Two Silver Cats

Kids these days don't know what they're missing....

2011-02-27T11:45:00.005-05:00

So the other day my dad randomly said, "Do you remember that story about that dog thing that was a spy, and he was known for his disguises? And something about he was a dancer to catch the bad guys?"

... it took me a few minutes to realize that Dad had meandered back about thirty years in the past, but I realized that he was talking about one of my very favorite childhood authors: Richard Scarry!! I had forgotten how much I loved him-- in fact, all of my copies of the Richard Scarry books that I have have no covers whatsoever, and various pages were scribbled on by Little Me, and there are ripped pages and pages missing and the spines are all broken... evidence that our family read these books until they could no longer hold their shapes.

So without further ado, I present.... COUSCOUS!

(Click to embiggeren!)

Which one was Couscous? There is a clue in the picture where Couscous is meeting with his cat and mouse assistants...

Although there are many quality kid's books written today, none compares to the awesomeness of THIS.

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My (Or The Day We Saw Some Melted Animals)

2011-02-02T13:37:00.017-05:00

Since today is a snow day, so I've decided to go back through some summer pictures and share them with you!

One of the best days I had was when I took my buddy E to the zoo. He had been bugging me and bugging me to take him, so we took an afternoon and went out there. Turns out, this was one of the hottest days this summer, so the animals weren't nearly as perky as they could have been, but it was still fun.

The first things we saw was this little cutie, being all cute and napping in the shade.

After oohing and aawing over him for a little while, we visited with the goats.

The goats made us laugh-- E had a handful of treats, and was being bravely feeding them to the little goaty goats...

... when this HUGE FOUR-HORNED GOAT came out of nowhere, and started whacking his horns against the fence to get to the treats. E was briefly terrified, and so was I.

But we had to laugh when we saw a horizontal kangaroo. The vertical kangaroo kept going up to it and annoying it-- "Hey buddy, hey buddy, hey buddy, lookit, lookit!" and the horizontal one was like, "Dude. Leave me alone! It's too HOT to play!"

I kept asking E if we would get in trouble for trying to sneak a piglet out of the zoo. He told me I could go ahead, but he wouldn't help me do it. Even when I told him I'd let him keep one. He's no fun.

Then we got to the Big Cat section. E liked this sign:

The Big Cats were mostly just Big Cat Puddles due to the heat, but they were still fascinating. E liked the bobcats and the mountain lions...

...while I like thed lions and tigers. This tiger was lying so close to us that I could get a good idea of how big his paw was-- if E got too close to it, the paw would easily cover his entire face. You tend to forget just how big the Big Cats are until they are right next to you.

And then we found the lions. Mr. Lion says, "Dear, I know it's hot, but please...you're embarrassing me... people are watching us."

Mrs. Lion says: "I don't care. Too hot."

Mr. Lion says: *SIGH*

Okay, now let me tell you something about my buddy E. He can be a very serious little guy, on the solemn side, very thoughtful and quiet. But when we rounded this corner, he burst out laughing-- and he laughed so hard that tears were coming out of his eyes. "What's the matter, E?" I asked, as I had not seen what he had.

He looked at me, and between giggles, said-- "Look! The bobcat MELTED!"

Tee hee! After the Big Cats, we came to the random animal section: Lizards...

...parrots (E even got it to say "Polly want a cracker"!)...

...bears...

...monkeys...

...peacocks and peahens and peachicks...

The tortoises were funny. We saw only one first, then another, then another... and they all started moving in the same direction-- towards a door. So E and I started making up voices for them: "Hey, is this the way to the bathroom?" "Is this the line to get tickets?" "No, I think it's where we get autographs." "Lemme in, lemme in!"

Then it was time to go, so we said one last goodbye to all the animals, and we went to get ice cream at Tubby's. Mmm. And of course, when we got back to civilization, all E wanted to do was this:

"Look, I'm a bobcat!"

Wait.... I actually have horizontal surfaces?

2011-01-30T13:02:00.008-05:00

It weirds me out a little that people live inside boxes called houses, and those boxes are a reflection of who these people are. If that's so, then what does my house say about me?

Today it says that I must have gone a little insane, because it's CLEAN. For me, that's a huge deal. I like things very messy. But sometimes, and only sometimes, I need to purge and scrub and vacuum and find places to put things. Interior decorating, in the sense that a place can be pretty AND functional, is an odd concept for me. Horizontal places are only meant for collecting rubble, right?

However, Santa brought me a really nice Swiffer thingy for Christmas, and you can't just swiff and leave the rest of the place a mess.

So here's the hallway. Hmm. Will we come around the corner and see something out of "Hoarders"?

No, not today. Huh.

I do spy a cat, though.

Me: "I will put this plastic up to keep the cold out and the warm in." Julian: "Who put this forcefield here? How can I do my neighborhood spy patrols now? I'll have to take drastic measures and rip through this ridiculousness! Seriously!"

But back to the tour. A clean kitchen? This is UNTHINKABLE!!

And of course no living room is complete without a gigantic baby carriage. I love the thing, but what to do with it or where to put it is the question..... thus I just parked it in the dead middle of the room and hoped for the best.

Ooooh, there's Julian! I have an idea...

I can always put cats in it!

Hee hee.... Ahem. And over here's the monstrous jade plant...

...and the china cupboard...

...and those random pottery animals Ellen and Kate gave me...

...and my grandmother's antique writing desk.

And finally, here we have a clean bathroom. And since no one wants to see pictures of a toilet (even a clean one), I aimed the camera upwards so you can see my "conservatory". These spider plants are a little over a year old and they are already making lots of babies. And the aloe plant likes it in there too, as long as it doesn't get too cold for its liking.

Now the question is, how long will this clean state LAST??

When you leave it lying around, the kitties will take advantage of it...

2011-01-03T18:51:00.004-05:00

Julian: Oh, you left this box here just for me? How kind!

Zeek: Oh, you left this blanket here just for me? How kind!

Julian: Oh, you left this backpack here just for me? How kind!

[Initiate Kitteh affection-rotation series ...

...rotation in progress...

...rotation complete. Initiate purring sequence. PUUURRRRRRRRRRRRR.]

Apple Pie!!!

2010-10-02T21:57:00.004-04:00

Since my oven is now fixed, I made an apple pie. Yum.

The apple crop around here hasn't been the greatest, due to the late frost we had in May, but some apple places did okay. These were some Macs and Cortlands from Bud's, which they got from some local orchard.

Julian doesn't care for the apple parts, but he could happily chew on pie crust all day.

I like the way my house smells when I bake things. Smells like Fall. If only I had a woodstove, and then it would REALLY smell like Fall in here!

Common Ground Fair 2010

2010-09-26T11:21:00.012-04:00

I can't believe it's Common Ground Fair time again! Yay! So to prepare for this trip, I made sure the camera was working. Here's Zeekie, unimpressed by the flashy box. And how come "kitty tv" (the window) now has mute? There's no sound coming from it! Fix it immediately!

So once I got to the fair I hung out at the rendezvous point (the children's tent), and while waiting for Bri and the Hamster I got my face painted. I don't know why more grown-ups don't do this... the people who do it are more than willing to experiment on bigger faces! I told the lady to just go crazy, so I got a bindi and a bunch of green vines-- very pretty.

And since Bri and the Hamster were running late, I kept scanning the crowds of people for people I knew. Amazingly, I ran into Erica, who had Sara, Allen, Rachel and Kathryn in tow. We boogied to a bunch of kids music while Rachel made hay sculptures and paintings and everyone had their lunch. Finally, when these guys moved on, guess who showed up!

This is the elusive Hamster-flavored tomato:

Hamster-flavored carrots are not as willing:

And then we had lunch--yummy thai vegetables with "chicken blocks," which is apparently Hamster-ese word for "tofu." Yum!

It was so good he ended up double-fisting it! :)

And sharing it with "Auntie Emwee."

And we ended up playing in the "zebo" with a bunch of kids his size, and since the Hamster has discovered how to hop with two feet, the "zebo" quickly became a bounce-house-- with wooden floors, no less!

Next up: the animal exhibits! There were goats and horsies and cows and lots of other things. However, Mr. Hamsterpants couldn't understand why he couldn't go into the pens and climb on the animals like he gets to do at home. Sad. :(

Baby cow:

Gratuitous cow-rear-end shot:

Of course, we had to go on a hay-ride with the horsies. Did I tell you that a few weeks ago Bri brought home a goat? She just stuck it in the back of the car and off she went. (It was a boy-goat so that Jake could have it breed with all the girl-goats for 4H, etc.). The Hamster took this all in stride. However, according to 2-1/2-year-old logic, the whole purpose of going to the "fairy" was to get another animal-- and if a goat can fit in the car, then why not a horsie? So the Hamster kept pointing out horsies that were going to come home with him-- even the big Clydesdales. Yup, they'll fit.

And then we had to get the traditional "tennis ball hat" picture... except there is just no way the thing was going to be put on his head this year. The HORROR!!

So therefore Mommy got to wear it instead. "Get it off your head, Mom, you're EMBARRASSING ME!!!"

What a fabulous day it was. It was a blast, like it is every year!!

Oh yes.... My favorite quote of the day was at the Common Ground Fair, when the Hamster looked over at the fences where the horses were, and he told us, quite seriously, "I want a horsie on my butt." "You want a WHAT???" we asked him. So he mimed sitting down and bouncing up and down. "Oh, you mean you want to RIDE a horse," Bri ...said. "YEAH!!" he said, "I want a horsie on my butt!"

Babies and Cats

2010-06-12T17:29:00.005-04:00

So between visiting cemeteries we just hung around at home and chilled out. Upstairs I found these two pictures, both with the same goofy-looking rubber lamb. Can you tell who these people are?

The top is my Mum, in 1949, and the bottom is me, in 1978. I had a hard time recognizing myself because the picture is so dark-- for the longest time I thought it was Ellen, because she has the dark olive skin from my Dad's side of the family and I have the pale slightly freckly skin from my Mum's side... but eventually I figured out it was me-- though slightly underexposed (or tanned?) -- mostly because of that ridiculous widow's peak. Mum says when I was little I used to reach up and pull own my hair out. There are pictures of me where I have nearly a mohawk... yeah, I was just a punk kid or something.

We still have the lamb, by the way. It hangs out on Dad's bureau. It kinda freaks me out.

Meanwhile, downstairs, we have a cat infestation. This little guy is pretty cute, though.

Here is Mum snuggling with this little kitten who is tiny and has weird eyes and has a seizures and can't walk very well. Mum says that since I majored in Special Ed/Mental Retardation and am a Special Education teacher, I should stop calling the cat "Gimpytard."

Angus wanted some attention too.

But Nanny just ignored the whole situation.

And the roots grow deep...

2010-06-12T12:40:00.006-04:00

So my Mum's been on a genealogy kick for a while now, and while I know a lot about the Nash side of the family (Mum's father's side) I know very little about the Meserve side (Mum's mom). Mum found a couple of cemeteries with long-lost relatives in them, which was cool.

This was the first cemetery we went to, where we met Richard and Mary...

... and John and Matilda and Fred and Harry.

But then I admit that my interest was lost, because I was far too busy laughing. Laughing?? In a cemetery??? Well, you would too, if you saw this magnificent example of "perpetual care":

Good grief. It just gets more hysterical the closer I look at it. Talk about jury-rigs!

