I'm a big, HUGE fan of smart parodies, particularly of beloved books, such as Goodnight Moon (I thought that the Goodnight Bush parody was hilarious), so here's another one for me, this one really really relevant (good thing we don't do TV at our house. It's mostly the laptop, the iPad & iPod touch). I have a hard time letting go of the computer... and the boys spend more time than t hey should in their iPad, so I guess we need to watch and internalize!
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Monday, November 14, 2011
Seven!! I can't believe I've been blogging that long!
Seven is my "favoritest" number, after all, I was born on 7/7! So I thought that this year my blog anniversary should be more special, or "specially celebrated" in the blog.
First, I decided to try to reproduce (closer than last year) the very first post photo (I asked permission of my 7! year old to do that -- he's the one who is very private and doesn't like me to blog his life much):
4 month old L & Mama:
7 years 5 months old L & Mama (taken today):
Then, I want to talk a little bit about the anniversary posts that preceded this one.
(I had most of the post done when I realized that last year I included previous year's post titles too... after having posted the photo above. boo!!... not original, but, now that the post is done, I'll leave it).
Year 1 (2005) "Happy Anniversary, Blog!:"
My blog continues to be "a little nothing," but I've made so many more friends since then! And it still is "a happy space for me. It makes me feel more alive and connected to the world."
I am no longer "a mother of young children" and my life is not "very tough and isolating," anymore, but I am still "an expatriate mother, who just moved to a new city" (a hear ago). I do have friends, family 3 hours away and a bit of a support system of sorts, unlike 7 years ago. And the "looming dissertation" was finished three years ago!! This is still very true, though: "Blogging has been helpful, even therapeutic," so several things have changed, but not the essence. ;)
Year 2 (2006) "Two Years and Counting!:"
I like this that I wrote on year 2:
Year 3 (2007) "Three Meaningful Years:"
In this post -- which I wrote 5 days too late -- I started the "new" tradition of posting a photo of myself to celebrate the blog anniversary. I outlined four points about how blogging changed my life and my favorite is the last: "Most of all, meeting all of you has enriched my life beyond measure." This is still absolutely true!!
Year 4 (2008) "Four Great Years":
Six days late this time, because of NaBloPoMo (again!). I really like the photo in this post. It is still my profile photo on my main email account. My regret in that post continues the same "I never changed the template like I wanted to have done long, very long ago." Sigh... good thing it's a minor issue!
Year 5 (2009) "Five Glorious Years!":
Ha ha ha!! These post titles are so awfully cheesy! ;) actually :( (no, not really, this one was totally tongue-in-cheek). The photo is not my favorite, but I think it reflects well my 2009 life. This here is still very true:
Year 6 (2010) "Six years seems a long time, but it's not, really":
I think all I've got to say about last year's post is this: I hope, against hope, that blogging (the personal kind) will NOT become obsolete as I wondered about in that post.
I'm 21 minutes late... and I'm blogging while listening to K talk to K3 (fun stuff! I'm really looking forward to our 10 days in Florida with the whole family!).
First, I decided to try to reproduce (closer than last year) the very first post photo (I asked permission of my 7! year old to do that -- he's the one who is very private and doesn't like me to blog his life much):
4 month old L & Mama:
Then, I want to talk a little bit about the anniversary posts that preceded this one.
(I had most of the post done when I realized that last year I included previous year's post titles too... after having posted the photo above. boo!!... not original, but, now that the post is done, I'll leave it).
Year 1 (2005) "Happy Anniversary, Blog!:"
My blog continues to be "a little nothing," but I've made so many more friends since then! And it still is "a happy space for me. It makes me feel more alive and connected to the world."
