Month: August 2012

The End of Summer

I know that summer doesn’t really end until September something-or-other, but Labor Day (coming on Monday) is the symbolic end of summer in our neck of the woods. So here we are at the end of summer.

We’ve now been in school a week (well, a 4 day week for the students) and I think it was a good week. Thanks to some diligent work by our new guidance counselor, most of the kids eligible to take the chemistry course for college credit are doing so. (She was still chasing kids and their parents down today – applications had to be faxed by noon.)

This is the start of my 20th year of teaching and the start of my 14th year at Newton. Woo! And I feel like this might be the most stress-free starting week in memory. (Well, I do have a crappy memory, and I know last year had mucho stress with the new chemistry curriculum.) So perhaps I’m getting the hang of this teaching lark!

I was working late today, but I really wanted to get a number of things done before the weekend so I can just enjoy the 3 days without thinking of school. And then the folks and I headed off to Troy Streets Alive to check out the Downtown. We sampled bourbon chicken from LeDoux, looked at the wares of the various artists stationed around the square, bought some olive oil from Olive Oasis, and then headed off to Kuzzinz, a bar & grill I’d not been to before. In honor of my successful first week, I had a woo woo with supper and a brownie sundae for dessert. Very yummy!

This weekend is one of my favorite festivals – the Heritage Festival in Piqua. Dunno when we’ll go other than “not tomorrow.” We’ve got a wedding reception to go to tomorrow. (The wedding was held in another state, so they’re holding a second reception here for family that couldn’t get to it.) That works for me. Wedding receptions are usually much more interesting than weddings. 🙂

And so it begins (again)…

Well, only 1 more teacher work day before the kids join us at school (their first day is Tuesday). We had Open House last night and I had a few visitors (par for the course). And I think I may be ready for school!

Just about every time I’d think I was there, I’d remember something else, but when I left today, I realized that the only thing I need to do yet is post the first week’s schedule on the white board. The stuff will clean easier if I don’t leave it up more than a week, which is why I didn’t put it up today.

Anyhoo, lesson plans are done and uploaded to my web page, notes are prepared and uploaded to my web page, first day paperwork is printed, administrative paperwork for 1st period is laid out on the desks with 1st period’s books.

Here’s hoping this well-prepared start will bode well for the rest of the year!

Accessorize Me!

You knew you hadn’t heard the last from me on my new smartphone. Nope, today I want to share with you all of the nifty accessories that I’ve picked up (ie purchased) for my phone.

One of the first things I bought was a stylus, since my old phone had one. But I’ve discovered since then that I do pretty well without it. I do use it if I have to type a lot. And it’s nifty cuz it’s purple!

Along with that was a car charger for the phone. It was cheap ($8) and simple – basically a USB charging knob with the appropriate USB cable (microUSB).

In addition to a couple more spare USB cables (since all of my other devices use the miniUSB), I ordered a 32GB microSD card to hold much of my music collection. It’s not quite large enough for the entire collection, but I’ve been reading about people having success with 64GB cards and will likely upgrade to that when the price is right. My music currently takes up 40GB (not including Xmas or any of my audio stories).

I also ordered a charging dock for by my PC. Turns out I probably wouldn’t have needed it, cuz I then discovered a nifty Android friendly speaker dock: the Philips AS351 Fideolio Android Speaker. It uses Bluetooth to accept the signal from the phone. It’s like magic.

So now, my phone is my alarm clock for bed. I plug it in at night. Run the Lightning Bug app for my ambient sounds (I bought the Forest package). And in the morning, it will wake me by playing a random song from my collection. And it’s charged!

Since I’ve taken to using MapMyRide (and MapMyWalk) for tracking my bike rides (and walks), I needed a phone dock for my new bike. My bike shop had one available and we tested to see that the phone fit. It did, so I bought it (and later discovered I could have gotten it for a LOT less. Ah well, I’m glad to support a local business.) Mom and I used it today when we rode 7.61 miles (we found out how to get onto the bike path from her place).

Then today while I was driving home (listening to MP3 CDs skipping), I thought “Surely someone’s come up with an FM receiver thingy that works with Bluetooth!” A bit of searching online and sure enough, those are made. So I’ve ordered this nifty little device for my car.

