November 7, 2009  Today would be a good day to finally fix Pookie's nose. But first I have about 50 vintage tablecloths I want to get listed on ebay. I'll do that after I get home from the grocery store while Jim rakes leaves and watches the Pats game. We took a breather yesterday a drove west to take Baby Boy out for his birthday. It was nice to see him and Alyssa. 

I made rye bread last week and now I remember that rye flower tastes like ladies' perfume to me. I keep doing this... I don't make rye bread for years, then when I do make it it reminds me that I don't like to eat perfume. Does anyone else have that problem? I also don't eat tarragon because it tastes like putty. It must be connected to my dysfunctional olefactory system, which my spouse assures me is off-kilter and doesn't work half the time. I once came home to a house full of natural gas (someone knocked the knob on the gas stove and it let gas into the house all day while we were at work), and I thought it was skunk. Thank goodness I opened all the doors and windows and didn't turn on the stove! Five hours later, Jim arrived home and called the fire department, who brought the ladder truck over to take a reading on the levels of gas (it had dissapated), but the fire chief told me that on new gas stoves that can't happen anymore. So we now have a new gas stove, but it can happen. And has happened. 

And now some Robert Frost:
  Nature's first green is gold,
  Her hardest hue to hold.
  Her early leaf's a flower;
  But only so an hour.
  Then leaf subsides to leaf.
  So Eden sank to grief,
  So dawn goes down to day.
  Nothing gold can stay.

November 1, 2009  I've added some recipes to Hungry. Namely, Rye Bread and Chicken & Sweet Potato Stew. I also fixed the yeast amount in the Bread Loaves recipe.

October 31, 2009  It's a blustery, fun Halloween day out there today. Jim and I will be leaving a basket of candy on the front step tonight for the kiddies while we get out of the house. Jim has cabin fever. 

I've scanned some Covey family ephemera that was thoughtfully shared with me by Glen & Judy. You can find it all in Frank Covey's Things. These are Frank's parents, here on the left and right of this blog entry. Meet Abbie and Edson. Edson died in 1906 at age 67... so not only is this image more than 100 years old, he is no older than 67 years in this picture. Abbie died in 1923 at age 80, but this phot would have been taken when she was no older than 63. Do you find that shocking? I do! Anyway, you can access the Frank Covey page from Frank's entry in Genetic Muster, too, and from Photo Album. I forgot I had these other pages, actually. I've entered that age in which things fall out the back side of my brain, and if nobody tells me they're hanging there, I don't miss 'em. It's a good thing I have a web blog so I have record of my travels, else I'd forget it all. =) 

Ni's childhood teddy lost his olifactory feature a few weeks ago in a run-in with a small dog. Alyssa handed Pookie to me one day... the Pookster's nose dangling in the breeze. I searched the internet for a way to fix him. I could send him to a teddy bear hospital for anything between $60 and $100, but that's not going to happen, especially since it's highly probably that come January 1^st Jim & I will be living off his unemployment check and my meager substitute teaching checks. After much research, I've finally decided what to do, so I starting looking for a new nose, but the largest one I could find is smaller than Pook's old nose, so last week I invested a few hours of one evening to chipping, cutting, soaking, steeping, peeling, scraping, and removing the back off the old nose so that I could reuse it. Holy cow, those Gund folks really know how to affix a button nose! (My efforts were punctuated with Jim's admonitions, "You know you're going to cut yourself doing that." I assured him any damage I did to myself could be easily fixed with peroxide and adhesive tape, but in the end no such fix was needed.) So I'm ready to complete the repair, but am as intimidated as all get out. Teddy-bear repair web sites tell me I have to open up Pookie's head from the back, unstuff it, reinsert the nose, then close up his back. I'm not going to do that. I'm going to find some heavy burlap or something, attach the nose to it, and insert in into the hole in Pookie's face which I'll then sew up tightly with several applications of quilting thread. I may regret it, but it can easily be undone if I make a mess. 

I was thinking this morning that when I was a kid we'd all be down at Grandma Lil's house on Halloween to watch her hand out 200 to 250 popcorn balls, which we'd all helped her make the prior week. Sometimes she made extras to freeze for Christmas. Her popcorn balls were spectacular. I hated picking the old maids (unpopped kernels) out of the popped corn, but that's what made them so fantastic. How ironic that I can't eat popcorn balls anymore, although this morning I was thinking that it would be worth a large oozy rash just to taste one of hers again. =) 

October 18, 2009  I am not good at making soups and yesterday's attempt was no different despite using a recipe that has more than 200 five-star ratings at Epicurious. I am better at savory soups rather than brothy ones, but I had a hankering for chicken noodle soup which unfortunately falls into the brothy category. How hard can it be to make chicken noodle soup? THe broths went it. The leeks, carrots, zucchini, and green beans. The mushrooms flavored with garlic and lemon went in next, although they were so tasty on their own I was tempted to put them onto a plate and eat them on their own instead. And the chicken bits. Its downfall I believe came at the end when I added the egg noodles. They weren't the traditional white semolina egg noodles we're all familiar with. No, they were whole wheat egg noodles. Thick. Highly absorbent. Slightly gray in color. They swelled and took over the soup so now it's less a soup than a runny egg noodle mess. One of the soup reviewers suggested that soup is always better on day two but I'm doubtful. So even though the soup took me an hour and about $20 and even though it's being stored in the fridge as leftovers, I don't think I can stomach another lunch of it. Rrrrr. 

I am waiting for Bob to show up. After days of phone calls, he vowed to stop by this morning to assess whether he can fix these 2 table lamps that need work. I don't want to replace them. I want them to work, and Bob has volunteered to assess them for fixability and has furthermore volunteered to fix them for a fee. 

Having read Malcolm Gladwell's "Offensive Play" in this week's New Yorker which, in the shadow of Michael Vick's prison sentence, examines if football is any different than dog fighting, I'm not sure how easy I'll be watching today's NFL games on TV. You can read the article for free but probably this week only. [Ann] McKee [who runs the neuropathology laboratory at the Veteran's Hospital in Bedford, MA] got up and walked across the corridor, back to her office. “There’s one last thing,” she said. She pulled out a large photographic blowup of a brain-tissue sample. “This is a kid. I’m not allowed to talk about how he died. He was a good student. This is his brain. He’s eighteen years old. He played football. He’d been playing football for a couple of years.” She pointed to a series of dark spots on the image, where the stain had marked the presence of something abnormal... This was a teen-ager, and already his brain showed the kind of decay that is usually associated with old age. “This is completely inappropriate,” she said. “You don’t see tau like this in an eighteen-year-old. You don’t see tau like this in a fifty-year-old.”

October 17, 2009  I added the recipe for my Chicken & Sweet Potato Stew. 

October 11, 2009  First of all... this is the BEST wedding invitation I've ever seen and YOU MUST GO READ IT IT'S AWESOME! Congrats to the couple, whoever they are! 

