First corn of the summer

Not ours, unfortunately. But good nonetheless.
We're having friends over for dinner tomorrow, and I'm feeling completely uninspired about what to cook for them --- it's just friends with kids for dinner, not a dinner party, nothing special, but I'm still uninspired. However, in the store this morning, the corn looked reasonable, so I bought four ears, and this evening soaked it and grilled it until the husks were charred. We had leftover macaroni and cheese from a couple of nights ago, with grilled andouille sausage: lovely.

I can't believe we've not had fresh corn before now: I think it is partly because we planted a bunch of it, and we've been waiting (and waiting) for that to be ready: but it's still a few weeks to go, so we've gotten started without it:-)

Yours, feeling corny,
N.

Last day of origami

Today was my last origami club meeting, probably ever. It seemed almost fitting that most of the students didn't show up (the running club had an ice-cream social, with which it was almost impossible to compete!) but most of the core group was there: it made for a nice, peaceful, successful club meeting. They were very grateful for the materials I brought for them to ensure that the club has a chance to continue in the new academic year --- I'll possibly turn up a couple of times to encourage them, to make sure that they are going, but essentially, I think that they can continue on their own.

Yours, feeling like a proud parent, even though they're not my kids,
N.

I have my laptop back:-)

As of about 6 this evening, I have my laptop back! I've spent the time since then catching up on all the things that were inconvenient to do on my other machine over the past few days (and cooking, eating, listening to Boo read, and reading to both Boo and Skibo). Okay, it was a quiet couple of days!

Yours, relieved,
N.

Inspiring with origami

I showed some of my origami to a few students this afternoon -- and they came away impressed: one of them immediately (and successfully!) tried to deconstruct a few folds, and reconstruct them for herself. Quite amazing!

As a result, I think that we may get a mini origami club going during the summer program --- to make me miss the old club less:-)

Yours, folding them under my wings,
N.

Not a fan

Well, more precisely, it's not that I am not a fan of something (melon, say) or someone (McCain, Clinton). No, it's that my computer's fan is broken. And so they are going to replace it. But every piece of replacement equipment they have in stock is "not a fan", and so I have to wait until DHL delivers the replacement to the computer repair centre.
I am hopeful that it will be in tomorrow --- though I have to leave by about 1 in order to get to the origami club in time: and since tomorrow is the final meeting before I teach at a different school, I'd like to be on time.

So I suspect I'll be working with this laptop for a few days more.

Yours, feeling dislocated,
N.

My old computer still works...

That's a relief: I took my current laptop in to support this morning (the fan is making a loud rattling sound, and doesn't seem to be cooling the machine properly --- so I'm hoping they'll replace the fan): and it took them all day to decided that it wasn't working right. The noise it was making was, admittedly, sporadic, so this is not so surprising.
As a consequence I'm using my old laptop, which I discovered works fine -- except for the fact that over the past couple of weeks, it has forgotten all my firefox settings: no more list of blogs, no more auto-sign-ins, no remembering who I am or how I got there, etc.

Still, I was able to remember enough to get here, and from here I can make it to some of the blogs I like....

Yours, only slightly lost,
N.

Skibo's un-birthday

Skibo's celebration of his birthday at the school was absolutely lovely. It was the first such ceremony I'd been able to attend, and I came away delighted with their traditions.
To start with, he got to pick two friends who would fetch a sun (a candle atop a stylistic sun) and sticks with the months written on them: his teacher handed him the sticks in turn, starting with his birth month (first making it clear to all that although it wasn't his birthday, we were going to help him celebrate, since his birthday takes place when school is not in session: she handled this aspect beautifully). Skibo placed the month sticks around the sun, and then picked up a globe, and placed it on the mat.
His teacher then proceeded to tell the class about him, what he had done in each of the years of his life, and for each year, he got to walk the globe that many times around the sun.

The ceremony ended with Skibo sitting on my lap, and all the children telling him what they'd like to give him (imaginary gifts), ranging from a red bicycle, transformers, and a bow and arrow, to "all the happiness", to "anything he wants"!

I came away really feeling good about the school, how they do things (for example, with twenty or so students in the class, they get to hear the months of the year recited many times throughout the year, and not always starting with January -- they really get a sense of January follows December in a circle, not just the linear version we teach as rhyme).

I can see LOML and me sitting down in a few months, deciding where we can save, and how we can earn more, to send the children back to the Montessori school....

Yours, proud of Skibo,
N.

Happy (?) Memorial Day

Today is Memorial Day here in the US: and people have been wishing each other "Happy Memorial Day" all day long. Seems a strange sentiment, for a day with such a sombre and solemn purpose: to remember those who died (I believe that it was originally intended to be those who had died in foreign wars, but here in the south it may have been combined with Confederate Memorial Day too).

