Tiny Squares

So a while back, we had gone to New Jersey and taken a hike in the woods. We wore long pants and sleeves, and checked ourselves carefully for ticks on our return. No ticks.

We stayed the weekend in New Jersey, and returned home. The morning after our return, I was in the shower, and noticed what looked like a poppy seed on my right hip bone. Hmmm. I went to brush it off, and it stayed put. Giving it a little tug, it came off. I put it on the ledge in my shower, not thinking too much about it. When I had toweled off, I gave it a peek - still looked like a poppy seed. After placing it on a pice of paper, lo and behold, it started moving. Yuck. Mind you, this is a full 3 days after our hike in the woods...

So I bagged up the little offender, and we gave each other a very careful once over. No ticks.

Next morning, I woke up, and decided to give the spot where the tick had been a look to see if the bite had done anything. The bite was fine, but I was horrified to discover a poppy seed about 2 inches to the right of where the first one had been. And on further inspection, he had a little friend on the other side of my waist as well. Hmmmm.

So we bagged my new little friends, and gave everybody a check. The Professor and Big Trouble remained uninhabited, but Miss Serious also had a little friend, which got its own special bag. We delivered all of the bags to our respective doctors for testing, and tried to figure out what exactly was happening. I decided to vacuum the heck out of the apartment,  and wash everything that was washable. And then we thought of the dog.

The dog had stayed the weekend with friends who have a backyard while we were away. so our first thought was that he had gotten ticks from the yard and brought them home to visit. We took him to the vet, and decided to toss out many of the items that he liked to sleep on, one of which was the sock yarn blanket I had made. To be fair, it did have several squares that had rips in them, because some of the yarn I used wasn't sock yarn and wasn't as strong as the others. Three hundred dollars later, we learned that the dog had no ticks, and I immediately regretted getting rid of the blanket, as well as having given all those dollars to the vet.

So, a couple of weeks ago, I decided to start another one:

I've been working on it for a while, and now it looks like this:

It's nowhere near as big as the one I tossed, but hopefully it will be someday. And of course, tick free.

Father Time

As all of us are, I am getting older.  It doesn't bother me, and I'm not really doing anything to counteract it.  My hair has lots of white in it, which I don't dye.  I claim it's because I want to grow old gracefully, but it's really that I'm both lazy and cheap - I only get my hair cut once or twice a year - can you imagine the fabulousness of my roots if I dyed it?  I actually had a woman compliment me on my "highlights" and ask me if they were natural.   Ummm, yeah!  I thought she was joking, but she was looking at me rather earnestly with her 20-year old face, so I simply said they were.  Once when I was substituting in a 1st grade class, a little boy walked up to me and said, "You know, your hair is really different - some is brown and some is white."  The other 1st graders decided this was worth a look, and I was the object of wonder for several minutes - where I live you don't see much gray hair (you also see a lot of fake body parts, but that's a different post).

That all being said, I went into Fairway last week, and along with my groceries I bought a six-pack of beer.  As part of the cheapness thing mentioned earlier, I keep track of our spending, so a few days later I was typing the info from the receipt into Quicken.  And I noticed something odd on the receipt - where the beer purchase was listed, it had a birthday keyed in.  Apparently in this store you need to ask the patron their birthday and key it in when they make an alcohol purchase.  I don't expect to get carded, as I have long ago passed the age where anyone would think I am below the drinking age.  However, I am not a fan when the cashier simply picks an arbitrary birthday for me and punches it in to the register.

Especially when the birthday is 2 years too early. It's enough to make your hair go white...

Summer summer summer summer summer summer

Yes, it is indeed summer!  My last days of school were this week, and my classroom has been packed up and cleared out.  My job ended, but as it was a leave replacement for the year, I wasn't exactly blindsided by that fact.  I was, however, really sad to leave.  It was such a wonderful place to work, and the people I worked with were fabulous.  I loved working there, and it was really hard to drive away for the last time.