Now that that's out of the way... New NON-corn finds at Whole Foods today! My trips to Whole Foods have become fewer since Roche Bros. has started including more non-corn items on their shelves. But today I made the trip for arrowroot, and while I was in the store I scouted around for new products. I am now completely in love with Wholesome Sweeteners, who have found it within their capability to completely avoid adding starches to their brown sugar and... wait for it... uses tapioca starch as the anti-clumping agent in powdered sugar. (Note that they do use corn starch in some instances, so be sure to read the label.) Yay! This is, indeed, behavior we want to encourage! 

Since it's difficult to get face time with the home computer these days (JimBob is hopelessly attached to the job hunt unless there's a football game on), my blog projects are small these days. What I find myself doing is researching the ships my ancestors sailed on. (All my families are posted in Genetic Muster.) Not every voyage has a passenger list that has survived, and not every colonist sailed under his/her real name. And not every passenger was considered a passenger when you consider slaves, convicts, servants, and other similar persons status put them beyond the pale of being mentioned. If you google "passenger lists" you get manifests of passengers from all times and places and methods of transportation, but there are ways to narrow down the results, like by including your ancestor's name or adding a date to the search. Some in my line escaped English with John Winthrop (http://www.winthropsociety.com/settlers.php), and others came for other reasons. 

October 4, 2009  Added some info to Reginald Foster's ancestry in the Hood line, which goes back to our direct ancester Sir John Forster who, in 1191 A.D. saved the life of King Richard I at the Battle of Acre. In thanks, the king made Sir John the first governor of Governor of Bamburgh Castle which, in the wonderful tradition of castles, still stands today.

September 26, 2009  New recipe for Baked Haddock... very yummy. And simple. And quick. =)

September 17, 2009  Because of the recent release of the Matt Damon film The Informant!, This American Life has resurrected one of my most favorite episodes ever, The Fix is In (go ahead, go listen to it!), the story of ADM exec Mark Wittacre turning informant for the FBI to expose an international price fixing scheme. It was such a riveting story that I found myself buying the book at South Station on my way home from a job interview, and I couldn't put it down. Finished reading it in 2 days (see my post of September 9, 2001). Now I've received 5 more books to keep me entertained as I watch JimBob fly off the coast of Prince Edward Island tonight. I also have some web site management to do, as it appears I've filled my limit of photos once again. Hmmm. 

September 12, 2009  I've lost my copy of Othello, which makes no sense because it hasn't left the house. I was going to sit here quietly this morning and read it but... where the heck did it go? I'm going to read The Merchant of Venice instead. Both are great reads, by the way, and I highly recommend you get into Shakespeare if you're looking for something of value to add to your life. Anyway, I realized last night that I'm back to my old tricks... I think there are about 9 or 10 books that I'm in the middle of reading and when it comes time to read I have to decide which one to tackle. I threw in the towel on On the Road, which is a great book and well written and fascinating, but I got tired of being with a bunch of unambitious, freeloading losers. So Jim's reading it now. 

I've also given up looking for a full-time teaching position because, well, school has begun hasn't it. Plus, I'm still waiting for my teaching license and schools just aren't interested in pursuing a waiver on my behalf. So I'm signed up to substitute teach at 3 different high schools but, to be honest, given that Jim's out of work and I'm getting paid $50 an hour  to write computer documentation, it may not be wise for me to take a day off work to make $75-$85 a day subbing (which I can do because it's written into my contract). There's irony in that I just spent $18,000 to be able to make $75 a day. But there's a strategy in subbing--I'd become a known entity in a school, making it easier for me to get a full-time job there. It's also looking like I should be going back to school to get additional teaching qualifications, which is tough to justify financially while we have just the one (temporary) income, and we're paying COBRA, and Ni's tuition is due, and we are in need of a car for Jim, whose car will require a $3,500 brake job in order to pass inspection this month. Don't you love life's little juggling routines! 

September 6, 2009  The babies are packed. Jim and I are left to clean up the mess they left behind. I've never seen such a trail of Kleenex, empty iced tea bottles, dirty clothes and abandoned possessions! We miss 'em already! =) Maybe it was in that in context that I woke at 2:00 this morning to the sound of a young child outside yelling, "Mom!" It startled me and of course I lay in bed not believing what I heard, until I heard it again. "Mom!" It sounded like a very young child who, I imagined, somehow escaped its house and was wandering in the dark. I still didn't quite trust what I was hearing... it was indistinct behind the whirr of our bedroom fan. So when I heard it a third time I hopped from bed and, with my ear to the screen, I heard it a fourth time! I couldn't believe what I was hearing. The moon was bright last night so I scanned the road and the area for movement to see what I could see before getting dressed and going outside to look around when I heard it again, but this time it was broken into a series of hoots. An owl! That made more sense! I listened for more, but it was done. I searched the Cornell bird site this morning; clearly, it was an Eastern Screech Owl. Go have a look-see and a listen here. Anyway, it got my blood up and as a result I was awake until 4:30 this morning... only to wake five hours later to the sound of a child's screams. I looked out the window and found a mother and her 4-year-old son, walking their rambunctious Labrador Retriever that scared the child. Jim slept through all of it. =)

August 29, 2009  We've got the rain they forecasted, but not the wind. I'm okay with that. After a few weeks of humidity with the doors shut and the AC on I'm content to open the doors to the sound of cool, gentle rain. It's a good day to clean house. I should be embarrassed to admit there are a few bags of Christmas decorations still waiting to go into the attic... that's Jim's job, mostly because the attic ladder is in tough shape and requires the ability to use a sturdy chair and a flashlight while balancing awkward packages. Since I am the person most likely to tumble and fall, I avoid the attic at least until we get the ladder replaced. Which won't happen soon because both Jim and I are looking for jobs and the bills are tumbling in... starting with the tuition bill. We replaced the washer and dryer last week (a story for another day). And a new fiscal problem arose this week as Jim headed off to the train station in Ni's car only to find a curious absence of brakes. (We are lucky that it was Jim and not Ni who had to cope, as it is far more likely that Ni would have crashed into the neighbor's house, which is where Jim was heading when he pulled the hand brake.) With a price tag of $3,500 to fix the brakes, the brakes and the Boo will be getting towed away for charity. To add to the fun, the brakes on Jim's car need the same attention.  Jim and I were chuckling that we now have 2 clunkers but no government program for getting rid of them. Lucky ol' WBUR might end up getting  both. =) 

So in order to generate some form of income, I accepted my former employer's request to return to work for him while I substitute teach and look for a permanent teaching position. A conversation I had this week revealed that not having my license yet may be my problem. Since my license hasn't come through, any school that hired me would have to apply for a waiver to let me teach, and few schools want to take the time to apply for waivers especially when a poor economy provides so many qualified candidates. Fair enough. So I decided to see why I'm still waiting for my license to be granted. After a few frustrating hours of figuring out how to contact the Mass. DOE, it seems they never received my official transcript. So I've contacted NU (once again) to have my transcript forwarded (once again). In the meantime, I'll be working as a tech writer when I'm not subbing at one of 3 schools where I'm signed up. =) 