Tomorrow is Skibo's birthday celebration (since his birthday will fall during the summer vacation, his class celebrates it before the end of the semester): and finally I'll get to attend one of these events. It's going to be a bit strange, though: it sounds like they'll all wish him a happy birthday (no presents, mind) and that will be weird, with his actually birthday more than a couple of months away!

Yours, confused, in advance,
N.

The surprising thing would be...

....if there were no coincidences at all....


I just discovered that I crowed a little early when I noted that I had over 700 posts. I just checked the dashboard, and compared it to the drafts I have sitting unpublished (just a handful: mainly some stories I have made up for Boo and Skibo which I need to write up/down) and discovered that I didn't, in fact, have over 700 posts. I had exactly 700 posts. How coincidental:-)

Yours, untroubled by coincidences
N.

Happy blogiversary to me

A year ago I decided it might be fun to blog. And I did. And it was.
Over seven hundred posts and even more words later, it still is.


Yours, in celebration,
N.

Good news on the canape front

For those of us in the grocery-wilderness (read rural-ish south east US), there is good news on the canape front: Pepperidge Farms is now selling small puff pastry shells (24 to a box, which is just about how many I was able to construct at great expense of time from a similar sized box of puff pastry): finally, vol au vents are constructible as a quick and easy party canape!

Yours, puffed up,
N.

An open letter to Mrs Clinton

Of course, I don't expect it to come to her attention, since I'm posting it, not sending to her...

Dear Mrs Clinton,
It is entirely possible that something awful could happen to a candidate: speaking as a voter who cast a ballot for Edwards early on, and is now supporting Obama, there are many of us who, in a repetition of such unhappy circumstances as you alluded to today with your RFK remarks, would be more than happy with the party choosing a candidate, possibly one not still in the race. I would, in particular, be quite comfortable under those circumstances to see a Gore/Edwards ticket.
Or, if you insist, perhaps a Gore/Clinton ticket. But after your remarks, I think that I would be very reluctant now to see you at the top of the ticket.

Yours, more than outraged with the way you put it, whatever you meant,
N!

McCain's Hagee problem

So McCain has renounced Hagee, insisting that he didn't know that Hagee was so full of stupid ideas as the past few weeks have shown to be the case.
I have a question: before you aggressively pursue the endorsement of a religious leader like Hagee or Parsley, wouldn't it be worthwhile to spend a little time finding out if they have said anything that oppo-research might jump on????

Yours, in be/a-musement,
N.

Lessons

"Boo, how was school today?"
"Good."
"What did you do?"
"Magic E work"
"What's that?"
"We put down cards with letters on, and when we put an E at the end it makes the middle letter say its name."


What a lovely explanation!

Yours, enjoying every minute,
N.

Roses

LOML planted some rose bushes earlier this spring: this is a shot after a spring rainfall a couple of weeks ago.

Yours, with growing admiration,
N.

Centre Stage

cue the roses...

Yours, watching her in the limelight
N

Best friends walking home

After the fire station community appreciation day...


Yours, in friendship,
N.

Saying goodbye to the helicopter

at the fire station's community appreciation day...

Yours, appreciating the joy,
N.

Spending time with the children

This morning I spent a couple of hours at the school, in Boo and Skibo's classrooms: it was interesting in Boo's class to see the sorts of work she does -- the "short four chains" and "short three chains" especially: and watching her work with the manipulables was really interesting: it gives me an insight into how she is learning.
She also chose to read three little books to me (we've slipped up on her reading at home over the past couple of weeks): the first book she was a little hesitant, but as she regained confidence she got better and better and smoother and smoother.
Skibo was fun: he wanted me to read to him, so I did: a couple of long books: and halfway through the first one of his friends came over and kept giving shy sidelong glances as if he wanted to listen too: so I asked him if he wanted to sit down and join us, and he did.
Skibo also showed me some of his work, in particular the pink tower and the brown stairs: but he just wanted to show me the stuff, not actually sit down and show me the work he performed with the stuff!

Yours, booked for joy,
N.

Let's not talk to our enemies

let's share lobbyists with them instead....

McCain is so certain that Bush is right, that talk leads to appeasement, which leads World War II, and therefore Obama is dangerous: yet he's now had five lobbyists resign their posts on his campaign in less than a couple of weeks: and the people that they were lobbying for were about as bad as the folks he insists we shouldn't talk to: so instead of cutting out the middle man, he things we should, together with our adversaries, hire the same middle men?

Yours, bemused,
N.