What’s best about this device is that, if it works, I won’t have to wait around for a 128GB iPod Touch to be developed. I mostly wanted the Touch so that I’d have a Harddrive-less device to play in car. But now that I can use my phone to play music in my car, I can get the 160GB iPod Classic for using in my house. (46GB of music incl. Christmas stuff, and 50GB of audio stories – eeep! That’s a lot of Sylv, though it’s not ALL Sylv (just mostly!))

BTW, back to the bike riding. I’m really glad I had the opportunity to ride Amy’s bike when I was visiting her recently. Because it REALLY helps me to appreciate my new bike. Man, I love riding it. Mom is loving her new bike too. We’re going riding again tomorrow. I just wish the helmet that I ordered for mom was in already!

Summer Winds Down

I have had a fabulous summer. Many days of sitting & reading with my kitties (Lucy’s on the chair with me right now, in fact). Time spent riding my new bike. Walking in the woods. Vacations to Chicago and Minneapolis. Plenty of family time with the folks.

Sadly, summer is now winding down. Our first day is next Thursday and the kids’ first day is two weeks from yesterday (on Grandma’s birthday). I’ve been popping into the school getting things ready, though not in earnest yet. And today I went to a meeting to start my training as a Mentor.

This will be the start of my 20th year teaching and this year I shall be a mentor to a new teacher – woo! I hope I will be a good mentor. I’ve met the new teacher and already answered some of her questions. I think she’ll be a good teacher and I hope she has a great year at Newton!

Anyhoo, I’ve got more smartphone bragging to do in a future post, including the nifty accessories I’ve gotten for it. (Going to try out a case when it finally arrives, possibly Saturday.)

Oh, and in a side note (only related because the other item in the package with the case will be the final Sylvester McCoy Doctor Who DVD), I’m quite pleased that from now until The Hobbit premiers in December, I’ll have new Sylv stuff to listen to each month thanks to Big Finish. (With The Hobbit now being split into 3 movies, I hope that Sylv’s stint as Radagast the Brown will be in the first flick still…)

Minneapolis Pix

I decided to give my phone a decent test on its camera when I visited my sister. So the following photos are some of the shots that I took. I noticed it tends toward over exposure when there’s sky around. So I’ve got a bit of playing around to work with it. It does a digital zoom, which surprised me.

Without further adieu, photos from my trip:

My nephew Curtis, working from home.
My nephew Curtis, working from home.

On the fence outside the area where the Midtown Farmer's Market is held.
On the fence outside the area where the Midtown Farmer’s Market is held.

Midtown Farmer's Market is bigger than the ones around here.
Midtown Farmer’s Market is bigger than the ones around here.

Striated eggplant from the market.
Striated eggplant from the market.

The Coop Co-op!
The Coop Co-op!

Chickens having dinner.
Chickens having dinner.

Chickens in the coop!
Chickens in the coop!

The beer place, the Four Firkins.
The beer place, the Four Firkins.

Beer!
Beer!

Our bikes, exhausted from mahoosive riding! (Well, not so much.)
Our bikes, exhausted from mahoosive riding! (Well, not so much.)

High fives! (Amy's the cute one on the left. I'm the one with the unfortunate fanny pack on the right.)
High fives! (Amy’s the cute one on the left. I’m the one with the unfortunate fanny pack on the right.)

The ice cream place we went the first time we went out biking.
The ice cream place we went the first time we went out biking.

Sea Salt, a lovely (and very busy) restaurant along our bike ride.
Sea Salt, a lovely (and very busy) restaurant along our bike ride.

Culture near Sea Salt.
Culture near Sea Salt.

The Minihaha Falls.
The Minihaha Falls.

From the top of the Minihaha Falls.
From the top of the Minihaha Falls.

That's a Nice Ride!
That’s a Nice Ride!

A view of Minneapolis from my sister's neighborhood.
A view of Minneapolis from my sister’s neighborhood.

Last day in Minneapolis *sniff*

Well, best laid plans & all that. Yesterday (Tuesday) I had written up my final Minneapolis LJ post with every intention of posting it when I had a free Internet connection. And then never got a Round Tuit… So below I present my post from yesterday.

Yesterday [Monday], as my title indicates, was my last (full) day in Minneapolis with the girls. After some discussion & discovering that the first restaurant choice was closed on Mondays, we decided to walk to Maria’s Cafe for breakfast. It was a little over a two mile walk, so we were grateful to arrive.