I am no longer "a mother of young children" and my life is not "very tough and isolating," anymore, but I am still "an expatriate mother, who just moved to a new city" (a hear ago). I do have friends, family 3 hours away and a bit of a support system of sorts, unlike 7 years ago. And the "looming dissertation" was finished three years ago!! This is still very true, though: "Blogging has been helpful, even therapeutic," so several things have changed, but not the essence. ;)
Year 2 (2006) "Two Years and Counting!:"
I like this that I wrote on year 2:
I can confidently say that I am a much more open, empathetic, accepting, and conciliatory person after all that I have experienced online. I have now a greater respect for other people's (particularly mothers') experiences and have become much less judgemental as a result.I was still bothered by not finishing the dissertation and I wasn't particularly happy that day (I don't remember why).
Year 3 (2007) "Three Meaningful Years:"
In this post -- which I wrote 5 days too late -- I started the "new" tradition of posting a photo of myself to celebrate the blog anniversary. I outlined four points about how blogging changed my life and my favorite is the last: "Most of all, meeting all of you has enriched my life beyond measure." This is still absolutely true!!
Year 4 (2008) "Four Great Years":
Six days late this time, because of NaBloPoMo (again!). I really like the photo in this post. It is still my profile photo on my main email account. My regret in that post continues the same "I never changed the template like I wanted to have done long, very long ago." Sigh... good thing it's a minor issue!
Year 5 (2009) "Five Glorious Years!":
Ha ha ha!! These post titles are so awfully cheesy! ;) actually :( (no, not really, this one was totally tongue-in-cheek). The photo is not my favorite, but I think it reflects well my 2009 life. This here is still very true:
It's been wonderful, though, it truly has. I haven't really made a "mark" in the Blogosphere, or Blogland, or, should it be Blogville? I'm just a drop in an ocean, but blogging has made a huge difference in my life. The friendships I made are priceless and the things I learned cannot be measured. So, yeah, I'm glad to be celebrating this "milestone." :-p
Year 6 (2010) "Six years seems a long time, but it's not, really":
I think all I've got to say about last year's post is this: I hope, against hope, that blogging (the personal kind) will NOT become obsolete as I wondered about in that post.
I'm 21 minutes late... and I'm blogging while listening to K talk to K3 (fun stuff! I'm really looking forward to our 10 days in Florida with the whole family!).
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Saturday, November 12, 2011
happy days, filled with people, and music and friends
So... I'm again pretending it's before midnight because it was lovely to go see a musical performance in which our dear friend was conducting and then, at the end, go out with him and his wife to eat... there was no way I could have posted earlier, see?
And tomorrow, even better, it's family members we haven't seen in a long time who will be here. YAY! So I better go to bed so I can wake up energized to make sushi and bake delicious pumpkin swirl brownies!! I love guests!!
And tomorrow, even better, it's family members we haven't seen in a long time who will be here. YAY! So I better go to bed so I can wake up energized to make sushi and bake delicious pumpkin swirl brownies!! I love guests!!
Friday, November 11, 2011
11/11/11, 11:11 (pm)
Another date like today's only in 100 years.
I really like to look at all those ones, perfectly lined up. I missed posting at 11:11 am, but I couldn't let 11:11pm slide by, could I? I don't guarantee the 11 seconds, though! ;)
And today is not only an interesting looking day, but it's "Veterans day"* or "Remembrance day" in Canada.
I actually like the original day better: "Armistice Day" -- the day of the end of the war or armed race, celebrating the end of bloody World War I back in 1918. I was going to write more about this... but the day went by (I started this post in the morning) and now I'm racing against the clock to post on time. So... another lame post. :(
This weekend we're really excited about the visit of K3 (Klebert's younger brother) and his family! I will see my only niece for the second time! OK, one minute to go, gotta get this published. It's exciting, though, to make it on time and on the right day!! Making history (ha ha ha...) in this insignificant blog.
"In a thousand years..." mom, said my son. Is it a thousand or 100? I'm so bad in math!! Go!
* No apostrophe, as per the U.S. Government decision, the Wikipedia entry explains it.
I really like to look at all those ones, perfectly lined up. I missed posting at 11:11 am, but I couldn't let 11:11pm slide by, could I? I don't guarantee the 11 seconds, though! ;)
And today is not only an interesting looking day, but it's "Veterans day"* or "Remembrance day" in Canada.