After that, we went to visit Mum's mom's mom Pearl. Pearl died when Mum was pregnant with me, and the story is that Mum put a rose on her casket "from the baby". Awww.

We'll get to the other Pearl story in a minute, but first, here is where Mie-Mie (Pearl's daughter, my grandmother) will be buried.

...we hope that when she dies and they go to put in her death date, they will fix that spelling error.... because we all know there is nothing as reverent as a misspelled word on a grave... except for maybe duct tape!

Now, when Pearl died, she wasn't supposed to be buried HERE. She was supposed to be buried down the street in the other cemetery, where her mother is. Well, the day that they had the funeral, there was this HUGE mix-up and while people were waiting around trying to figure out where to bury her, someone (Pearl's sister?) threw a hissy fit that they grass was too long, and started clipping it with fingernail clippers. Meanwhile, the hearse backed up into a telephone pole (Dad LOVES to tell this part) the wobbles on the wire went wow-wow (like a suspended slinky) and then, when they came to the end of the line, they wow-wowed right back.

So anyway, here's Pearl's mother and father.

I don't know why Pearl wasn't buried here, and neither does Mum. She did say that they used that pole thing to poke into the ground to see if there was room, and they said that there wasn't any room at all-- which is weird, because there are no other stones anywhere around. I don't know that much about cemeteries, but how do they truly determine if there is room or not? Were there a lot of people buried without markers? If so, then who are they?

At still another cemetery, we met the first Edith Luella Meserve, who was Mie-Mie's namesake.

Memorial Day Weekend

2010-06-12T12:19:00.006-04:00

So on Memorial Day Ellen and Kate came down so we could all watch Dad (and the robot) in the parade.

Here's the marching band... boy, do those flags bring back memories!

And here comes what I assume was a T-ball team... the reason why I took their pictures was their shirts made everyone simultaneously laugh and cry!

And finally, here comes the robot... Dad thought we were waiting on the other side of the road so he never saw us. But I chased him down.

Later, at home, I drew one of Ellen's chickens on the pollen that had accumulated on my car.

Dad drew a bird too.

My Birthday Presents

2010-06-10T16:35:00.004-04:00

So about two months ago it was my birthday. Ellen and Kate randomly gave me this BIG BIG box to open, and it was pretty much the coolest thing ever:

Random animal sculpture things!

Rooster!

Cow!

Pig!

But today I was looking at them, and I guess I was hungry, because I immediately thought of this song from Mulan, when Chien Po sings out BEEF! PORK! CHICKEN! MMMMMM!!!

And then I thought... wait, should I even be thinking these thoughts? I'm a vegetarian! :)

This is what texting was like before digital was invented...

2010-05-19T17:40:00.004-04:00

Yup, it's another note. This particular little girl wasn't feeling very well so she slipped me this tiny note before coming to my room.

"I want to sleep in the Quiet Corner in your classroom," the note says, "I'm laying down."

...but on the back she makes an observation:

"I'm drooling on the table."

If only the silver kitties were musical...

2010-05-15T11:02:00.006-04:00

So I must say that I am digging Cheryl Wheeler's new album, Pointing At The Sun. Cheryl Wheeler is the celebrated creator of the Potato song, which is quite possibly the most ridiculous song ever written:

As expected, Cheryl has two polar opposites on the album: on one side, the sweet and profound and lyrical, and on the other, the utterly hysterical. One of my favorites of the former is a re-recording of Summer Fly, a quietly desperate song about relationships. Of the latter, well, I heard about this album from Mum, who said that the last three songs are about cats. Well, turns out they are about one cat, Cheryl's beloved Maine Coon named Penrod. Penrod himself even makes an appearance on the last song, even though he is... um... not entirely corporeal any more.

But before I explain what I mean by that, all throughout the month of April I was excited because Cheryl was going to come to Portland. I got Mum to get tickets for us, and we got to sit fairly close. As we were waiting for the show to start, a frumpy grey-haired lady in a grey t-shirt and sweatpants wandered through the crowd, and what was funny is that those "in the know" just sort of smiled at her and shook our heads. When the show began and she came on stage (her piano accompanist had been the opening act), she was dressed in the same t-shirt and sweatpants. She plugged in her guitar, looked out at the audience, then down at her clothes.

"Oh my god," she said, "What is wrong with me? I forgot to change into my concert pants!"

And then she shrugged and started playing. And that is soooooooooooo typical of her-- she is so amazingly funny-- she makes even tuning a guitar so hysterical you will pee your pants. Seriously. She's a nut-- absolutely brilliant, and absolutely insane. When I grow up I want to be just like her.

So anyway, this last song on the album, is all about Penrod's fifteenth birthday. However, when Cheryl went to record the song, Penrod had passed away at the ripe old age of nineteen.... and she had him cremated... and so when she went to record the song, she handed the drummer a baggie of "catash" (pronounced cah-TASH) and thus Penrod became his own percussion instrument. Behold:

I have to say that I came home from the concert with sore ribs from laughing so hard. If you have a chance to see her, go!

Apparently I need to go shopping...

2010-05-13T17:41:00.005-04:00

One of my little girls (the "polege" kid, for anyone who is keeping track) likes to give me little presents-- mostly little notes and drawings and things. She is one of those quiet kids who so very often blow you away with the odd but brilliant things they do...

So today she handed me this folded piece of paper, and apparently she had been working on it for quite some time, taking stock of all the things my classroom was lacking.... (Clickee to embiggeren-- you really have to see it big to enjoy all the subtle nuances of this note.)

Here's a translation:

Miss N.
Shopping List

lemon drops
cough drops
peanut butter
crackers
Band-Aids
gum
water bottles for kids

I keep reading the list and shaking my head. It all makes sense. Yes, I give the kids hard candy and gum (sugar free if I can find it) because many kids have a neurological need to chew and suck on things when they are concentrating (ever notice how certain kids have wet chewed-on t-shirt necks and sweatshirt strings, not to mention pencil erasers and anything else within reach??). The peanut butter and crackers-- well, I'm always going after the kids to eat high-protein and complex carbohydrate foods instead of junk food, so that makes sense. The water bottles I can understand too, as we have a sink in our room but no cups, and the kids are always asking me if they can get up and get a drink of water. And the Band-Aids? Well, most of my kids start spontaneously leaking at inopportune times, but especially after I say the dreaded words, "you need to start doing your work now..."

But the problem is I always seem to say, "yeah, I need to go shopping" or "I forgot to pick that stuff up at the store yesterday", and I never have any of these things in my room! So obviously, I needed a shopping list. Now I have one. I will have to remedy this problem as soon as I can, won't I? :)

Oh, P.S.-- I think the very next thing I will teach her is the proper use of apostrophes, or else she's going to go through life saying thing's like this and making every one of us teacher's out there cringe.

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means...

2010-05-06T17:21:00.007-04:00

So a lot of the kids in my classroom are, how should I put this... quite under-educated. They just aren't exposed to much, and so even the simplest concepts need a thorough explanation to help them understand about the world. You can't just say big-concept words like "peace" and "justice" or "equality" because the kids really don't have much prior knowledge to anchor these words to. I just don't think that many adults talk to them about these sorts of things (at their level, anyway) so the kids appear to be "ignorant", which is a harsh word, but their ignorance is built upon under-exposure to explanations about how the world works, rather than any sort of conscious decision by the kids.

I also try to (gently) bring up other points of view, or opinions, just to throw the kids a loop and see what they do. It's amazing seeing them try to wrap their minds around these sorts of things.

In my class, I have a policy that the kids can't draw (or pretend to use) any sort of weapon, especially guns. This can be a hard rule to enforce, especially around hunting season, but I do it to show the kids that not everyone thinks the same way or has the same opinion as them.

Today, a boy "accidentally" drew a gun on his folder, and I told him to erase it. "Oh yeah, I forgot," he said. "You don't like guns."

"No, I don't."

"And you don't like shooting and wars and stuff."

The boy then looked at me, and you could tell the wheels were going around in his head. "But... um, what if two armies agreed that they hated each other? Would you be okay with it if they fought each other?"

That's a good question-- I really didn't know how to answer him. However, before I could, another boy asked, "but what if people who weren't in the army didn't want them to fight? How could people stop them?"

That I could answer, in a way. I herded them over to the computer and looked up this picture:

"This is a picture from the Vietnam War," I told them. "Look at what the man in the middle is doing to the guns. Do you think that's a better use for guns than to shoot people?"

"Is he really putting flowers into the gun?"

"Yes."

"So it's like a plant-holder instead of a weapon?"

"Exactly. The man in the white sweater is a hippie-- an early hippie, but a hippie nonetheless."

"What's a hippie?"

"It's someone who was against the Vietnam War, and thought that peace would be better. They didn't agree with the war and often protested against it, but instead of protesting in a yelling and loud sort of way, they protested by doing gentle things, like putting flowers in guns." (I know this is a pretty sugar-coated and idealized way of describing what a hippie was, but for the sake of this conversation it would suffice. Besides, my kids are only in third and fourth grade and I didn't want to bring up anything that would cause me to get fired if the kids were to repeat it!)

So the kids digested this for a while, and pondered it.

Later in the day, I was going through some of the pictures on my computer (I was trying to look up something else), and the kids were watching me. I happened to come across this picture of my friend Steve-o:

And one of the kids yelled out, "Oh, oh, I know who that is! It's a hillbilly!"

"It's a what?" I asked, a little confused. Steve-o is the least hillbilliest of all the people I know!

"It's a hillbilly! You know! A person who puts flowers in guns!"

....well, at least they are sorta understand... :)

Green stuff in my yard

2010-05-02T16:18:00.007-04:00

So Spring came on as a bit of an ambush this year... it went from below freezing and grey to above 80 and humid in a matter of just a few weeks. I am waaaaaaaaaaaaay behind in my garden routine, but it doesn't look that bad. That's the nice thing about green growing things-- you can forget about them and they will forgive you for it (except the most spiteful fussy plants, but I tend to avoid those anyway).

It was the Harry Lauder Walking Stick plant's first winter here, and I was worried about him, since he looks so fragile. He had grown in Mum's backyard, and where Mum lives is much more mild than here. Here, he'd be buried under drifts of snow and frozen solid. I bundled him under burlap, but I was still afraid he wouldn't make it.... but I was wrong. I know it's a terrible photo, but check out all those green shoots!

In the big garden, there are daffodils in the middle, and behind them you can see pinks, creeping phlox and lots of hollyhocks-- all babies, but they are growing quickly. In the front there, I planted some rosebud impatiens today (I've never grown those before so who knows what will happen).

Here's the right side of the big garden-- the daffodils are in the middle, and the big mound of hollyhocks (which will be pink) in the back, and an entire bush of chives in the front. There's a tiny bit of thyme over there on the right border, but that's slowly being choked out by aggressively invasive weeds. I need to fix up the edges of this garden or else the grass and the creeping weeds will strangle everything in sight.

I haven't decided what to put in the middle there-- maybe more herbs or something.

Last week I bought some tulips for Ellen and Kate and I kept some for myself. I plunked them in this container by the end of the driveway. Plants that grow by bulb seem so foreign to me-- I know that's so silly, but they do. To me, plants are either bought from the nursery already growing or you can start them from seed. "Weird" methods of growing plants-- like bulbs and cuttings-- scare me somehow. However, since I love daffodils, I was able to get over my bulb paranoia a little bit. Tulips, though... well, they're an experiment. I have no idea if they will come up next year at all. They're pretty, though.