Since returning to tech writing after an eight month hiatus I see that I have new strengths and abilities, and I also have a much clearer picture of who I was eight months ago. For example, I now realize that tech writing has become so second nature to me that it bores me... the same amount of mental effort that goes into playing JewelQuest goes into documenting a piece of computer software. (No wonder I needed a career change!) The way I interact with myself has changed too. What do I mean by that? I seem to have more control in my life in some ways, and less control in other ways; it's not that my priorities has shifted, it's that my brain is reprogrammed. I don't know a good example of that that I can share. Maybe a tangible version of this change is that, having not had time to do a sudoku puzzle in over a year, for some reason I now solve them more easily than I used to and I can work them in my head. I'm not sure why. Apply that to facets of my life and I find similar changes... deciding what to do for supper now vexes me, buying a gym pass so I work out even in front of neighbors is no longer something I refuse to do, my organization skills seem to be somewhat compromised, and so on. I think it has something to do with being reprogrammed... or maybe I had an aneurysm and nobody noticed. =) So while I wait for a chance to pursue the next phase of my life, I'm really enjoying reading The New Yorker lately and especially enjoyed the horror and fascination I experienced while reading their story about the New York City Dept of Education's so-called Rubber Room. And Vanity Fair has added a new installment of their Madoff Chronicles (featuring wife Ruth) which I read with relish! 

August 16, 2009  I've added a dozen or so pictures to My Hometown pages. 

August 10, 2009  My thoughts get interrupted mid-post sometimes... I see that Saturday's post was one such occasion. The bottom line is that when Jim asks to use the computer while I'm goofing off, I tend to hand over the keyboard. As a result I sometimes upload before completing a thought. (Today he is lunching with a friend, so my thoughts here will be complete.) And now, two days later, I don't care much about what I was thinking on Saturday except that I like the Peter Rabbit illustration I used. 

Yesterday was so full of baking and such that I forgot to read the Sunday paper, which I did this morning. No teacher openings for me in the "Careers" section. I did have a phone interview last week that I hope to hear more about this week, teaching pediatric and adolescent outpatients a psychiatric facility. While I realize there are some people who might shy away from that type of work, I would be willing to face it straight on and I think I'd be good at it. My compulsion to be perfect inevitably means that I work at a thing until I've got a strategy for doing it well. And when I'm working with kids, I can't help but want to do the best things for them all the time. I wonder if I was able to convey that via my resume and phone interview... always wondering what I should be doing to convince people I'm willing to go the extra mile. Meanwhile, if anyone's looking for me, I'll be temping at my old tech writing job (sigh) until I find a teaching position.

The beautiful babies are driving back home today. Or rather they'll probably return tonight as they seem to travel only under the cloak of darkness. They were away for a few days to attend a wedding and while they were gone we had the rugs and upholstery cleansed in hopes of mitigating their allergic reactions to being here. I purchased a mountain of Kleenex just in case the scrub-down didn't do the trick. We have a few weeks with them before they return to school and will be working to refine their life skills even more before letting them scurry back to campus. That they both got haircuts before going to the wedding will make them easier on the eye while they're here. I do remember being 20 and being far more confident than was appropriate. =)

August 8, 2009  Fold the laundry. Bake bread. Run to Jane & Paul's farm for veggies. Yawwwwn! I added stuff to the Pitcher genealogy... among other things, I added a few words about Edward Bishop whose 3rd wife, Bridget Bishop, was hanged in Salem. I'm still not quite comfortable with the details I've posted for Hannah Moore as his 2nd wife, but it'll have to do for now. I've also added a bit to the Gilman Line. I don't take my genealogy as seriously as most people do. The details of who I'm descended from really depends quite heavily on the act of fidelity and, let's face it, of the thousands of people we're descended from there was definitely some infidelity going on there! There's also the recent development in DNA banks being used to determine common DNA markers of people who claim to be descended from a particular person, like this site that describes the Dodge family DNA project. While I find this type of research to be a fun curiosity, I also think using DNA tests to determine genetic heritage falls outside the margins of rational thinking. 

July 24, 2009  I've been adding recipes to my recipe page. The granola came out better than expected. I used Lyle's Golden Syrup which was lovely. Next time, I'll try maple syrup. Probably. 

July 23, 2009  Gave myself a bright start this morning by watching Dame Edna's most recent visit to the Jonathan Ross show on YouTube. I enjoy how effortlessly her love-of-self spills out of her... You can watch part 1 and part 2 too. Now I have to find a way to use up a dozen chicken thighs. I managed to snap off the tip of a paring knife when trying to break 2 of them away from the frozen flock of them. Ooops. Since there's now a knife tip embedded in them I felt it wise to defrost the whole bunch so I could remove it. We'll be eating chicken stew for a few days, I believe. 

I'm posting a picture of JimBob at E.ddie R.ickenbacker's place in San Francisco. We were looking for the restaurant called Osha Thai on the recommendation of the chick at the Museum of Modern Art but we couldn't find it and my feet hurt and I didn't want to walk around anymore. When we stopped at an intersection to assess the situation, Eddie's was on the corner so we decided to give it a whirl. There were people eating on the sidewalk but the sun was hot so we went inside. To the right as we entered, in the corner next to the bar, sat an old white man the size of Jabba the Hut (I'm not trying to be cruel here--just accurate) at a table a la James Lipton hooked into a large green tank of oxygen that sat on the floor beside him. Staring at us. It was one of those moments when you suppress a smile and think "Wha'?" This oddball moment temporarily distracted me so it wasn't until we sat at our table (the place was nearly empty) that I noticed the decor. 

You may notice it too in the picture. Vintage motorbikes suspended on walls and in windows and from overhead. Each was nicely labeled with a description, year of manufacture, price paid, and current value -- there were 20 or more of these. Note the case of rifles, each with its own label, on the far wall behind JimBob's head -- seeing rifles displayed in an eating establishment was a first for me. Note the grotesquely over-sized plastic-looking green chandelier hanging from the ceiling amidst the ceiling rubble... there were 2 of these. There's a laminated warning over the front door: "NOTICE BEWARE OF PICKPOCKETS. Take council, cannot accept any responsibility for property lost in this convenience." Outside at the front door is a brass plaque: "This establishment is dedicated to fair play and a square deal. No man should expect less - nor can be given more." We took this all in while waiting for service, which turns out is delivered by the bartender who tends bar and waits on all of the tables. His service was wonderful and he was very kind and helpful, but overworked and I felt sorry for him. I ordered a cobb salad. It was odd how the kitchen staff kept the door open and looked out at the customers constantly in a plotting, scheming sort of way. Jim and I drank in the decor while we waited for our meals. A German man and his two sons took a table near us who, as they realized their surroundings, chuckled and started walking around and taking photos. 

