:00.001-07:00

After a wonderful long weekend in New York City with friends (which I’ll post about later), I’m now begrudgingly headed to bed because morning will come soon enough, and it will be time to go back to work. I got back into LA very early this morning so spent the day catching up on sleep and chores, playing in the art room, and NOT working on any of the school work I brought home with me.

Hmmmmmm….

Oops! I Didn’t Mean To Do That!

2011-10-19T22:40:00.000-07:00

There have been a few times that I’ve accidentally hit the “reply to all” button rather than just “reply” on an email. They’ve mostly been innocent work emails where I’ve responded to a question by replying to all. The times I’ve done it, I’ve been relieved that the accident didn’t cause any strife at work.

I have not been quite so lucky on my personal emails. A friend of mine, who is a pretty staunch Republican, periodically sends me political jokes. Most of the time it’s about how bad Obama and the Democrats are doing and/or overinflating the good the Republicans do. I usually have some witty and amusing reply that bashes the Republicans sent right back to him.

After receiving one such email, my snarky (but clean) comment was accidentally sent to all the recipients. Most of the others on his email list are Republicans, except for his mom who responded to my reply with a chuckle. That’s when I realized I had replied to all. Later that day I received an email from someone I didn’t know with the same subject. This person lit into me. Something like “I don’t know who you think you are but…” I was mortified! My friend’s and my political exchanges had always been very friendly, agreeing to disagree, and poking fun at each other. My response was in good fun. This person did not appreciate my humor at all.

Since then, I check and recheck responses to email to make sure I didn’t send to everyone. After sending a particularly sensitive email, I even cringe when I send – worrying that I’m doing it wrong. Then I have to look inside my send folder just to triple check. I don’t want that to happen again. Yikes!

This Gluttony Must Stop…Just Not Yet

2011-10-17T05:00:00.000-07:00

With birthdays and out-of-town guests and Dine LA the last three weeks have been spent on an eating-out marathon.

Going out to dinner as a social occasion is something I do like participating in – good conversation along with good food, what’s not to like? But I know it’s been too much when going out to dinner sounds like the least appealing thing to do, ever.

Most of these meals out have just been to local and/ or chain restaurants – a quick bite after a late meeting or meet ups with good friends. However, I’ve also visited a few very fancy places that aren’t usually in my “going out” repertoire…

My mom had been traveling in Spain, and on her way back home she stopped in LA for a quick visit. We had a family dinner at Ruth’s Chris for a belated birthday celebration.

After a wedge salad, their filet, sizzling in garlic, was served. It cuts like butter!

Along with the au gratin potatoes.

Warm apple crumb tart for the birthday girl (me)! Of course it was shared amongst all at the table just before we rolled out of the restaurant.

This fall, Dine LA was the first two weekends in October. It is such a good chance to try ~~expensive~~ popular restaurants at a fixed cost. It would have been criminal not to take advantage of it…twice!

On Thursday, we went to Asia de Cuba in the Mondrian Hotel in West Hollywood. It was a very pretty restaurant overlooking the city. We had a picture window table.

The food was very pretty, but some of it was really prettier than the flavor of it…

The drinks were good, and rimmed in gold!

The first appetizer was actually quite tasty – a braised beef spring roll.

The sauce on the lemongrass chicken skewers was better than the chicken.

The strip steak with a ginger soy sauce and chick pea fries were very good.

Cuban opera layer cake was so so. It was sweet, but not much else. The coffee brittle ice cream and chocolate thing were delicious though.

The week before, we visited Lucques, also in West Hollywood. It was amazing! We shared …

baked gnocchi with eggplant

Hanger steak with squash and shallots

Chicken with cornbread pudding and chorizo

Warm apple crostada with salted caramel
ice cream

Chocolate torte with hazelnut caramel and coffee ice cream

Now I’m not saying that all these restaurant visits weren’t completely delish, but their frequency is definitely taking its toll. I haven’t cooked a meal at home in weeks. Since usually, my left-overs are used for lunch at work, I’ve been brown bagging it with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. It’s all getting to be too much really. My wallet is shrinking and my waistline is expanding. It must stop. Now!

Except that I leave for New York City this weekend. I guess I will have to wait to stop until a week from NOW!

Post-Its Here, Post-Its There!

2011-10-11T06:42:00.000-07:00

Post-It notes have become quite a novelty in my classroom this month. A few weeks ago, I passed them out to my students, and we used them for graphing tools. We drew pictures on them for picture graphs, and they make good bars for the bar graphs. The lessons I do with them always go over quite well. This year however, it seems to have created more of a stir than ever before.

A few of my students hoarded the ones I passed out to teams during the graphing lessons. Some kids have brought in various colors and sizes from home. And now we have Post-It notes EVERYWHERE! Not a minute goes by without a sticky note stuck to someone’s finger, desk, pencil box, book, arm, leg, etc. Throughout the day, I spot random notes on the floor, and at the end of the day I’m pulling them off of the computer, filing cabinets, and cupboard doors. I’m beginning to feel like this is slowly happening to our classroom…

I’m a bit of an office supply nut myself, so even though this joy over Post-Its is becoming a bit unruly, it’s also a little bit endearing. Hopefully this trend will run its course in the near future, but until then I’m biting my tongue. School needs to be at least a little bit fun. If sticky notes are doing it for them right now, who am I to complain. Who knows, maybe we can turn them into an art project like this…

So Maybe Green Wasn’t Such a Good Idea After All

2011-10-04T23:09:00.001-07:00

Every few weeks I go to the nail salon to get my nails done. Earlier this year I was turned on to gel nail polish. Dealing with paper and washing my hands as much as I do in my job, regular nail polish lasted about 5 minutes before getting a chip or wearing off. With the gel polish, I can go 2-3 weeks before the color shows wear. It is a miracle really!

This weekend, I went in for my regular appointment. I like the sparkly polish and usually go for a glittery pink or brown. Sometimes I get really adventurous and have my nails done in super glittery purple or dark blue.

Tracy, who does my nails, always tries to get me to venture out – hence the purple and blue – with the colors I choose. That is how this happened…

Yah, that’s right, I paid money to have my nails painted green. Over the last few days, I’m getting a bit more used to it, and there have actually been times when I like it. The 7 year old girls in my class “LOVVVVVEEEE” them. On the other hand, every so often the green catches my eye, and for a fleeting second it looks like I have gangrene of the fingernails.

Oh the price we girls have to pay for fashion!

Random Thoughts about September and a Calendar

2011-10-02T08:53:00.001-07:00

Another month down. It’s hard to believe that we are in October already. This year is flying by. Here is my calendar for The Kathryn Wheel’s calendar challenge.

September is usually a good month. I wrote and sketched about it in the background and then punched the date circles out of cardstock. My white pen started to get goopy so it didn’t turn out exactly like I had hoped.