In the little raised bed the irises are taking over (which is great!!) and the daffodils are just bursting. In the middle there, you can see a little mound of what will be dahlias (freshly planted). On the left, you can see some sad little tulips that I planted last year.

Sad (but still triumphant) little tulip close-up:

In the front garden, we have (going clockwise, starting with that poky prickly plant in the corner): The incredibly cold-tolerant yucca, then four hollyhock plants (which will bloom this year, but they are a mystery color), six pink plants, then a row of tulips in the front.

Nestled in between some of the tulips are some pansies and johnny-jump-ups...

The circle garden in the front is the garden I give the least attention to. It really is a mess. There is a mass confusion of jacob's ladders, hostas and sweet williams that I planted that sort of just clump together. The people who lived here before I did planted mint here, and by the end of the summer the entire garden is completely taken over by the stupid mint plants. Once the garden decides that it only wants to be a mint garden it looks relatively pretty, but until then it looks like a weedy sprawly disaster.

The one thing that grows there, and does well, is the clematis. I've read that clematis is a really fussy plant, with all the pruning and special care that it needs, but I haven't done a thing to it except encourage it to grow along the poles. It's really happy where it is, and soon it will burst into its pretty powder blue flowers... and I am always happy when that happens. The tendrils wll eventually run out of room on the poles, and I'm hoping to train them to grow on the tree branch (you can just barely see it on the left there) and have the vines and tendrils and flowers spill over to the other side of the tree, which faces the street.

So even though it's still early, and there's lots to do, the garden is already looking great! :)

Yup, pretty much.

2010-05-01T22:32:00.003-04:00

I love my Dad. I love my Dad's useless advice and pointless stories even more. :)

(Click to embiggeren...)

The little ones are always the most dangerous...

2010-05-01T10:40:00.005-04:00

I just walked into the hallway to find Zeekie lounging in a sunbeam.

Getting Miss Prissy Pants to "smile" for the camera is nearly impossible.

During vacation I was sleeping in, or at least trying to, and Zeekie took it as a personal insult as her breakfast was delayed. She decided to sleep on my chest, facing away from me, and would "snuggle" backwards inch by inch, until she had almost completely covered my mouth and nose with her floofy little bum. When I woke up coughing and gagging, she seemed very proud of herself. I worry a bit about her homicidal tendencies...

A few more school stories

2010-05-01T08:27:00.003-04:00

So this year we have been doing an informal study of elephants. The reasons for this is that the kids like to talk about animals (a universal subject) and they often like to hear stories where bad things happen but then everything turns out all right in the end (the universal fairy tale theme). Also, we like to use technology, and live web cams are like magic to these kiddos. So anyway, my Dad suggested that we check out the Elecam at the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. Each of the elephants has a history (some tragic, others not so bad), but they're all happy now in the Sanctuary.

One of the most tragic stories is about the elephant named Sissy. Her full story is here, but the part that caught my kids' attention was the time she was in a zoo in the early 80's, and a massive flood came and swept through the zoo. Sissy was found several days later, with only her trunk visible above the water, as she had been trapped between two tree trunks. Sissy was rescued, but she was (understandably) terrified of storms from that day on. One of my boys drew this picture on the whiteboard of Sissy stuck underwater:

The picture just breaks my heart! Another detail that I didn't mention was that Sissy lived alone for many years, and the only "friend" she had was a car tire that she carried around everywhere. However, the tire was nowhere to be seen when she was stuck in the tree. One of the other boys said, "She must have been so scared when the tire was washed away! It would be just like a thunderstorm taking a little kid's favorite blanket away!"

But the good news is that Sissy lives in the Sanctuary now, and she is slowly getting over her storm fears, and since she is around many other elephants she doesn't need to carry her tire around with her as much ("which is good, because it means she feels safe, and she can leave her toys at home when she goes out to play," one of the kids told me).

I'll put up more of the elephant pictures when I get a chance, because the kids and I have been talking about nothing but elephants for about two months now...

And, just to take you back to your own days in elementary school, here are some shots of a "fort" several of the boys got to build when they earned some free time:

Remember when it was the coolest thing in the world when the teacher gave you time to build anything you wanted with the math materials?

Adventures in Teaching

2010-04-28T19:22:00.005-04:00

I love teaching. I love every day that I spend with the kids. They are incredible, and funny, and smart, and you would not believe what they say. I am a little worried about what they say to their parents about me, because we talk about some pretty wacky things, but I think that's pretty important for kids who might not otherwise get the chance to learn about the world.

So here are three teaching stories for you. This first one, I was teaching my little math group, where there are two little girls. That particular day, the first little girl was DRIVING ME NUTS-- all whiny and argumentative and pushing all the buttons. My patience was at an end when the second little girl did something dumb-- I can't even remember what it was, just something stupid like she forgot an equals sign or something, and I SNAPPED at her. I looked over at this little girl and she just froze, her eyes slowly welling up--and she wears these thick glasses that make her eyes look ten thousand times bigger than they really are, and all I could see were those tears! And then MY eyes started welling up, and I started apologizing profusely. Poor little girl! Well, the entire rest of the class she pretty much ignored me (not that I blame her!), but when it was time to leave she slipped me this little note.

A few days later this same little girl must have truly forgiven me, because she stuck this note on the wall. (We occasionally use sign language in my room, just because I think it's an important thing for kids to learn-- not to mention it's fun!)

And this last thing... I have no idea what it is. One of the boys drew it. I think he said it was an "elephant wiener dog". Whatever it is, it haunts my dreams.

Long Time No See

2010-04-24T17:26:00.002-04:00

So my father and my sister have been asking about my blog, and I know it's been a while, so here's an aardvark to make up for such lost time.

Visiting Addison

2009-06-07T18:06:00.006-04:00

So if you remember last year, it was utterly pouring when we went to visit Papa and Freddie. This year it wasn't pouring, but it definitely was grey. The rain held off while we wandered around in the cemetery...

I think the saddest thing was the little toys that my cousins had left on Papa's grave were gone. I know little plastic dogs clog up lawnmowers, so someone probably thought it was time for them to go. It's just sad, because it showed that somebody besides Mum and me came up to visit. A stranger wandering by wouldn't know that Papa liked cocker spaniels or that he had grandchildren who gave him their McDonald's toys-- the toys gave a sense of individuality and character to the grave. Now they're gone.

I should get Papa a giant wooden raccoon, like this guy has. Because no grave is complete without a giant wooden raccoon.

Then we went up the hill to visit the babies.

I wish I knew more about them, like what they died from.

Mum and I looked everywhere, but we couldn't find their parents. I think we do this every year, we just forget that we do it. Do you think the babies feel lonely without their parents around?

At least their big brother is beside them.

And up the hill...

... we found the twins Henry and Henrietta and their big brother Hamilton. Man, how come people don't name their kids names like this any more?!?!

And of course, no trip to visit Papa would be complete without visiting the llamas.

Burnt Island Trip Part 6: Going Back to Shore and Some Ghost Stories

2009-05-28T15:45:00.015-04:00

So once we had cleaned up our messes and packed up The Stuff we hung out on the dock for a while, waiting for the Novelty to come and pick us up. Becca looks very happy with her fishie (did I mention some of the boys kissed it? Bleeeeccchh!).

And we petted some moon jellies. We also saw some lion's mane jellies but they were too far away to pet (which is good-- they sting!). I'm glad they didn't blob their way over to me when I were in the water (though the Teletubby suit would have probably protected me)!

Here comes the Novelty!

Hop on, everyone!

Bye-bye dock!

We had to go around the back of the island before heading into the harbor because of the "red, right, return" rule, which means navigational buoys, etc., must be on your right (unless you happen to be in a boat that goes backwards, like a rowboat, and in that case they are on your left).

There's the Resourceful with the adults (and all The Stuff) in it!

Katie, looking pensive.

So this is a terrible-quality picture of a sardine boat that is in the harbor. Elaine had told us that during the turn of the century the keepers had to keep a record of just how many vessels came into the harbor, and in just one entry, for just one night, a keeper recorded that there were more than three hundred and fifty boats that came in to the harbor! Whoa! Today the harbor isn't as busy-- due to other forms of transportation like cars and trucks and planes-- but there are still a good number of working boats out there.

This is part of the DMR. I was just wondering if there was Center for Culture of Marine Phytoplankton anywhere around-- and hey look, there's one! (Quite possibly the most random thing I've seen all day...)

A whale skull and rib. Cool.

A pretty view of the harbor.

Here is one very happy but very tired Miss Newell, on the bus, going home!

So before we all piled onto the bus, Elaine told us some ghost stories of Burnt Island-- she didn't want to tell us while we were actually there, which was very smart!

The first story was about James A. McCobb who served as keeper from 1868 to 1880. He kept detailed records of his work, and this was one of his entries:

March 22, 1877 – “Wife died this morning about two o’clock of congestion of the lungs and cankers in the throat, stomach, and bowels. She had been in feeble health all winter but able to be about the house attending to her work until about two weeks before her death when a cold brought on congestion and then canker which caused her death as above stated. … Her age was fifty three years and four months.”

So sometimes at 2 o'clock at night, some people have reported seeing a woman's figure in a white nightie wandering about on the island. Freaky!

(What is the time on that clock on the mantel???)

Okay, the next story is really creepy, and gave all of us goosebumps. Elaine had been contacted by a fellow named Reg (sorry I didn't catch his last name) who once worked at the Burnt Island Light and had a story to tell her. The keeper after Joseph Muire was a man named Benjamin Stockbridge, and lived in the keeper's house with his wife. Ben had some health issues (including a bum leg) and had some difficulty doing all of the work he needed to do as a keeper. The Coast Guard decided took pity on him and said he could keep his job, but they would send him an assistant: Reg, who was 19 years old at the time. Reg said that Ben was a cantankerous fellow, and would "grade" Reg on everything he did-- from trimming the wick to cleaning the glass panes. Reg didn't like being criticized all the time, but he was making pretty good money-- at $7.50 a day he really couldn't complain!

So Ben's health declined fairly rapidly, and finally it was time for him to leave the island and go to the mainland so he could be nearer to the doctor. Reg took Ben to the hospital and helped his wife move into a nearby apartment. Reg came back to the island and took over as full time keeper.

Well, one night (at about 2:00) Reg was woken up by his bedroom door slamming open and a voice hollering, "Wake up! Wake up! You have a smoke-out!" Reg looked out his window to the lighthouse and sure enough, the light was out. He ran through the house, up the covered walkway, up the spiral staircase, and re-lit the light. Then he came down and sat at the kitchen table, lit a kerosene lantern, lit a cigarette, and his hands started to shake.

Who had woken him up?