There was lots more going on, but it doesn't translate well into words. For example, my cobb salad looked like a cheap bowl of Romaine topped with a sprinkling of blue cheese, egg bits, and bacon pieces -- the non-lettuce ingredients, it seems, were hidden underneath. (Turns out it was a very tasty salad!) Overall, the experience was a shock to our sensibilities. It's clear that the owner is obsessive, possessive, and oppressive, and that he would benefit from psychiatric intervention which clearly is not forthcoming. We mentioned "this establishment" to the cabdriver who drove us to the airport, and his response was, "That's the place with the fat guy in the window, right?" Right! You can read others' comments here on yelp, where they describe it as "unlike anything I have ever experienced," a "strange place," "creepy," a "s%$thole." (These are actual quotes.) Of everything we saw in SF, this place is what stands out the most. Well, that and the homeless people lining the streets of the city. 

July 21, 2009  So don't be eating your lunch when you read it, but this story about the ramifications of ingesting steak tartar and other undercooked delicacies was a delight! I bought issue #2, Geek - True stories of people taking things too seriously, of Fray magazine in San Francisco, and am thoroughly enjoying the archived items on its (on-hiatus) web site! =) 

July 18, 2009  A muggy Massachusetts 75° is a tad more unpleasant than a dry Sonoma 90°. Now that we're back home from our jaunt to San Francisco, and now that I've completed a year of full-time school coupled with full-time work, and now that I'm unemployed and have nothing in particular to do, I seem to be coming down with something. Maybe I'm just tuckered out. =) Having said that, I didn't get to sleep until 6 this morning and slept only four hours. Jim, on the other hand, is still in bed. (It's noon.) At least most of yesterday's headache is gone. 

So what did we do in SF? Walked around a lot, rode a cable car through Chinatown, walked quickly past Fisherman's Wharf (an abysmal place), walked in the Muir Woods (fantastic!), drove to Sonoma for wine tasting (it was okay), went to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (a pleasant and stimulating afternoon), visited Alcatraz (worth doing), meandered around Haight-Ashbury (what a dump!), drove over the Golden Gate bridge (overrated) and Oakland Bay bridge (the more impressive of the two), and went out to dinner a lot -- in order from best to worst: Boulevard, AQUA, Ozumo, The Slanted Door, and Perry's. For the record, the restaurants in SF cook with canola oil, which makes no sense given that it's in California where there's a plentiful supply of olive trees and grape seeds for supplying alternate oils. Thank goodness we stayed in a hotel near the Ferry Building, where I could cobble together an occasional breakfast or lunch using corn-free/canola-free foods... but not without some serious searching. Today my face is peeling. I'm going to spend the rest of the day on the sofa with my feet up, trying feel better than I feel right now. =)

July 9, 2009  I've finally opened the boxes of "Journals of the House of Representatives of Massachusetts" that came in the mail during the winter. There are more than 20 volumes beginning with the year 1715 (the numbers have caused Jim's face to sag) in the boxes and why I needed to procure them is vaguely apparent to me -- the price was right. I do sometimes wonder about my motivations, but it is a hoot to read about people whose gene pool swims in my veins. On June 7, 1715, the House minutes read like this: "Complaint being made to the Bouse that Capt. Benjamin Stevens [no relation], One of th eMembers thereof, Representative of the Town of Andover, was within the time of the present Session, viz. Yesterday Arrested in a Civil Action, by Benjamin Coker [there is a Benjamin Coker in the Hood line], Under Sheriff of the County of Essex, by virtue of a Warrant granted by Joseph Woodbridge Esq;  Justice of Peace; which is an Indignity offered to this House, a manifest Breach of the Privilege thereof, & a Transgression of the Law in this Province. Ordered, That Mr. Justice Woodbridge, and Mr. Under-Sheriff Coker, be Summoned by Warrant from Mr. Speaker forthwith to appear before this House to answer for their doing so. [p. 20]" 

Then on June 11, 1715, there's a follow-up: "Mr. Seth Sweetsor, who was Imployed as the Messenger of the House, made Return, That he had Summoned Mr. Justice Woodbrigde, and Under-Sheriff Coker, to appear before the House, & produc'd a Letter from Mr. Woodbridge, to Mr. Speaker and the House, which was Read, excusing his not appearing by Reason of his own and his Families Sickness; and intreting that his Error in Issuing forth a Writt against Capt. Stevens may be Over-look'd, inasmuch as he was Ignorant of his being a Member of this Honourable House. Mr. Under-Sheriff Coker appear'd before the House and begg'd pardon of th eHouse for his Error & Offence, in Serving a Write upon Capt. Stevens, One of the Honourable Members thereof; And affirm'd that he knew him not to be a Representative, when he Served the Writ. Mr. Coker was Ordered to with-draw a while. It not appearing to the House, That Mr. Under-Sheriff Coker, did now that Capt. Stevens was a Member of this House when he Arrested him. Ordered, That the said Mr. Coker be dismiss'd. Mr. Coker was accordingly call'd in and dismiss'd. [page 29]" Clearly, it was understood that members of the House are outside the purview of the law. Wow.

Now that I'm home all day every day and Jim is too, I am discovering new dimensions of life never before experienced. At the moment, I'm sitting in natural light to hide from the two women purusing the neighborhood in, I suspect, pursuit of converts. If they ring the doorbell and wake up Jim I'm going to angry. They are, at the moment, trying to discover the front door of Sheila's house and are trying them all, ignorant that Sheila (like most people) is at work. Yesterday's cheap thrill came while Jim was off on a bike ride, when the Emergency Broadcast System interupted my TV watching to deliver a tornado warning. I phoned Jim to let him know he was in a race against the clock, and had images of Miss Gulch being carried off by a twister. Despite Norfolk  being a direct target, we got a downpour out of the event that didn't rival the prior day's unexpected horizonal drenching. Mostly, it was an excuse for every local weatherman to broadcast live. 

July 8, 2009  We have a couple of Cooper's hawks hanging out by the birdfeeder. I've been seeing flashes of white flying past the living room window for a number of days, but finally had a chance to see what it was yesterday when a flash flew past but a second flash landed in the maple tree beside the driveway. I watched the one in the tree, who was watching the other one hunt. I'm guessing that the one waiting was a fledgling because it was smaller and less active... plus it simply waited while the other one hunted (typical fledgling behavior). The hunter even landed a tree directly above the birdfeeder before the two of them finally took off. I'm pretty sure it's a Cooper's because of the breast feathers, but mostly because we hear the call of a Cooper's almost every day. This is a first for us... in the past we've had red-tailed hawks and goshawks. I'd never heard of a Cooper's hawk until now.