I actually like the original day better: "Armistice Day" -- the day of the end of the war or armed race, celebrating the end of bloody World War I back in 1918. I was going to write more about this... but the day went by (I started this post in the morning) and now I'm racing against the clock to post on time. So... another lame post. :(
This weekend we're really excited about the visit of K3 (Klebert's younger brother) and his family! I will see my only niece for the second time! OK, one minute to go, gotta get this published. It's exciting, though, to make it on time and on the right day!! Making history (ha ha ha...) in this insignificant blog.
"In a thousand years..." mom, said my son. Is it a thousand or 100? I'm so bad in math!! Go!
* No apostrophe, as per the U.S. Government decision, the Wikipedia entry explains it.
(For future reference) Cool video to show my sons
Yeah, so now I'm officially using my blog as a "bookmark" for interesting stuff that I might otherwise forget about. I hope you don't mind.
I have mentioned before how my sons like to make elaborate train tracks with their plastic Thomas train sets, but I'm afraid that after they see this, they will want to try to do the same. And I obviously will have to tell them that we'll have to content ourselves with watching the video. Over and over again if needed. That's why I'm posting it to the blog to begin with. ;) Isn't it cool, though? (and there many more where this came from ;)
I have mentioned before how my sons like to make elaborate train tracks with their plastic Thomas train sets, but I'm afraid that after they see this, they will want to try to do the same. And I obviously will have to tell them that we'll have to content ourselves with watching the video. Over and over again if needed. That's why I'm posting it to the blog to begin with. ;) Isn't it cool, though? (and there many more where this came from ;)
Thursday, November 10, 2011
The word that you never, ever want to hear
I should have written "the diagnosis" instead of "the word," but I didn't want the title to be that obvious.
I'm talking about this word. And I cannot stop thinking about this and the family member that had to hear the diagnosis and let us know about it. (sigh)
I won't say more for now because I want to preserve this person's privacy. If you're the praying kind, prayers will be appreciated (and you can email me if you want to know more).
Edited to Add:
(1) It is a very rare, but eminently treatable type (it's so rare the entry is tiny... in fact, a survivor writes that it appears in 1 in a 2 1/2 million people, probably even more for this specific kind). And here comes "blogging to the rescue" again -- I'm sure reading this guy's blog will be helpful (if not for my relative, at least for me!).
Well... while writing this post (and a few emails) I continued reading Novak's blog and now I am wondering whether what our relative has is "high" or "low" grade (Novak's was "high grade" or stage 3, which required chemo). So far, relative's doctor talked only about radiation therapy (after a CT scan which Novak also had). So... maybe it's a low grade/stage one -- let's hope so! I will let you know later. So much to learn... wow.
(2) This is one more strong reason to go completely vegan.
I'm talking about this word. And I cannot stop thinking about this and the family member that had to hear the diagnosis and let us know about it. (sigh)
I won't say more for now because I want to preserve this person's privacy. If you're the praying kind, prayers will be appreciated (and you can email me if you want to know more).
Edited to Add:
(1) It is a very rare, but eminently treatable type (it's so rare the entry is tiny... in fact, a survivor writes that it appears in 1 in a 2 1/2 million people, probably even more for this specific kind). And here comes "blogging to the rescue" again -- I'm sure reading this guy's blog will be helpful (if not for my relative, at least for me!).
Well... while writing this post (and a few emails) I continued reading Novak's blog and now I am wondering whether what our relative has is "high" or "low" grade (Novak's was "high grade" or stage 3, which required chemo). So far, relative's doctor talked only about radiation therapy (after a CT scan which Novak also had). So... maybe it's a low grade/stage one -- let's hope so! I will let you know later. So much to learn... wow.
(2) This is one more strong reason to go completely vegan.