The good news is I have a new job.  The bad news is that it's another leave replacement for a year.  But, with education tanking left and right, I'm thrilled to have a job at all.  It's in a great district, the school is beautiful, and the people I'm working with seem terrific.  All in all, a good start.

The kids are home from school and enjoying the beginning of summer.  It's not too hot out, so we can all enjoy the nice weather without melting in our little apartment.  Not a bad way to begin (except, of course, for the piles of junk I dragged home from my classroom and haven't yet dug through...).

Sleeping Under the Stars

Well, the pretend stars.  Last night Big Trouble and The Professor had their very own version of Night at the Museum.  Big Trouble's Boy Scout Troop (and apparently every other little boy in America) had a sleepover at the Museum of Natural History in NYC.  The Professor is Big Trouble's adult for all things Boy Scout (you have to have a background check now, and as they only check one guardian, said guardian is the one who goes on all the activities), so he accompanied.

Apparently, a lovely time was had by all, although apparently not a lot of sleeping was done.  Big Trouble usually drops off by 8:30 at the latest, and lights out was 11:45 last night, with the museum staff issuing a firm wake-up call at 7:00 am.  Needless to say this has made for a bleary-eyed Big Trouble today, who has not been able to muster up the energy for much trouble at all.

They got to walk around the exhibits at night after the museum closed, saw a raptor show, had a late-night IMAX movie, saw Fossils by Flashlight, and got to sleep in the Hall of Planet Earth.  This was part of Big Trouble's Christmas present (sleepovers at the museum don't come cheap, I'm afraid....), and he seemed to be truly excited.  I could tell, because he was voluntarily trying to carry their items out to the car, rather than claiming that he was having to do it "against his will."  (Big Trouble claims he has to do a lot of things against his will.  I tell him my whole life is against my will, but he doesn't seem to grasp this....)

Miss Serious and I stayed home and enjoyed a dinner out and a movie in (and got to sleep in our own beds).   Merry Christmas, Big Trouble!

Goodbye

Though it may be very natural for some people, it is extremely hard for me to write about my life when it is sad.  I had planned to write this blog more often this year, but I usually try to keep a humorous outlook on my life and family. I guess if all someone wrote about in a journal were the happy stories, you would never get a true picture of their life.  When Miss Serious was very young, my parents took her picture as she was pitching a fit in her high chair – she was shocked at the ensuing image of herself.  Previously she had only seen a cute, smiling Miss Serious, and this was not the picture she had in her mind of what she looked like.

On Monday, my mother called with the news that my grandmother had passed away.  We knew she was ill, and she was 87 – by all accounts that is a very long time to live.  But her mother lived to be 100, and as my grandmother was always healthy and a rather sassy broad, we expected nothing but the same from her.  Her decline was fast and of a speed that was unexpected. She had family around her at all times, and was at peace at the end.  We all knew she would not have wanted to linger and be in pain. 

But I’ve discovered that all those things don’t make it any less sad.  When I got to work on Monday, a colleague asked me how my weekend was.  I was still so thrown by the news that I just blurted out that my grandmother died this morning.  He asked me how old she was, and when I told him 87, he responded, “Well, that was a really long life.  Good for her.”  He is a kind, well-meaning person.  I know words much like those have come out of my mouth again and again.  They were not what I wanted to hear. 

I’ve realized that it doesn’t matter that you’re old, or that you had been given a diagnosis and those around you knew it was terminal.  It doesn’t make the people who love you feel anything other than sad.  And it doesn’t make them miss you any less.  And I know that I won’t use those words to anyone ever again.

We love you Grandma, and will miss you.  You were outspoken and opinionated and funny.  You could squeeze a nickel until it screamed and knit beautiful blankets for my babies.  You helped teach me to drive and to make perfect French Toast.  I still sleep under the lovely bedspread you embroidered for us when we got married.  We looked through all your old pictures and celebrated your life.  And we were happy and sad, and will be for a long time.  It was a long life, but now I know it will never be long enough.