I’d like a do-over for September really. It was a rough month at work which had a tendency to seep into my personal life as well.
This is ALL the creating I did this month which I think puts me in a funk too. When I pulled the calendar out on Friday for a photo I realized I hadn’t even written for two weeks. When I need to art the most is when I tend to not do it. I must stop that!
When I lived in New England, a guy I knew used to tell me that I held grudges because I was Irish. Of course, in New England neighborhood stereotypes run rapid, and this guy is Italian so he had plenty of his own. However, I am trying HARD to get past my grudge holding stereotype. Someone who I thought had my back for the last 9 years turned out to be a backstabber for that long instead. And not just to me but to some dear friends as well – which I think made my feelings worse. My usual M.O. is to remove myself from any interaction with the person. Instead, I have put on a fake smile on my face and keep the conversation to a minimum – nothing personal since it might eventually used against me.
“Holding a grudge is like letting someone live rent free in your head.”
My birthday is the first day of fall most years, and I’ve always found that so fitting because fall is my favorite season. That is if it ever arrives. Yesterday it was in the high 90s again.
My closest friends helped me celebrate my birthday this year with a party. It’s funny how one group of people can laugh so much every time we get together. That laughter was sorely needed, plus there was red velvet cake. What fun!
After more downs than up this month, I was ready to put September behind me and enjoy October when a dear friend of mine got some awful news yesterday. I can’t stop thinking of her and her family. The downs keep coming. But it’s only the 2nd day, so I’m hopeful!

It’s Kind of Like I’m a Grandma

2011-09-28T23:03:00.001-07:00

“A” was a student in my very first class eleven years ago. Since that first year, he has always made a point to stop by my classroom once or twice a year to say “hi” or to check in and let me know what he is up to. He is one of my favorite students of all time because of how kind he is. This school year, his sister “J” is in my class. That has been fun. J is just as sweet and hardworking as her brother.

Last week I attended a parent/teacher conference for J. When her mom arrived, we noticed that she was pregnant. As we talked about her due date and her other five children, I strained a bit to understand her speak Spanish. My eyes widened when I understood her to say, “I’m going to be a grandma too.” For a few seconds, I was confused until I realized what she was saying. “A is having a baby?” I asked. She nodded.

So this is my first student baby! The only thing that’s keeping me from checking right into the old age home at this point is the fact that he’s ONLY 18 and just graduated from high school last year. So really, he’s TOO young to be having a baby – just as I am too young for him to have a baby!

Anyhow, the baby is due in November, and “we” are having a boy!

It Sure is Hard to Hit a Moving Target!

2011-09-25T23:51:00.001-07:00

So, it’s no secret that my colleagues and I have not been having a good time at work recently. It has all stemmed from the fact that the state of California decided to change the cut points on the end of year standardized testing. What that means is that what was considered proficient in previous years was no longer considered proficient for the test we took last year.

Even though the kids are completely different from year to year, the teachers are judged on the growth/drop from year-to-year’s test scores. Of course that’s unfair because apples and oranges are being compared, and there is no consideration that each year’s kids come in higher or lower than the previous years. It’s not an accurate measure to show growth, but it’s what they use. We know that, and work our tails off to make sure that number doesn’t drop.

This past year, my grade level team ended the year feeling very successful. Our kids scored quite well on the district assessments (which mirror the standardized tests by the way), and we predicted that growth would be seen on our standardized testing scores. Then come to find out, our percent proficient last year didn’t go up or down, but remained the same.

It was a surprise to say the least, but we were certainly relieved the percentage didn’t go down. After further data analysis though, we were confused.

	Reading Comp	Literary Response	Word Analysis	Written Con	Writing Strat	Overall ELA
2010	65%	68%	69%	64%	66%	69%
2011	74%	83%	79%	79%	68%	69%
ELL 2010	54%	59%	58%	59%	61%	60%
ELL 2011	69%	67%	60%	71%	67%	64%

**ELL – English Language Learners

It seemed as if our percent correct went up (some by almost 15%) in every single strand or category. This was something we were very proud of, but we questioned how it was possible to grow in EVERY SINGLE AREA and remain stagnant in the percentage of kids who were labeled proficient.
That was when we were told the cut points had changed. In addition we were told that our teaching program was a failure and needed to be changed because it didn’t work. Oh, and this was told to use while at the same time our school was announced as a National Blue Ribbon by the US Federal Government.

Regardless of how low we all felt about what we were told, I find it so appalling that the testing company can simply decide to change what the proficiency cut points are. Proficiency should be established (whatever that may be) and left alone as a target that can be worked towards. How are out kids supposed to meet a target that constantly changes?

Since high-stakes testing made its way into primary public school, it’s been something that’s caused a lot of teacher grief. Most of us have changed the way we teach, and we teach to the test which has too many drawbacks to list. But we’ve made it work and have seen progress. However, looking at those numbers is so frustrating! There is so much growth shown in that little chart, but the kids and their teachers are being deemed unsuccessful by the school administration. That’s a tough pill to take, especially when it’s not because the kids didn’t learn, but because the target didn’t hold still.

And now I’m done being sad and mad and obsessive about this. I’ve climbed down from my soapbox. It’s now time to move on and to think about this year’s kids and what moveable target they will have to meet.

Thank You Mathew

2011-09-20T04:00:00.000-07:00

This past week has been rough. The morale at school is low, people are sad and stressed, and it’s just been a rotten and ridiculous place to be. Writing a new blog post was on my mind, but I had no desire to do so. Then my friend and reader Hula Hank commented on my last post tonight, and it almost made me cry…

Maybe if you teachers worked full-time, maybe you could actually achieve more awards. ;)
I don't wish to be a Negative Nancy, but you know that the admin will be patting themselves on the back that their hardlined, not good enough approach has worked. Fools!
The world has become unbalanced on the side of budget sheets, statistics, box tickers, standardisation & theories.
For those of us who actually live and work in reality, the knowledge that what works on a spreadsheet is not always what works in actuality.
Remember to stay true to your intuition and experience. Stay flexible but not breakable.
Remember to keep your options open.
Most importantly, remember why you do what you do and never allow anybody to kill your spirit and passion.
When you think about it, teachers really are the backbone of civilisation.
Not only do you shape the future of your students, you are shaping the future of society.
To bear a responsibility that big, it takes a special, committed, passionate, visionary and strong person.
That is you.

Thanks Hula! This made my day.

An Award

2011-09-16T05:58:00.001-07:00

The US Department of Education announced the winners of the National Blue Ribbon Schools yesterday. The school where I teach was one of 306 schools in the nation (21 in California) who earned the award.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/09/local-campuses-named-national-blue-ribbon-schools.html

While most of our staff is just exhausted and have been left wondering, “Isn’t this finally enough?” because we know that it’s not…It is an honor, and the teachers I work with deserve all the accolades. There isn’t a group of people who work harder than my colleagues. Congrats to us! Now, we all deserve a nap this weekend!

Out of the Mouth of Babes – Redux

2011-09-15T05:00:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a cute little post about one of my students. I had high hopes for this quirky little seven-year-old. I thought I was in for some good times and good stories. That was until he pulled out his imaginary shot gun, pumped the barrel, and shot me with it while I read a book to the class.

I love my job. I love my job.
~~I’m trying to~~ love my job!