July 7, 2009  Something that I found curious about Lt. Helen [see my June 24th post] was her rank. There are 2 postcards dated April 21, 1942, on which her return address is "Lt. Helen..." then 6 postcards sent in September, 1942, from "2nd Lt. Helen..." Was she demoted between April and September? On a few of the September postcards she added "2nd" as an afterthought. Does that mean that in April, maybe she forget to put "2nd" in her rank? The last postcard, dated July 7, 1943 (67 years ago from today) says "Lt. Helen..." again. Below are in all nine postcards chronological order from left to right. Clicking on any of these will show you an enlarged version that you can read--to return to this page, click the Back button on your browser:



Thanks to my Uncle Bill, who has taken on a challenge and is helping in the research for Lt. Helen, we now have a web site that contributes to the cause! Assuming that Lt. Helen was an Army Nurse (and I think that, unless we find evidence to the contrary, that is the assumption to move forward with), there's an Army Nurse Corp page--http://www.med-dept.com/anc.php--that provides some fascinating info. Here's what the aforementioned web page says about rank:

"At the end of WW1, it had already become clear that Nurses in fact needed Officer status – partly due to the fact that sometimes male medical orderlies refused to take orders from woman Nurses! According to Army Regulations, Army Nurses were ‘ranked’ above Sergeants and Corpsmen, however in practice, AR were little known in the field and no special badges were worn by Nurses to indicate rank or authority! Nurses would finally be given relative rank in 1920. The issue was laid to rest until it came up again in WW2. By then the Chief Surgeon was urging to give Nurses more rank too – as a result of Congressional action in 1942, Nurses received pay adjustment June 16, 1942." Me again. I'm wondering if the pay adjustment meant that Lt. Helen had to take a demotion, because it is in this timeframe that she goes from "Lt." to "2nd Lt." "They were now entitled to pay and allowances equal to those of male Officers! Congress subsequently authorized promotion of Nurses to the relative ranks of Major and Lieutenant Colonel, whereas previously advancement had been limited to Captain! With well over 90% of ALL Nurses in 1942 holding rank of Second Lieutenant, (this gave them a certain protection in an ALL-male world of G.I.s) the Surgeon General, under political pressure to accelerate promotion (this would place US Nurses on a more equal footing with British Nurses who held full commissioned Officer status), increased the number of higher Nurse grades in Hospital T/Os, urged the various Theaters to fill these vacancies more rapidly, and set quotas for increasing the total number of Nurses above the rank of Second Lieutenant. One of the measures was to recommend for promotion to First Lieutenant, all properly qualified Nurses who met a Theater minimum requirement of 7 months in grade and 3 months in a single position with a performance rating of “excellent”." And now me... might this be the reason why Helen's rank was bumped back up to "Lt." by July, 1943??? This is all very intriguing. =)

July 6, 2009  So it seems that Jim and I are to be attached by the hip this summer. I'm still on the hunt for a teaching position... Jim will be on the hunt for his next gig as soon as he gives himself a well-deserved rest. Nothing like spending the summer at home with your spouse to underscore how well you get along! Jim's outside trimming the hedges, I'm about to re-cover a foot stool with a fabric remnant I picked up at the Franklin Mill Store this morning. (Boy, is that place dangerous! I could have easily spend a hundred bucks in there, but managed to escape after spending only sixteen.) Then it's time to clean out the fireplace and scrub the creosote off the firescreen... with good ol' baking soda! Jim has taken over calling the computer recovery people who we paid a fee to recover Ni's stolen computer but who still haven't delivered on the goods. Why they can't get it back from the NYPD is a mystery to me. Anyway, Ni was too nice with them, so now it's Jim's turn. Stay tuned.

The babies spent the weekend and left last night at 10:30, then phoned at midnight to say they'd arrived back home. Ni has learned a way to keep the beard trimmed (yay) and he got a haircut while he was home (yay again). Ironically, they are the only two in this household who are currently employed. They're fortunate to have procured summer work! We'll see them again in mid-August, I believe, when their jobs come to an end and they're getting ready to return to school. They left us a fridge full of vegetarian dishes which Jim and I now feel compelled to consume... there's a lot of mayo and cheese in those dishes. Um. I chose watermelon and cole slaw for lunch. 

I must say that I'm astounded by how luxurious it feels to read the morning newspaper and to actually read the news magazines that arrive at our house. In my leisure, I've also taken up reading Vanity Fair online... there's a series of Bernie Madoff stories there right now that ate up a few hours of my time last night. I've just finished reading Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God (a wonderfully rich story!) and am in the middle of Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye (another wonderfully rich story!) and I'm still plucking away at a decent translation of Sophocles' Oedipus Cycle (amazingly classic and human!). I picked up all of these books at yard sales, by the way. After all, I'm on a budget! =)

June 24, 2009  Yesterday I needed to get out of the house, what with my having too much face time with end-of-semester projects and being trapped indoors because of unending rain. So I found myself wandering an antique shop which, for me, is like going to a free museum where, if you're willing to part with your money, you can buy the social artifacts that are on display. When flipping through a box of old postcards I spied some from Northern Ireland... the rope bridge at Giant's Causeway, Dunluce Castle, the Mourne Mountains... They were mailed to people in Massachusetts from "Lt. Helen G. Saunders, A.M.C," in 1942 and 1943. Hmmm. That's World War 2. I know that U.S. servicemen were based in Northern Ireland in WW2 because in Ardboe there are the leftovers of an aerodrome where they were based. I began to wonder if Lt. Helen was based in Ardboe. All of them have a U.S. Army Postal Service A.P.O. frank on them (where the stamp would ordinarily be is written "Free") as well as an army examiner's frank that says something like, "Passed by U.S. Army Examiner 10038". I checked out Lt. Helen's APO numbers--in April and September of 1942, her mail went to Belfast, Northern Ireland, and in July, 1943, it went to Wilton, England. In her return address she includes "5th Hospital" and I found out at this web site that on May 21, 1942, the 5th army hospital took over a 660-bed hospital at Musgrave Park outside of Belfast. (Jim knows where this hospital is.) Lt. Helen must have been based there, but that she was there in April indicates that she may have been there to help to set it up. 

