Girls’ Day Out

July 4, 2007

Yesterday could well have been subtitled, Girls’ Day In, since we stayed in all day (well, in town). But today, we did go out and we left the kids at home.

We started off again with another leisurely morning. hergrace had purchased some sticky buns from Baba A Louis yesterday, so we had those at breakfast. And without ever getting off my duff at the kitchen table, we moved right onto a lunch of leftovers. I had leftover steak and salad, which was very tasty. Plus some of the sour dough bread I’d bought the day before.

Steph, elsaf and I then walked to Mitch’s Maples which was a mile away from the farmhouse. The place is a self-serve maple syrup store. I wanted some of the maple cream that I’d tried at the farmhouse and this was the place to get it. $7 and signing the guest book and I had my cream. It was quite neat to be in a self serve store that’s done by the honor system (and employs closed circuit TV…)

After the walk, it was time for us to head off to Simon Pearce – a glass shop at the Old Mill in Quechee, VT. At Simon Pearce we got to check out the waterfalls and covered bridge and to watch the glassblowing. Wow! Was that guy buff or what? Oh wait… The process of glassblowing is really neat. And the Master glassblower? He was fine. 🙂

We looked around the shop at Simon Pearce and marveled at the beauty and the prices. Even the seconds were pricey, but they were very beautiful as well (and often we weren’t sure what made them seconds).

As it was 5:30, we decided to have Garmin choose supper for us. (We were in the rental car on this trip.) Despite the fact that it had earlier tried to send us down a one lane dirt road, we were trusting it with supper. It had lots of restaurants in West Lebanon, New Hampshire, so we picked one there and let it direct us (rather ineptly at first) to West Lebanon.

Our first choice of supper turned out to not be a German restaurant but instead a chocolate store. Which was closed. But across the shopping complex was the Weathervane, a New England seafood chain. While there, judiang and I gorged ourselves on lobster while Elsa and Steph stuck to lighter fare. And we all had dessert – I went with a classic hot fudge sundae, which simply hit the spot. It was a very good (very expensive) meal! Best of all? The last bite of lobster was the best of them all. Yum!

Garmin the GPS got us back OK and halfway through the trip, Steph gave it a sex-change and made it a British male (Daniel) rather than the American woman (Jill) we’d been listening to. Garmin is now very demanding, rather than simply exasperated.

We’re now back at the farmhouse and checked into our flights. Judi’s working on a movie of the glassblowing while Steph & Elsa are watching Harry Hill. We’ve had a fabulous time at Steph’s in-laws and have thanked them over & over for the chance to be here. It’s always great to be with my friends. Gonna miss y’all, girls!

I shall bow out of this post with today’s photos.

More pink flowers, the variety of which I know not.

Some purple flowers.

The ~~Sugar~~ Syrup Shack.

The waterfalls by the Old Mill.

The covered bridge by the Old Mill.

The big ass kiln at Simon Pearce.

The very buff Master Glassblower.

Oh go blow!

The mold where they would blow the glass to shape in. The glass is so hot, the wood mold burns.

Transferring the glass vase to the pontil.

Steph’s Birthday

July 4, 2007

Yesterday was hergrace‘s birthday, so we celebrated in grand style. But before we got into all of that, we had a whole day to experience.

Once again, we had a nice leisurely start to the day. And eventually we headed off on our 4 mile walk to Baba A Louis bakery, Chester town proper, and back to the farmhouse. At Baba A Lou’s we got some baked goods (surprise surprise!) I picked up a loaf of sour dough bread and a cheese & herb croissant. And as we rested outside of the Cathedral of Bread (well, that’s what the place looked like) we all ate our croissants.

We headed into Chester’s downtown in order to have the walk back be at a less steep incline than our walk to the bakery. The town is very quaint and quiet. We popped into a couple of stores, but didn’t buy anything. We also checked out a small suspension bridge near the downtown and walked across. Then on to the town’s cemetery for some perusal of very old headstones (some 18th century ones).

