10-7-07

Aza came home. Mittens is happy. See Mittens rubbing up against Aza as she reads? Her big sister is home and we are all happy.

P.S. Upon a closer look at this photo, I see that Mittens is actually licking the salt from inside the empty popcorn bowl. Oh well, it looked like she was adoring her big sister.

P.P.S. Upon yet another closer look, I see that Aza is not reading at all. She's trying to solve the Rubik's Cube!!!

10-6-07

I ordered these penguin ice cube trays for my students' Save the Penguins design project. I took this photo because of the phenomena where the ice forms a sharp peak sometimes as it freezes. The pressure of the molecules forming into their hexagonal crystal structure pushes the last bit to freeze upwards. Cool, hu?

10-5-07

Squirt can solve a Rubiks Cube in 1 minute 30 seconds.
He's a genius.

10-2-07

This is Mittens jumping down from my desk into my lap. She likes it in my lap. Does she like the warmth? Or me?

10-1-07

This morning I put all the clay tiles in a container to take to school. The tiles will be used for a construction project. It took me forever to cut up and bake all those tiles. I do too much for teaching-- really.

This evening Dan and I watched another two episodes of Gray's while the animals curled up on the couch with us. This was my view. Not a great photo and all... It was better in real life, seeing Mittens and Frisbee curled up with us. Nice. Now to get the dog from peeing on the kitchen floor and the cat from waking us up at 6am with a shreik of a meow that would raise the dead. Come home Aza, Mittens needs a head to sleep on.

9-30-07

Sunday. I miss the Bonneville. It reminded me of my girls. They are grown up and moved away, but their shared car reminded me of them every morning when I backed out of the garage. I miss the Bonneville. I miss them so much more.


Here's creepy dead daddy drawing/photo. It was drawn over 15 years ago, and the photo was taken when the girls were in highschool. They were wearing their Canada shirts, gifts from Carmen. I took the picture on the back deck. Only later, much later, did I run across that old drawing in an old letter- back from the days dead daddy actually wrote to me. The girls may have been like 3 and 5 when he drew what he predicted they would look like one day. Creepy stuff. It's a cool photo/drawing, and even though I took it a long time ago, I thought I'd publish on of my dead daddy's drawings today.

9-29-07

I got my hair cut today. Actually cut into a style. It's not drastic or anything, but it was a big deal for me to see my long long bangs go bye bye on the floor.

9-28-07

Today was our solar car competition. A group of four girls came in first, and a group of four boys came in second. I like when that happens. Parents came to watch, Jes came to take pictures, and my professor came to help out. It was a lot of fun. Plus, I got to tell students today that our trip to the Bay is on and that many scholarships are available! The were SOOOOOO happy!

9-27-07

The driveway without the "black car" in it. I'm sorry Aza, I tried to save it but your father wouldn't listen.

Today was an awesome day.
First, I got my IRB permission to do a pilot study.
Then, I got 12 scholarships donated by friends and family so I can take my students on a trip to an island in the Chesapeake Bay. I was so happy!

9-26-07

Oh my way to school I got behind this truck full of dead trees. It made me sad and afraid of getting hit by one. So, I took a picture while I was driving, which you may not think is a safe thing to do, but I've gotten quite skilled at it.

Today I was asked to give an interview for a magazine about my research. I'll be interviewed on October 1st. Way cool!

9-25-07

Before I left for work this morning I took a picture of the Bonneville. It was Jes's first car, then Aza's first car, and now it's got over 200,000 miles on it and although it looks great, the gas tank is rusted through and the brake lines are rusted through, and the gas lines are rusted through, and the master cylinder needs replacing, and the frame is rusting through. We are donating it to an organization that puts it up for auction and the proceeds to a charity of our choice. We chose Habitat for Humanity. Aza will be sad. Jes will be sad. I am sad. I removed the JMU sticker from the back window and put it on my car. The Dave Matthews sticker and the Gorilla sticker and the UVA class of 2008 stickers were too cracked to save.

9-24-07

It starts out as pieces and parts, and hopefully my 6th graders can make solar cars this week.

9-22-07

After two months of playing with my blue foam stuff daily, this is what it looks like. Today is Saturday and I had an awful week and I'm glad it's the weekend.