The girls ordered corn pancakes (which they let me try – very sweet & tasty, with or without cheese) while I ordered Pablo’s omelet. This was a 3-egg omelet with rice, refried beans, cheese, and grilled tomatoes & onions in it. Very tasty. I had a hot chocolate with it, too.

As it was a fairly long walk and starting to warm up, plus we all were feeling adventurous, we decided to hire Nice Ride bikes to ride toward home which would cut the trip in half. This was a first for me & Rachel. It was a bit expensive, but the bikes were pretty nice to ride for the distance we did. And the rest of the walk home was improved by being cut in half.

Along the walk home, Amy showed us her favorite garden along the route. It put my Secret Garden to shame. And the funny thing was, we passed by several gardens wherein we asked “Is this the one?” The girls are fortunate to have such a lovely neighborhood to walk & bike in.

Once we were back home, it was naptime. I spent the time finishing my book (Ben Aaronovitch’s latest Peter Grant book: Whispers Under Ground). Then around 2pm, Rachel had an appointment at N2Living, a strength training place that she had a free trial to check out. She invited us to join her and it was quite fascinating to see the various machines (designed by the Nautilus dude) designed to work on a specific muscle group.

The young people who walked Rachel through the routine were very friendly. The lady who owned the joint, OTOH, was late to the meeting. Still, the neck “stretching” machine was nifty as it connected to a PC (with a VERY old DOS system, it looked like!) and showed the angle of movement etc.

After the meeting, we headed off in search of lupper at a new pub the girls hadn’t been around to try yet. Only to discover upon arriving that they were closed that day for an employee event. *sad face*

Still in the mood for pub grub/beer food, we had one destination in mind, when suddently both girls were inspired to pop into another for their Happy Hour. We arrived at Blackbird with 10 minutes to spare and had a lovely lupper of slider burgers, fries with rosemary aoli, and walleye/crawfish potstickers. I had a pear cider from Ace which Rachel rightly described as “a pear Jolly Rancher.” Not one of the better ciders I tried this weekend, but it was drinkable.

Once we were back home, it was time for CHORES. I worked on getting Rachel’s laptop de-Nortoned and Comodo Internet Security installed instead. Then I helped Amy (she did the hard stuff. I handed her the tools) install a new mirror (purchased back in November) at the top of their stairs. Finally we retired to the basement to try out a few video formats and uploading a trial video to YouTube. And then it was time for Olympics & snacks.

I drank the last of the ciders which I bought from the Four Firkins and had some sesame sticks. (There’s enough left for Amy to have atop a salad some evening.) And then succumbed to the lure of cookies & cream ice cream (Alden, did you know you had an organic ice cream for sale in Minnesota?)

This morning, since we never did get to try out Butter, a bakery/coffee shop/eatery on my trip, we all got up super early in order to partake of their goods. Sadly, they don’t have the breakfast grill open until after 8am, but they had quiches for warming and plenty of baked goods. So I had a ham, broccoli, and swiss quiche, blueberry scone, and vanilla steamer for breakfast. All were very yummy.

Rachel then rode her bike on toward her work and Amy drove me to the airport. Gonna miss those girls! Was lovely for them to host me for the long weekend!

Now I am seated at O’Hare (though I refuse to pay for Wi-Fi so I won’t be publishing this until later) having just had a nice salad with walnuts, raisins, apple slices, bleu cheese, and raspberry vinaigrette. Tasty and not any more expensive than I’d probably get at a hoity toity place. Next flight in less than an hour and then I’m home again. Woo!

When I arrived in Dayton, the folks were there to pick me up. Then mom talked me into swimming (didn’t take much of an effort). After pool time, I headed home, with two stops – groceries and Chinese Fud. (Shamefully, after my nice & healthy lunch, I had to ruin it with General Tso’s and crab rangoon.)

The kitties were glad to see me. In particular, Lucy braved the fan of the den to hang out with me most of the evening. Apparently, I am fascinating to watch when I’m playing World of Warcrack. Who knew? 🙂

Biking to Sea Salt

Yesterday was the nicest weather day of my trip. We started the morning with a quick drive to pick up donuts from A Baker’s Wife and then had breakfast on the girls’ back porch (Amy also made scrambled eggs).