The next day Reg went into town to get a few things, and he came across a fisherman he knew, and Reg asked how Ben was doing. The fisherman replied, "Oh, didn't you know? Ben died last night at 2:00."

~~~ goosebumps ~~~

Reg was a little freaked out, but he was willing to go back to his job. He went and got his gun and brought it back to the island. He was willing to do whatever he needed to, because he was making $7.50 a day and that's good money. At that time the blinking of the light was achieved by a device that spun the bull's-eye lens around. This mechanism was similar to a cuckoo clock in that weights would run the motion of the mechanical movement. This mechanism needed to be cranked every six hours, so Reg would wind it at 5:00 and 11:00, both during the day and in the evening. Well, this night he was waiting for 11 PM so he could go to bed and sleep until he had to get up and wind it again. If you remember, the kitchen table is not far from the covered walkway which leads to the tower (the table is to the left of the stove; the covered walkway is behind the door on the right of the stove):

Well, at that time there was a door in that door frame which led up the covered walkway. Reg was sitting there, thinking about how $7.50 a day was a lot of money, and how he was very lucky to have this job. Suddenly he thought he heard a noise. At first he was not sure what it was-- the wind? the waves?-- but soon it got a little louder. It sounded like someone shuffling along-- someone with a bum leg. Someone who sounded an awful lot like how Ben used to walk.

Reg very slowly got up and threaded a piece of string through the finger-latch on the door, and sat there with his gun at the ready. The footsteps got closer and closer. Reg stood very still. When the footsteps sounded like they were just about to come through the door, Reg tugged on the string and the door flung open, and Reg shot-- BANG! BANG! BANG!-- but nothing was there.

~~~ goosebumps again ~~~

Reg stayed awake all night, and when it was morning he rowed over to the Coast Guard station and told them that he didn't care how much money he was being paid, he wasn't going to spend another night on that island.

Elaine said that many years later Reg came back to the Island to visit, and to stay the night in the keeper's house. They were both pretty nervous that Ben would come back once again, so they went over to his grave and placed some flowers, and talked to him for a while. That night Ben did not return, but Reg said that he had a very hard time sleeping...

So I will leave you not with the willies, but with a few more beautiful pictures of Burnt Island Light.

I also leave you with this poem, which is one of my very favorites:

maggie and milly and molly and may

by E. E. Cummings

maggie and milly and molly and may
went down to the beach (to play one day)

and maggie discovered a shell that sang
so sweetly she couldn't remember her troubles,and

milly befriended a stranded star
whose rays five languid fingers were;

and molly was chased by a horrible thing
which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and

may came home with a smooth round stone
as small as a world and as large as alone.

For whatever we lose (like a you or a me)
it's always ourselves we find in the sea

Burnt Island Trip Part 5: A GPS Treasure Hunt and Survival

2009-05-25T19:57:00.010-04:00

So like the compass treasure hunt from yesterday, we were to use little GPS gizmos to find a treasure. We went all around the island using our little yellow digital gizmos and learning that common sense is more important than technology: if there is a tree or cliff or (god forbid) a lighthouse in your way, then you go around it! The arrow will adjust itself-- pretty neat!

Here were some of the things we saw on our treasure hunt:

Spanish moss...

The beach...

The slip...

The lighthouse (which was tooooooooooooting pretty loudly by that time, because it was drizzling and the fog was coming in)...

A stone wall (some of these date back to the 1700's-- they were put there to keep the sheep contained)...

And our favorite stop: Butt Rock! Look, the baggie even calls it that!

Next, we had a little mutiny, and the adults decided that all of the kids were garbage and stuffed them into trashbags, and as soon as we get back to shore we're going to stuff them into the nearest dumpster. And then we're going to have a party!

Just kidding! This was a part of a lesson on survival. You can use trash bags as emergency shelters, which keeps the most important parts of your body nice and warm. Just make sure you have a good-sized hole for your nose and mouth so you don't suffocate.

I wish I had gotten a video of the kids scuttling around the room in these, hermit-crab-style.

And then... well... then adults were asked to volunteer to take part in a survival situation. I very hesitantly raised my hand, but Elaine laughed and said, "I hope you don't mind getting wet, Miss Newell, because you are going to go for a little swim!"

These are survival suits, for people who need to go into the water (say, if your ship sinks). The suits are waterproof (at least, they are supposed to be, as I found out!) and the only part of you that is uncovered is a little bit of your face. Getting them on was just like getting into footie pajamas, but they were made out of this very heavy neoprene material... imagine getting into a thick suit made out of the same stuff mousepads are made of!

The funny thing is that all ships that go more than 3 miles offshore need to have one of these suits for everybody on board, and you need to get into your suit in less than a minute in case your boat is sinking. It took us a lot more than a minute to get into them--and we needed lots of help!

We had to blow into these tubes to inflate the pillows on our back, which was weird. You can see Mibee blowing into her straw.

Look, it's an Elmo convention! Or a bunch of red astronauts!

The biggest problem was that my gloves were inside out, and my arms were too short to push the fingers out from the inside-- so it looks like I am doing something very bad with my finger! (That's Mr. Stevens saying "don't raise your hand up!")

And into the 47-degree water we went!

I can't put my legs down!

In an emergency you want to huddle together like this:

Or if you want to go somewhere, like to a bell buoy, you'd clasp yourselves together like this to make a caterpillar, then move your arms like rowboat oars.

We weren't that coordinated.

I promise you I am not trying to be rude!

My suit started to leak very badly so I needed to get out of the water. I wasn't cold, since the suit keeps you nice and toasty! I was just very tired from trying to swim in that heavy suit.

Mr. Stevens, Katie and Mibee jumped in to see what it would feel like to jump in with those suits. It's a weird feeling, like the suit tightens all around you (like when you wear a rubber glove and stick it into a sink full of water).

Mibee was very uncoordinated getting up the ladder, and I am laughing at her because she ended up crawling across the dock like a baby.

(My thanks to JH who took all of these fantastic pictures!)

Next up: Going Home.

Burnt Island Trip Part 4: Good Morning, That Strange Prevalent Fishy Smell and Many Mysteries

2009-05-25T17:22:00.019-04:00

Good Morning! After a breakfast of pancakes we got dressed and headed out for our morning activities. We were split into three groups, and rotated between Squid Dissection, Sea Fishing and Lobstering.

First off was squid dissection. Brave, Brave Miss Newell got to separate a whole box of half-solid half-gelatinous semi-frozen squid and put them on paper plates. The kids had just discovered that I was a vegetarian and thought this was hysterical. I kept insisting that I had no intention of eating these things! We then got to cut them up, but of course some of the girls were far too squeamish so Brave Brave Miss Newell sprung into action again.

The coolest part of the squid was pulling out the "pen"-- or rather the long bit of internal shell that kinda reminded me of the wet plastic wrapper that is left over when you eat a freezer pop. The beak was nifty, too. I wish I had gotten pictures of this but it's hard to take pictures when you are covered in squid guts!

Here's lookin' at you, squid!

Next we took the squid chunks and went down to the dock for some sea fishing. Our girls were pros at this! ...but we didn't catch anything. :(

And lastly we joined Dan Dan the Lobster Man in the Hunky Dory for lobstering. Or rather the kids and Mibee went with Dan and Elaine and I followed in the Resourceful just-in-case.

Here's the bucket with live lobsters, bait, rubber band and other accoutrements of lobstering.

The first thing Dan did was band all of the kids' claws (fingers).

Then they set about pulling up traps and seeing what was inside.

There were some females with berries; the kids watched as Dan notched them and chucked them back in. Dan also dumped out the old bait in the bags and replaced them with new.

Here's one of the girls helping to measure a lobster. Is it a keeper or a short?

In this next picture, I want you to look very closely at Dan's hand. Some of the kids noticed that Dan has a finger missing. They wanted to know what had happened but were too polite to ask. Instead they asked Mibee instead, who burst out laughing because she knew the story! Turns out that one day Dan was out lobstering with his dog. Dan tried to pull up a trap but he got his gloved hand caught in the pulley. He pulled his hand free and tore off the glove to see what damage had been done, and threw it down on the floor of the boat. There was lots of blood so he knew he had to get to the hospital. Once he was there the doctor said, "Well, that's not that bad. We can re-attach the finger right away." Dan shook his head and said, "Can't. My dog ate it."

Here's the kids with their catch: This little guy is not so sure about his lobster...

...but these crab molts are neato!

Then it was time for snack. This guy actually had to be told several times to be greedy! Get more! Take huge handfuls! He wasn't sure if Elaine was trying to trick him...

Next it was time for a navigation lesson. Here's the harbor:

Heeeeey! That's Burnt Island! I've heard of that place! :)

After our snack we were all signaled to meet up at the Lighthouse: Two blasts from an air horn and we came running from every direction from the island.

In this next activity the kids were given cards which had pictures of different things the fishermen could catch in Maine waters. Set out in front of the kids were different sorts of ways to catch or gather fish: A seine net, a clam hoe, a longline, etc. The kids had to put their fish in the type of equipment they thought were used to catch the fish (i.e., put the picture of the clam near the clam hoe).

However, I asked Elaine if I could sneak away and take more pictures of the inside of the keeper's house. She said that would be fine! So I went in and checked out the covered walkway, which I hadn't gotten a chance to explore the day before. Through the kitchen, up the stairs...

This is a sort of a mini-museum now, so I lingered for a long time near the photographs and exhibits.

I love architectural plans. This is where I got the whole living vs. dining room thing, and the bedroom vs. parlor. Of course the purpose of rooms change over time, but I crave accuracy.

It seems very romantic to want to live a lighthouse keeper's life, but then pictures like this make you change your mind:

Here is a photo montage of some of the 30 keepers that has been on Burnt Island, beginning with James McCobb and ending with the automation in 1988.

And here are the lenses that were once used in the lantern room. Note the door behind them: that's the door I was talking about earlier, that leads to the anteroom at the bottom of the tower. It's blocked off now, but you can still see it. You can imagine a keeper dashing through the kitchen, up the incline of the covered walkway, through the door into the anteroom and up the spiral staircase to the lantern room in the event of a smoke-out or other emergency.

The lens on the right is the original (note the typical fresnel shape), but the bull's eye one on the left fascinated me. This one was mounted on the weighted mechanism that needed to be cranked every six hours so that the lantern would spin around.

Self-portrait!

So how did they know what the inside of the keeper's house looked like in 1950? Well, thankfully, someone had taken pictures! The Muire family (who were living here at that time) still had much of the things in the photographs and donated them back to the island. They also provided first-hand accounts of what it was like to live here (like drinking that disgusting canned milk!).

So how accurate is the restoration? Well, let's see...

Looks familiar!

Yup, looks good!

Next, I wandered about in the rest of the house, because I couldn't resist! This little room is a little butler's pantry (I don't know what the official Burnt Island name for it was because of course they wouldn't have had a butler!) and I spied toys that were typical of that time period.

I was a very naughty girl and I touched what I wasn't supposed to: I opened the cupboards to find out what was inside them! However, what I found was very typical of the 1950's-- just some fancy dishes that were saved for special occasions (I'm pretty sure Elaine will forgive me for poking around).

Okay, so remember how I mentioned there was a secret up these stairs, and another one in the pantry?

Well, the bottom part of the keeper's house might be a living history museum, but the upstairs is a little apartment where Elaine stays. (Don't worry, Elaine-- I didn't go up there!) In the pantry, the cupboard door was ajar, and I spy with my little eye... a microwave?!?! That doesn't belong in 1950! (Click on the picture and see if you can spy it as well!)

Next up: A GPS treasure hunt and Survival!

Burnt Island Part 3: Tidepool Exploring and a Treasure Hunt

2009-05-25T12:56:00.008-04:00

That afternoon we were given free reign to explore tide pools. We all had plastic tubs to collect our creatures, and our job was to look for as many different things as we could. We started first with the obvious, taking samples of rockweed, periwinkles and barnacles. Then we started exploring deeper crevices and under rocks to find seastars, mussels and crabs. A couple people found these disgusting eel-like things called gunnels. Someone even found a hermit crab, which made Mibee squeal and run away screaming (or maybe just shirk away in squeamishness). Lots of the seastars we found were missing limbs, which was cool. Under a shelf-like rock Mibee found an anenome but it was probably just a bunch of fish eggs (maybe the gunnels's).