What exactly was Helen was doing in Northern Ireland in 1942? The WACs arrived in Britain in 1943--after Helen. Helen was a lieutenant associated with the Army Medical Center (A.M.C.) 5th Hospital. Assuming she's a nurse (Is it incorrect of me to wonder if she was a doctor?), I found a military history of the Army Nurse Corp online (go here). It says that on "8 Sep 1939 [a] State of Limited Emergency was declared because of the war in Europe. There were 625 Regular Army nurses on active duty. The authorized strength of the Army Nurse Corps (Regular) was immediately increased to 949." Nine months later on "30 Jun 1940 [t]here were 942 Regular Army nurses in the Corps. An additional 15,770 nurses, enrolled in the First Reserve of the American Red Cross Nursing Service, were presumably available for service if needed." But, just a year later, "30 Jun 1942 [t]here were 12,475 Army nurses on active duty." Wow. Interestingly, it also says "Although they wore the insignia of their grade, they were denied the pay of that grade, a decision of the Comptroller General which stated that these women were not 'persons' in the sense of the law under which they were promoted. (In 1952, the 82d Congress in Private Law 716 reversed the decision and they, then retired, received the pay which had been withheld for ten years.)" So we know that Helen was not paid a lieutenant's wage... I guess we could have guessed that, although it didn't occur to me until I read it.

I can't find out anything specific about Helen online. There's a WW2 lieutenant Helen Ashton Saunders buried in a military cemetery in California, but the Helen on the postcards signs her name Helen G. Saunders (it's clearly a 'G'), so it can't be the same Helen. Can it? A July 7, 1943, postcard is addressed to her mother, Mrs. D. Henry Saunders at 74 Fuller Avenue in Swampscott, MA. The address still exists; it's about four blocks from Nahant Bay. I suppose the next step would be to access census records. But I have to get back to my school work. Stay tuned.

June 15, 2009  Life is reduced to lots of little things at the moment. I'm substituting for the teachers at Minuteman at a rate of one to two days per week now. I'm also working with a few teachers putting together a presentation we'll be giving at the MAVA conference on July 1st... that's nifty! I'm working on a June 17th deadline for getting an insurance estimate to get the paint spray buffed off my car... I got the insurance estimate on Friday, the body shop's estimate today, and on Wednesday will reconcile the two at the body shop. Ni's still tracking down his stolen PC -- it was recovered by NYPD but now the security agency seems to have misplaced it and are under the mistaken belief that we will give them a pass and not ask them to reimburse us for the lost PC. There are 2 weeks left in my master's program at NU and am on the edge of my sanity trying to complete all my work for that. 

I did finally bake bread this morning, and just got off the phone with Baby Boy who has not yet, as previously thought, begun the temp job he's expecting to get because of something to do with the background check. This morning I watched a goldfinch continuously cling to the screen of the living room window when finally another, bigger goldfinch landed beside it and put a worm in its mouth (a fledgling!), then they both flew off together. Here's something on YouTube you might enjoy. And finally, Jim's on Alzheimer's watch having yesterday, during dinner on the back porch, looked into the dimming western sky and asked, "Is that the sun?" Um, yes, Jim, it is. =)

June 9, 2009  I found a recipe for corn-free marshmallow fluff which I've added to my recipes. I haven't tried the recipe yet so I can't vouch for it. When I try it out (and that's not likely to happen soon), I'll add my note to the recipe. You can see it here:  Marshmallow Fluff.

June 3, 2009  As someone who's allergic to corn and canola oil, I avoid factory food and try to buy locally grown food. You should, too. Check out Food, Inc. You can see a samplin' at YouTube, here.

May 22, 2009  So much for posting more frequently! It's been a busy week. I subbed 3 days and there's also been quite a bit of school work to get done... mostly in the form of group projects which take so much longer than working on my own, especially when I have to drive into Boston to meet with my co-horts. There are also 2 major papers I should be working on (and haven't been), which I may be able to make headway on this weekend, fingers crossed. Baby Boy and Alyssa have been here for more than a week now, having extended their stay to accommodate a cyst on the back of Ni's neck which a surgeon finally sliced open on Monday and left open to drain for 10 days. It was good to finally pin Ni down on that and force him to see a doctor about it. Kids... Rrrrrrr! ("Mom, it's just a lump!!!") They'll head west tomorrow and return next week for the follow-up doctor's appointment. 

Procrastination time has been spend dubbing around in the family trees, and I do add things here and there as I find them. I've been trying to dig in on the Simino line more but I don't speak French it's hard to find records in English. Very frustrating indeed! =)

May 10, 2009  I was going to read a bit on the porch but it's not warm enough yet... the thermometer says 50°F, there's a wind, and there's no sun shining on the porch just yet. So I'm back inside. I've already made the trip to Roche Bros. for littlenecks for this evenings tasty/quick Mother's Day feast between Jim and me. And I should also mention the lovely, lovely dozen roses on the kitchen table that greeted me when I got up this morning. And the card. All very nice and cheery. So, I'd made up my mind to setting in with "On the Road" for a bit out on the porch but was forced back inside. Since it doesn't seem appropriate to read "On the Road" inside a warm, suburban living room, I'm posting a photo of the deer-resistent tulips that my folks mailed to me a month or so ago... Jim planted them and I'd say he did a lovely job. Not only are they colorful and in constant bloom, they can be moved on demand to whatever location needs to be perked up! It's a joy to be able to have tulips once again! =) 

May 7, 2009  There are 2 catbirds building a nest in the rosebush out by the driveway, as evidenced when both of them nosedived into the bushy branches toting long pieces of white string. A spectacle like that is hard to miss! There's no way I'll be able to enjoy their nesting time, being that they're way over there and they're inside a thicket of a rose bush, but I'll make a point to watch them work today if I'm sitting at the window at  all.

It's a strange thing, this having only coursework and a neglected house to tend. I spent Monday working on Literacy homework, cleaned house on Tuesday (long overdue, that), and spent 12 hours yesterday doing Research homework. (My research question: What elements of student motivation to read increase reading comprehension of a text?) Today I'll finish up the Ideas in Education readings before heading into Boston for class. A funny thing happened on Tuesday as I made my choice of how to spend my down time when I realized that my brain was truly unfettered for the first time in about 9 months; I became suddenly aware how work, learning, and teaching have been consuming all my cerebral units--waking and sleeping--since I started school in July. I do deserve a break! (It ended up that I chose to read "Oedipus Rex", which took a bit more than an hour. It's an easy read, you should follow that link and read it yourself.) I'm still dreaming about teaching every night, but I've never minded that... they're not stressful dreams, just "problem solving" dreams. 

I continue to tamper with all the family info in Genetic Muster, so check out your favorite lines if you have any.

I promised my parents I'd post a picture of those deer-resistant tulips they sent me, which Jim planted out back. I'm tempted to go out and snap a photo of them right now, but I'm still in my PJs and even though there's nobody out there to see me (Sheila has gone to work), I'm not going to do it. Mental barrier there. Maybe I'll do it after I've showered and dressed for the day. =) 

April 26, 2009  My recent trend of rarely posting may soon come to an end. I am about to begin my final week as student teacher at Minuteman High School, and at that point my occupation will be to complete my master's degree (I'm in the final stint) and find a job for the fall. I've begun looking and am seeing some wonderful opportunities out there... unfortunately, I have no idea if my recent education and years of life experience will pull me to the top of the pile of resumes sitting on any one superintendent's desk. If you know of a high school that's in need of an English/Language Arts teacher, I'm their man! 