We then returned to the farmhouse, stopping only at Lisai’s market to get some bottled water. When we returned, we all crashed and felt good about getting out on such a lovely walk. The weather was simply perfect for the walk – not hot or cold, not too sunny or too dreary. A very lovely day.

The afternoon was spent geeking and reading and relaxing. And eventually the plans were afoot for supper. Steph’s father-in-law was going to grill steaks, elsaf would bake potatoes and make the salad, and all of us would eat well. Steph’s mother-in-law decorated the dining room in 4th of July party favors and decorations. And with pinwheels at every seat, we had plenty to keep ourselves entertained while we ate our wonderful supper.

Once the supper dishes were cleared up, the birthday cake was brought it. The birthday cake, made on Dairy Day Monday, was an Elsa-made cheesecake. Yummy! She also made a strawberry sauce for those who aren’t cheesecake purists like I am.

After desert was present time. Steph got lots of lovely gifts from her family and friends. Including several Doctor Who toys. Woohoo! The party eventually ended and folks started heading off to bed.

The girls and I stayed up to watch The Last September, a David Tennant movie that judiang gave Steph for her b-day. The movie was a bit hard to comprehend with all the people being introduced without proper introductions. And DT had a big furry caterpillar on his upper lip. So to keep the squee going, Steph put part 2 of Blackpool on for watching.

Rather than staying up til 2am, we actually filed out at fairly decent times. Elsa left at midnight, followed by me at midnight thirty and finally Judi ordered Steph to bed at one.

Today is Independence Day and our only real plans are to visit a local glass blower and watch them make beautiful glassware. Hopefully we’ll get to see some fireworks tonight too!

Photos from the walk and from the party.

We’ve had some very sunny days here.

The folks in Vermont call this a creek, but I know it’s a “crick.”

More mountains (Vermont has a bunch!)

I can tell a train has been here. I can see its tracks!

Lots of scenery on the walk.

A scarecrow! I wonder if he’ll come to life & attack us!

Baba A Louis – the Cathedral of Bread!

Foxglove flowers outside of the Cathedral of Bread.

Pink flowers outside of the Cathedral of Bread.

Steph’s birthday!

Present Squee!

Happy Birthday, Steph!

July 3, 2007

A very Happy Birthday to hergrace, whose in-law’s place we’ve invaded in order to celebrate with her. We’re having a blast in Vermont and it’s made all the better for getting to celebrate with Steph!

I’d also like to add a Happy Birthday to timjr on his birthday as well!

Dairy Day Monday

July 3, 2007

Yesterday was a day devoted to MILK! And as I love MILK, yesterday was a very good day indeed.

We started off the day heading off to the Grafton Village Cheese Factory in, of all places, Grafton village. There we got to watch the folks actually making cheese. We learned what cheddaring means (to break up the curd to dry it) and watched as they cheddared, salted, and shoveled the curd to make it into cheese. Then the place squooshes out more whey and then lets it age.

In the store part, we got to taste all of the types of cheddar that they make. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 year cheddars, garlic, sage and hickory smoked cheddar. And after tasting them all, I bought one of each type of cheese that they make. Mmmmm, cheese!

Next we headed off to the Ben & Jerry’s factory to take a tour of it. judiang and I got the package deal of t-shirt, pint, and tour for $20. And we got our pints right off the bat so we could eat while waiting for the tour. (elsaf was smart enough to wait until the tour & all were done). We didn’t finish it, but we made good headway into our pints. I got the Brownie Batter flavor (which I’d never seen before) and Judi got the Peach Cobbler (ditto). Both were tasty.

When we got on the tour, we saw a couple of movies and then the factory bit which was cool to watch. The tour leader asked if any of us knew the significance of -40 (temperature). And of course I knew the answer (science geek that I am). Alas, I didn’t get a prize. Still, when we got to taste a sample of B&J ice cream at the end of the tour, there were leftovers and I had a second sample. Mint chocolate chunk – yum!

