4-4-13

Today we explored El Yunque, the only rainforest in the US. It was like a Costa Rican rain forest without monkeys and sloths. It was lush, loud, moist, high, and beautiful. We hiked way up a hill to the top of a waterfall. On the way down I spotted these two snails and studied them for a good long while.

Dinner with Igor and his wife, who arrived for the conference too.

4-3-13

I broke the migraine by taking extra doses of a medication yesterday and last night. This morning I awoke at 6am pain free, and we hit the road early for our flight from Atlanta to Puerto Rico.

I was stunned, amazed, surprised, enchanted by this US territory that is part Europe, part Costa Rica, and part typical USA. We arrived at our villa on a big hill overlooking the water late afternoon. It's like being on the set from LOST.

4-2-13

This is the email I got this afternoon during a most excruciating migraine and I thought that the juxtaposition between winning this award and being "with migraine" for two weeks was poetic.  Of course, I did work very had this year, and I was very honored to be selected for this honor. Sometimes I just wonder how I'm going to make it.

I was unable to teach tonight. The pain was horrid, and the fear worse-- that tomorrow will be bad too.

4-1-13

The mass production taking place in our house is amazing. Dan is producing 1400 of these motors mounted in Legos. He needs to solder wires on these.

I still have a migraine.

3-31-13

Easter! I woke up craving Peeps and chocolate covered marshmallow bunnies. When we got to my mom's house she had Peeps. Mmmm...

She cooked a fabulous dinner of prime rib, roasted sweet potatoes, rice and zucchini casserole, and we had a pear tart for dessert that had a layer of almond paste inside. It was so delicious.

Earlier in the day I started working on this chair. I really don't know what got into me. I felt good. I finished it in the evening and Squirt used it for his desk in his room.

Easter dinner table set for 11...

3-30-13

What do you get when a bunch of frat boys with sledge hammers have at your concrete patio? Do you have the top layer nicely removed so you can re-paint it? No.

You have a messed up patio. 

So I haven't been blogging lately. For the past two weeks I've been dealing with migraine on a pretty daily basis. It feels like the photo above- dark and bleak and stormy all the time in my cranium.

3-17-13

You wouldn't know, but this side of the yard was even more work than the other. There's a second set of steps to the right and I cleared out more honeysuckle and ivy than you can imagine. It's not anywhere near done. My hands are so sore and blistered even though I wore gloves.  The rocks you see here were not visible this morning.

3-16-13

I started working in the yard around 9am this morning. The mess was bigger than I imagined.

It was a beautiful day. I discovered a rock wall-- two of them, one behind the other, and cleared out enough vines to reveal the walls on the left side of the stairs.

Here you can see it better. Dan and I each put in about 4-5 hours of heavy work today.

3-15-13

Tomorrow we are going to do yard work and tackle all the vines and weeks and wild trees growing in this mess.
Today I worked hard on some articles I'm writing.

3-14-13

 

 

 

Happy Pi Day!
I hope Aza did something fun with her geometry students today.

Do you think the blue curtains would look good in the living room? We have ordered two chairs and they are a blue tweed.

3-13-13

 

Curtains!
I ordered these silk drapes from Pottery Barn.I think the color is good, but now I think we need to paint the window panels black like the kitchen.I'm going to photoshop and see if we should use this same color in the living room.

3-12-13

Long drive home. Slept in the back seat for a couple hours. Crocheted.

3-11-13

We drove out to the Lacassine Wildlife Refuge today.

A beautiful swamp, it is.

Here I am with my 91 year old grandmother--

She is quite spry for 91. Quite.

We went out to dinner in Jennings.

I worked on my afghan and went for a walk downtown. 

Vacation-- Spring Break

3-10-13

We went for a walk along the lake shore as a front was moving in. So windy. I got my finger in the photo, but thought it captured well the live oak, Spanish moss, and cypress trees. It rained most of the day. We watched old episodes of The Golden Girls tonight.

3-9-13

It took 8 hours to get here. We are in Lake Arthur, at my grandma's house. So many memories here. I guess I can't think of a place I can still go to that holds memories from so long ago. When we got out of the car in Grandma's yard I immediately was drawn back by the feeling of cool humidity and the earthy smell of moss.

3-6-13

Aza and kitten Lily had a snow day without power today. It was cold here in Alabama. I went to work and cried in my office between meetings.

3-5-13

Listen-- Do you realize?

Today my brother Coco died.

3-4-13

Sakura and I are trying a new migraine preventative. We read some studies that showed that this combination is effective. She ordered hers online, I found mine at the local health food store. We shall see. Today I drove to Prattville to observe a student teacher and had to leave after two classes due to head pain.

3-3-13

I finally got to hanging up artwork in my home office. Except for one cross-stitch Aza gave me,  it's all my artwork. I like to think of it as my gallery. There's plenty more room for more!

 

3-2-13

 

One thing leads to another.

This is a story about how I felt so good today I decided to REALLY clean the bathroom toilet which was leaking a little and yucky. Well, I cleaned it so well, it started to gush water. This bolt had come loose.

It was leaking from here. All over the floor. So we went to Home Depot and bought new toilet bolts and Dan replaced them. Then he overtightened the bolt, and the gasket blew. Back to Home Depot for another set of gaskets. Then.... one thing lead to another.

In the process of putting everything back where it belonged, this connection started leaking too. Now we need to go BACK to Home Depot and buy one of these.

 Oh, but the story doesn't stop there. The sink got clogged, we think, from rinsing rags in it that were full of little rusty iron bits. So, I said, "Go get the snake" and Dan did. Before he used the snake on the sink, he said to me, "You know, this is going to cause another leak, I just know it." I knew it too. I was afraid he would burst a pipe in the wall trying to snake out some bits of rusty iron.

He busted through the pipe under the sink.

Of course, it gushed brown sludge all over the floor and we had to run get a bucket and clean up the NEW mess.

Oh, this old house.

More trips to Home Depot tomorrow.

3-1-13

 

I actually felt good today. I cleaned up my office, went to work for a while, and thought about where to hang pictures.

2-28-13

My yarn order came in and now I can finish the afghan I started after Christmas. Today I had a really good morning meeting with ML and my friend whom I will call "My Friend" because that's what she calls me when she sees me. Then I got another headache and went to bed.

2-27-13

Today I was supposed to observe a student teacher, but I spent all day in bed with a migraine instead. I learned that I can take photos with my iPhone by pressing on the volume button, so I can take pictures one handed. I took this one from bed.

2-26-13

Spent the morning at Opelika High then got a migraine and spent the afternoon in bed with my crochet. I managed to teach tonight-- and had a great time. We had a guest speaker Skype in, we did some really funny peer teaching scenarios, and talked about motivating students.

2-24-13

I hung 5 of my paintings in my office today and it feels so much better. I have at least 6 more to hang in here. It will be my miniature gallery.

Dan bought us an umbrella for our patio. Now for some plants and other decor...

It's a beautiful day in central Alabama.
I got a lot done. We had dinner with Mom and Squirt built the first prototype of my gravity light design.

2-23-13

 

 

This is Dan's manufacturing room. He cuts, he solders, he glues... and assembles educational kits. The bed is a Lego supply warehouse. The closets are storage units. the corner bench is built in storage.