Wednesday, November 09, 2011
Worth Wild
First paper graded today and I find this gem -- I was going to type "jam" (am I (un)learning from my students of something?):
"She thought that it was not worth wild to study..."wow... worth wild. In all my years of paper grading I had never encountered that one! worth wild indeed!
Off with their balls!
I know, it's horrible to say that, but the neutering surgery for our kitties is scheduled for next Wednesday... I hope they have a quick recovery because we may be taking off on Friday or Saturday next week, since we have Thanksgiving week off!
In fact, I still need to find people to care for them while we're gone -- that's always one of the big stresses of having pets, isn't it? It was one of the big "Cons" in our list of pros & cons. I hope I can find someone!
A couple of pictures from October to make this post "less harsh." ;)
On the tree that had several branches fall off (not the one he's in, fortunately, since it's one of their favorite branches, but still, I think that climbing this tree won't be as fun for them anymore):
In fact, I still need to find people to care for them while we're gone -- that's always one of the big stresses of having pets, isn't it? It was one of the big "Cons" in our list of pros & cons. I hope I can find someone!
A couple of pictures from October to make this post "less harsh." ;)
Through the kitchen window: waiting patiently on the deck to be let back inside:
67
That's how many posts I still have to write until Dec. 31st to make my "noble goal" of posting more than last year... (not getting even close to my silly "new year's wish" of posting about 365 times this year -- ha, ha!)
In any case, I'll keep on trying. I have TONS of photos of food that I've been taking in the past few years with the intention of posting them to the blog. I am going to create a tab up top (let's see if it works with the current layout) titled "Food" or "Food Pics" or something and I will post selected photos, OK? Do you think it's a good plan?
OK, now I have to go grade papers. And I decided, after K's statement that he was out of white "undershirts" (t-shirts) while I was still laying in bed, that I'd do two loads of laundry. Not only that, but because today will be 68F (20F), I decided to hang the laundry outside... sigh... I know, just what I needed on a hyper busy day like today... have I mentioned that I'm organizing a Brazilian music event tonight at the university? and that K & I haven't been communicating enough, so he didn't even know that I'm the organizer of this and that what I mentioned to him last week about not scheduling anything for Wednesday night was for a good reason -- and now he'll be busy until a few minutes before the event (but I'll drop the boys off to him anyway!).
Wish me luck, especially with the grading (electronic feedback, Yikes!). ;)
In any case, I'll keep on trying. I have TONS of photos of food that I've been taking in the past few years with the intention of posting them to the blog. I am going to create a tab up top (let's see if it works with the current layout) titled "Food" or "Food Pics" or something and I will post selected photos, OK? Do you think it's a good plan?
OK, now I have to go grade papers. And I decided, after K's statement that he was out of white "undershirts" (t-shirts) while I was still laying in bed, that I'd do two loads of laundry. Not only that, but because today will be 68F (20F), I decided to hang the laundry outside... sigh... I know, just what I needed on a hyper busy day like today... have I mentioned that I'm organizing a Brazilian music event tonight at the university? and that K & I haven't been communicating enough, so he didn't even know that I'm the organizer of this and that what I mentioned to him last week about not scheduling anything for Wednesday night was for a good reason -- and now he'll be busy until a few minutes before the event (but I'll drop the boys off to him anyway!).
Wish me luck, especially with the grading (electronic feedback, Yikes!). ;)
Tuesday, November 08, 2011
Birthday Plans for Next Year (Note to Self)
I love to make plans. In the micro, minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour (sometimes day to day) level, my ADHD makes me the most disorganized and scattered person in the universe. I also dread having a routine or planning my day ahead of time, but as far as planning things weeks, months or years ahead are concern, I take great joy in careful planning and in anticipation of the event I'm looking forward to.
So... I've mentioned this event in my dissertation and I've always wanted to attend. The last time I went to a Book Fair (Bienal do Livro in São Paulo), I was in grade school (high school, maybe?) or... maybe in college already. An item in my "bucket list*" is to go to the Bologna Book Fair (the main one in the world for children's literature) and/or another prestigious one such as the Paris Book Fair. Of course, the most useful one for my research would be the Bienal do Livro of São Paulo -- Hey! I will actually BE in Brazil on the last weekend of this!! too bad we have to fly back... maybe we can push our flight back to Monday?!