We put our loot into an artificial tide pool and surveyed our finds:

These rubber boots are awesome for exploring tidepools:

I know this picture is blurry, but it's the best I could get of our little tidepool zoo:

We also found some orange fish eggs of some sort... even Elaine didn't know what they belonged to.

Next up was the Treasure Hunt where we used compasses and pretty realistic-looking piratey treasure maps. This was one of the first times I've actually been successful at explaining how to use a compass. The whole "don't turn the compass turn your body" thing was not working for these kids. Finally I hit on a great metaphor: I knew the kids had used Logo their math class, so I said, "You have to start by telling the turtle which way to face, right? And the turtle stands in one spot and you can spin it in a circle to head in any direction? Okay, you are the turtle. The compass is your nose so it sticks out flat in front of you. Point your nose to 220 degrees!" ...And the kids got it! Yay for Logo turtle! :)

We walked all over the island looking for "the signs of the pirate" that were taped up at different points on our walk. Here's some things we found during our treasure hunt:

A wringer...

The garden...

Turtle Rock at sunset...

An osprey nest... On the way in I had seen the osprey fly in with a big stick in its mouth. Later I saw a crow antagonizing the osprey and really irritating the heck out of it. I wish I had gotten a picture of that. Poor osprey.

The fog bell: (see it up there at the base of the tower? They used that before they used foghorns. Originally it had a little wooden building it sat in-- kind of like an A-frame--but now it just sits outside).

A picnic spot...

And X may mark the spot, but it's not all that obvious. Mibee hadn't figured out that I couldn't see it until we were right on top of it and then I felt really stupid and she laughed at me. The kids got their treasure and we put it back, and then we waited and watched for the next group to try to find it. It wasn't obvious to them, either.

So here's a pretty picture of the sunset...

And a little while later we got to see the Light doing what it's best at... (Funny story: poor Maria tried a hundred times to get her camera to catch the flash at exactly the sixth second... but she kept missing it! Her camera had a delay on it and she just couldn't time it right. Me? I got it the very first try! Hee hee!)

We didn't go to bed for another couple of hours, but it was too dark to take any more decent pictures, so I'll just have to describe what we did. We headed into the Keeper's house and sat on the floor in the Living/Dining room. Elaine had done some extensive research learning what life was like for a lighthouse keeper, and she had collected many old photographs. What she did was hand each of us a copy of a photograph and had us describe what we thought was happening in the photo. Some were easy (a keeper milking a cow, for instance-- keepers who had cows didn't have to drink that disgusting canned milk!). Some were a little tougher: one man was cranking something but it was hard to tell what, and it turned out to be this weight system that turned the lantern to make it flash-- it was similar to the weight system in a cuckoo clock (the Burnt Island light needed to be cranked every six hours to keep it spinning-- the weights dropped down through the cylinder that the spiral staircase revolved around). My picture was of a little rowboat that was carrying a heavy fog bell, and some men were pulling it up the shoreline (with a rope-and-pulley system) to the lighthouse while another man stood on a plank to counterbalance the rowboat. Someone had a copy of this picture:

...and I was like WHOA!! That's the wreck of the Oakley Alexander in 1947, and Nana and Grampie had gone to Cape Elizabeth to watch the rescue effort, and they had that picture-postcard as a memento (which Mum had kept and had scanned into her computer)! You have no idea how surprised I was to see that! I was like, I know that picture! :)

After looking at the pictures for a while, we had a few more things to do before going to bed. We learned a little bit more about some of the old gizmos and gadgets that were used "in the olden days"-- things like rug beaters and thunder jugs. One of the coolest things that was in the kitchen was a mason jar of tickets-- at first I thought they were the ration stickers from WWII, but no-- they were S & H stamps (the famous Green stamps that were precious to every frugal housewife), which of course makes a lot more sense. Turns out these belonged to the Muire family and they had never traded them in for the goods. A visitor to the island asked if the museum would like some old S & H stamp books, and of course they said yes--and so she sent them nearly a dozen, all partially filled in. Stuff like that fascinates me! It's the sort of thing that makes the museum seem very very real to me, very authentic.

Then it was our turn to head up to the lantern room to watch the Light doing its very important job. Did you know the bulb is only about the size of your thumb? I knew the fresnel lens makes it seem a million times bigger so you only need a small source, but seeing the actual tiny bulb makes you think--huh!

Afterwards we all went into the covered walkway and sat against the wall for a Bioluminescence activity. (I should explain that the walkway no longer opens up into the tower base: the door is blocked off now--though you can still see it--and the old fresnel lenses that have been used over the years sit right in front of the door). This walkway is sloped due to the ledges beneath, so the windows look funny-- they are straight and level but the floor is not, so when you're inside it looks like the windows are tilted like badly-hung picture frames!

We were each given a tiny speck of a sea animal that produces a luminescent material (like what's inside a firefly) and a bit of water to grind it up into. We rubbed our hands together and whoa!--they started glowing in the dark! It's like if you accidently break a glowstick and get the juice inside all over your hands. Cool beans!

So then it was bedtime. The girls were very good about going right to bed and being very quiet. The boys, meanwhile, needed multiple reminders. We were so quiet that we could hear everything the boys did, including this conversation:

"Um, Mr. Stevens?"
"What now?"
"I forgot to spit out my gum."
"How could you forget to do that?"
"Could I get it up and spit it out?"
"No. Go to sleep."
"But I need to spit it out!"
"Can't you just forget about it?"
"No. What am I going to do with it?"
"Grr. Um-- just stick it on the bedpost!"

--at which ALL of us on the girls' side burst out laughing! All eighteen of us. It was great.

So finally everyone fell asleep, except for me... I just drifted for a while. I felt like I was waiting for something-- I don't know what. I'm not a light sleeper but I know I was this night-- every time anyone rolled over or coughed I was wide awake again. I almost felt anxious, like something was supposed to happen. Finally, in the middle of the night (probably at precisely 2:00), I heard this sudden downpour... and then I heard it:

...

tooooooooooooooot

tooooooooooooooot

...

tooooooooooooooot

tooooooooooooooot

...

That's what I was waiting for. After that I was out like a light. It's funny how that sound is part of my subconscious, the background sounds of the ocean that I miss so very much. I am not meant to live so far inland that I can't hear the foghorn at night!

Burnt Island Part 2: Island Bingo and Living History

2009-05-25T09:38:00.018-04:00

We played lots of cool games and learned all kinds of things about this island. For Island Bingo, We were put into little groups, and we were all given a card with lots of photos on it, and we had to locate all of the items on the card as a way to discover all of the things on the 5 1/2 acre lump of stone that were were standing on. We had Katie in our group so we found all of our things in less than fifteen minutes! :)

The Lighthouse: This was the easiest thing to find, of course. It's 30 feet tall and is bright red on the top. You can't miss it.

The Foghorn: It's that white thing that, as one of the kids in my group said, "looks a little like a trashcan with eyes on it". Tooooooooooooooooooooooooot.

The Oil House: This is where oil for the lighthouse was stored. But what is that funny-looking "antenna" on the roof?

Lightning Rod: It looks kind of like a fork to me. An electric fork.

The Well: This well is brackish, but provided water that was used for laundry, bathing, and other chores that could be done with non-potable water.

Ace's Grave: Ace was a black lab who came to the island in the late 60's. He belonged to the sister of someone who lived on the island at the time. Apparently, when he was on the mainland, he barked constantly at everything. Putting him on the island was the best place for him, where he could be isolated and yet have plenty of room to romp. One day, however, he investigated a dead seagull a little too well and ended up getting mange. There was nothing that could be done, so he was put down and then brought back to the island. He was given a little grave which fascinates everyone who finds it.

The Slip: I just want to slide down this in a little boat: wheee splash!

The Covered Walkway: This connected the keeper's house to the tower building, so you wouldn't have to walk outside.

Turtle Rock: Doesn't it look like a sea turtle?

The Solar Panels: In the "olden days" there was a warning light that would come on if there was something wrong with the light in the tower, so that the keeper could run up and take care of whatever was wrong. Nowadays, since everything is automated, the light has solar back-up.

The Erratics: Dropped here by the glaciers, these are rocks that definitely don't look like they belong here. The rock on the far left has another name, BUTT-- ahem, I mean but, I will discuss that later...

The kids also discovered the tire swing. Whee!

For the Living History tour, we were transported back to the 1950's, and we met Mr. and Mrs. Muire and their granddaughter Linda, who were the current keeper family. Mrs. Muire (portrayed by the lovely Mrs. McKay) welcomed us to her house, and told us all about how she lived out here on an island.

Here is her kitchen. There was no running water or electricity, so there were a lot of gadgets that are unfamiliar to people living sixty years into the future. I think in this picture she is demonstrating how she used the pump in the sink. While non-potable water came from the well (and had to be carried in by the bucketful) drinking water was pumped up from a huge holding tank in the basement, which collected rainwater-- so Mrs. Muire often hoped for rain!

Here is Mrs. Muire's stove. In the winter it was fueled with coal (which the government supplied), but in the summer driftwood was used as the coal would make the stove too hot.

(In the next photo, see the teddy bear on CeeBee's lap? That is Cinnamon. CeeBee teaches a K, 1 and 2 class where Cinnamon is a "student." Cinnamon travels all over with members of the class and then writes in his journal about what he has seen. I just think it's funny that we all treated Cinnamon like a toddler and made sure he was "paying attention" to all of the cool things to see all around the island!)

Here is a close-up shot of some of the driftwood in the stove:

Now the Muires were pretty lucky: they had a bathtub! There was no running water, though, so water needed to be carried up from the well and heated in big pans on the stove. There was, however, a drain, so you didn't have to "bail out the tub": you could just pull the plug and the water would drain into the cellar.

The room where the bathtub was also the pantry. There were lots of gadgets and gizmos from the 1950's on those shelves: eggbeaters, a juicer, a meat grinder, bean pots, rolling pins, boxes that once contained salted fish, a potato ricer, lots of different strainers, etc. Most food was either tinned, canned or otherwise preserved in some way (the real Muire family had not-very-fond memories of canned milk...ugh!). Some vegetables were grown in the garden but had to hearty enough to survive in the constant wind and the arid conditions. Dinner often consisted of potatoes and preserved fish. Yummy!

(Later I will tell you a secret about these cupboards that are below the pantry shelves... hmmm....)

Through a short hallway we came to the dining room (though in the architectural plans it's called the "living room"). Here was a table in the center, a fireplace to heat the house, and a mantel to display the family keepsakes (including pictures of the family). Here is the table, where Linda has been playing with her paper dolls:

On one side of the room was a wireless radio, and on the other, a Victrola (which sadly doesn't play any more because the needle is broken).

Through the dining room are two open rooms: Mr. Muire's office on one side, and Mrs. Muire's bedroom on the other (the architectural plans call these two rooms the "parlor"). First, here is the office, which gave me goosebumps because it reminded me so much of the office my Grampie used to have:

Two of the most important things a keeper needs to have: the precious Underwood and the Keeper's record book. The keeper needed to keep track of everything that was used--right down to the amount of matches used to light the light!