Having said that, I stopped by the library book sale yesterday and stocked up on literary classics that I haven't yet read... King Lear, Heart of Darkness, The Bluest Eye, Homer's Odyssey, On the Road, etc... and I plan to add aggressive reading tactics to my time off To Do List in hopes of exposing myself to as much as possible before I take over a classroom. Which I am planning on doing. Despite the weak economy and funding issues that schools are having. Because I'm planning on teaching in the fall. 

Also, I've been fiddling with the family lines some more. For example, I've added some anecdotes to the Hood line. I added things to the Stevens and Covey lines, too. And the Warren line. And I added pictures of the memorial stones for Margaret (Stephenson) Scott and Martha (Allen) Carrier, who were hanged as witches in the Salem hysteria. You can go to Genetic Muster for all of my family lines. 

April 22, 2009  Found an engraving of Ann Mountford Bill (1587 - 1621, London, England) of the Stevens line. Quite a sober and modestly handsome woman. I found it at this UK site, which says: "Detail of Simon van de Passe's portrait of Anne Bill (d. 1621), wife and business partner of the King's Printer John Bill. The image, the only known portrait of a woman engaged in the London book trade at that time, appeared in her memorial volume A Mirror of Modestie, London, 1621." 

If you've checked Ann out on the Stevens page, you know that she authored the book "A Mirror of Modestie" which her husband, John Bill, publisher to King James I, published for her. Simon van de Passe is probably better known for his famous engraving of Pocahontas, which Pocahontas sat for in 1616, in London. I wonder if Ann and John Bill got to meet Pocahontas. That would be cool. My line to Ann Bill: me, my dad, Grandpa Ray, Waldo Stevens, Olin Stevens, Harriet Pember, Frederick Pember, Lucretia Bill, Jonathan Bill, James Bill, Samuel Bill, Philip Bill, John Bill, Ann (and John) Bill... that's 13th generations ago.

April 5, 2009  It's been about a year and a half since I added pictures to My Hometown so I spent my Procrastination Time updating them this morning. Check out Alstead Village - Page 1, Alstead Village - Page 2, Vilas Pool, East Alstead, Alstead Center, and South Acworth. 

My new semester starts today, only this semester I'm enrolled in three courses. I'm still student teaching. The good news is that this is my last semester. The bad news is that I could barely scrape by when I was enrolled in two courses. Oh well. Student teaching ends May 1st, then I'll be out of work and have all the time I need to complete my coursework and to look for a teaching position for the fall. I am very excited about that actually and am determined to find a school that needs an English teacher. My grad work ends at the end of June, and Jim's planning a trip to San Francisco for us at the beginning of July... he's tired of being stuck at home. So am I. =)  

March 6, 2009  I can't go to bed tonight without posting the latest from Clark's Sugar House. I really want to get up there this year, but the workload is going to make it prohibitive I think. Suzanne or my mom will certainly do my shopping for me, but I'd rather be there in person. Anyway, I posted their latest brochure and prices at my Clark's page. Their open house will be the last two weekends of this month, so start planning your big trip now! 

While I'm a big fan of the new teaching gig, teaching coupled with additional nighttime schoolwork is killing me. At Wednesday night's class we were all in agreement that Monday's snow day saved our necks by giving us an extra day to pull it all together. As tired as I am though, I was awake at 3:00 this morning ready to start my day... I had to force myself to keep going back to sleep until 5:00. Oh, and as if 2 night classes isn't enough to keep me in dire need of sleep, I signed up for my next 3 classes, which start in April. Keeping this schedule is very much like staying up nights to feed an infant... you're glad you have the problem, but the problem is all-consuming! =) Anyway, go to the Clarks' open house and say "Hi" for me, because I'm not convinced I'll be able to carve out a day to make the visit myself. =(

February 25, 2009  Thanks to a reader who pointed out that Annie's ketchup uses distilled vinegar, not cider vinegar. I've updated the Corn page. Also, I suspect that syrup season is somewhere in our near future??? I'll keep an eye out for when Clark's Sugar House (that's a link to LAST YEAR'S brochure -- I'm not sure about this year's prices) will be open. I doubt I'll be able to up this year, but I do need syrup. Suzanne has offered to intervene on my behalf. =) Yay. I'm tired. Jim's coming home way late and I'm spending so much time being a teacher then being a student that my mind has turned to mush and I can't  think anymore. I need a brain injection... yaaawwwwnnnnnn! =) Gotta go take all my vitamins and hit the hay... 

February 22, 2009  Last day of school vacation week. I don't know where it went but it was, despite some horrifying moments of procrastination, very productive. I created a 19-day unit of Romeo & Juliet for 9th graders (that alone took two days), came up with tiered assessments for a 3-week unit on poetry for 9th graders for my Curriculum and Assessment class (that took one day), read Carrie (1 day), finished reading speeches and entering grades, caught up with my (night) class reading, watched and planned my Micro Teach, did my readings and reflection for seminar, updated my teaching hours, worked on my PPAs, and now I'm going to sew those leather patches onto the elbows of my old, worn out sweater that I'm determined to repair despite Jim's chuckling and guffawing! =) Plus, Suzanne's been here for a few days, and we went into Boston last night for dinner. Not too bad! My school bags are packed and I'm ready to dive back in for more! =)

February 14, 2009  I've goofed off all day. It's the first day of school vacation week and I couldn't help myself. I have a paper due tomorrow. I have a unit plan that I have to create by the end of the week, and a culminating performance test due by Sunday. I should probably read Carrie (ugh) this week. (There's no way I'm giving you a link to amazon for that book. Just no way!) I have some papers to read for students, and I have to record some grades. I did bake bread and call my folks, which I was way overdue on. I updated my LinkedIn and Facebook accounts big time. Jim's finally home from work, I made linguini with white clam sauce, and now we're watching "The Dewey Cox Story." How romantic. =) Jim's reasonably-priced wine was good, too. I did post some stuff on my classes' discussion boards... postings are required, and the teachers take off points if you don't post a required number of time each week. And the postings are supposed to have some substance, so you have to read other students' posts then think about a reply and post it. All this thinking wears a girl out. =) Is there a limit to how much thinking a person can do? I think I've hit it... but I've got to keep thinking 'til June. Somebody help me!!!! 

February 1, 2009  We're looking at a snowy Tuesday this week. Another snow day? Really? I've decided to stop lugging my laptop to school everyday. First of all, it's heavy, and I finally pulled something in the middle of my back yesterday. Second, I can rarely connect to the wireless inside the school. So I'll work in the school library and put all my work on my thumb drive... fingers crossed that I can figure out a way to keep track of my thumb drive. There are changes at home, too. No more retiring to Baby Boy's room to do my school work, because doing that would mean I never see JimBob. Instead, I've taken over the sofa in the living room. It's very confusing for "JB" -- he talks to me as if I'm paying attention to what's on the TV -- but at least we get to see each other and I get my work done. I spend every free hour working now. I don't know how I'm going to cope once the snow days stop... they're what's saving me at the moment. Although, February school vacation is only two weeks away. Yikes.