FLIP (Paraty's International Literary "Feast") is the "coolest" literary event in Brazil (next year the most recent "darling" of U.S. literature is coming -- Jonathan Franzen), so it should be a nice event to go to. I don't know how much research and networking I could actually do there, but that doesn't really matter, does it? (And, after all, the possibilities are endless, no?).
So, should I try to find a friend (or friends) who could/would go with me while I celebrate my birthday attending FLIP? I'd love to leave the kids with my parents and go for a couple of days. Too bad that it must be pretty expensive to stay there in Paraty, not to mention the fact that I can't stand crowds -- but one can't have a fair without a crowd, right?
Food for thought. Now, as for the "biennial" in São Paulo? I will have to find a way to go to that, no matter what or how!
*I'm so "out of it" that I'd never heard of this term until my Brazilian-Canadian blogging friend G pointed it out to me in a comment in this blog.
So... I've mentioned this event in my dissertation and I've always wanted to attend. The last time I went to a Book Fair (Bienal do Livro in São Paulo), I was in grade school (high school, maybe?) or... maybe in college already. An item in my "bucket list*" is to go to the Bologna Book Fair (the main one in the world for children's literature) and/or another prestigious one such as the Paris Book Fair. Of course, the most useful one for my research would be the Bienal do Livro of São Paulo -- Hey! I will actually BE in Brazil on the last weekend of this!! too bad we have to fly back... maybe we can push our flight back to Monday?!
FLIP (Paraty's International Literary "Feast") is the "coolest" literary event in Brazil (next year the most recent "darling" of U.S. literature is coming -- Jonathan Franzen), so it should be a nice event to go to. I don't know how much research and networking I could actually do there, but that doesn't really matter, does it? (And, after all, the possibilities are endless, no?).
So, should I try to find a friend (or friends) who could/would go with me while I celebrate my birthday attending FLIP? I'd love to leave the kids with my parents and go for a couple of days. Too bad that it must be pretty expensive to stay there in Paraty, not to mention the fact that I can't stand crowds -- but one can't have a fair without a crowd, right?
Food for thought. Now, as for the "biennial" in São Paulo? I will have to find a way to go to that, no matter what or how!
*I'm so "out of it" that I'd never heard of this term until my Brazilian-Canadian blogging friend G pointed it out to me in a comment in this blog.
Monday, November 07, 2011
What's making me supremely guilty & anxious right now...
OK, I'm exaggerating... I'm happy, I'm fine, but I have this lingering guilty feeling in the back of my mind, ant the cause is...
... all the grading I haven't done and have yet to do. Last week I graded one batch of papers (except for 3 -- poor students!), but there are TWO more (one that they just submitted yesterday), plus four journals. (for 25 students)
The worst part is that I have this horribly lame -- but true -- excuse. The students submitted their papers online and I want to save paper & correct electronically (using track changes & comments) and including a rubric & the grade.
Problem is... that's exactly what I had to do with all my grading at that horrible torture of an online teaching job (for an affiliate of the really bad, awful, no good University of Phoenix). The "non-job" that I had for 9 nightmarish weeks back in Dec. 08-Feb 09.
Seriously... I have some mild PTSD symptoms related to online grading. Back then, I had 24 hours to respond to postings and 7 days to grade their papers. And I had two groups of 20 or 30 students each, I don't remember now, nor do I want to remember. It took forever, and it consumed my days and made me miserable.
In order to avoid my stress and anxiety just at the mere thought of giving electronic feedback (and now, only NOW I can tell how tough it must have been for my committee members to give me all that feedback on my dissertation. They just had to force themselves to do it. Thing is... a dissertation is quite interesting compared to boring students papers about similar topics) I printed out ALL of the papers myself, stapled the rubrics to them and grade, no problem. But I really wanted to save paper for the next ones, let's see if I'll be able to do it.