Clearing out the Cobwebs...

Even though this place looks so dusty and unused because I haven't set foot in it since beginning my job, I'm going to try to get back on the blogging wagon.  Math and fifth graders have taken over my life for a bit, but now that I have a few months under my belt, I'm ready to get back into the habit of thinking about other things once in a while.

Work has been AWESOME, and this job is everything I could hope for (except, of course, the whole temporary thing).  I love my classroom, the kids are fabulous, and I even played in the school concert with the fifth grade band.  I've also been saddened by the prospect of having to job-hunt again in a few short months, but you can't have everything, right?

We all enjoyed Christmas, and the blizzard was an interesting surprise.  It upset our travel/family plans a little, but all in all it was more exciting than anything else.  After having no snow, a whole pile was dropped on us at once, and the kids have been enjoying the whole thing.  Not being a fan of the cold, I could do with it all melting and not snowing again for the season, but I'm pretty sure that isn't going to happen.  My body doesn't handle cold well, a fact that was documented scientifically yesterday at the NY Hall of Science.  This was a cool camera that detected your heat levels, and showed them on the screen.  I'm standing between the kids, and now have objective proof that I get REALLY cold, and this is in a well-heated museum (my gigundo blue muppet nose is especially fetching, I think):

Stay warm, and Happy New Year!

Through the Eyes of a Child

As the first day of school is approaching at an incredibly fast (and frightening) speed, I've been trying to acclimate my summer (read lazy) body to getting up earlier.  As I will be teaching in a middle school, the day starts early (kids arrive at 7:40), and as it's about 40 minutes away, my day will need to start quite a bit earlier than I'm accustomed to.

Thus, I've started trying to drag myself out of bed early, and setting my alarm back about 15 minutes every couple of days.  What I find fascinating is that no matter how early I get up, Big Trouble is already awake and sitting on the couch watching PBS (being the cheap frugal family that we are, his early morning choices are limited to morning news shows or the children's offerings on PBS).  He greets me with a happy smile, and I try to do the same, though I admit it's a struggle.

I've been feeling cranky and rather put-out that I have to get up early (while inside I know I should just be thrilled to have a job to get up for, my outside is TIRED), and as my classroom is a frightening mess, I've been going in to the school quite a bit.  Apparently, all the teachers from last year were so happy to no longer have to teach math that it seems they took ALL their math materials - I'm talking old photocopies, textbook series that haven't been used for 10 years, etc. - and dumped them in my room.  This week has been spent digging through everything, boxing up all the junk, and sending it to the vast abyss of storage.

When I got up yesterday and shuffled into the kitchen, Big Trouble followed me.  He stood in the doorway and announced with shining eyes and a supremely happy voice, "I love it when the light looks like this - it makes the whole kitchen orange! I wonder if the bathroom looks this way?" and he raced over to the bathroom to confirm that it, too, was bathed in orange light.

I couldn't have been more struck about what a different way this was to start the day.  Instead of lamenting that I have to get up with (or before) the sun, I could cherish the way it surrounds my kitchen in soft, beautiful light that can't be seen any other time of the day, and that this is a special moment I get to share with my seven year old son.

I can't say it will make me happy about getting up at 5:30, but I'm working on it.  Thanks, Big Trouble. 

And Now For Something Completely Different...

A couple of weeks ago, we took the kids to the NY Renaissance Faire; I wanted to write about it sooner, but it's taken me this long to recover.

I've never been to a Renaissance Faire - I thought it would be something like Old Williamsburg, with historical re-enactors and authentic buildings.  I was wrong.

Apparently, I'm the only one laboring under this misapprehension.  I also didn't realize that everyone and his brother would be going to the Renaissance Faire.  When we got there, we parked on a huge field labeled Lot Number 3, which was already almost full, and took a Shuttle bus to the fairgrounds, since there were already a zillion cars parked and the original parking lots were full. As we got out of the car, I noticed several people walking with us to the shuttle bus dressed in full Renaissance garb.  I assumed they were late to work.  Again, I was wrong.