Our main goal for the day was to ride bikes to Sea Salt, a restaurant near Minnehaha Falls. My butt was still sore from yesterday, but I took Advil an hour or so before we departed and I think that it helped.

The girls had contacted another friend of theirs to see if she’d meet us at Sea Salt and she was game. So when Rachel had returned from checking in on Winter (the needy kitty), we biked on towards the restaurant. Their friend was saving us a place in the LONG line and we joined her.

I bought a Crispin’s hard cider (with maple syrup flavoring too) which turned out to be a huge bottle (so I shared some of it). I ordered fried calamari as an appetizer and a crab cake sandwich for lunch. Then Rachel got me a salted cashew ice cream (recommended by their friend) to eat while we waited for the food. Everything that I had there was excellent – probably the best calamari I’d ever had.

We wandered a little bit around the falls whereupon my sister bumped into the fellow she just hired (and his family) – fun coincidence. We had decided to ride over to the Riverview theater to see Snow White and the Huntsman and their friend joined us.

Although I wouldn’t say it was the best movie ever, I enjoyed seeing Ian McShane, Bob Hoskins, and Toby Jones playing dwarves. And for $2, I felt I had gotten my money’s worth.

We parted company with their friend and then headed home on the bikes. And since we’d been too full to partake of Riverview’s real buttered popcorn, the girls decided to pop & butter some at home. So we sat on the porch eating popcorn and peanuts in the shell. I had a cider. Then for the second round, we had sesame sticks (which Amy bought specifically for my visit) and chocolate chips (and I had a second cider).

We finished the evening watching Olympics in their basement (after Amy showed me a short film she had worked on and is going to put online soon). Another fun day with the girls!

Trina & her sore bum

Yesterday, we started off the morning with leftover pizza. Turns out there were 3 slices of the Pizza Athena left, one without olives (mine!) so it worked out perfectly.

Eventually, we made our way to the Midtown Farmer’s Market. Now I often go to the two farmer’s markets in Troy and they’re awfully small affairs. Midtown was much bigger & livelier. We wandered around looking for produce and lunch. We got some nifty striated eggplants to grill and some brats (including wild rice brats) as well.

Lunch was at the Hola Arepa truck and I tried my first arepa. I had the slow roasted pork arepa with guacamole. Very tasty. I drank their strawberry ginger lemonade along with it.

Next, we went out to the house where Amy & Rachel’s coop co-op is housed. It was Rachel’s day to clean the coop and check on the chickens. They have 11 chickens at the moment and they all seemed eager to see Rachel. Amy and I sat & read while Rachel worked.

We returned home for a short break (and to drop off the food we’d gotten at the market) and then we headed off to check on Winter, the cat that Rachel is cat-sitting. Winter was pleased for the company. She is a very loving kitty.

Next was the trip to Microcenter to get a new battery for Rachel’s laptop. The last time I was at Microcenter, I exclaimed to Amy that I was in Nerdvana. 🙂 Across the street was The Four Firkins, a beer store that was small but loaded with beers, ciders, meads, etc. I picked out 4 hard ciders to try and the girls got several beers to check out.

After we came home, we headed off on a bike ride around Lake Nokomis. We got most of the way around the lake before my bum told me it was just too sore. So we paused a bit, then headed on to the Grand Ole Creamery for some ice cream. I had pistachio ice cream and vanilla malt custard. The frozen custard was particularly fine. I survived the ride back and then we got the place ready for guests.

A couple of friends of Amy (the folks who own the house where the chicken coop resides) were joining us for grilled brats. While Amy got the veggies & other things ready, Rachel and I cleaned the kitchen and then made a blueberry galette. Rachel made the pie crust and I did the innards.

Amy had grilled some corn on the cob, zucchini, summer squash, striated eggplant, onion, and brats. She also made salt potatoes. It was all very yummy, and I really liked the wild rice brats. We sat out on their back porch and ate, then retired inside for dessert. The galette was very tasty. And once again, I met friends of the girls who are very nice people.

Today will be another biking adventure. The weather is perfect (mid 70s F predicted for the high) and my bum is still sore, but I shall see if some Advil will help out today.

I am a Horrible Person

It’s official, I am a Horrible Person. As you shall read in this post, if you dare!