Random Thoughts

2011-09-11T23:29:00.001-07:00

I forgot my regular glasses when I went away last weekend to the DMB Caravan. I had my prescription sunglasses, so was able to see until it was dark. After that, the stage, the screens, the fans were just blurry blotches. As much as I am used to my glasses, times like these make me curse my nearsightedness. I have watched movies and driven home at night wearing my sunglasses because my regular glasses were left at home. I’m getting awfully tired of it. As I sat “watching” the concert I seriously contemplated lasik surgery. That’s a pretty big deal because the whole idea of lasers on my eyes kind of freaks me out, but my frustration level of not being able to see when I forget my glasses is starting to outweigh that fear.
Avitable recently wrote a scary post that I wanted to be sure to share. The things people are able to do via the internet is frightening. We’ve all heard about cyber terrorism, but this hits a little closer to home as it’s happened to a fairly regular person and was done for no reason other than to be mean and ugly. It makes me wonder if all this blogging and facebooking and everything else we do online is just playing with fire. It also makes me wonder how people can be so hateful. How can an act like this ever even occur to someone?
Signing in to Blogger is driving me CRAZY! Is anyone else still having trouble? A few blogs only let me comment if I’m signed in via my blog first. Other blogs give me error messages if I’m signed in before posting the comment. Some blogs won’t let me sign in while leaving a comment so the page keeps loading and loading without ever posting my comment. What’s going on?!?!
I’ve got a sticky ‘K’! There must be a piece of paper, staple, dust, something underneath my keyboard Typing is difficult. Since both my first and last name have a ‘K’ in them, signing in to anything online is becoming a bit of a problem.
It cooled off during the day into the 80s this weekend. Dropping into the high 50s/low 60s at night is the best part. To be able to open the windows in the evening and air-out the house is wonderful. I know we are in for another hot spell or two – it’s only September for goodness sakes – but I’m enjoying it while it lasts.

Earthquake!!!

2011-09-08T04:00:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, the East Coast had a little earthquake. Of course, those of us in California snickered a little bit about all the coverage it received. I’m sure it was frightening as most people there had not ever been through one before. The amount of people who felt it was also quite large due to the size of the Earth’s plates on that side of the country. So some of the coverage was probably warranted.

Well, we had an earthquake last week. Did any of you know that? Probably not since we have them ALL THE TIME. It was only a 4.3, but since its epicenter was in the city I live in, it felt pretty big. The problem is that earthquakes scare me. No they don’t…they FREAK ME OUT!!!

This was not an ordinary earthquake because it happened during school hours! This is a scenario that has kept me up at night. I have a hard enough time keeping “it” together when it’s just me I have to worry about, let alone other human beings…little human beings…other people’s little human beings!

At the end of the day, all of the primary students sat with their teachers at a fundraiser assembly when the floor underneath us jolted a couple of times and then rolled. The sound of the building moving was an awful sound. Most of the students were focused on the speaker at the assembly but the teachers felt and heard it. I’m not mentioning any names, but a few even gasped, catching the attention of some students nearby. We all stared at each other waiting for more. Our emergency preparedness went right out the window as there wasn’t a disaster alarm to send us outside, and no one thought of just going. The assembly continued, and we all thanked our lucky stars that this wasn’t “the big one” and we didn’t have to spend the night at school waiting for trapped parents to pick up their frightened kids.

Come to find out, all of the upper grade classes did evacuate onto the playground wondering the whole time why primary wasn’t outside too. I blame my lack of procedure following on fear.

This is as close as I ever want to get to having an earthquake while our students are still in school. We survived this minor one, but clearly we are not mentally equipped for more than that.

Labor Day Weekend

2011-09-05T23:38:00.001-07:00

This weekend, some friends and I flew to Washington state to see the Dave Matthews Band at the Gorge Amphitheatre. Tami, Marcie and I have attended the DMB shows over the last few years here in Los Angeles. This year, the band didn’t tour, but did set up the DMB Caravan which is a 3-day music festival visiting four US cities. Tami moved to Idaho earlier this year so we decided to meet up in Washington to see our Dave and each other.

After flying to Seattle, we had to fly on a plane with propellers. Oh my! I didn’t even know they still made planes with propellers, and I was kind of a nervous wreck. Flying isn’t my most favorite thing in the world, but more a necessary evil for traveling to fun places. My nerves were a bit more rattled boarding this plane.

The plane was quite small, but the ride over ended up going quick because there was so much to look at. Since we flew closer to the ground, the view of the Northwest was quite spectacular.

Tami picked us up in Pasco, WA, and we drove to Moses Lake to our hotel. After freshening up a bit, we headed to the Gorge, which is in George, WA. The drive to the Gorge was much different than the drive into LA that we usually make to see concerts.

The Gorge is in the middle of nowhere basically. There wasn’t an ounce of traffic in or out of the venue.

Even though the music at the festival began at 2PM on three different stages, we didn’t arrive the first night until just before DMB went on. It was very crowded, but found an empty spot on the lawn and watched the sun set behind the stage.

Excitedly waiting for Dave to go on stage.

The pictures came out rotten in the dark, but I think they show the massive amount of people in attendance. There’s something kind of cool about all these people singing along to the same songs. On Friday night the band played some of their most known songs like Tripping Billies, Crush, American Baby, but they also played some of my favorites that I’ve never heard in concert before like Proudest Monkey, Don’t Drink the Water and Satellite. Dave also did a couple of songs with just him and his guitar…sigh. It was a great show.

The next morning, we leisurely got up and went for coffee before starting out on our next adventure. Tami is from Yakima, WA originally, so her parents drove North and we met them for lunch in Othello, which is one of the smallest towns I’ve ever been in. We stopped at this funny Mexican restaurant.

We planned on going to the one next door, but it was closed. We were in for a treat. The toothless elderly woman took our orders, and we checked out the decor while we waited…

and waited!

Our lunch plates came out one at a time, as they were cooked, however none of the plates were what we actually ordered. My order was a cheese enchilada and a chicken taco, no rice.
This is what I was served. I’m not sure what this would be called in Mexican cuisine, but I accepted it anyways to be polite. The five of us snickered a lot during the entire meal, but we enjoyed our visit.

We said goodbye to Tami’s parents and headed back to our hotel to get ready for night #2 of DMB. Instead of arriving at dusk, we got there a little earlier and enjoyed more of the festival.
There were quite a few more people on day 2. We managed to find a spot a bit to the side, but a little closer to the stage. The view was good, but it was on more of an incline. My toes are still sore from curling them into the grass to keep from toppling down the hill.

Dave played a longer set that night. Some of my favorites – Bartender, One Sweet World, #41, and Jimi Thing. After several contact highs from all the pot that was smoked around us and a couple hours of some cool winds we headed back to the truck after the final encore.

Sunday morning arrived quickly. We packed up the car to head back to the airport.

I took this photo to show two things. One, that I was able to pack everything I needed in one small carry on. I usually pack my entire house, so fitting everything (including shoes) into this one bag is quite impressive if I do say so myself. I also found it amusing that Tami’s new license plate mentions Idaho’s potatoes. Is that funny to anyone else?

Unfortunately, this trip had three legs, and all three legs entailed us flying on one of those propeller planes. Ugh! The ride was uncomfortable because the planes are so small, but again the views were pretty amazing.

The snake-like Columbia River

Cascade Mountains

Views of Seattle

May or may not be Mount St. Helens

Santa Rosa Wine Country

Home Sweet Home

Thank goodness we had today off for the Labor Day holiday. I spent most of the day in or close to bed recovering from such a fun weekend!