The adding machine was also of utmost importance:

Here is Mrs. Muire's bedroom. Mrs. Muire used her room as a sewing room as well, and made feedsack dresses for her three daughters (and now, her granddaughter Linda).

There was also a beautiful treadle sewing machine "jenny" in one corner of the room but stupid me I didn't get a picture of it. I did, however, get this beautiful photo of "Linda", Mr. Muire's granddaughter. I don't know this girl's real name, but she played the part very well. When I saw her sitting in the light like this I knew I had to get her picture. It looks very Wyeth-like, don't you think?

(After I took the picture I turned the camera around so she could see the picture, and I had this super weird bizarre feeling-- it's 1950! They didn't have LCD screens back then!)

Hmm. I wonder what's up these stairs.... (we'll find out later-- the keeper's house has lots of secrets!)

Here's another shot of the kitchen:

After the tour of the house we got to talk with Mr. Muire, the keeper himself (sorry, I didn't get the name of the man who portrayed him). Look closely on his uniform: The K on his lapels stands for Keeper, and there are little lighthouses on his brass buttons!

So what is the lighthouse tower made of? Well, the whole island is made out of granite so it would be pretty silly to haul rocks in. Instead, the people who made the lighthouse decided where the keeper's house was going to be, and cut a cellar into the ledge that was there. All of the rock and the rubble that accumulated from this hole was moved up the hill and stacked up to make the tower. Here's an interesting fact: The lighthouse tower is the original one--it has never had to be taken down and rebuilt. The cement they used to hold it together was very solid and had no trouble solidifying. However, when they went to build the keeper's house the cement didn't harden right (maybe it was hotter or colder or whatnot at that time, or perhaps the lime they used was of lesser quality than the stuff they had used in the tower). They eventually had to tear down the original keeper's house and put up a wooden one.
Here is a bit of granite rubble like the kind they used in the tower:

As Mr. Muire talked I looked all around the view from the point. Next to the lighthouse tower is a flagpole. Here is a bit of funny trivia that Elaine told us later: there are lots of rules concerning the American flag, one is that you are supposed to put it up at dawn and take it down at dusk, and do so every day without fail. However, there is an exception to the rule that says if a light shines on it, then you can keep it up at night. Well, sometimes she gets a little lazy and doesn't take the flag down at the end of the day... but she is not exactly breaking the rule, is she? (I mean, there is a pretty significant light shining right on it...)

Anyway, back to Mr. Muire. Trivia time: What is the oldest lighthouse in Maine? Well, everyone knows that-- it's Portland Head Light, of course! Well...... yes..... sorta. The Head Light was built in 1791 under George Washington, so that makes it almost 220 years old, and Burnt Island Light was built in 1821, which makes it thirty years younger. So yes, the Head Light is older... but in 1791 Maine was still part of Massachusetts! Maine became its own state in 1820 and a year later Burnt Island Lightwas built! So Burnt Island is the oldest lighthouse in Maine, meaning "since Maine has been its own state"! --Oh, don't how we love semantics! :)

Here is "Linda" standing in the tower hallway, waiting for her her "grandfather" to call down to let the next group of visitors come up.

And then we got to go right up the inside of the tower to the lantern room-- first up a spiral staircase and then up nine very narrow steep steps. Let your eyes adjust-- it's a little bright up
here!

In the "olden days" the light was a hurricane lamp set inside a fresnel lens (which is pronounced "fray-nl", by the way, not "frez-nel"-- it's named after a French guy). The smoke from the lamp had to go somewhere, so there is a hole in the ceiling which leads to a ventilator ball. (Take another look at some of the other pictures of the outside of the lighthouse and you will see a little ball up there-- as well as another lightning rod!)

This hole in the wall is a sort of a damper which also was meant to give some ventilation to the lantern room.

To conserve electricity, the light doesn't come on in the daytime (unless it is dark and stormy, of course). However, there is a button that can be pressed to make the light come on, as you can see here:

So why is the Burnt Island light red? Well, originally, it wasn't. All of the lighthouses in the area were not meant not only to warn people of danger but also to guide them into the harbor. The boats could just follow one white light to another until they got into the harbor (a little like connect-the-dots). However, people would get the Burnt Island light confused with the ones on Ram Island and the one at the Cuckolds, so the government decided to change the characteristic of the lights. They decided Burnt Island should be red, so they put red glass in. They also decided that the lights should blink in certain patterns, so Burnt Island got to have one flash every six seconds.

Now that's all fine and dandy, but if you want to go directly from Cuckolds Light or from Ram Island light into the harbor, you'd crash. Why? Because Squirrel Island sits smack in the middle of the two! (Think of a Y shape, where there is a light at each point on the Y. Squirrel Island is the point in the middle!). So to help boats go around Squirrel Island, the people designing the light decided to have two clear-glass "slits" in the red glass-- one pointing right at Ram Island Light, the other at Cuckolds Light. So if you are in a boat, you could see either red flashes or white. "If you see red, you're dead!" Mr. Muire told us-- so if you maneuvered your boat to stay in the white, you'd be safe. Here is what the white light looks like from inside the lantern room:

Here we are heading down the spiral staircase:

Inside the tower are these brick archways. These were put there to hold the containers of whale oil that once were used in the lantern.

Here's some pretty shots of the keeper's house:

Time for a break now... next up on the schedule? Tidepool Exploring and a Treasure Hunt!

Burnt Island Trip! Part 1: Getting There

2009-05-25T07:37:00.015-04:00

...So now that the weather's been warm I've been doing so much and not doing a great job at updating my blog... but don't worry, because I have a doozy for you! (Ellen, yes, I will put Kate's graduation pictures up, but I have some very anxious students who want to see the pictures I took!)

So this weekend I went with Mrs. B's 4th grade class to Burnt Island, a tiny 5 1/2 acre island in Boothbay Harbor. MiBee (as the kids call her) and her family spend much of their time here so we knew we were in for a great time.

Here is a little munchkin on the bus, being adorable:

After a 2 1/2 hour ride, our first stop was at the Department of Mari ne Resources Aquarium. I was very impressed by the blue lobster (a one in a million chance!) and behind him was a bi-colored lobster (a one in a gazillion chance!).

Some anenenenenenenomes:

Tons of seastars/sunstars/fishies:

More fishies:

Whale bones (though this one's a little small; perhaps a baby whale or a dolphin?):

The Big Daddy lobster was very impressive. I'm sure he has a name-- I should have asked. His left claw was the size of an oven mitt.

Moon Jellies are very fun to watch--they just blob around:

The touch tank was a huge hit. Mibee has brought in a small sample tank to her classroom so the kids had learned all about seastars, sea cucumbers, sea urchins, horsehoe crabs, etc. They knew right what to do when they got to the tank: dive in and start touching things!

Here comes the Novelty to take us to the Island. The backpacks and freight (kindly referred to as "The Stuff") all rode with the over-18's in the Resourceful, though I rode on the Novelty for crowd control.

(Insert Gilligan's Island theme here...)

"Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale/ a tale of a fourth-grade trip/that started from this Boothbay port/aboard this tiny ship....")

In our 15-minute ride over the kids were very impressed by all the things in the harbor. They spied masts and rigging!

My favorite quote on the ride over: "Whoa... they build houses right on the shore? Don't the houses get wet?"

Our first glimpse of Burnt Island...

A bit of history here: No, the island isn't burnt now! It got its name before it had the lighthouse. In the 1700's, people had lots of sheep, and a perfect place to put them was on an island: the sheep couldn't wander off anywhere, and there was plenty of grass to eat. (Sometimes the sheep had to be separated from each other, and the males were put on a different island from the females, so you can guess how Ram Island got its name!) However, just like now, the raspberry prickles and other bushes would grow out of control, so once in a while they had to be burned so that the good grass would grow. Thus, it got its name as Burnt Island.

One of my favorite things about islands is ingenuity. This is a fabulous contraption for hauling the Stuff up the hill to the bunk house: a huge wooden box attached forklift-style to a tracker, which Elaine wielded with ease up the hill.

The bunkhouse is exactly the kind of building that I imagine on an island: tucked into the trees, huge, open but cozy, rather barn-like, with submarine-style bunks.

The kids were very impressed with the "outhouse" (though it has plumbing):

So now that we are settled in, next up is Island Bingo and Living History...

Addendum--THE DUTCH BABY

2009-02-23T15:51:00.003-05:00

So I TOTALLY forgot to mention the Dutch Baby. I meant to, I swear! I even looked up recipes online to see if the Dutch Baby was real, or if it was something my crazy sister had invented. Nope--it is rea l. Here are some pictures, gratuitously stolen from the internet, of what a Dutch Baby is...

It's kind of like a popover, but instead of many small ones you end up with a big giant one. Ellen wouldn't tell me what she was making for dessert, but she did have me help with mixing up the batter and pulsing it with the blender. (The important verb there is pulse. You pulse it, for thirty seconds. Very important. Kate timed me.) Because you bake it in a frying pan in the oven, I thought it might have been creme brulee or something like that, so I asked Ellen if this was a dessert that was served in finer restaurants. She just looked at me and laughed. Nope.

So you eat the Dutch Baby sort of like a popover, or like fried dough-- you slice it like a pie, and you can put honey or jam or powdered sugar on it. When ours came out of the oven, it looked a little like a Dutch shoe before it deflated. It was good, but weird. I mean, who names a dessert a "Dutch Baby"? Would it be any more appetizing if it were called a "German Fetus"?

Magical Marvelous Movie Night

2009-02-21T15:28:00.007-05:00

So on Monday my sister and me and Kate had a movie night. Originally it was going to be a Tim Burton night but Ellen couldn't find Sweeney Todd anywhere, and I hadn't seen Mamma Mia yet, so our night became a Movie Musical Night.

I arrived extremely early, even after killing time at Barnes and Noble and at the grocery store. Kate, in all of her mysteriousness, said she was cooking up an idea that she had been working on for some time. So what did we do to kick off this party? We colored Presidents' Day print-outs and decorated the front door. YAAAAYYYY!!!! To keep with the Presidents' Day theme, we even used the Crayola State Crayon box. Any day spent coloring with new crayons is a good day.

Kate even used the just-for-construction-paper crayons, of which many of them were blues and greens, so she made an ocean scene. The problem was, she forgot what a starfish was. She called it a "jellyfish." I drew her a picture of what a jellyfish really is:

And Fred helped her, because coloring (or at least correctly labeling sea creatures) seems just a bit above Kate's ability:

Ellen's reaction to all of this was priceless:

We feasted on bean burritos and Valentine's day cookies, which The Resident Cow approved of.

Weasley tried to help us by being underfoot the entire time. May I present: Crucifixion Cat!

Speaking of religion, we opened up some very belated Christmas presents. I just don't know what to say...

....except that the Holy family is trapped in this box not being able to see each other. I don't think the Bible mentions much about styrofoam barriers.

Then let the Movies commence! For our matinee, we started with Horton Hears a Who. It's not technically a Movie Musical, but it's close enough.

This is all that there is to say about that movie:

I think Katie is my new favorite hero.

Next, as Elphaba settled next to me giving me the evil eye...

...we popped in Mamma Mia and oh my god there are only two words to describe it:

SOOPAPA

TROOPAPA.

....except that we all came to the consensus that Pierce Brosnan should NEVER AGAIN attempt singing. NEVER. Just shut him up.