This is my plan for next year: I will require students to submit papers online so I can check for plagiarism AND then they will be required to print them out (together with the rubric which I'll give them ahead of time) and submit the hard copy to me. That way I can check the content and grade hard copies, what do you think?
See... grading itself is not the problem (though my procrastination is). I'm VERY used to grading. There was a semester when I was a T.A. when I graded no less than SIX HUNDRED papers (6 journals plus 4 autobiographical papers per student, total of 60 students). I got 2 incompletes (out of 3 classes), but I got the job done! :) But I have a feeling I have to stick to paper and pen to do it, at least for now!
... all the grading I haven't done and have yet to do. Last week I graded one batch of papers (except for 3 -- poor students!), but there are TWO more (one that they just submitted yesterday), plus four journals. (for 25 students)
The worst part is that I have this horribly lame -- but true -- excuse. The students submitted their papers online and I want to save paper & correct electronically (using track changes & comments) and including a rubric & the grade.
Problem is... that's exactly what I had to do with all my grading at that horrible torture of an online teaching job (for an affiliate of the really bad, awful, no good University of Phoenix). The "non-job" that I had for 9 nightmarish weeks back in Dec. 08-Feb 09.
Seriously... I have some mild PTSD symptoms related to online grading. Back then, I had 24 hours to respond to postings and 7 days to grade their papers. And I had two groups of 20 or 30 students each, I don't remember now, nor do I want to remember. It took forever, and it consumed my days and made me miserable.
In order to avoid my stress and anxiety just at the mere thought of giving electronic feedback (and now, only NOW I can tell how tough it must have been for my committee members to give me all that feedback on my dissertation. They just had to force themselves to do it. Thing is... a dissertation is quite interesting compared to boring students papers about similar topics) I printed out ALL of the papers myself, stapled the rubrics to them and grade, no problem. But I really wanted to save paper for the next ones, let's see if I'll be able to do it.
This is my plan for next year: I will require students to submit papers online so I can check for plagiarism AND then they will be required to print them out (together with the rubric which I'll give them ahead of time) and submit the hard copy to me. That way I can check the content and grade hard copies, what do you think?
See... grading itself is not the problem (though my procrastination is). I'm VERY used to grading. There was a semester when I was a T.A. when I graded no less than SIX HUNDRED papers (6 journals plus 4 autobiographical papers per student, total of 60 students). I got 2 incompletes (out of 3 classes), but I got the job done! :) But I have a feeling I have to stick to paper and pen to do it, at least for now!
Sunday, November 06, 2011
Happy Birthday, Daddy!
Feliz Aniversário, Papi!
Saturday, November 05, 2011
On the Stairs by the Front Door...
Why is it that, at least for us and our personal interactions with good friends, the best is always last?
(or... is it like that for most everything in life? and why am I so philosophical all of a sudden? Is this a side effect of having hours and hours of lovely, intellectually stimulating conversations with friends we don't see often enough?)
This feels good, though... this talking for two hours sitting (or standing up, even, like tonight) on the stairs by the front door. "Pretending" that the friends will leave soon because, you know... they must, but talking and talking a bit more until it's not just minutes anymore, but hours.
Experiencing this reminds me of the wonderful, amazing late night conversations that we had during the 5 years we were in college and had this incredible group of friends that met nearly every weekend -- that was back in São Paulo, Brazil, over 16 years ago and it still shapes our lives so strongly that sometimes I think it's just so sad that we're so far away from most of our friends from back then.
Why did we decide to move to another country again? And leave all those friendships behind? I sometimes ask myself... (I mean, they 're still there, but kind of "frozen" in time). When we can interact with people again on the same level all these years later again (finally!), I feel at peace with that decision. We wouldn't have met these new people hadn't we moved...
You know, it's hard, though. These past 15 years have been tough, and if it weren't for blogging, I would have given up on having friends and being happy in that part of my life as an expatriate person.