August Art

2011-09-01T06:02:00.000-07:00

Well, August came and went like a flash didn’t it?!?! With gearing up for and then going back to work, most of August was spent in my classroom or running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to get things done because school was starting. Despite the speed at which this month went by, I did manage to complete my calendar for this month’s Calendar Challenge over at The Kathryn Wheel.

I kept it simple. The doodles took some time but were done before I went back to work. Nothing fancy!

A couple of collage pages were also made while still on vacation.

Since I make the cards for our social club at school, I spent last weekend making gobs and gobs of cards. Some for use at work, some for me to use.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to hunker down and hammer out some new cards. It was fun, and now I have them for all the events that are coming up for the remainder of the year. Which, sadly, has only four months lefts.

Tasty Tuesday

2011-08-30T06:21:00.001-07:00

After my fried butter post, I’m feeling a little bit hypocritical about this week’s Tasty Tuesday. But really that post was more a slam on the Republican hopefuls (in case that wasn’t clear) than the butter (even though it just sounds disgusting).

My friend Elana found this recipe in an airline magazine this summer. I just had to try it, especially with some really good tomatoes I bought from Forneris Farms last weekend.

Roasted Tomato Confit with Bacon Fat
Ingredients
3 pounds tomatoes
6 large cloves garlic
12 sprigs thyme
Freshly ground black pepper
1 pound sliced bacon
Salt ?

Directions
1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Halve the tomatoes lengthwise, and place them, skin-side-down in a roasting pan. Scatter the garlic and thyme sprigs over the tomatoes, and season with several grinds of black pepper, or to taste.

I wanted to eat the tomatoes just like that, but I controlled myself and continued cooking.
3. Layer the bacon over the tomatoes, placing the strips, one at a time, over the tomatoes, slightly overlapping them if necessary.
4. Place the roasting pan in the oven and roast for 1 hour.

5. Increase the heat to 400 degrees and continue to roast until the bacon crisps and browns on top, an additional 10 to 15 minutes. Remove the pan from heat.

At this point the house smelled amazing!

6. Carefully remove the layer of bacon (save the bacon for snacks or set aside for another use). Taste a bite of tomato and check for seasoning. Sprinkle over 1 teaspoon salt, or as needed (I didn’t need to add salt. Saltiness will vary by brand of bacon, and more or less salt may be needed for the tomatoes). Gently turn the tomatoes over in the pan (cut-side down), and place the pan on the stove. Bring the liquid around the tomatoes to a gentle simmer over medium-low heat and simmer for 3 to 5 minutes to distribute the seasoning and flavors. Remove from heat.

7. Place the tomatoes in a glass jar or bowl. Cover with the remaining liquid, gently pressing the tomatoes down so they are submerged. Set aside until cool.
8. Cover and refrigerate the tomatoes until ready to use, and then warm on the stovetop before using. The confit will keep for up to 10 days, covered and refrigerated.

The recipe recommends that the tomatoes be served on crostini or over pasta. I did warm and serve over pasta. It made for a very simple tomato sauce with fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano. I thought they might be flavored overwhelmingly with bacon, but they weren’t at all. They just had a very nice flavor.

My favorite though was serving them cold in a wedge salad with bleu cheese and crumbled bacon pieces.
I had this salad three times for dinner last week. It was so good!

Thanks for the recipe Elana!

50 Years!

2011-08-28T08:42:00.001-07:00

Last night I attended a 50th anniversary party. The couple went to elementary and high school with my dad and actually introduced him to my mom.

As with most events I attend, I hoped I would end up with some good blog fodder by the end of the evening. I thought I might explore the juxtaposition of a 50 year wedding anniversary and the 50+% divorce rate in this country. As it happens this bloody heat has zapped every ounce of intellectual thought from my brain, and so I’m forced to just share two of the night’s funniest conversations.

I attended this party with my “Aunt” Betty, a dear family friend. Since my dad is gone and my mom is in Hawaii, the two of us were happy to make an appearance together so we’d have someone to talk with. Betty is a retired teacher, as is the wife of the happy couple, as were most of the people in attendance. Upon arriving, Betty spotted many people that she had taught with or had known over the years in her school district. As these retired district employees are getting up there in age, health (mentally and physically) is a challenge for some.

#1 - Marion, another dear family friend passed away last year. However, when one of these retired teachers saw Betty she said, “Oh, I hear Marion is here.” Um, no, Marion passed away last year. “Are you sure, someone said she was here?” I’m sure, she passed away. “Did I know that?”

#2 The husband of one of my former teachers approached Betty at our table to say hello. He started off the conversation with, “I was surprised to see you here. I'd heard you'd died.” Apparently this man keeps a social security list and crosses off names when people die. He said he’d have to go home and check his list for Betty’s name.

I think about how most of the friends I socialize with nowadays are those I work with. Last night was probably a peek into the future. In another 30 years or so, I may be celebrating a friend’s 50th anniversary when someone asks me if I’m dead. Sounds like fun!

I’m Melting – Update!

2011-08-25T22:00:00.000-07:00

At this time every year, I wonder why the heck I live here! Blech! (I did see a forecast that said 108 on Friday and Saturday, but couldn’t get the picture to save.) The rest of the year is nice, but this is NOT!

July was gorgeous while the rest of the country was sweltering. Now they are gearing up for fall, and we still have 2-3 months of this. {weeps}

I just don’t function at full capacity when it’s hot. That’s all.

And it WAS 108 today! I think I need to move to Alaska or something.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

2011-08-23T03:00:00.000-07:00

Being the first week back to school last week, it was nice getting to know my new students without the added pressure of having to shove curriculum down their throat.

One conversation was particularly funny…

I spot David walking in the class line to recess with his eyes closed.

Miss Delight – David, why are your eyes shut?

David (with a smirk) – I’m trying to see if I can walk without looking.

Miss Delight – What happens if you run into something?

David – Then I can’t I guess.

Miss Delight – Good point, but do be careful. I’m too busy to pick up pieces that fall off of you if you crash.

David – (smirk turns to a smile)

So far so good.

And the Answer Is…

2011-08-21T00:11:00.001-07:00

A record player!!!!

I loved all the guesses. My favorite was The Blonde Duck’s camera answer. How cool would a giant camera be!

My first three years of teaching were spent at a different school than I am at now. That school had just been modernized, but most of us were still using the outdated equipment. Somehow, I acquired this record player.

Eight years ago, the school I am at now was built, and I moved there. The year before I moved, I was a rover which means I moved classrooms every month (another brilliant idea in education). I think that year did something to me mentally as I became very protective of my “stuff” since I never had it. So that summer I packed up my belongings and headed to the new school. This record player was stored in my roving cupboard, so I took it with me.

That same year, my mom retired from teaching after 37 years. I inherited most of her “stuff” including her children’s record collection. “What fun!” I thought. I planned on using those old-school records, records that I once listened to, in my classroom.

Like Hap Palmer!

Unfortunately, the record player was put inside a cupboard along with the records. The new school is equipped with TVs, DVD/CD players, and electronic white boards with laptops. The only time I ever pull out a record is when we read a story in class that mentions records. I show it as an example because most 7 year olds nowadays have no idea what an LP is.

While organizing my room these past few weeks, I pulled this baby out to make some room. Nostalgia took over so I played a little Hap.