After the tour, I returned to the car to get our ice cream from before (and put our new pint of Creme Brulee in) and we managed to finish our pints. Elsa had some Americone Dream, and hergrace had a sundae with “Coffee Coffee Buzz Buzz Buzz” as the ice cream base. All in all, a wonderful selection of ice creams.

We returned to the farmhouse nicely full of dairy and then worked on getting Doctor Who onto a platform we could view it. And when we were finally hungry (ish) we ordered pizza. Mmmmm, a nice capper to Dairy Day Monday.

Here are some photos from Dairy Day Monday.

A sign that cheese is around!

Cheddaring the curd

Shoveling the curd

Covered bridge by cheese store

View from the bridge

The Flavor Graveyard at Ben & Jerry’s

Ben & Jerry’s

Manchester, Vermont Vermont

July 2, 2007

The trouble with the musical Hair is the catchy music that sticks in your head. And as we traveled to Manchester, Vermont yesterday, I had the Manchester, England England song running through my head. And hopefully some of you are now suffering.

So, after the late night on Saturday, we actually got up before nine am. Even judiang got up before nine (because she misread the clock in her room and thought it was after ten – heh heh). The morning was a nice slow one as we had cereal for breakfast and chatted with folks in the kitchen. Then it was photo time. We took pictures around the farmhouse and neighboring homes. I love the stone buildings in this area and got a really nice picture of a stone church.

Stone Church

One of the neighbors saw us out taking pictures and she invited us into her house, which was a former stone schoolhouse. She even let me ring the school bell, which was very cool. 🙂 Out back of her house was some very beautiful scenery and several stone benches. We all sat on one stone bench in the back in a little nook. And then, being the geeks that we are, we all took photos of the other three on the bench. Judi posted hers already. So here is mine.

Three on a Bench

Next we returned to the farmhouse and gathered up hergrace‘s boys and then headed off to the Vermont Country Store. The last time we visited Vermont, Steph took us there and I loved it. (Well, I’ve always loved their catalog, so being there in person was even better.) I sampled almost every sample they had in the place (well, I was hungry) and bought quite a few small items. And still hadn’t seen the entire store before we shuffled off to a late lunch in Manchester.

When we got to Manchester, Steph took us to Flat Road Grill for lunch. I had the Crocque Monsieur (grilled roll with ham, apples and Vermont cheddar), fries and a very nice cream soda. I enjoyed the sandwich – apples are a fun addition!

We parked at the bookstore in Manchester and shopped there. I bought a book (surprise, surprise) and enjoyed looking at the store, which had lots of neat other items.

Interesting Sculpture Outside Bookstore

We then walked around Manchester, which is an Outlet Town (like an Outlet Mall only all throughout a town). Steph and I were foot people, so we went into a shoe outlet store and looked at all the nice shoes. And oggled at the Mephisto shoes. Someday, baby, I’ll buy a pair of Mephisto. When I’m rich.

Our next stop was a sock outlet. Mmmmm, socks! Steph recommended The World’s Softest Sock, so I found some nice lavender colored ones. Only to discover they were mediums. I needed large. And the large socks weren’t nearly as fun colors as the mediums. Ah well. I bought red, green, and white – 3 pairs for $15.

One of the neat things about Vermont is that they have mountains! And while we were shopping in Manchester, we had many lovely views of mountains. (Ohio is rather bereft of mountains – at least where I live.)

Mountains!

We returned to the farmhouse and dropped Judi and the boys off. Then Steph, elsaf and I headed off to a local market for supper supplies. Alas, they were closed, so we went to a grocery store in Springfield. The grilling decision was made for us when we discovered they didn’t have enough wild salmon for everyone. So we got some chicken breasts and salad fixings. Plus two types of sour dough bread.

Steph and Elsa worked on the supper – Steph made the marinade while Elsa chopped up the veggies. Then Steph’s father-in-law grilled the chicken. Supper was WONDERFUL. We sat around the dining room table and had a very nice evening.