So I'm eternally thankful for these moments on the stairs. They mean the world to me.
(or... is it like that for most everything in life? and why am I so philosophical all of a sudden? Is this a side effect of having hours and hours of lovely, intellectually stimulating conversations with friends we don't see often enough?)
This feels good, though... this talking for two hours sitting (or standing up, even, like tonight) on the stairs by the front door. "Pretending" that the friends will leave soon because, you know... they must, but talking and talking a bit more until it's not just minutes anymore, but hours.
Experiencing this reminds me of the wonderful, amazing late night conversations that we had during the 5 years we were in college and had this incredible group of friends that met nearly every weekend -- that was back in São Paulo, Brazil, over 16 years ago and it still shapes our lives so strongly that sometimes I think it's just so sad that we're so far away from most of our friends from back then.
Why did we decide to move to another country again? And leave all those friendships behind? I sometimes ask myself... (I mean, they 're still there, but kind of "frozen" in time). When we can interact with people again on the same level all these years later again (finally!), I feel at peace with that decision. We wouldn't have met these new people hadn't we moved...
You know, it's hard, though. These past 15 years have been tough, and if it weren't for blogging, I would have given up on having friends and being happy in that part of my life as an expatriate person.
So I'm eternally thankful for these moments on the stairs. They mean the world to me.
Friday, November 04, 2011
Relatively Productive Day
I cooked two kinds of soup (minestrone and Caldo Verde* -- without the sausage) for the friends who came over tonight and I did some cleaning around the house, most importantly... cleaning out the fridge and taking all the recycling to the recycling station in town.
The boys didn't have school today (teacher-parent conferences... ours were last night), so they stayed home and mostly played on their ipod touch & ipad and... spent all afternoon involved in their latest obsession: paper airplanes! I wish I'd taken photos of the backyard, littered with paper airplanes! It was so bad that we had them pick them up at the end of the day.
Tomorrow night we're going to have a small "Fall gathering," I hope it'll be fun!
And blogging by "obligation" is boring isn't it? I'm sorry about that! Tonight I enjoyed the company of our friends, so blogging was not a priority at all as it is most nights when we don't have people over. OK, gotta go to bed!
*This is a typical Portuguese soup with a weak potato broth and, traditionally, chouriço sausages, but I'm refusing to link to any recipes in English because they are CLEARLY mistaken about the main ingredient -- it is NOT kale, which I love and which is delicious, but which tastes differently from collard greens, which is the original ingredient -- chopped very finely.
The boys didn't have school today (teacher-parent conferences... ours were last night), so they stayed home and mostly played on their ipod touch & ipad and... spent all afternoon involved in their latest obsession: paper airplanes! I wish I'd taken photos of the backyard, littered with paper airplanes! It was so bad that we had them pick them up at the end of the day.
Tomorrow night we're going to have a small "Fall gathering," I hope it'll be fun!
And blogging by "obligation" is boring isn't it? I'm sorry about that! Tonight I enjoyed the company of our friends, so blogging was not a priority at all as it is most nights when we don't have people over. OK, gotta go to bed!
*This is a typical Portuguese soup with a weak potato broth and, traditionally, chouriço sausages, but I'm refusing to link to any recipes in English because they are CLEARLY mistaken about the main ingredient -- it is NOT kale, which I love and which is delicious, but which tastes differently from collard greens, which is the original ingredient -- chopped very finely.
Thursday, November 03, 2011
Sunset
I should be posting photos on my other blog (the failed "project" to post photos once a day... sigh), but the only way I can post tonight is by sharing some photos. These were taken my husband on the day I photographed that waterfall.
I had selected and uploaded three more, but the browser, my crappy internet, whatever... failed, so more later, OK? Gotta go to bed...
Wednesday, November 02, 2011
Too Busy To Blog
I'm only 65 minutes late, but, really, I've got very good reasons! First, I stayed up grading until 2 am. Then, I prepared to teach and graded some more and went food shopping and picked the boys up and started dinner (5 of my students were coming over), but had to interrupt my cooking to take my youngest son to a make-up soccer game (because of the snow! in October!)...