The sound is pretty bad and finding the right song is a lot harder than it is now on my ipod. After eight years, I decided it was just in the way. I needed to get rid of it.

Since it is a school district record player, I emailed our media services person. I was told that they didn’t want it…it was too old! So I contacted my principal and asked him what to do with it. He came in just the other day and picked it up. I was hoping he would simply put it away in storage, but instead he said it would be disposed of. It broke my heart a little as he walked out of my room with it. I can’t keep that giant thing anymore; space is so valuable. But, chances are I’ll probably never see a record player again.

What’s In the Box?

2011-08-19T05:33:00.001-07:00

Let’s see who is up on their vintage culture…

All week I’ve been giggling about this box. It has been in my classroom for the last eight years. I pulled it out last week because it’s becoming a storage nuisance.

Any ideas?

The End is Here

2011-08-15T20:36:00.001-07:00

Summer vacation is over! How depressing is that? After a paid, kid-free work day today for meetings and working in our room, the kids start school tomorrow.

“How nice,” you must be thinking. “Those rich, part-time teachers even get a half day to get their room ready before the kids start school.”

And you’d be right. We ARE given a half day to prepare our classrooms. Unfortunately, that’s not nearly enough time when your classroom looks like this after summer is over.

You see, when the end of the school year finally arrives, we are required to take everything down and put everything away so summer cleaning can take place over vacation.

On a side note, this is how clean my classroom was when I first visited about 2 weeks ago…
Yah, those are two dead flies on my windowsill. Clean as a whistle!

We pretty much have to move into our classroom again before the year can begin. In fact, during my first visit about two weeks ago, I spent the entire day just setting up the furniture, putting things away, and finding things I had to shove in a cupboard or drawer before leaving on summer vacation. To put that in perspective, I watched the entire season 2 of Sons of Anarchy while working and continued to work about 2 hours after the series was over (wishing season 3 would come out on dvd already). And that was just setting up the room.

A few days after opening the doors for the new year, I went shopping for school supplies. Luckily, my school district does provide paper and pencils and the biggest necessities. However, there are a lot of things that I need but aren’t provided. I spent about $100 on crayons, folders, glue sticks, ball point pens, pencil boxes, name tags, and other odds and ends to get us started - that’s even before the school year begins. Thank goodness I’m so overpaid!

The following week, I spent a day working with my team. We worked on preparing some upcoming units. After finishing that, I had a couple of hours left to put posters and charts up on the wall.

Just this past Friday, I went back in for about four more hours to organize the supplies and to plan for the upcoming week.

Today was our first required day back to school as teachers. We returned for a couple of meetings that ~~promised to be~~ weren’t short at all and then had the remainder of the day to work in our room. I prepared name tags, made the seating chart, got student desks ready, and finished some last minute things to make sure I was prepared for tomorrow.

After ~~a few hours~~, ~~a few days~~, a few weeks my classroom is physically ready for new kiddos to arrive first thing tomorrow morning.
Now if only their teacher were mentally ready. Wish me luck!

The Straw Poll

2011-08-14T22:40:00.001-07:00

This weekend the Ames Straw Poll in Iowa took place. A cross between a Republican convention and a state fair, the Straw Poll is an informal polling of Republicans in Iowa with the hopes of making a prediction of which candidate will represent the republicans in the upcoming election.

The state fair part comes with the candidates setting up in booths, handing out buttons, talking with the crowd. Some have popular musicians on stage for them while others have games and rides for the kids that might stop by. While serious voters roam through the booths, they are tempted by all sorts of tasty (and by tasty I mean fried) state-fair treats that are available in each candidates area.

This year’s newest treat made an appearance at the Straw Poll. Sarah Palin even tweeted about her excitement to try this culinary phenomenon.
Nope, that’s not a corn dog or a deep fried twinkie. That is deep fried butter my friends. Deep! Fried! Butter! Butter fried in butter! Not only does it just sounds bad, the butter alone, before being dipped in breading and fried in fat, is over 400 calories.

Which leads me to wonder…Why is Iowa picked as the state that predicts our country’s future? Do the people who eat deep-fat fried fat have enough sense to make a decision that is taken so seriously?

Michelle “Hoot-Smalley Tariff Act" Bachmann was the apparent victor in the Straw Poll.
My point exactly!

Photo Fun

2011-08-13T10:55:00.001-07:00

I am addicted to the photo apps on my iPhone. A few weeks ago I downloaded Instagram and can’t stop playing with it. It is a free app that makes photos look old with filters that change the colors, over or underexpose, and add borders or scratches.

It’s kind of ironic that I have a real camera that takes amazing pictures, but when I go out it sits in my car, and I shoot with with my much more convenient iPhone. Then those pictures are adjusted to look like photos from years ago before the expensive digital cameras were even invented. Oh well, it’s fun anyhow.

Cherry Picking

The Big Irish Fair – Irvine Meadows, 6/18/11

The Farmer’s Market

Around the House

Chicago

I’m digging the vintage look!

Crafty McCraftster

2011-08-12T01:20:00.001-07:00

Crafts are not usually something I like doing. Drawing, painting, collage, and photography are more my cup of tea. The most crafty I get is I do like to make cards. Making cute, handmade things is the last thing I need as we saw in the ~~hoarders~~ decluttering posts. In my case, craft = crap. I don’t need anything else in this house.

That was until this past month. I didn’t have to go into work and didn’t have any substantial plans for a few days. With some upcoming get togethers with friends and family at my house, I decided to get a little crafty.

First, I made some luminaries out of mason jars.

I had everything I needed in the art room except the mason jars, so it was a really inexpensive project. I found some colored tissue in the wrapping paper box and tore it into pieces.

Using an old paint brush, I spread YES pva glue on the inside of the jars.

The tissue was placed onto the glue and secured using the other side of a the brush.

In some cases I had to spread the glue over the top of the tissue as it wanted to lift a bit.

I liked how they turned out, but there was something missing.

So the tops were painted with coordinating acrylic paint. They look really cute scattered about the yard with battery operated tea lights. So easy…I’d like to make 24 more!

Later, I made some wine gift tags. Some friends and I got together for a wine and cheese party at my house. It turned into a wine and cheese competition, and these were the prizes. Unlike the luminaries, these went home with my guests and aren’t cluttering my house.

For now I’ve had my fill of crafts. With only two days of vacation left, it’s time to ~~begrudgingly~~ get back to work. Booooooo!

And Last But Not Least…The Food!

2011-08-11T02:01:00.001-07:00

Before heading to Chicago, just about everyone I know had Chicago tips for me. While there were some tips about sights I needed to be sure to see, most of them were about the food. Everyone mentioned how much they loved the food in Chicago. Of course, that was wonderful news.

They were right! Here are some highlights…

Garrett is the epitome of gourmet popcorn. When I was first told about a popcorn shop, I didn’t think it sounded very appetizing. I’ve had gourmet popcorn before – that stale kind that comes in tins around the holidays. Ehhh, I wasn’t sure I would be impressed. I was wrong. Garrett’s popcorn is delicious. I had the Chicago mix – half cheese popcorn and half caramel – both so fresh they were warm.
We couldn’t wait to get it home to try it. We opened it on the bus and sneakily ate some so the bus driver wouldn’t catch us.

After the visit to Oak Park, we headed back into the city for dinner at the Hop Leaf.