We then ate ice cream in the kitchen while folks cleaned the supper stuff up. Then the girls and I (and Steph’s youngest) sat down to watch the new Doctor Who. Only, due to many, many technical difficulties, we were only able to watch 15 minutes of it. Still, we did get to watch Curse of the Were-Rabbit while things were getting resolved.

Around 1am, we shuffled off to bed, and now it’s the next morning. We’re going to celebrate Dairy Day Monday. 🙂

Chester Without a Map

July 1, 2007

For those who’ve seen the David Tennant movie, LA Without a Map, you’ll know what I’ve based the title of this post upon.

So yesterday I headed off to Columbus to fly Southwest to Philly. I arrived on time and had an overpriced Wolfgang Puck sandwich. Southwest has Open Seating, which means you stand in line (either A, B or C) and wait for your overall seating to be announced. I got in near the front of the plane and in an aisle seat (the joys of traveling solo – don’t have to negotiate for seats together in a situation like that). I missed the window seat, but was happy to sit near the front. Take off was a little delayed, but the air stewards were hilarious.

I arrived on time and found a text message on my phone from judiang saying they were in baggage claim D waiting on me. So without checking the arrival boards, I headed for baggage claim D, assuming my friends knew where I was supposed to go. 🙂 Turns out they did, but Philly Airport sucks and took ages to get my bag to me. Bah! (And one fellow was waiting for his and saw his sock come down the conveyor belt. “Hey! That’s my sock!” Shortly after that, we saw his open bag come down the belt as well. Whoops!)

Once we were all ready, elsaf, Judi and I headed outside to wait for the Budget van. Four billion Avis vans and all the other rental agency vans went through before the Budget van finally came. The car we got (in slot A13 – you think we’d’ve known bad luck would be forthcoming) is a Ford Focus and Elsa got us a GPS to go with it. We stuck Garmin up on the windshield and programmed the destination. Well, sort of. It turns out none of us remembered to print the address off of the Vermont farmhouse we’re staying in. As hergrace was most likely on the road, we didn’t want to phone her. So we used some random Chester address instead.

And off we went! Elsa drove us out of Philly and into New Jersey. While still in PA, we had lunch at Friendly’s, and left the GPS in the car harping at us to get back on track. After lunch, Garmin decided it had a better route picked out. But wouldn’t tell us. We thought maybe she was sulking. Finally, she told us her new route. Alas, Elsa soon made a misturn, but Garmin recalculated the result. And at the same time, she had a shin cramp, so she asked if I could drive for a bit. Sure, I said, with no idea of where Garmin would be sending us next.

So we were in New Jersey, and Garmin started sending us on surface streets to get us on this new route. And then I missed a turn, so she recalculated the route and vindictively decided to send us through the Holland Tunnel. With me driving. Me, the country girl who never drives in big cities. Me, the girl who can’t do a left turn to save her life. Eep!

4 days later, we got on the other side of the Holland Tunnel. Well, it was probably 2 hours, but it felt like days. And then it directed me to skirt around New York City on 12th Avenue. Which I did. At one time, Judi suggested me pulling over and letting Elsa drive. Um, pulling over in some unknown part of New York City? I don’t THINK so.

While I was driving, we FINALLY got a call from Steph. We’d discovered during dinner that none of us had a recent phone number for Steph. Whoops! But Judi assured us Steph would eventually call us. And we all cheered when she did. We got the address of the farmhouse from her and also took down her phone number. And told her it would be after 1am before we’d arrive.

Still, I got us out of New York and into Connecticut and finally found a roadstop 12 miles into CT where we could switch drivers and get something to drink. I became a two fisted drinker after that drive with a mint shake in one hand and water in the other. Elsa then headed off through Connecticut. After awhile, she started getting sleepy, so we found (after many attempts) an open gas station where we filled up and Elsa walked around. I offered to drive again provided the GPS didn’t send us to NYC again.