But before I had this fact confirmed, I had a lovely day with Amy & Rachel. Breakfast was cereal and 1/3 of the 3 types of cupcakes from the night before. Then Rachel had a couple of appointments and Amy had to work. So I watched Olympic events on my phone and worked on Rachel’s laptop.

For lunch, Amy made us Caprese sandwiches (fresh mozarella, tomatoes, basil, olive oil on a baguette) and we sat outside on their back porch eating lunch. It was a little warm, but pleasant nonetheless.

When Amy was done with work, the two of us took a walk to her library and around the neighboring area. Then we three rode bikes to Pizza LucĂ© where we met up with two friends of the girls. We had artichoke dip (very tangy and yummy with a little bit of heat) and bread followed by two pizzas – the Ruby Rae and the Pizza Athena. I also had two Angry Orchard hard ciders while the girls shared two pitchers of Summit Oktoberfest (hey, it’s August already!)

Before I left on this trip, dad had given me some Bad Girl money, so I thought our Pizza LucĂ© “beer & pizza” night was a perfect Bad Girl time. So thanks dad for last night’s wonderful supper (and today’s breakfast).

We then rode to Crema, a coffee and ice cream shop just a few blocks away. I tasted their sweet corn ice cream (yup, tasted of sweet corn!) and mint truffle ice cream (wrong type of mint for me) and then settled on their ultimate chocolate ice cream and their homemade caramel ice cream. Very yummy.

It was dark when we left, so I stuck close to Amy on the bike ride back, with a red flashing light attached to my backside. A&R’s friends were waiting for us when we got there (they had driven) and we chatted while we waited for Rachel to return from checking on the kitty she’s looking in on this weekend for a friend.

Once Rachel had returned, we start playing the game that I bought A&R for their anniversary (which is still almost 2 weeks away): Cards Against Humanity (a party game for horrible people). This game had been recommended on Twitter and I loved the premise. I figured the girls would love it, so I sent it to them before my arrival so I could play too.

So the five of us played the game and laughed throughout the whole process. It was so funny and so horrible. And when the game was done, I had won – I was the most horrible person in the room! 🙂 So now you know!

Vacationing in Minneapolis

Although I am a small town girl at heart, it is lovely having friends and relatives who live in Big Cities so that I can visit. And this weekend, I’m visiting my sister and her partner (and their cat, Curtis).

I flew in yesterday (via O’Hare) and Amy picked me up. It was lunch time, so she took us to a Pupusaria near her place. I’d never had pupusas before, so I loved getting to try something new. In the simplest description, they’re like stuffed corn tortillas. I had one stuffed with pork & cheese and the other beans & cheese. These were served with a pickled cabbage known as curtido along with their own salsa. They were very yummy!

Poor Amy still had to work that day, so when we returned, she worked from home for awhile and I goofed off, watching Olympics on my phone, for the most part. (Currently watching Britain’s women volleyball team battling Dominican Republic. Go Britain!)

When it was nearing 5pm, we walked to the Midtown Global Market to meet up with Rachel. She was trying on a shirt at Global Mama’s and wound up buying it. It looked great on her. Then we wandered around the Market looking for where we wanted to eat. We all settled on The Left-Handed Cook.

It’s a newer place at the Market and the girls hadn’t tried it yet. So we started with their appetizer “Truffle Truffle Parm Parm” which is really fun to say. It was French fries with Parmesan cheese and truffle oil. They were tasty. I ordered the spare rib rice bowl with poached egg & kimchee. Amy got a soft crab & avocado sandwich and Rachel the porky cake (a polenta & pork dish). Everything we tried was lovely. I also had a Minnesotan cream soda (forget the brand) as my beverage.

We finished at the Market at Salty Tart where we picked up a baguette and some cupcakes. Then we returned home. We watched Olympics (NBC’s rather poor coverage), the girls folded laundry, and then we had cupcakes. Peach & vanilla with buttercream, Surly Furious chocolate (Surly Furious is a beer), and flourless chocolate and almond. All were very tasty – and since we got 2 of each, we had some for breakfast too!

Today I’ve been watching/listening to Olympics (see above) on my phone and working on Rachel’s laptop computer. She has a nice external drive, but the backup software kept failing. So I think I’ve found something else that works – the drive has no issues with accepting files and Winders saw no faults with it.

Rachel is back, so it’s time for lunch! Amy has made us sandwiches even though she’s “at work.”