We got to the fairgrounds, paid our pricey admission (but the kids were free that week-end, so it evened out ok), and started to walk.  I'm not sure how long the fair has been going on, but I think many of the buildings and all of the signage have been in use since the beginning.  Everything was a bit kitschy, and not exactly what one would call historically accurate - pretty much someone's version of what he thought the Renaissance may have been like, possibly under the influence of some sort of alcoholic substance, and certainly without much help from any reference books....

As we were walking, I started to realize something - we were surrounded by LOTS of people in Renaissance garb, some of them wearing such odd items as pointy elf ears to round out their flowing capes, and wildly tight and inappropriate Renaissance-style bustiers.  I quietly mentioned to The Professor that there seemed to be an awful lot of people dressed up, and was surprised that they had so many workers/volunteers.  He looked at me somewhat oddly, and informed me that they were all just fair-goers like us.  I was floored - so apparently this is a big deal - people have their own Renaissance outfits at home and slap them on in billion degree weather to walk around the Renaissance Faire.  I spent the rest of the afternoon in a state of shock and confusion, the remnants of which are still lurking in the corners of my mind.

There was lots of stuff to see, and the kids had a great time.  They got to see a joust, a crazy performer named Dextre Tripp who did wild things like juggling with a chain saw and strapping fireworks to his chest, saw some neat birds of prey, watched a glassblower, and generally enjoyed themselves.

Now I have to convince Miss Serious that we don't actually need matching Renaissance capes...

Don't Cry....

I am a simple woman with simple needs.  I don't consider myself high-maintenance (or maybe I'm fooling myself like in Harry Met Sally), and I don't ask for much out of life.  When Friday rolls around, I'm happy that the working week has come to a close (even if the concept of sleeping in on a Saturday has been missing 'round these parts for, oh, about 9 years), and ask for very little - an easy-to-prepare dinner, some English comedies on PBS, maybe a tasty dessert.

What I don't enjoy on a Friday night is a really odd sound coming from the direction of my kitchen followed by a slightly hysterical, "Help!" called out in the tones that only a nine-year-old with a big problem can muster.

Now, when I'm in the center of my apartment, I'm only about 10 or 20 feet from the opposite end, and The Professor and I made the short trip from the comparative serenity of the living room to the kitchen in record time.

The scene which confronted us was distinctly unexpected and horrifying - my kitchen is pretty much all white (cabinets, tile floor, appliances), but it had attained an extra veneer of shiny whiteness because of the FULL GALLON of milk that was currently streaming quickly across my tiles in a race to get under all the appliances where it could stay in milky goodness and produce a smell that would surely force us to leave our home after 2 hot days.

Leaping into action (as opposed to Miss Serious, who stood in the center of this puddle holding the now-empty and exploded milk container as if transfixed by the beauty of the stream surrounding her), we grabbed all the bath towels we have and threw them down on the milk, jumping up and down on them in some sort of maniacal tribal dance so they could absorb for all they were worth.  Tobie helped out on the hardwood floor in the hallway, and took care of the overflow....

The floor, having been towel-dried, steam-cleaned, and wiped down with cleaner on hands and knees is now dry and no longer sticky.  The towels were taken to the basement and washed, and Miss Serious seems to have recovered.  The Professor and I treated ourselves to a beer and called it a night.

This is one of the things no one ever tells you about parenting - that some night, when you least expect it, your kid is going to drop an entire gallon of milk on the kitchen floor, and since you're the grown-up, you have to fix it.  Just like scraped knees, high fevers, and questions about why that woman in Costco has so many kids - no one will be taking care of it for you.

Luckily the fix was quick, we seems to have caught the milk before it went under the stove, and this particular gallon of milk happened to be a cheap gallon from Costco as opposed to the frighteningly expensive organic stuff.