Thankfully, it didn’t. I drove through CT and into Vermont. Yay for Vermont. And then it directed us to Chester, where we began to recognize landmarks from the last time we were here. We cheered when we arrived in Chester. And then even louder when we arrived at the farmhouse. Yay! Steph and her mother-in-law greeted us (sleepily) as we got out of the car. It was just after 2am. Blergh!

Steph showed us up to the rooms where we were going to stay and then we chatted in the hallway for half an hour or so. Then finally slunk away to sleep. Ah, sleep. It is of the good.

Alas, I woke up at 6:30 then 7:30 and finally got up at 8:30. But apart from many many typing errors while writing this, I think I’m awake. Today we intend to have a great day with Steph. 🙂

Smart Airliner!

June 28, 2007

So today I’m at SOITA in Franklin, OH, being trained on the Smart Technologies Airliner wireless slate. 3 other teachers from Newton are with me and when we go, we get to take the Airliners with us for use in our classrooms. These are really nice pieces of technology which I’m excited about adding to my classroom tools. Getting used to navigating with it has been interesting, but I’m getting there.

For those of you who’ve worked with ’em before, this Airliner is really a Wacom tablet. It works seamlessly with the SmartBoard software that SmartTech has written. SmartBoards are those cool white-board-ish things which are really giant touch screen “monitors” (provided you project the image onto the SmartBoard). The cool thing is that you don’t need a SmartBoard to use the Airliner, and I think I’ll prefer using the Airliner to using a SmartBoard.

Anyhoo, we’re currently toying with the devices and I decided to do a short post re: what I’m up to. So there ya go!

B-WISER 2007, the rest of the week

June 22, 2007

After only 4 hours of sleep last night, a full day, and a 3 hour drive home, I’m rather zonked. But I’m going to try and write about Wed-Today.

Wednesday was Flight Day in Physics. However, I only got to hang out with groups 1&2 and 5&6 since I used the middle session to go and place the 300+MB of photos already taken onto the machines in our computer lab. (It wasn’t just me taking photos, several teachers and a few students were bringing me cameras to upload pictures from.) So during computer class, I showed the girls how to use the GIMP to edit photos, concentrating on changing image size. The classes went pretty smoothly and quite a few girls enjoyed playing with the program.

The evening program was an engineering project where the girls had to design a device to shoot a ping pong ball aloft for as long as possible. They were given quite a few items including card stock, rubber bands, and Popsicle sticks. After the first round, they got another half hour to modify their devices and try again. While the girls worked on this, I worked on the Impress presentation I was going to show the girls the next day in computer class. It was fun working on my laptop outside while I watched the girls work.

I didn’t get to see how things ended, because I headed back to the dorm with Joyce & Carolyn to photograph the cakes the girls were having for snacks that night. There were two huge sheet cakes, one chocolate, one white. And they had white & chocolate milk to drink. I stuck with white cake & white milk myself. Tasty tasty!

Thursday was electricity day. The girls worked with circuit boards, light bulbs & batteries, then they made “dancing rice” balloons. But the COOL thing was the Van de Graaff. And it was working WONDERFULLY – the best I’d ever seen it do. We had puff ball after puff ball on the thing. We only had 2 girls where nothing happened, but everyone else had something happen. The laughter was so great, one of the chemists in the building came in to see what was so fun. She just laughed when we explained it.

In computers, I showed the girls OpenOffice.org Impress Portable (a presentation/slide show program). Quite a few of the girls really took to the program and made some really neat slide shows of photos from the camp and beyond. I learned several tricks from the program which they discovered while exploring. And I showed them the presentation I’d made the night before, with lovely photos of Ollie & Floyd (elsaf‘s doggies) on one slide too. (One of the girls the day before wondered if I was going to include any doggy photos in my slide show. So I did.) The girls got to take their flash drives with them when they left class that day. 🙂

The night was counselor’s night off, so Dee and I met groups 1&2 for supper around 5pm that day and headed over. Betty, one of the former co-directors (and co-creators) of the camp, was in town to be an Exemplar the following day, so she sat with Dee & I during supper. Lois, the other former co-director and co-creator was also in for the same reason and had supper with Joyce & Carolyn. It was fun to catch up with our former bosses. 🙂 (Betty was also my junior high science teacher, heh heh.)