9-20-07

I got one of my students to take this photo. I had just crashed up a motor with a huge hammer (I safely put the motor in a bag and wore safety goggles) to show them what was inside. I was demonstrating that motors are simply reverse generators and wanted to demystify them both. Next, I had my students connect their motors up to multimeters and see how many volts they could get out of spinning the shaft. 6 volts seemed to be the max. On days like this, I love teaching. Other days, not so much so. I wish I could ethically post photos of my students because I've taken so many pictures of them doing cool stuff lately. I'll post photos of their solar cars once they're done with them. That should be by Friday the 28th, I hope.

9-19-07

Today I got a birthday present from my sister. It was a nice surprise, and I look forward to reading the book and watching the movie. I don't know when the last time was I sent her a birthday present, so this was a real gift of the heart and I was very touched. It came on a very difficult day- parent/teacher conferences, and I was at school for 10 hours and very tired when I came home to this nice gift. I love my sisters. And I miss them all so much.

9-18-07

22 years. Two identical rings. Two kids flown the nest, two complicated careers, two lives intertwined forever.

9-17-07

Front door with sun setting.
Got a migraine today after school. It foreshadowed what would be a sucky week.

9-16-07

Dan came back from Wisconsin today. I worked all weekend on school work and got ahead for the week. Here's Frisbee in his chair. It was a pain having to take care of the dog this weekend without help because Squirt still can't take him out on a leash. I need to ask the doc when he's allowed to do that. Heck, he's allowed to mow the lawn... you'd think he could take the dog for a walk.

9-15-07

This is D. D is Squirt's best friend, I think. They were in a band together a couple years ago and D spent every Saturday night here for a long time. Then his mother died and the band broke up, and I didn't see much of him for a while. But now D is a senior in high school, and a regular visitor. He and Squirt are in the other room laughing it up over an old Seinfeld episode right now. I took this picture of him leaving this morning, all suited up for his ride home. I think my heart has adopted him as my own.

9-13-07

Today Igor came and observed me teaching. I'm teaching three classes a day now, and it's exhausting. I had class tonight at the university and the lights went out so class was canceled. I really needed that!

9-11-07

Today I turned 44. Jes and Squirt and Dan helped me celebrate with Angel food cake, whipped cream, and strawberries. I got the season 3 Gray's Anatomy DVD set from the kids and a fancy new speedlight for my camera from Dan. The photo of the kids was taken with the speedlight. It's awesome!

9-10-07

My tripod lever sheared off and I sent this picture to the manufacturer. They are sending me a new one. Tommorrow is my birthday!

9-9-07

I got this xray today of Squirt's back. He needs more surgery in a year and a half to remove some of the hardware because it's prominent.

9-8-07

Last week in class we did the inquiry lab, Milk-o-Motion. Afterwards, I made a stop-frame animation of what it was like. Cool beans!

9-7-07

In my effort to take more photos, I took a picture of the mailboxes at school. Pretty boring.

9-5-07

I've been so busy with teaching, that I keep forgeting to take photos. I'm with kids so much, and I can't take pictures of them for my blog.

9-1-07

Today I got up at 5am. I ate breakfast and left the house by 5:30am. I was the first car in the parking lot for the Women's 4-miler race. It was still dark, and I took a picture of the moon. 2700 women raced on this day! I wasn't sure if I could do it, but after running 2 miles I thought, "maybe I can make it to three" and then after three miles, I thought maybe I could make it to 3.5 and after that, well, I was home free! I ran 4 miles in 53 minutes without stopping. That's a really slow 13 minute mile pace, but I did it! I haven't run 4 miles without stopping since I was 19 years old, and by my calculations that was a long long time ago....

8-30-07

Awwww, isn't it sweet? Kels is going to love it. This evening I had my first night class and found out one of my former middle school students who is now a junior in college is in the class with me! Strange world.

8-29-07

I've been really consumed by teaching. Dan cleaned the kitchen tonight and I was so very happy.

8-28-07

Squirt is working on a gift for Kels. He's gluing beer bottle caps into a frame. Cool, hu? I hope it turns out.

I saw my oncologist for a check-up today. I'm doing great! 2.5 years a survivor.

8-27-07

Lookie! The mushrooms have opened up. Today I picked two of them and brought them into my classroom so we could look at mushroom spores under the microscope.