See - simple needs.  Now if only I had some milk for my coffee....

Back to Reality

Well, we're back from Cape Cod, and I think I've recuperated from vacation.  It always seems like it will be restful, but by the end of the week, I'm always pretty zapped (as everyone else seemed to be, as well).  Now we've been home a couple of days, washed all the clothes, brushed the sand off the suitcases, and tucked them away.  I caught up on some sleep, and even though it was rather a shock to come back to the heat (REALLY tired of this, by the way), I'm starting to get my bearings again.

As usual, a lovely time was had by all; the kids were more interested in water this year, so we spent a little more time at the beach and pond.  We did get to the Sandwich Glass Museum and the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History, both of which were interesting (although we did have an orthodontic emergency at the Museum of Natural History - Miss Serious popped off a bottom brace, leading to a hanging wire - luckily the staff was able to dig up a wire cutter for us, the wire was clipped, and they even gave her a turtle magnet for bravery).  We even hit the yarn store and picked up some lovely yarn for hats and socks - just what I want to think of when it's 95 degrees outside....

Tying Up Loose Ends....

As we will be leaving for Cape Cod tomorrow at the crack of dawn (NOT my most favorite time of the day), I've been packing all the necessaries and sundries for our vacation (you know - snacks, wine...) and trying to make sure everything that needs to get done (i.e. paying the mortgage) gets finished before we drive off into the sunrise. 

We've been going to the Cape for a few years now, and learned a valuable lesson about departure times on our first trip.  We left our home at a decent hour, drove blissfully up the highway towards our lovely destination, and landed smack-dab into some of the stinkiest traffic I have ever experienced (and as I'm from Long Island, that's saying something).  Turns out there are only two skinny little bridges that lead to Cape Cod, and everyone who is renting a cottage (pretty much all of the cars on the road) rent from Saturday to Saturday, thus requiring everyone in the world to proceed over those two little bridges at the exact same time.  We reckoned we learned from our mistake, and vowed to leave really early next year.

What didn't occur to us (and The Professor and I have a FRIGHTENING amount of schooling under our belts....) was that everyone would also be leaving Cape Cod at the exact same time on the following Saturday.  This become horrifyingly apparent as we sat in the traffic going the other direction in our attempt to leave - and this time around I had definitely lost my sense of humor.  At the time, Big Trouble was just a toddler, and Miss Serious was probably 3.  After spending a week in a small cabin trapped with these little people, I was yearning for some quiet time.  Unfortunately, Miss Serious took this opportunity to talk the entire way home.  If there's a way to make lots of traffic and a long drive even more unpleasant, that would be it.  I think when we got home I went in my room and forbid everyone to talk to me for an hour, but that just may have been wishful thinking...

I have taken a little break from the sock yarn blanket, as it has just been too hot to have it draped across my lap, but I did finish the perfect article for a hot July - wool socks - don't hit the beach without them!  They're made with Adirondack Bearfoot Mountain colors, and are wonderfully soft. 

And, because it's not warm enough in here and I thought heating the place up with the oven would be a good idea (totally worth it though), I made some lime squares (just a lemon square recipe, but I had some limes, and thought they would be good - they were REALLY good), and a coffee cake. 

The coffee cake recipe is from Martha Stewart and uses an obscene amount of butter and sugar in the crumbs, but the resulting ratio of crumbs to cake (about 2:1) is truly genius. 

If only I could figure out why my shorts have been feeling snug?  I must be retaining water because of the heat....

Summer is Rolling Along

We're almost at the end of July, and I am, as usual, stunned and amazed how fast the summer goes.  As soon as the kids get out of school, it seems like there's all the time in the world, and then next thing you know it's August, and the time starts ticking in earnest.  We have to get out school supply lists (I passed on buying the pre-packaged school supplies from the PTA this year - it was going to end up costing around $60, and as I'm pretty sure the pencils aren't made out of gold, that seems a tad excessive).