The evening program was Gary Broadbent, the boomeranger. Once again he dazzled us with his l33t boomerang skilz and showed off some of his boomerang collection. He brought with him a young man from Japan who’s been training with him here in the US. Takeshi (not sure how it’s spelled, but I think that’s what Gary called him) is a street performer and did some of his tricks as well. He did some yo-yo tricks that were unbelievable!

After the program, the girls put on a talent show. I sat in the lounge watching it and worked on the slide show for the final day. The skits were entertaining and all of them were better than the first act… (The first act being us teachers singing the B-WISER song, which is sung to YMCA.)

We finished the evening with a surprise party for my roomie, which was LOADS of fun and very entertaining. I think we were all sore from laughing when it was over. When we got back to the dorm room, I finished up the slide show and finally got to bed at 2am.

Today went very quickly. We each sat in a room (or part of a lounge) with one of our exemplars and introduced them to the girls. I got Dr. Vi from Wooster, who is 93 years old, wanted to be a doctor at aged 12, graduated from Case Western reserve in ’45, and helped start the Free Clinic in Wooster in ’92. She was fun to listen to and I think the girls enjoyed listening to her tales. I know I did!

After our last meal together *sniff* we all headed off to Mateer auditorium for the final ceremony. Each of us teachers introduced a counselor who then introduced their girls & gave ’em cute little awards. The counselors did a cute sketch. And at the end, I showed the slide show I’d been working on all week. It turned out very nice. It was 10 minutes long (191 slides) and elicited the right number of laughs and “awwws.” I was quite pleased. 🙂

I gave Carolyn a few final hugs (she’s such a fun roommate) and then headed home. After 3+ hours driving and a supper at Culver’s, I got home to two little kitties who were happy their mommy was FINALLY home. I’m happy I’m finally home too. And rather tired as well.

As we said repeatedly this week, this was the best B-WISER ever. We all just had a blast putting on the camp this year. The girls were great, the teachers were great, the directors were great – it was all great. Yay for B-WISER!

BWISER 2007 Days 1 & 2

June 19, 2007

Yesterday was our first full day at B-WISER and first day of classes. I woke early and decided to get up around 6:30. My roomie, Carolyn, followed suit. The two of us headed for breakfast and had pancakes and sausage. (Carolyn was disappointed in the lack of eggs. I was OK with the lack of eggs myself.)

The morning session was physics, and Dee had the girls doing measurement and density, with me as the faithful assistant. However, I spent much of the second period opening the Cruzer Freedom 1GB flash drives we’d gotten the girls. I put labels on all of them (which had a girl’s name and a female scientist’s name) and separated by groups. And during the third period, I headed off to the computer lab to see how things are set up.

The student machines had a Novell logon that was written on the chalkboard, but the machine hooked to the room projector had a Windows logon that I had not been told. So I decided I’d get my laptop at lunch and use it to run the projector. I had managed to turn on the projector during this testing session, and I’d also successfully transferred the Portable Apps onto one of the USB flash drives. Things were looking good.

After a delicious lunch, I headed off to the computer lab and found that half of the girls were already there. I had the idea during lunch to transfer the Portable Apps onto the computer desktops and tried to do this with girls sitting at machines. Then when they all arrived, I had them do that for me. Meanwhile, when I tried to get the projector on, it wouldn’t come on. So I couldn’t show the girls what I was wanting them to do, but we still managed to get the files transferred onto the PCs and then onto their flash drives. And eventually I figured out the projector. (Definitely a case of the Mondays.)

While the files were transferring onto their flash drives, I did my presentation on The Internet: Search Safely, Search Securely, Search Skeptically. Thanks to of all the aggro at the start of the period, we didn’t have time for the girls to research their female scientists. Alas! But the second and third classes went very smoothly and they did get to research theirs.