... if only ABBA could come over and very loosely (not to mention plotlessly) make a very long music video about our lives, then everything would be complete.

Hope this makes up for my prolonged absence...

2009-02-03T18:05:00.003-05:00

....but I haven't been doing much writing here (elsewhere, yes. Lots. But not here). To keep you entertained, you need to click on this lovely, um, cake:

Just click on the picture. Seriously. It will send you to a world of culinary delights beyond your wildest dreams...

Julian the Moose

2009-01-10T10:33:00.003-05:00

You know, there are days when I am pestered by a 14-pound cat who is deeply infatuated with me. He yowls at me for attention, and reaches up and pets my cheek whenever I'm on the computer, and is often only completely content when he has flopped on my chest and is lovingly gazing into my eyes.

But, I suppose, it could be worse...

I wonder what Julian would look like if he had antlers...

Christmas Day

2009-01-02T16:45:00.009-05:00

As my sister has so lovingly reminded me, I haven't put up Christmas DAY yet and she didn't like being left hanging (not that I blame her). Thus, may I present to you...

Christmas Day Greed Shots!

We have had obligatory greed shots since I was a baby. We sit on the top of the stairs, and are not allowed to come downstairs and see the loot until we are photographed. These are often extremely beautiful pictures, as we are able to display spontaneously both eyes-popping-out-of-head greediness AND just-rolled-out-of-bed bleariness. Lovely.

This year we added a third member to our photography shoot. Yay Kate!

Then we surveyed the loot.

Is that a Grad School acceptance letter in the tree?

Before opening anything, we just walked around looking extremely attractive.

It took us only about an hour, but we opened all of our presents. I got a vacuum and a staple hammer. It just isn't a good Christmas unless you are given potential murder weapons.

After this Christmas bacchanalia, we settled into the cozy after-effects of such bliss. Mostly we just sat around, being amused by everything and anything that wandered into our field of vision. Case in point: Rudolph, the blow-up deer head, given to Dad by Aunt Wendy. It is quite possibly the most disturbing present ever.

There were also lots of small round furry kittens to watch. This one is Marcella, but we think she is a boy so she's also known as Martin.

The other kittens are no-names.

This is a Stealth Cat (TM), who we believe is some sort of Russian spy.

Kate was very amused by the Little Golden Book version of Walt Disney's Santa's Toy Shop (1950).

And then there's this...

Not all of these kittens belong to this cat (different litters, different moms) so her expression is priceless. It reminds me of this lolcat picture...

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve 2008

2008-12-27T15:14:00.005-05:00

So the three of us younger people descended on my parent's house for Christmas. This is how we spent the afternoon of Christmas Eve...

Snuggling with/stepping over/avoiding cats...

laughing at Angus who decided to faceplant himself in Kate's lap, of all places...

watching Bob Ross... (he had a bird on his hand at the beginning of the episode, and we were REALLY excited that he was going to paint something other than inanimate objects, but no, we were subjected to the same old happy little trees and streams that decide to live in the middle of the canvas...)

zoning out...

When it got dark we set out the candles...

awww, pretty.

And then we watched It's a Wonderful Life ("I'm all right... I'm allllllllll right!") and went to bed, with visions of sugar plums dancing in our heads...

This one's for my Dad.

2008-11-29T11:42:00.000-05:00

I think this is cheating, actually.

The more you know...

2008-11-29T11:41:00.000-05:00

Heh. Heh heh heh heh heh.

Thanksgiving 2008

2008-11-28T14:22:00.007-05:00

So the first part of Thanksgiving was spent over at my aunt's house. Dad immediately fell into conversation with Uncle Bob...

...while the kids ate dessert.

And we generally just stared at each other, trying to figure out exactly how we were related to one another...

...And of course Dad couldn't resist playing with the kids...

It actually looks like he's threatening them in this picture, but this was after they had pelted him with stuffed animals...

...And of course there was the general chatter of the grown-ups (except I really have no idea what Kimmie's doing...)

...this one's better...

And of course there's the obligatory sibling shot...

...and of course lots of cameras...

Finally Dad and I said goodbye and went home to this lovely feast:

Yummy. There were two turkeys: Dad smoked one intentionally using the smoker, while Mum smoked hers--not so intentionally--using the oven. There were the usual mashed potatoes and gross whole-cranberry concoctions, and olives and pickles, and bad jokes ("I really am kahlua-less about what time the yams will be done" and "I don't have any kahlua who ate the rest of the yams...").

...but the biggest mystery of the whole feast was where is the turkey head? Without the head, the pineapple just looks like a.... pineapple.

Confused Penguin Love

2008-11-08T22:31:00.004-05:00

This is a story about Pingu the penguin. Pingu's older sibling kept eating all of Pingu's food so Pingu was taken away from its mother. But then Pingu got sad and needed a friend.

Of course the friend had to be about Pingu's size, and needed to look sort of like him.

So the zookeepers decided that any candidates must not compete with Pingu as far as looks...

They also had to be able to share the bed...

...and not eat too much...

...and needed to be able to pose for photographs.

You can read more about Pingu here.

Election Day 2008!

2008-11-04T21:07:00.002-05:00

A message from Cute Overload: Vote vote vote like a baby stoat!

Cartoon-off

2008-10-19T11:18:00.004-04:00

If you click on this sad cow, it will show you some pretty funny stuff.

But it's still a sad cow.

(However, I'm happy that "to pull a Palin" has become an official idiom.)

Informed choices...

2008-10-09T20:13:00.004-04:00

You gotta watch this awesome political video... my favorite parts are when one kid is disappointed that Ralph Nader isn't an option, when another asks what a "democrap" is, the random "Ron Paul!" kid, the one who points to Obama and says, "I like Bush!" and the one very puzzled kid there who just asks, "Who the heck is he?"

Enjoy!

Sorries!!!!

2008-10-03T19:24:00.002-04:00

I have been a bad blogger. Bad! I have pictures of the wedding, and of the Common Ground fair, and all kinds of stuff, but I've been very busy lately and haven't put anything up yet. So, to make up for it, here is a flow chart. Clickie to embiggeren... it's strangely accurate...

Getting ready for the wedding

2008-09-01T10:54:00.006-04:00

So this weekend I went to my sister's to help with the wedding preparations. First, I went out and bought a dress. It is SOOOOOOOOO pretty-- I am very much in love with it. It doesn't look like much on the hanger, but don't worry-- there will be pictures of me wearing it in a few weeks!

Next, I headed over to Ellen's. She and Kate needed help making the party favors, so a whole ton of us went over to help.

Step 1: Wash and dry the squeeze bottles.

Step 2: Melt the chocolate (tint it if you like), put it in the squeeze bottles and squirt it into the molds. Important tip #1: don't get the food coloring on your forehead.

Step 3: Put the molds in the fridge. Wait until they're firm.

Step 4: Put the plastic baggies over them, twist-tie them, then put them back into the fridge.

Important Tip #2: Let Mia help, but don't let her get near the chocolate (or Weasley).

Important Tip #3: Seven people and a dog in a 4,000-degree kitchen is fairly uncomfortable, so pray for a cooling sunshower.

...and when you're all done, take a few minutes to kick back and relax!

...So there will be more updates to come as the date gets closer!

The Covered Bridge in summer

2008-08-27T18:45:00.005-04:00

So remember these photos? Well, now that it's summer the bridge looks completely different. I wandered out there a few days ago and took pictures of it. It's pretty amazing.

The road it's on used to connect the two major towns, but now it's just an ATV trail. This abandoned(?) house sits not far from the bridge, and I often wonder about it.

At the end of the trail there's a farm, and I loved how these flowers waved in their little garden...

It's just pretty. I like it.

Summer Highlights

2008-08-24T16:56:00.002-04:00

So a lot of people have been asking me what I've been doing all summer. Here are some highlights...

I found a frog in the kitchen...

I made some weird faces with some creature I met out in the soccer field...

I met this weird person who likes to use babies as tables...

I met some people who cannot sit normally on couches...

And I met some people who turn themselves into blobs to reclaim couches (though one just uses his creeper skills...):

There was also a dance...

and some big smiles...

The Princess Pat...

Some muppet that had evidently escaped...

Tons of hair styling...

A political statement...

Lots of chillin' in the kitchen...

Tons of stupid sock creatures (this one, whose name is Joel, likes to cuddle with counselors who slept a little too much)...

A Disney Princess game...

And finally, lots and lots of shaving cream.

So that was my summer. As you can tell, I had lots of fun! It was another great year at camp! :)

We must have eet! Yom yom yom!

2008-08-09T04:49:00.008-04:00

Here at Soccer Camp we have been wasting our time doing many useless things, and there is nothing more useless than a bacon cake. In fact, we just have to say the words "bacon cake" to each other and we crack up.

Mmmmmmmmmmm, yummy.

(I'm a vegetarian, so what do I get to eat? Gimme Lean Sugar Cookies or Tofu Pup Cupcakes?)

A Quick Post from Soccer Camp

2008-08-08T20:27:00.002-04:00

It's Friday night at Soccer Camp, and Michael would like a picture of himself that I just took so I am posting it here. I am SO SORRY I haven't posted a blog in four hundred years, but here we go. (The only reason I am apologizing is that there is only one person in the world that reads this, and she has been whining that I haven't put anything up lately.)

Memorial Day Part II

2008-06-08T16:02:00.005-04:00

So Mum was too busy during the actual Memorial Day to do our Memorial Day shindig up at Addison, so we went the following week. Of course it rained the entire time, so I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked. We went to Helen's first, trying to wait out the rain. Mmmm, pies.

Then we headed out to Addison.

Here is Freddie and Papa. We just ran out of the truck, plopped down the geraniums and dove back in the truck again. So much for a long, dignified remembrance vigil.

Here are the babies, which are in the glass case. This is the only marble statue in the cemetery, and once upon a time somebody decided to enclose them in glass to protect them from the snows and the salty wind. Just about everybody I know who has been to this cemetery talks about them and wonders about them. Mum remembers Mie-Mie talking about them when Mum was small, so even back then they were quite the conversation piece.

I've always found the babies' brother interesting too. His stone is hard to read, and is now in several pieces, but it reads, "Reuben Wass, Son of Capt... & E.... Wass died on board the brig C.C... nite May 18th, 1842, AE 18 ys 11 mos. His death was caused by a fall from the fore-top-gallant-yard on the night of the 16th." If you look closely there is a carving of the brig on the top of his stone.

When you leave the cemetery road, there is this sign that always cracks me up.

We've never actually seen the blind man walking, we're just grateful there's a sign to warn us.

Afterwards we went to visit the llamas. This is also a part of our family tradition, which makes people smile and nod and back away slowly.

Llamas in the rain make me giggle.
Up at the farmhouse this poor demented rooster kept announcing that it was dawn, and the llamas kept looking up at it as if it were some sort of Llama Announcer. They all stared at it for quite some time. It was weird.

Llamas are such strange animals, especially in the rain. I kept singing this under my breath and Mum thought I was just a tad bit weird:

Runs in the family, I guess.

More pictures to come!

Memorial Day

2008-06-04T20:22:00.011-04:00

So the day before Memorial Day I call Dad and he is going on and on about how Ellen and Kate are coming down for the parade and then he's going to take them out to breakfast, and he doesn't once invite me. So at 7:00 that morning I drive the 2 hours down to surprise them. I finally found them waiting for the parade outside of People's, which isn't a bank, and nearly caused an accident (but Ellen thoughtfully coached me on my driving practices-- it always seems like I only drive stupid when my sister is around).

