9-14-14

Sunday dinner at Mom's. Shrimp cakes over a pepper/garlic sauce and rosemary+thyme biscuits.

9-13-14

Woke and said, "Today is going to be a great day!"
I worked on my evaluation report all morning until it was time for a late lunch, then worked on this hat for my knitting class. It's the project I'm teaching them next.

9-12-14

Today I woke up and was cured of the migraine I'd had for most of three days. I went to work, met with some of the folks I had to cancel on yesterday, got a letter with my raise for the year (!), and then Dan and I went to dinner at the best restaurant in town, Acre. It was really good. Afterwards we picked up ice cream and went to my mom's to have ice cream with her. She gave me my birthday present- this lamp with bugs on it. I love it!!!

9-11-14

I spent this, my 51st birthday, in bed with a migraine. I cancelled all my meetings and just hung out in bed checking Facebook on my phone for birthday wishes. This was my view:

I'm working on a fingerless mitten pattern called Prickly. It uses two colors of wool, and looks neat. It's slow going, that that's OK today.

9-9-14

I invited to students from a local high school to visit for the day. We worked on designing wind turbines, we took a tour around campus, had lunch with some of my graduate students, and had a great time. We even found some time for knitting!

9-8-14

I invited a guest speaker to my class tonight. She is currently in ninth grade student at the local junior high school. She spoke as well as any professor at this university, and my students were completely enthralled with the things she had to say, and the perspective she brought to us as a student in the system they are preparing to teach in. It was a great class. 

9-7-14

Mom had some experiments she had to run on us. Bean salad? Potato salad? Foccacia recipe? Pork stew? Meatballs? Everything was delicious. Especially the onion and bacon jam. 

Lemon potato salad

Foccacia with grapes

9-6-14

Dan took me to a game. I wore earplugs the whole time, and actually enjoyed myself watching the pageantry. We had to leave after a quarter because the lights were blinding me.

9-3-14

Getting needles ready for knitting at NHS!

9-2-14

Today I scored big. Next week I start teaching a knitting class at a local, poor, rural high school. I asked on Facebook if anyone had any extra yarn or needles and two friends here in town donated all this wonderful stuff. I will still need more worsted weight yarn (some of the donated stuff isn't great for beginners), and eventually I'll need double pointed needles and circulars, but I'll cross that path later. But this morning I got to have coffee with an old high school friend who brought some goodies, and this evening I went to the local yarn shop for the weekly knitting circle and got the rest of this amazing pile of goodies. If any of my blog followers want to donate to the cause, let me know! I'm hoping that knitting promotes spatial thinking, and that spatial thinking promotes science and math and engineering design thinking. This is just a preliminary investigation, so if I get some good results, more will follow! What fun it is to combine my job with my hobby.

9-1-14

My favorite month, day 1.

Today I washed and peeled paint off a door so Dan could paint it.

Worked on my evaluation report.

Did some research on knitting and spatial thinking.

My head has hurt a bit on and off today. I'm worried I'm on the verge of a migraine.

8-31-14

 

On this last day of August, which is hard to believe, I post photos of four projects I did this summer that I mailed last week to my niece and nephews in NJ. I had taken the boys shopping for yarn, and with that yarn I made to order, these slippers and scarf.

Today I worked on interview data and correlated it to the numbers I crunched yesterday. Good times, good times. Dan and I went out for BBQ.

8-30-14

I finished these today. Yarn bought in Maine, my first pair of socks made with self striping sock yarn. I'm pretty proud of them, and they were fun to make on these tiny double pointed needles. 

I worked on data today- running t-tests and making graphs, trying to tell a story with numbers about the summer camp I'm evaluating. It felt good to be number crunching. 

Tonight I made an awesome salad for dinner with smoked salmon on it. Everybody loved it.

The game was today, and Squirt went with Strawberry but they came home during the 4th quarter when the lightning and thunder started. 

8-29-14

This week was pretty slow. Compared to one year ago, man, what a difference. Last year I was assuming all kinds of new responsibilities, running two grant projects, preparing for accreditation, going up for tenure, writing grants, the whole 9 yards. This year has started off nice and easy, with one class and enough help to keep things reasonable. 

Today I went out to NHS to visit with the girls who won the essay contest, and ended up volunteering to teach a knitting class. I'm so excited! I think I'll turn it into a study to see if knitting improves spacial reasoning, an essential component of engineering design thinking.

Tonight Mom invited us over for crab salad. She had gone to M'gom'ry yesterday and went to a seafood place and got this fresh jumbo lump. It had lime and cilantro in the mix...and avocados... and ripe summer tomatoes. We actually had a really good time, just the three of us, laughing and just chatting away. 

8-26-14

Today was pretty darned remarkable.

Today I found a loophole in a rule and got two high school students invited to the president's house for dinner. We are going on September 9th.

I also voted and my candidate won.

When I was told I couldn't bring these two students to the dinner by all the top brass, I refused to accept the ruling. I had a will and found a way.

8-24-14

Finished my poncho finally! It took two months. 