This place is GIANT and sold every kind of beer one can think of. Their menu is very unique, combining interesting flavors.

I decided on the CB&J which is a grown up PB&J that came with stilton mac and cheese.

Up until that night I had never tried frozen custard. It is like ice cream, but with more eggs in it. Apparently it’s a Midwest thing. We headed to Scooters after dinner.

I had the chocolate. It was very creamy and very rich.

After the river cruise, we wandered around the city and stopped into Vosges Haut Chocolat – a high end chocolate company based in Chicago.

They are known for mixing different flavors in their chocolate like bacon, peppercorns, chilies and other herbs and spices.
I bought some peanut butter bon bons and a small box of mixed truffles home with me. The bon bons are gone…the truffles are being savored.

On my last night in Chicago I FINALLY got to try deep dish pizza at Giordano’s.We ordered a salad to share and our pizza with pepperoni. Deep dish takes almost an hour to cook, so we ate our salad while we waited, and waited.

It was well worth the wait – so cheesy and so saucy.
My mouth is watering as I write this. It was SO good. Unfortunately, after the weekend’s debauchery, I was only able to eat about three-fourths of a slice. I wanted more, but just couldn’t do it. Since then, I’ve been dreaming about this pizza. I’m going to have to try to make this at home some time.

Everyone was right! Chicago’s food is delish!

The Architecture

2011-08-08T17:54:00.001-07:00

Due to the weather, we didn’t take the architecture river cruise until my last day in Chicago. I am so glad we waited because, even though it was still hot and humid, there was blue sky which made me happy.

Even though I DID pay attention on the cruise, I can’t really remember the names of all the buildings because I was also very busy taking pictures. The views were so good from that vantage point. The architecture is quite diverse. Some of my favorite pics…

After the river cruise, we walked to Millennium Park… …and The Bean!

I really wanted to go up in the Hancock Building.

The views promised to be incredible from the 100th floor.

But rather than pay $23 per person to go up in the elevator, we paid $23 total to each have a drink at The Signature Bar on the 97th floor (including a free elevator ride). The view and the cocktail were worth it!

Chicago is a beautiful city!

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Oak Park

2011-08-07T00:38:00.001-07:00

We headed just outside the city to Oak Park, IL on day 3. Oak Park is a suburb of Chicago well known for having the largest collection of Frank Lloyd Wright’s properties in the world.

We started off with a tour of his home and attached design studio.
Unfortunately, photographs were not allowed inside the home or studio. Which is too bad, because so much of it is unique and quite modern for its time.

After the tour, we wandered around the neighborhood looking for other homes that Wright designed. We had a map of the neighborhood that listed which homes were his, however most of them weren’t too hard to pick out due to his original style.

The first few homes we spotted actually didn’t look too much like what he is famous for. They are his earlier homes, known the “bootleg houses”.

I like them a lot – not as linear as his later ones.

As we walked in and out of streets, his known style became more pronounced. Here are just a few. I’m not necessarily a huge fan of his style, but really appreciated our visit because his design and his life were so interesting.

Stumbling upon Ernest Hemingway's childhood home was a nice surprise while in Oak Park.
My most (The Sun Also Rises) and least (The Old Man and the Sea) favorite books read in school were written by Hemingway.

Oak Park is a beautiful neighborhood. We had a nice visit.

The Art Institute of Chicago

2011-08-04T23:39:00.001-07:00

We spent my second day in Chicago at the AIC. What a great museum! The amount of well-known art in this place was incredible.

We brought our lunch and ~~sweated~~ sat in the beautiful garden outside.

The grand staircase installation by Jitish Kallat called Public Notice 3.

After some quick looks around the first floor, we headed up to the Impressionist’s Wing. Since my favorite period of time for art is the Impressionist and Post Impressionist, I was like a kid in a candy store running from painting to painting, gasping.

A Sunday on La Grande Jette by Georges Seurat
It is a giant painting!

Equestrienne by Henri Toulouse-Lautrec
The Norton Simon Museum has the preliminary sketch for this in its collection.

Monet has been an overall favorite of mine for years, and the AIC is full of his paintings. Several of the haystack series as well as the lily ponds are housed in the AIC.

One of my favorite Van Gogh's – The Bedroom

We visited the modern art wing next. I’m not a big fan of most modern art, but some pieces and some artist appeal to me.

I do like some of Picasso’s earlier work like The Old Guitarist. Henri Matisse is also a favorite of mine. This is Daisies.

There were several pieces that I know of but don’t know too much about. It was so interesting seeing them in person and learning a bit more about the artists.
American Gothic by Grant Wood.
The Nighthawks by Edward Hopper.

I am so impressed with this museum. Up until my visit, the Norton Simon in Pasadena and the Musee d’Orsay in Paris were the top two art museums I’ve visited due to their Impressionist’s collection. I will have to add the Art Institute of Chicago to my list as well.

On a side note, when we left the museum I was amazed to see how many photographs I took of the art inside. Why do I do that? Photographs of this art is available online if I ever want to see it, and I’m certainly not going to to enlarge any of these photos to hang on the wall. I guess it’s just because I am truly giddy when I see originals of the art that I have studied and love. It’s silly really, but I just can’t help myself.

Where Did July Go? (7 for 7)

2011-08-02T23:35:00.001-07:00

After waiting for an entire crazy school year to end and finally being summer break, I can’t believe that July is over and I have to go back to work in a couple of weeks.

I think this month’s calendar for the Kathryn Wheel Calendar challenge is my favorite thus far. Having the time to decorate some of the days, was fun and I like the bright colors.

I washed the journal page with acrylic and then “dirtied” it up with drippy paint, ink, and gesso.
Instead of using store bought paper, I made my own with acrylic wash to use as the date squares. I like how bright they turned out.

I didn’t spend ANY time journaling in this journal at all in July. I did however get a chance to start my Sketchbook Project book. The theme is “Travel With Me”.
It’s been fun to sketch some of the local places I’ve been so far this summer.
Chicago also offered some good sketching opportunities.

Only 7 full pages to go until the sketchbook is finished, and I have until January.

Chi Town

2011-07-31T15:52:00.001-07:00

Chicago is a great city. Last week I visited for the very first time, and had a great mini trip. Of course, pretty much the entire nation was suffering from record breaking heat and Chicago was right smack in the middle of that heat wave. I’m no stranger to hot weather, but my only complaint about it in Chicago is the HUMIDITY. Blech! But once I succumbed to the fact that I would spend the entire time glistening with my hair piled on top of my head, I was good to go.

So let’s go…
My friends live in the neighborhood of Lincoln Park. It is just a few blocks from downtown, but has a great neighborhood feel with tree-lined streets of historic houses.
The neighborhood is in walking distance to Lake Michigan which is enormous.

The Biograph (where John Dillinger was shot and killed) resides in Lincoln Park as well.

On my first full day in the city, we attended a Cubs game at Wrigley Field.
The Cubs played the Astros. It didn’t really concern me who won, but it was fun to be there when the Cub’s won 4-2. I enjoyed seeing the bleacher seats atop buildings that overlooked the stadium.

I took so many pictures so I’ll share more in my next post.