After class, Carolyn, Dee and I went to Walmart to take Carolyn’s new shoes back and for Dee to get photos printed. I picked up an extension cord for the wireless router. Then we were back for supper and the evening activity. The girls had 3 activities they were alternating though – bowling, a scavenger hunt, and a craft. Joyce and I supervised the bowling. And even got a game in with Anne, the nurse. I was doing VERY badly at the start, but finally got my groove at frame 9 when I got 3 strikes in a row and wound up with 127. judiang would have been proud. 🙂

Today was another early awakening for me, and Carolyn finally got her eggs. But no meat today – just hash browns with the scrambled eggs. I also had a chocolate muffin, and requiring more carbs, toasted an English muffin and put grape jelly on. Yum!

Physics had the girls racing balloon cars to work through Newton’s Laws and then outside to blast off film cannister cannons. Well, the first two periods had the girls outside. During period 3, they got outside, watched as the rain began down at the end of the street and headed towards them, then Dee herded them back inside before it hit here. So they did the film cannister cannons over the sinks instead. Heh.

After lunch (mmmm, pirogies!) it was time to teach computers again. I showed the girls OpenOffice.org’s Calc Portable and we entered in all the data and calculations for the Work & Power lab. Then we had the girls run/walk/climb/tiger dance (yes, one of them did this) up the stairs outside the classroom. I timed them doing this, then we had them enter the data into Calc. And instantly they had their work and power in climbing the stairs. Woot!

We teachers had the evening off, so I headed off to the chemistry building to meet up with the other teachers, who were helping the chemistry group clean up. Then we headed back for the dorms to get our money. It was time to go to the Toy Store! Yay!

We went to the toy store where I found dad some father’s day & birthday gifts and got me a couple of physics toys. Then on to the movie theater to watch Ocean’s 13. I haven’t seen the first two movies, but having enjoyed this one so much, I think I need to rent the other two. Mucho fun. Finally supper was at Jake’s steakhouse. Where I had beet battered fish & chips and a very nice brownie & ice cream dessert.

We ladies had a blast out this evening. I really love teaching with these ladies each summer and am glad that we were able to have the camp despite the lower numbers.

I rode a balloon!

June 17, 2007

Today is the first day of B-WISER 2007. I got up at a decent hour and was on the road by 8:15am. I had breakfast at McDonald’s on the way. And was in Wooster within 3 hours. Wherein I had lunch – from McDonald’s… No matter, it was lovely seeing my friends once again.

Around 2 we headed off to the classrooms to get our rooms ready. Dee and I set up the physics room, and then I went off to Taylor with Carolyn and Joyce to check out the computer lab. Alas, the room was locked, but there were computers in it. Woot!

At 4, we introduced ourselves to the girls and at 5:15, headed off to supper. As usual, the food in Lowry was excellent. I had lasagna, salad, an apple & banana, and dessert (brownie & chocolate chip cookie). Tasty tasty! We teachers managed to all sit together (there’s only 9 of us staff this year) and we chatted for quite awhile catching up with our lives. (Two of our group have spent a year retired and are really enjoying themselves.) Around 6:30, Carolyn, Wanda and I headed to Walmart for a few forgotten items. I picked up a Belkin wireless router for our room (only $40) for camp and will have to put it with my other B-WISER items for future camps, if we can have them. As you can see by this post, the router is working just peachy keen.

Once we were back, the girls were in the basement of Douglass (the dorm we’re all staying in) learning about hot air balloons. And then the balloonists went out and began inflating the balloon. They took girls up 3 at a time for a short ride (tethered the whole time) and when the finished the alumni girls, they let teachers go. Well, of COURSE I had to go. So Joyce and I went up for a short hop in the balloon – my first time in a hot air balloon. It’s cool, cuz you don’t realize you’ve left the ground.

I, of course, took photos.