8-23-14

Apple cheesecake tart

Eggplant and grilled tomato and smoked mozzarella salad

Dinner at my mom's!

Today I gave a comprehensive exam to three students then spent the evening with Squirt, Strawberry, Dan, Mom, and The Hollands eating and laughing and enjoying the camaraderie. 

8-21-14

I'm sorry I have neglected this blog. It's probably the beginning-of-school stuff, plus the very real fact that my life is not as interesting as it was during the trip to Nova Scotia and back. But I'm looking for events to capture to mark my life.

It's hot here. Very hot. I was out watering the herb garden this morning and I saw this poor little caterpillar on the parsley. I didn't know what kind it was, so I looked it up. Black Swallowtail Butterfly!

http://cafejohnsonia.com/2008/06/whats-eating-my-parsley.html

I will keep an eye out for the chrysalis and the emerging butterfly. 

Strawberry had a picnic to go to. Squirt did not want to go with her, and we tried to coax, convince, threaten, and bribe him to go. He got dressed, on this very hot day, in a "Banana Power" t-shirt that is two sizes too small, a wooly sweater, and a zip up hoodie. Oh, and wool striped socks to go with his flip flops. Strawberry said that she didn't care how he dressed, she just simply wanted his company. He got on her bike and pretended to get ready to attend the picnic. We did not comment on his attire and were simply glad he was willing to go. He rode around on her bike in circles before telling her he was not going. That squirt. Well, at least I got this awesome photo of him.

8-13-14

And we are home. We drove from Charlotte to Auburn today- not bad- and got invited to Mom's for a steak dinner!

8-12-14

We spent the night in Charlotte, NC with my high school friend Sweet Bean. She is such a dear friend whom I've known for almost 40 years. Her mom was my high school English teacher, and I taught her cousins science for four years each in Virginia!

8-11-14

We went and saw Walden Pond today. This is a reconstruction of Thoreau's house.

This is the pond-

And then we headed for Pennsylvania. Along the way we stopped to see my cousin VC,

And then spent the night with two guys, three dogs, two indoor birds, several cats, a peacock, a dozen chickens, and two roosters.

8-10-14

After a day of driving, we find ourselves in Concord, Massachusetts. This evening after dinner, we took a walk around the old cemetery to try to find some cool old gravesites. We didn't find the grave sites we were looking for, but I did manage to capture a photograph of the full moon rising. 

Tomorrow we will probably drive for 10 hours or so, spend the night somewhere along the road, and then make it home Tuesday. It is sad that our vacation is coming to a close.

8-9-14

A work and knitting day with a leftover big salad. 

8-8-14

This evening I was alone while Dan visits with some old college buddies. The moon on the water- an almost full moon. I took this one for Dan. 

8-7-14

Today we tried to hike Schoodic Mountain but the storm clouds rolled in and the thunder shook, so we ran down. Dan, to make sure the camera stayed dry, and me because I was alone in the forest- until Dan, having stowed the camera safely, climbed up the mountain again with rain coats to rescue me. 

These photos from our cottage- after a dinner of smoked fish, salad, corn, and focaccia. Plus cottage-made blueberry cobbler with vanilla ice cream. 

Eaten on a bench taking these photos. The moment of the day I want to remember. 

8-6-14

We are here, by the way. 

Today was rainy so we stayed inside our little cottage. I transcribed interviews and worked on some other data while Dan read. In the late afternoon we visited the local yarn shop where I scored a bargain on some super chunky wool. Then we had dinner at a local pub called Finn's which was excellent, and ice cream at Morton's Moo, which I expect to be in grocery stores in a few years. Ginger ice cream!

Afterwards we visited Lamoine State Park and Dan skipped stones on Lamoine Beach. 

We rented some movies and will listen to the rain on the roof this evening. 

8-5-14

We climbed another mountain today- this one was Gorham Mountain. I was pretty wiped.

Afterwards we hiked on the Carriage Trails around Jordan Pond. This is the view of the pond with "The Bubbles" in the background. 

8-4-14

We arrived safely and started out this morning with a Maine breakfast with local maple syrup, blueberries, and coffee. Mmmm...

And the view is fantastic.

We went into Acadia and after driving around and up to the top of Cadillac Mountain, climbed one of our own. It was the hardest climb I've ever done. Called the Cliff Beech trail. Here I am at the top, proudly, wearing the sweater I knit from wool.

For dinner we ate lobster at a "Lobster Pound" where you pick out your critter and your sides and you sit at a picnic bench and wait for your order number to be called. Ours was #10. The lobster was pretty good, and the ordeal was very messy and pricey, and I probably won't be doing it again, but I'm glad I crossed that one off my list of Things To Do.

8-3-14

Today we landed here- a cute little cottage in Maine. A cottage-without-Internet that I will be staying at for a week. So... While photos will continue to be taken on a daily basis, posts will delayed or limited to text-via-spotty-cell phone access. It's a little one room thing, but has spectacular views, is very tranquil, and gives me peace.