We just got back from a whirlwind trip to Boston - we met some friends there (who are actually from here); they unfortunately had a sick child and had to leave early, but we really enjoyed our time with them while we could. We went to the Museum of Science (so awesome - I can't recommend it enough - there is absolutely something for everyone there), walked A LOT of The Freedom Trail (and it was hot, so it definitely seemed like more), and went to the Harvard Natural History Museum.

A quick trip, but we squeezed in a lot, and now are all pretty zapped and needing a quiet day to recover (or at least I am - the kids are bouncing around pretty good).  We go to Cape Cod on Saturday, so I guess we also need to wash some clothes, unless I could talk everyone into wearing their bathing suits for a week....

Not Dead...

but I have been uncharacteristically quiet.  I've been doing lots of professional development at MY NEW SCHOOL (still awfully exciting!!), and my brain has been unable to focus when I'm home because the heat turned me into a soggy puddle of stupidity.  This last couple of weeks have just about done me in, and I was ready to grab an air conditioner (or three!), but The Professor stayed strong and we are still air conditioner free.  It is rather distressing and disheartening, however, that we're trying so hard to be green by not using a tiny window air conditioner while every day the news greets me with how many days bajillions of gallons of oil have been pouring into the Gulf of Mexico...

Despite the heat, we've been busy and enjoying the summer.  We visited some family in PA and had a lovely time - we hit Longwood Gardens which is just too beautiful for words - this is Big Trouble and me kicking back and enjoying the peaceful gorgeousness of it all.

I've been working on my blanket (even finished another sock), and trying to read all my math books.  I got to see the classroom I'll be in, which was really neat.  It's such a change to work for a wealthy district - when I taught upstate, I had to buy tons of supplies myself, including a rug for my classroom (which a fifth grader promptly vomited on). 

During our writing training this week, a couple of books were mentioned which would be good resources.  I promptly wrote them down in my little notebook to check out from the library, but then the principal asked who wanted them, and will order sets for each of us.  A far cry from me having to give lessons to my fourth graders on how to properly use tissues so as not to waste the small supply we had of them.....

Well, there wasn't wine...

but there were lots of happy third graders.   And tons of food, sprinklers, games, hula-hoops, and t-shirt decorating.  It was a lovely afternoon, and the weather decided to cooperate.  The potato salad got all eaten up, so I guess it was a hit.  The kids got t-shirts with the school name to decorate using fabric markers.  Some kids started having the others sign their t-shirts, and next thing you know, they were all running around collecting everyone's names.  All except Miss Serious.  That girl definitely has her own drummer, and is amazingly confident to follow her own way.  She created a very careful design, and worked diligently to make it as neat and symmetrical as humanly possible, until another child unwittingly wrote his name on her pristine shirt, assuming that she was collecting signatures like everyone else.  She managed to contain the scream of horror that I saw flash across her eyes, and was able to disguise the signature with a stripe (which she matched on the other side, of course).  Crisis averted.

I've been continuing to knit on the sock yarn blanket, although it's really not a great summer project - having a wool blanket covering your lap while working is not exactly geared to 90 degree weather.  I think I might have to go back to socks (and then I'll have more yarn to knit on the blanket......).

The kids have some birthday parties coming up, so I also put together a couple of cards.  I got a cartridge for my Cricut with some really cute designs, so thought I'd try out a few.  It helps that I'm trying to avoid working on teaching stuff - my job is now official, so I have started digging through some math books.  Although it seems far away, it will be the first day of school before I know it, so I need to hit the books.  It's time to play are you smarter than a fifth grader for real....

Summertime...

and the living is busy!  Even though the calendar says it's not yet summer, the thermometer begs to differ.  Especially last week, when we all sweated through some frighteningly hot & humid days.  Being on the fourth (and top) floor, we tend to get pretty toasty up here, and there are times when I definitely regret our green resolve in giving away our air conditioners.  However, the really awful days are very few, and we know if we kept the air conditioners, we would definitely be tempted to use them on a more regular basis.  Not good for the environment, and not good for our electric bill! 