Then it was a whirlwind of cooking and not being able to pick up my husband who walked a mile from a friend's house to ours.... and the students came (at 8:30 pm, they couldn't make it earlier), ate, and we talked until midnight. Then cleaned up until one.
Justified? Or not?
So... yeah. and I want to do more grading (still one more paper and 4 journal entries) because it's the greatest relief and the best sense of accomplishment ever. I wish that would be enough to make me a grading junkie. Whaaaa....? There's no such thing? Yeah, I don't think so... grading is always disagreeable, no matter what.
OK, gotta go to bed. And those poor students still need to do homework for my class tomorrow! At least they're well nourished!
Then it was a whirlwind of cooking and not being able to pick up my husband who walked a mile from a friend's house to ours.... and the students came (at 8:30 pm, they couldn't make it earlier), ate, and we talked until midnight. Then cleaned up until one.
Justified? Or not?
So... yeah. and I want to do more grading (still one more paper and 4 journal entries) because it's the greatest relief and the best sense of accomplishment ever. I wish that would be enough to make me a grading junkie. Whaaaa....? There's no such thing? Yeah, I don't think so... grading is always disagreeable, no matter what.
OK, gotta go to bed. And those poor students still need to do homework for my class tomorrow! At least they're well nourished!
Tuesday, November 01, 2011
11/1/11 Another Palindrome Date... And So Begins my 5th NaBloPoMo...
... but since I've been blogging once a day and up to five times a day for several weeks now, trying to partially fulfill one of my new year's resolutions, this year's NaBloPoMo will be "lamer" than usual.
In fact, if I posted daily or more than once a day like Katie Allison Granju, for example (wait a minute! she didn't post today yet...edited to add -- 7 minutes before I posted this, she published her post for today!), I wouldn't even need this special month of blogging. Ha! I'd even forgotten that I'd created a label for this intense blogging period, "Blogging Marathon 2011," but I've forgotten to label the posts... Blah!
Well, I have to stop now because I have 24 papers to grade. And then, 24 more after those are done, and then... 25X4 student blog posts to mark.
I've been planning to reward myself with this
when all this grading is done. Except that there's another paper due this coming Sunday, which guarantees that I'll never be caught up.
How crazy is it of me that I have decided to teach FORTY students next semester? (oh, is it because it turned forty? Nah... silly joke, you know it's because I need the money). :(
In any case, I'm excited about the palindrome date... 11/1/11, but the 11th will be even more exciting. I don't know exactly why, but I think these dates are really cool. I turned 6 on 7/7/77. And I wrote tons on 8/8/88. It's my inner geek, I guess.
Wish me luck in my grading. I need to go make some tea, and eat some chocolate, like Jo(e)!
In fact, if I posted daily or more than once a day like Katie Allison Granju, for example (wait a minute! she didn't post today yet...edited to add -- 7 minutes before I posted this, she published her post for today!), I wouldn't even need this special month of blogging. Ha! I'd even forgotten that I'd created a label for this intense blogging period, "Blogging Marathon 2011," but I've forgotten to label the posts... Blah!
Well, I have to stop now because I have 24 papers to grade. And then, 24 more after those are done, and then... 25X4 student blog posts to mark.
I've been planning to reward myself with this
when all this grading is done. Except that there's another paper due this coming Sunday, which guarantees that I'll never be caught up.How crazy is it of me that I have decided to teach FORTY students next semester? (oh, is it because it turned forty? Nah... silly joke, you know it's because I need the money). :(
In any case, I'm excited about the palindrome date... 11/1/11, but the 11th will be even more exciting. I don't know exactly why, but I think these dates are really cool. I turned 6 on 7/7/77. And I wrote tons on 8/8/88. It's my inner geek, I guess.
Wish me luck in my grading. I need to go make some tea, and eat some chocolate, like Jo(e)!
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