Tableau Vivant

2011-07-28T02:16:00.001-07:00

I’d been back from Chicago (which I’ll post about next time) for about 14 hours when some friends and I jumped in the car and headed to the beach – Laguna Beach to be exact.

Laguna Beach has long been a small art town. During the summer, there are many art related activities and festivals like the Sawdust Festival, Festival of Arts, and Art-A-Fair. The most popular event however is the Pageant of the Masters.

The Pageant is a show of tableau vivant or living pictures. Works of art are recreated and “performed” on stage using beautifully costumed people and elaborate set design. It has taken place annually since 1932. Tonight was the first time I attended, and I was thoroughly impressed.

This year’s theme is “Only Make Believe”.

We weren’t really familiar with most of the pieces. Regardless, they were very magical and quite beautiful.

Fairy Wood by Henry Meynell Rheam

Alice's Adventures by John Tenniel

Arabian Knights by Virgina Sterrett

Confabulation of Dragons by Scott Gustafson

Between the lighting, makeup, costumes, props, and backdrops it was quite difficult to make out that the people were actually three dimensional actors and not flat. The show was pretty incredible.

If you are ever in Southern CA during the summer, you’ll have to check it out.

**The photos were taken from The Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot website as cameras are NOT allowed in the event.

Farts From Our Butt

2011-07-21T00:05:00.001-07:00

My plan for a Thursday post was thwarted by packing procrastination. I leave for Chicago in a few hours, and since I am the worst packer in the whole world I don’t have time for a real post.

Maybe while I’m gone the federal government will come up with some plan to resolve the debt ceiling issue. Hopefully the plan will close some loopholes that would make ginormous corporations like Exxon and GE pay MORE taxes than I do. But it’s doubtful.

Anyhow, here’s a funny video poking fun at all the politicians who down right lie to get others on their side. Loved it and the “4th grade boy” humor. Enjoy!

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Armadebtdon 2011 - National Bulls**t Ceiling

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show Full Episodes

Political Humor & Satire Blog

The Daily Show on Facebook

See ya’ll next week!

Tasty Tuesday

2011-07-19T01:14:00.001-07:00

I’m not one of those Californians that doesn’t eat red meat. Even though I don’t eat it often, I really like a good steak. Unfortunately, as adept as I can be in the kitchen, I’ve never been very successful in cooking steak. It either comes out too done or not cooked enough, and the flavor is always off. I probably don’t cook it often enough to get any better at it.

I found this recipe for salsa verde steak in Rachael Ray’s “Everyday” magazine. Since I’ve been working on a corn theme the last couple of weeks, this recipe stood out as it calls for fresh corn.

Salsa Verde Steak (serves 4)
Ingredients
2 New York strip steaks (about 14 oz each)
Olive oil for rubbing
salt and pepper
3 cups fresh corn kernels (frozen can be used if thawed and patted dry)
salsa verde
3 oz queso fresco cheese (it crumbles like feta but is creamier)
lime wedges
I also added fresh cilantro
8 corn tortillas

Directions
1. Rub steaks with olive oil and season well with salt and pepper.
2. Heat cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Add the steaks to the skillet and lower the heat to medium. Cook until bottom is seared (4-5 minutes), flip and cook 3-4 minutes longer for medium rare. Once steaks are cooked, transfer to a plate and tent with foil to keep warm.
3. Spread corn in the hot skillet. Allow to cook over medium heat for about a minute in order to brown. Then stir and season with salt and pepper. Continue to cook until corn is browned all over.
4. To serve, cut the steaks in half crosswise and arrange on 4 plates. Pile the corn over the steaks and sprinkle with salsa and cheese (and cilantro if desired).
It’s delicious with lime squeezed over the top and tortillas on the side. Grilled vegies were also served, and they made this dish a great summer meal.
Since only 3 steaks were served, I cut up the leftovers the next day and made crispy shell tacos. All the same ingredients were added to the tortillas. It was very good.
I enjoyed this a lot. However, I think all the steak toppings made up for my lack of steak-cooking skills. One of these days I’ll learn how to do it right. Until then, this is a good alternative.

Carmageddon My A$$

2011-07-17T09:31:00.001-07:00

This weekend was going to be IT. Carmageddon, endearingly known as the predicted havoc due to closing down a section of one of our busiest freeways in Los Angeles, was going to paralyze LA this weekend.

Los Angeles public officials announced the closure about 3 months ago setting off a frenzy that rivaled “The Rapture”. Traffic backed up 50 miles was threatened. I know someone whose wedding was canceled by the venue due to the closure. My mom, who had planned to fly into LAX this weekend, changed her flight in order to not get stuck on the 405. Many people were outraged that the closures were on a weekend ~~because it would have been so much better during weekday rush hour traffic~~. It was going to be a MESS!

Since I am a rule follower, I normally would have stayed close to home this weekend. But as it happened, I had made plans months ago to meet up with some friends in Pasadena. There is no need to take the 405 freeway from my house, but a pass right by it is necessary. Only a few miles away from the closure, there was a possibility that I would face a traffic nightmare.

The reality was SHOCKING!

There was less traffic than there usually is, EVER! It seems as if most Angelenos heeded the advice and just stayed home.

Which was great! We enjoyed a gorgeous day in Pasadena.

First meeting up at the Norton Simon Museum.

Then on to some shopping along Colorado Blvd.

As with most events, the media blows them out of proportion and leaves many panic stricken. Lucky for us, Carmageddon was no exception.

Blinded By Ben, Tom, and Carrots

2011-07-13T23:02:00.001-07:00

Even though it’s summer break, I’ve been working at our school district office on various summer curriculum projects a few days each of those weeks.

This week’s work was scoring writing prompts for the district. Each year, every grade level takes an end-of-the-year writing test. Most of these assessments are scored by the grade level teams at each school site, but a couple of the grade levels are chosen to turn in their tests to the district for district-wide scoring. Since I am on the writing committee, I have spent the last two days scoring 2nd and 5th grade writing.

I have also spent the last two days losing my eyesight. We read SO many papers. On the first day, 2nd grade’s summary of narrative writing was scored. The story that was summarized was The Giant Carrot. The word “carrot” has probably never been read so many times as it was that day. I dreamt about carrots that night. The only perk to that day was since I teach 2nd grade I was very familiar with the story and the requirements so was able to score each paper fairly quickly.

That was not the case on the next day. We scored 5th grade’s persuasive essays about Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. Students were asked to write a letter to the US Postal Service explaining why they thought BF or TJ deserved to be on a new postage stamp. These essays were not only longer than 2nd grade’s they were also written in cursive. These pages and pages of cursive writing started to play tricks on my eyes after just a couple of hours. The only thing that got me through the afternoon was some of the non-factual reasons the students came up with like…
”I know you may think that it wouldn’t be good to have a hairless 81 year old on a stamp…”
”Just imagine what other things he (Franklin) will invent given the chance.”
At least those were good for a few laughs, in a depressing kind of way. By the end of the day, I didn’t want either of them to be on the stamp! If I never read about Franklin, Jefferson, or carrots ever again it will be too soon!

This task was my last of the summer until August 5. Thank goodness as I may need to recover my eyesight over the next couple of weeks.

Tasty Tuesday

2011-07-12T07:07:00.001-07:00

Last week I posted about white summer corn. It was so yummy right off the cob, but I removed the kernels and froze them to use in some dishes over the next couple of weeks.