We also decided to try to make some more inroads in both these areas by investing in a new refrigerator.  We had planned to do this a while back, but like many projects we start here at Chez Necessity, we lost some of our mojo partway through the researching process, and it languished.   However, our old fridge is now rusting and dripping, so we decided to get moving.

Unfortunately, like many things, this was easier said than done. NY State is offering a rebate program if you replace an existing appliance with an Energy Star product.  This rebate goes up if you can prove that it was recycled.  The recycling bit was the difficult part, because Home Depot told us that they simply crush the appliance they remove rather than recycling it.  So, we dug a little deeper, tracked down some local appliance stores, and for just a little more money were able to get the refrigerator we wanted and have our old one recycled, allowing us to get the full rebate.  When The Professor dug up the serial number on the old fridge for the application, we discovered that it was from 1987 - a good run, I think, but as it seems to run all the time and the top gets really hot, we should hopefully be seeing a lower electric bill in a month or two.  Now we have a couple of days to dig out all the collected nonsense that has managed to find a home in my fridge and freezer (I'm always amazed what I find when I start digging). 

Miss Serious is having her class picnic today (and sadly it's a bit gloomy outside, but third graders don't seem to care), and I've been assigned potato salad.  I never liked potato salad until I found this recipe (I think it's from my mother's neighbor), and even The Professor (who firmly dislikes potato salad) will eat it.  And, it's easy.  The recipe is:

Red Potatoes
Red Onion (about 1/4 - 1/2, finely chopped)
Chopped Parsley
Mayonnaise
Salt and Pepper

Cook the red potatoes until tender (not too soft, or you get mashed potatoes - ask me how I know!), and cool.  Cut them up, leaving on the skins.  Add the rest of the ingredients, and mix.  I find it's even better the second day, but it's pretty tasty right away, too!  Now it's off to the third grade picnic - including sprinklers, t-shirt decorating, and a large group of loud, excited 9 year olds.  Do you think there's any possibility of wine being served.........?

Billions and Billions of Years Ago...

I know, not billions, but it seems like it!  Last month Big Trouble had his science fair, and he did a wonderful job. He decided to do the Solar System, and seemed to have a good time with it.  We try to only offer guidance for these things, as it's a science fair for first graders and not their parents. I pick up the necessary supplies, type what he wants on the computer, and guide him to non-pornographic websites (it is horrifying what comes up when kids try to search on Google).

 Not everyone seems to hold this view, however, and there were some rather spectacular examples of parental work on display, complete with individual video presentations on portable DVD players in front of the projects (mind you, this is a K-2 building). I think Big Trouble did a great job, and he learned a whole lot about the planets in the process.

Now, unfortunately, all the planets are hanging in his bedroom, as he can't bear to be parted from them. And sadly, it looks like the Big Bang just recently happened in there...

Hello Again!

Once again, I find myself typing a blog post after an extended absence.  Life definitely gets in the way sometimes, doesn't it?  Nothing crazy going on here, just the day to day stuff that seems to take over.  I also haven't been feeling that blogging mojo because I haven't been able to download pictures off of my camera.  I pretty much only read blogs that have pictures, so I hate not being able to slap a few on my own posts.

Luckily, because of this new job (and in in reading over my paperwork, I see that HR has written that it's contingent on the teacher asking for leave - if this falls through, I am going to be one cranky cookie....) we decided to get me a computer.  With both The Professor and myself vying for computer time (when you're a teacher, you spend lots of time at home working on teaching stuff), we decided that it would be in everyone's best interests to get a second computer, thus avoiding the inevitable marital strife that would stem from computer waiting time.  As I'm aging at an alarming rate and my eyes are no longer what they once were, I got one with a big screen (which still ends up having tiny writing which I can't read without my glasses), and so far it's working out dandy.  And, I was able to download pictures.  Here's some of what we've been up to:

We went to the local nature preserve and learned all about how horseshoe crabs lay their eggs.