We watched the parade go by, waiting for the Grand Moment when the Robotics team went by.

We were expecting nerf balls. There were no nerf balls. That disappointed us. There was a dancing dragon made from one of the big balls, though.

Afterwards, we went home and played with the kittens. There are about 3,982,237 of them. This one is especially adorable, on it's first trip outside:

Beep, my cats' mother, sensibly keeps her two kittens away from the others. This In a nearby nesting box there are three mother cats and a plethora of squirmy babies in a cuddle puddle.

We gave one of the cuddle puddle babies to Beep to see what she would do. She sniffed it, licked it, and promptly rolled on it.

This is one of the blue-eyed wee ones that belong with the not-Beep group. So very new, can't quite focus yet:

We spent a good couple of hours on the "deck", just talking, and I made the unfortunate mistake of letting my sister play with my camera. About thirty pictures like this ended up on it:

Although I will present to you the Nose Close-ups, I will spare you the Uvula Studies. Trust me, you do not want to see eleventy gazillion pictures of my sister's throat.

And this is just a neat kudzu-like vine over by the telephone pole. I just thought I'd finish with these images to "cleanse your palate" after my sister's pictures.

Chicks dig Hamsters!

2008-05-24T20:40:00.005-04:00

See?

Awwwwwwwwwwwwww.

I think in this next one he looks a little like those rather horrid pictures of baby Jesus blessing everybody:

However, he is quite adorable for a hamster.

I'm going to be meeting him in person in a little more than a month.

(So yeah, I know I've been lazy about posting lately...Boston? What trip to Boston?... on the other hand, my garden is all planted and growing and my house is halfway clean and I've knitted two pairs of socks. So there!)

April Vacation

2008-05-10T16:07:00.007-04:00

I know people are waiting for updates... like, didn't you go to Boston over vacation? Then where are your pictures??? Well, like that line from Big Fish, time slowed down over vacation and afterwards extra-fast to catch up. So here I am, two weekends later, finally able to sit down and post!

The first thing I did, the day before I left, was visit some imps. I wish I still lived near them because I miss them so much! Even though they were bigger than I remember them being (how did that happen?), they are still the same mischievous little lovebugs.

(I can't wait to see you guys this summer!!!)

And then the next day I made it to Boston. There is a simple concept here, but one that evades me sometimes: the closer you get to the equator, the warmer it is. Thus, while everything is brown and mucky and lifeless here in Maine, then in Boston they are actually having this thing called Spring. Whoa.

This is a rose garden not too far from the hostel that I used as a refuge when the city was too loud or populated. As there are no roses (yet), people rarely went in there.

Much of the first afternoon I spent avoiding goose poop while taking pictures of flowers and trees. I was too tired from traveling to do anything exciting!

More later-- I promise!

Bad doggie! BAD!

2008-04-27T18:55:00.002-04:00

I am unable to watch this video without laughing so hard that I am afraid that I will seriously rupture myself.

The guy who is taping it is amazingly calm. I don't think I know of any guy who could be that calm. And Otto looks SO VERY guilty. He is thinking that his Sad Face will save him from any impending punishment.

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

2008-04-27T12:47:00.004-04:00

So I went to Boston for a few days, but I'm too beat to put any of my pictures up yet. So to tide you over, here is a kitty who is either actively hallucinating or who has found Horton's flower.

More More

Signs of Life

2008-04-20T13:27:00.004-04:00

So we've had our first week of warm weather-- warm meaning the sweater people still wear sweaters but people like me wear shorts and no shoes and don't mind the chilly-ish breeze that still blows by. The lake is still covered with white, but it's more slush than ice or snow.

So I went outside today with full intentions to get in my car and drive, but I was distracted by that rectangle in my backyard. It's a lasagna garden, which means that I don't technically have to rototill it-- just add more layers of compost and mulch and manure and peat moss-- but there is something so very satisfying about prying up shovelfuls of sod and turning them over-- so I did.
For two hours. I am insane.

There is a tiny little once-upon-a-time garden by my driveway, where all that is left are those daffodils that I took pictures of in my last post. I've long meant to dig them up and replenish the soil around them (the soil is mostly rocks and clay and is nearly taken over by grass) so today I dug them up and plopped them in the garden proper. They were so incredibly choked with grass roots and weeds and tangled bits of whatever. I shook the bulbs free and pulled the nooses from around their stems and snuggled them into their new home in the healthy-looking soil. You could almost hear the daffodils sigh in relief, stretching out their roots and shaking their leaves free.

I don't pretend to know anything about plants, and mostly I just go by intuition when I'm out there mucking about in the dirt. I was reminded today of "The Secret Garden" by Frances Hodgson Burnett:

She did not know anything about gardening, but the grass seemed so thick in some of the places where the green points were pushing their way through that she thought they did not seem to have room to grow. She searched about until she found a rather sharp piece of wood and knelt down and dug and weeded out the weeds and grass until she made nice clear places around them.

"Now they look as if they could breathe," she said.

Is this really happening??

2008-04-18T17:46:00.005-04:00

Remember all that snow we had? Well, it's almost all gone, and now my yard is this rather horrid golden/grey/brown color, all soggified from the meltiness. However, if I look closely, here and there, there are signs of life.

Daffodils!

More daffodils!

Even more daffodils!

Daylilies!

Jacob's Ladder!

Julian, of course, doesn't care. He's still in hibernation mode.

When Ananas go bad...

2008-04-16T17:56:00.004-04:00

So Ellen once saw this Broadway show where they had rotating dancing ananas. (Was it Cabaret? I can't remember. I think it was Mama Mia that had the dancing heads...) Anyway, this reminded me of just how insidious pineapples can be:

They look like some sort of fruit bodyguards or something...

Have some coffee, dear

2008-04-15T18:48:00.002-04:00

....but what Harvey doesn't know is that his wife spiked his coffee with a little arsenic. Serves him right, the creep.

A quiet afternoon

2008-04-12T15:44:00.006-04:00

So it's a dreary grey Saturday, but in my house it's warm and snuggly. This is the perfect kind of weather for running black-and-white subtitled movies all afternoon, and finally finishing off projects.

(I had a professor in college who loved Kurosawa films and who would occasionally show them up on the big screen in the lecture hall. Thanks to her, I've learned to appreciate them as well.)

Look, my convertible mittens now have buttons! And now that they have been washed and blocked they are the softest mitteny things I've ever worn. I don't want to ever take them off.

And my first striped sock is done! Woo-hoo!

And, since my dad doesn't appreciate all of the knitted stuff I post on this blog, here are some gratuitous and random fly-fishing pictures.

Honestly, some people....!

Mixed Tape Friday night!

2008-04-11T20:05:00.004-04:00

So for the last couple of weeks I've been listening to Dinosaurs and Robots for their Mixed Tape Friday nights. This is from their website:

"Every Friday night, Dinosaurs and Robots will upload a dusty cassette mixed tape! Found at garage sales and junkyard glove boxes, mixed tapes provide all the voyeuristic thrills of reading somebody’s diary without the related ethical quandaries. Tune in each week for a new exploration into heavy metal thunder road trips, teenage bedroom melancholy meltdowns, college radio clunkers, headbanger barf bag parties, glam rock glitter fests, industrial punch-your-lights-out rockers and the ill-advised tapes created by lovers soon to be spurned. Before collaborative filtering, music was hand selected for us by those who know us best."

I wouldn't say that I like all of the music, but I like how eclectic it is. It's definitely got me wondering what I would find if I scoured garage sales for old mix tapes. I have all of my old mix tapes in a box, and they really are like little diaries and representations of our personalities that we would either make for friends or they would make for us. They also can be quite creepy, like peering into windows at night.

Meanwhile, the snowpack around here is shrinking dramatically. We have little rivers everywhere, and every time I walk in my neighborhood I see little kids splashing in them and sailing little paper boats and things (which makes me think about the idyllic Eden that childhood should be until I realize how absolutely filthy this water is and what microbial beasties are living in that lovely spring runoff) . This gurgly stream was particularly pretty:

And in our classroom we have a very impressive little garden. This is a baby zinnia:

...and this is a baby dill:

It's so funny-- the kids come to my room and immediately go to the windowsill and say encouraging things to their plants, and gently pet them, and water them with capfuls of water. Along with zinnias and dill, we have violets, johnny-jump-ups and basil sprouting. The only one that hasn't germinated is mine (!!!!!!!) but I'll just bring in some that I've started here at home.

My obnoxiously blinding sock is coming along nicely:

The purple is just an illusion-- the yarn is only blue and red and yellow. These socks are little like 3D glasses for your feet.

Unrequited Love

2008-04-06T08:53:00.005-04:00

Cats are weird creatures. I don't understand them at all. For instance, I walked into the bathroom this morning to find my wee one, Zeek, making out with a washcloth.

You'd think the cloth had been marinated in catnip, but it wasn't-- just soap and bathwater. She had evidently pulled it down from where it was drying in the tub.

Whenever I tell Mum about these weird things the kitties do, she says that they are "Scottish Fold traits." Okay, I might agree that when my cats do their silent meows or when they sit on my hand and won't let me type or drive the mouse (as Julian is doing right now) that's within the normal parameters of cat behavior, but having a crush on a washcloth? NOT NORMAL.

April Craziness

2008-04-05T19:13:00.005-04:00

What a crazy week I've had. I had to videotape myself teaching a student and had to critique myself (gaaaahhhhhh), and my room was used after school several days so I couldn't get my work done (blaaaaahhh) and I had meetings several nights that went until 8:00 (plaaaaahhh) and I had a doctor's appointment on Friday and I was late to that because of this icky yucky slushy stuff that was falling from the sky (waaaaaahhhhh). However, I had these photos on my camera from a walk I took last week that cheered me up-- mmmmm melty Springtime.

In the evenings, my one time to actually sit down for a few minutes, I knit. I had bought this yarn about a year ago and I knew it was time to use it. My sister likes to tease me because I'm drawn to obnoxiously bright primary colors (remember those salt and pepper shakers?) and this time of the year I did not want to knit anything bland or neutral-- thus, here is a purposely-overexposed picture of my new sock:

I've apparently come to the conclusion that if socks don't blind you, then they're not worth knitting.

......but but but... pwwweeeaaase?

2008-04-01T19:12:00.005-04:00

So I am always looking for dumb pictures to put up on my computer at school for the kids to talk about and laugh at. This one was today's...

The kids were walking around, saying to no one in particular, "but Mo-om, the giant kitty followed me home! Can't I keep it? Pwwweeeeeaaaase?"

(I hesitate to think about what they will remember about my class in 20 years....)

If you have never seen this, it is about time you have:

Melty Sunday

2008-03-30T13:33:00.008-04:00

It's sunny and melty outside, which makes me happy. Is it possible that Spring has actually arrived??

(Clickie to embiggerenie)

The Hamster Blankie took my knitting mojo for a while-- it was so insanely perfect I had a hard time beginning anything else, even socks, which is sad. Thus, I decided to play around and invent something. The Interlacements red that Mum got me for Christmas was perfect to experiment making convertible mittens. I have tiny hands with short stubby fingers, so even if I found a good pattern I'd still have to make major adjustments to it.

Aren't they fun? :)

These were quick and easy-- just enough to get me back on the knitting wagon.