I had been craving Mexican flavors – cilantro, lime, cumin, chili peppers. So I threw together this super easy and delicious quesadilla – not just your basic cheese and tortilla quesadilla. Instead one that included all those tasty flavors.

Chicken Quesadilla with Corn Salsa
Serves 4

Ingredients
4 medium-sized flour tortillas
1 chicken breast, grilled and chopped into bite-sized pieces
1 cup queso quesadilla, grated (any good melting cheese works, but qq is very creamy and doesn’t get oily when melted)
1 cup corn
1 handful cilantro, chopped
juice from 1/2 lime
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 Serrano chili pepper, seeded and chopped (make sure to remove the seeds if too much heat is not welcome)
Chili powder – to taste for extra kick if desired
Cooking spray

Directions
1. Mix corn, cilantro, lime, Serrano chili, and chili powder in a small bowl.
2. Layer 1/2 of each tortilla with the following - a fourth of the cheese, a fourth of the chicken, and a spoonful of the corn salsa mixture. There should be corn salsa left over to be used later.
3. Fold over the other half.
4. Spray pan with cooking spray and heat over medium heat. Add quesadilla 1-2 at a time. Cook until browned.
5. Lightly spray the top of the quesadilla, and then flip over to brown other side.
6. Remove from heat and let rest for a few moments to let cheese set up a bit. Then cut the quesadilla in half.
7. Fold each half over and serve with a spoonful of corn salsa over the top.

Add a small green salad to make a nice light and summery meal. The flavors are delicious.

Project Declutter, Days 1-3

2011-07-08T19:23:00.001-07:00

My house is full. FULL! It’s been time to do something about it for awhile now, but now that I am on vaca I don’t have any more excuses to put it off.
Project declutter began on Wednesday. I started in the garage, but since I forgot to take before and after pictures you’ll just have to take my word for it. It’s beautiful!

Yesterday, I moved upstairs to my bedroom. Actually, my closet was in most need of help. If I use it correctly, it is a very organized and efficient closet. However, when I get busy I don’t put anything away, and my shoes and clothes end up on the floor. It got so bad this time that I couldn’t walk in the walk-in closet.

After getting the first layer out, the shoe layer remained.

Clearly, I have a sneaker and flip flop problem.

About 3 hours of refolding, rehanging, and removing. My closet is now back to an organized state…

And the floor is visible again!

I only had a couple of hours to work yesterday, so bedroom/bathroom decluttering continued today. Bureau drawers were refolded and many items were discarded. Moving on to the bathroom…I can not tell you how long it has been since I’ve decluttered the bathroom. Well actually, yes I can if the antibiotic/pain killer prescription bottles are any indication

We’ve got 2009, 2008, 2005, and 2004. I think 2004 is our winner!

The medicine cabinets, drawers and under the sink cabinets were overflowing with unused and empty “stuff”!

Oh look! Another expired prescription bottle!

This part actually took no time at all because I simply threw almost everything away – most of it empty or expired!
Everything left over was moved into one medicine cabinet…one is empty.

Although this was uncovered at the bottom of the empty one. Hmmm, that’s a bit disconcerting isn’t it?

The under the sink contents now all fit under one sink.

And, I found my retainer! I don’t think I’ve seen that thing since college.

And three drawers were downsized to using only two!

Decluttering has such a good feeling!

After two days in the master, I have 3 bags to donate and 2 bags of trash. Now only 5 rooms and a back yard to go before the entire house is half as full!

What is your summer project?

Time for a “New” Car

2011-07-05T23:51:00.001-07:00

I must confess that I am a terrible car owner. Filling it up with gas and semi-regular maintenance is about all the worry I can muster up for my car. The car is used as a means to an end for me – it carts around all my crap and gets me where I’m going. Washing, waxing, vacuuming, and decluttering it are never at the top of my to-do list. Case in point…
The car has not been washed in ages.

There are so many bugs splattered on the windshield I could study entomology.

My coffee mug doesn’t fit in the cup holders so it sits on my seat on the way to work. The stains are the results of sudden stops and quick turns that dumped the mug all over the seat. Very inviting to passengers don’t you think?

These coins are stuck in the cup holder, and look at all that dust!

Just the other day while driving my visiting mom around town, I mentioned that I was getting a little tired of my car. However, the car is paid for and to buy something new and acquire a car payment is not the least bit appealing. After stating all my reasons for not buying a new car, my mom looked at me and said, “Maybe if you cleaned it, you’d like it a little better.” Touché!

This week I took my car in to have it totally detailed while I was at work for a meeting. It was well worth the $100.
So clean and shiny, and no splattered bugs!
The coins are unstuck and the caked on dust has disappeared.

The best part of all!

Paid for and clean?!?! I can handle this car for a little longer anyways.

Summa, Summa, Summertime (summertime)

2011-07-04T01:06:00.001-07:00

Summer officially arrived this week. One, it was my first week of summer break. Two, the temperatures reached 100+ for most of the week.

It’s not odd for our temps to exceed 100 degrees, but it is a bit odd for it to be this early into summer. Usually in July, we hover in the 90s, which allows us to acclimate to the hotter weather which mostly arrives in August and September. No acclimating this week. It was damn hot!

Last year after adopting the puppy, we began going to the dog park. During our second visit, a yellow lab taught Rigby how to paddle in the water bowl. Not everyone was a fan of this behavior, but it was pretty cute. Someone told me to get a kiddie pool for her to play in at home. I spent the rest of the summer searching high and low for one, but apparently August was just too late for pools. Once spring arrived this year, the little plastic pools started popping up at the discount stores. I snagged one, even though it was still pretty cool outside. This week’s temperatures persuaded me to pull it out of the garage.
She quickly brought all her toys to the pool.
Let the paddling begin!
In case you missed it, it’s a pink Barbie pool!
The nice thing about the heat is it tires out this crazy puppy a lot quicker than normal.

The Farmer’s Market finally has the summer fruit for sale. The spring pickings are kind of limited as the apples and oranges are no longer at their best, but the peaches, grapes, nectarines and strawberries aren’t quite ready. The Farmer’s Market was gorgeous this week.

White corn was on sale at the market this week. Five ears for $1.00! Fresh corn, right off the cob, is delicious. I bought a ton and cut off the kernels. Now there are several baggies of fresh corn waiting in my freezer, ready to use in all sorts of yummy summer cooking!

Happy Summer!

The Year Is Half Over!?!?

2011-07-02T00:04:00.001-07:00

I can not believe that we are 6 months into 2011. Where does time go?
Since July has arrived, it’s time to share June’s calendar page for The Kathryn Wheel Calendar Challenge…

Spray paint and stencils were used for the background, and acrylic scraped on paper with a credit card was used for the date squares. I did intend to use a turquoise and red color combo, however I did not intend for the page to look like the 4th of July vomited all over it. Once the pieces were glued down, it was too late so I just went with it.

June was incredibly crazy with the end of the school year and my mom arriving into town. Unfortunately, having time to work on any other pages just didn’t happen. The last three days I’ve been able to play for a few hours. Time in the art room makes me very happy. I’ll have more to share next month.

One thing I did notice today while working was how gunky my journal is getting…

I love how the paint has built up on the spirals. So cool.