Here's a link to monitor Redoubt volcano in Alaska. And Twitter reports. And pictures and activity.

January 28, 2009  Snow day. I set my sights to finish reading Feed by noon so I'd know what my students have already read this year, which I did (more or less), and then had lunch and turned on Charlie Rose thinking I'd be watching him talk to Jimmy Carter but he's talking to some Nascar driver (no idea what the guy's name is) -- a sport which is little more than the oblivious consumption of resources to produce poisonous gasses as a form of mindless entertainment. I don't get it. Then again, I'm tired. Regardless, the timer is set for another 30 minutes of down time, then I'm going to finish a huge assignment for my Curriculum & Assessments class. There's mango chutney thawing on the countertop for supper -- we'll be having pork tenderloin. Then I'll have to chink a path through the mound the plows have made at the end of the driveway so Jim can get his car into the garage and snowblow. The birds are hunkered down in the rose bush outside near the bird feeder. 

My History of Sutton has arrived. Yay. It was written in 1878. You'll love this resolution of March 1850: "No male teacher shall receive from the public funds more than twenty-two dollars per month, and no female teacher more than ten dollars per month, exclusive of board. If a female be employed in the winter where there is no male teacher, she may receive fifteen dollars per month." Gotta love that gender bias. The authors go on to revile the education system much in the way we do today. Then, they say this: "For the gratification of the antiquarian of one hundred years hence [that's us!], and the benefit of the future historian, we append a list of the text-books in use in our common schools in 1876: Readers, the Franklin series; Speller, Monroe's Practical; Arithmetic, Greenleaf's new series; Geography, Warren's primary and common school; Grammar, Harper's language series; History, Scott's United States; Writing, Payson's writing books, six numbers." Okay, whatever. 

January 24, 2009  The days are a blur now and I am living only in the moment. Where am I supposed to be right now at this very moment, and what am I supposed to be doing? There was one point this week when I was saying to myself, "You can't fall asleep Heidi... you are pushing a grocery cart through a store," when a real voice behind me said, "So what are we having for supper tonight, Heidi?" It was my neighbor, Karen. My little chat with her jolted me out of my stupor. 

I know I will get the hang of this thing, but I also know that I'm going to be stupid with fatigue quite a bit along the way. Being at my cooperating school is the most rewarding part of my day, and I am relieved to find out that it is! What if I'd spent all this time and energy and money only to find out I hated being at school? Monday I'll take over my first class. Planning, teaching, grading, all that. Fingers crossed and wish me luck. 

Epiphanies? The students have really sucked me in! They've wrapped themselves around my heart with their ugly clothes and bad hair, their honesty and their insecurities, their excitement and boredom, their false personas and their authentic behavior, their lack of interest, their snarkiness, their slumped shoulders, and their perceived indifference. I find myself rooting for them so, so, so intensely -- it cracks me up how they don't realize that we know what they're all about! They're swimming in a fishbowl, but all they see are themselves and each other; they don't have any sense of how they're undressing themselves emotionally in front of people who've been in their shoes and recognize who they really are. They don't see that their teachers get it... we understand. They want to believe that they've out-smarted us; they want to believe that they've achieved something beyond anything we can perceive. Their performances can be so shamelessly uninformed! Their behavior can seesaw uncontrolled. I'm just taking it all in. There are people who would pay to see performances like this. I am absolutely enjoying them with all my heart and soul. They are so perfect! =)

January 19, 2009  I love the concept of taking a holiday off. Neato! I got all my seminar homework done, finished what I can do for school, shoveled out Baby Boy's car, drove around looking for a bank ATM again... lots of stuff. Baby Boy's laptop is being used finally, so we called the LoJack people to ask what they're doing to track it down for us and they let us know they didn't know Ni's laptop was stolen. Sigh. An email and 3 phone calls didn't clue them in. So Baby Boy is all over getting it reported to the PC LoJack folks. Well... he will be as soon as he finishes eating his pasta. The boy does one thing at a time, and I am proud to learn he has an approach to life that works for him. Yay for that. 

I also made a pretty good Moroccan Chicken & Eggplant dish for dinner tonight. I converted it from epicurious.com. (Jim's buying eggplant every time he goes to the store these days. Officially, I can't stand eggplant, but this dish is awesome!) You could use chickpeas instead of chicken to make it a good veg meal. =) 

January 18, 2009  Snow? It's supposed to snow this morning? I got the memo about tonight's snow storm but not this morning's snow storm. Furthermore, the forecasters are saying we'll get 6 inches or so by this afternoon... but wait a minute! It's 9:00 AM and I'm pretty sure we already have 6 inches. What's going on here? This is what happens when your nose is buried in books. I finished last week's assignments at 2:00 this morning, and now I'm up at 9:00 to start this week's. I'm thanking God that tomorrow is MLK day and I can finish this week's assignment, and bake bread, which I need to do while I have a chance. 

So do you have your tickets for Tuesday's inauguration? Yeh, me neither, but I may be watching on TV at school, and that's good enough for me. =)

9:30 update: Oh ho! NECN just confirmed that, yes indeed I'm not hallucinating, there are in fact 6 inches of the white stuff on the ground next door in Walpole, MA, and that the forecast's snow totals for the region need to be updated. So now the weather guy says we're going to get 8 inches. Since he's cloistered in a studio in Newton, he's not connecting with what's really going on outside in the real world. I'm forecasting 10 to 12 inches this morning, then another 2 overnight. Jim better get his snowblowing self out of bed and get to work. =)

January 10, 2009  Okay, yes, the student teaching has begun. Yay! Not much to report though. I'm still getting settled, my cooperating teachers are still figuring out what to do with me, I'm learning the school and the students and all that. What's the most noticeable difference between working in a computer firm and working in a school? Eye contact!!!!! It's like night and day! I feel "human" being in a school all day, what with people looking at me, people talking to me, me working with people and talking to them, too! We already had a snow day, and I used that day to read a book the students will be reading... "The Perks of Being a Wallflower". I had already finished "A Raisin in the Sun". Of course, NU has begun too -- one class, plus one seminar for student teaching. And this week I drive into Boston twice, rather than the normal once. So things are settling in.

Baby Boy and his girlfriend returned to western Mass. last weekend but we brought them back home on Thursday for a Friday morning interview with the insurance guy... still settling up that accident from a year ago. Jim returned them to North Adams yesterday. Their classes begin on Tuesday. Ni returned to find he'd left his key at home and his girlfriend's big fish had died. This is the second tank death that the small fish has survived, so the small fish is now under some scrutiny. Hang in there! =)