Tobie had his first (and last!) visit to a hotel. My sister booked a pet-friendly hotel for her wedding, so we thought we'd take advantage of it and avoid kennel fees.  The dopey dog barked every time someone walked past our door or opened their own door (which, you can imagine, in a hotel happened hardly ever....).  I decided around about 4:00AM that the kennel fees are worth every penny.



And I continued to knit on the sock yarn blanket - it's coming along nicely!  The kids have been using it as a throw on the couch, and have been trying to convince me that it would make a good blanket for the dog.   Clearly what every dog needs - a sock yarn blanket knit on size 3 needles - makes it easier to chew!

Skywalk

This weekend we took a drive up to visit The Professor's parents, and they suggested that we go to a newly built park called Walkway Over the Hudson.   (I know the weekend was quite a few days ago, but for some reason Blogger steadfastly refused to publish my photos until today...)  It's the longest walking bridge in the world, and was built on top of a disused railroad bridge.  It was really neat - about 1.25 miles across the Hudson River, with a gorgeous view. This picture was taken from over the side (by The Professor, his palms don't sweat about that sort of thing, and thus he can hold the camera steady.)

It was a beautiful day, and there were lots of people on the bridge.  You're even allowed to bring dogs, so Tobie tagged along (he actually pulled the leash the whole way - I wish we could have hitched him up to a plow and he could have been doing something productive with all that energy). 

Big Trouble brought his binoculars to check out the birds, and a lovely time was had by all.  If you're in the area, check it out - free and fun - two of my favorite things!

Spring has Sprung

But then it decided to go back into its little hidey-hole - we had a whole pile of days in the 60's (I think it may even have hit 70) which were really lovely, but also make me a little irritated because I know it's only March and it's one giant tease.  Yesterday we woke up to heavy fog - so much so that Big Trouble woke me up exclaiming that something was wrong outside.  The only thing wrong in my book is that it's not summer, but whatever....

Now that all the birthday festivities are over (we jammed just about all of my family into my little living room this weekend - what good sports!) we've been getting back to our regular routines, such as they are.  I made another pile of thank you notes for Miss Serious to send - she's pretty good about writing in them once she can bring herself to put down the latest book she's reading. 

It does so pain my heart to have to tell my children to stop reading.  However, if I didn't, my house would be covered in underwear which never seems to make it to the hamper (still don't know what that's about) and nobody's bed would ever be made (although I don't know if you can really call the half-hearted pulling up of comforters actually making the bed, especially with the myriad of lumps caused by various stuffed animals and discarded clothing....).  Take what you can get, I guess.

I Survived!

The week of vast difficulties is now over, and I survived the Pine Wood Derby (Big Trouble's car won twice), multiple requests for cupcakes and desserts, a birthday dinner (at the Hibachi place by request of Miss Serious - always a good time), a Greek Mythology birthday party with 10 small children (it was fun), and my final teaching tests (not fun, but THEY'RE OVER!!!).

The storm we had this weekend was nothing short of spectacular - really strong winds, buckets of rain, and trees down all over the place.   The testing site lost all their heat early on, so it was a real treat sitting in a room for four hours which progressively turned into an ice cube.  We actually did quite well in our home, considering, but the rain blew so hard against the side of our building that water leaked in through the bricks.  This is an ongoing issue, which has supposedly been fixed about elventy times, so sadly we weren't surprised.  But, we didn't lose power, so it's all good.

Now that all the hard stuff is out of the way, I've had time to make these (Miss Serious sent them out to her little friends for her birthday thank you notes):

I was trying out some different things, with varying degrees of success.  And - I've also been working on this (I just can't stop!):

It's now as wide as I plan to make it, so now I just need to complete the nine jillion squares needed to make it the right length.  It's still way too much fun - luckily I'll probably be able to be having this much fun for the next twenty years or so.....