Mountains to Move

As I get closer to the day the baby is born, it feels like there are mountains to move. Some, I am sure, are not needed, yet I construct them and am forced to move them. They, along with the important things, will be left behind when my priorities and time are reapportioned. I would love to see now from the future to know which mountains to move. Instead, I just shove ineffectually at all of them simultaneously. There are so many mountains to move.

A photo from the family vacation in Cornwall when I was in 6th grade. The scan is more grainy than the photo, but I still love this shot.

Digitized Photos

I recently sent my old negatives to Scancafe to have them digitized. They just came back, and now I have access to all of the photos I have taken (minus a few b&w rolls that were part of high school photo class and yearbook class). The photos stretch from my 110 camera back in 1982(?) until I transitioned to getting my negatives returned with a cd of the images. The cds are not as good quality scans, but they'll do.

As I began to explore these images, all 4 dvds of them, I happened upon this photo of the spiral stair within The Monument in London. This column commemorates the Great Fire of London. Clearly this photo shows my fascination with things helical, so I ported it to my store and stuck it on several items to see how it would look.

Two Facets

Last weekend and this one upcoming, my newly formed reading response group met, and the participants shared writing. I loved being able to get back into my story and have revisions to make.

Today, my Redsox/Cards tickets arrived in the mail. Wow! Another kind of excitement.

Cards Tix!

Red Sox tickets went on sale Saturday. I was at a conference and drove back to town that day. I forgot that it was the day to buy tickets until a party-goer downstairs reminded me. I quickly went up stairs only to be greeted by the interminable window of too busy. I finally got through that and then had to deal with the interminable too busy Red Sox window. Eventually I ended up with pairs of tickets for two games and a single for the other. I will see the Cards when they come to Boston. I'll be wearing the right color...

facebook

found facebook. Nuff said.

Lots of changes at work.

Lots of work at work.

Bees are lazy cads today!

Usually I get a few things done each day and am happy, but today I am outpacing the bees. I have oiled hinges, replaced light diffusers, put down non-slip material under bath mats, run around town shopping for things to do chores with, got new parking tags for both my car and Reena's as well as putting them in, changed my voter registration address, and the list goes on. Buzz Buzz.

Recently I posted much stuff on Craig's list. Reena and I had culled this stuff from the rest for getting rid of before the move, but it came with us and sat in a room. More than half of it has already been picked up. I am ready to give anyone who shows as much of it as they want to carry off. Yay Craig's List.

The last push to organize the basement storage/work room and get stuff down there from the dining room where it has been hulking in the shadows will happen in the next few days. I will also be writing student recommendations for next schools, doing curriculum, and some of my own art. Plenty of feet up and watching movies, too.

So here I am, a year older, perhaps wiser, perhaps more foolish, and looking at fatherhood.

Oh, I posted house pictures on the other website. Very messy, but I hadn't gotten around to it, so there they are.

calendars ready

I finally got around to refreshing my calendars on Cafepress. Click on them to see the new pages.

Susan Cooper

I just returned from a round table with Susan Cooper and Gregory Maguire. While I have not read any of Maguire's books, I was teethed on Cooper's Dark is Rising series. She was an articulate and wonderful speaker. Maguire tended to dominate the discussions, but there was plenty of Cooper's voice as well.

My soul is filled once more.

First Computer

When I started teaching, I purchased a computer and printer. These stayed with me for a long time--the printer until just a few years ago. The computer was one of those old Compaq all-in-one models. Gary Garber, with whom I was living at the time, supplied the credit card as I had none.

The good and the bad

It finally came. Through much hoop jumping and frustration I was able to finally acquire my Massachusetts teaching license. Attached to it is a statement:

Congratulations on completing the
requirements for licensure.

You have worked diligently toward
this goal and should be proud of
your accomplishment.

It is people like you who help to
enhance the quality of education
in the Commonwealth. I wish you
the best in your future endeavors.

I nicely personal message printed on every license. Funny thing is that all of my diligent work for this license had nothing to do with my ability as a teacher. I studied for and took three exams, I collected letters from colleges and universities documenting my coursework, and I did other paper shuffling. Anyway, I have the document in hand that lets me be the supervising teacher for student teachers and, should I need to, teach in a public school. I have no intention of moving schools, but this gives me options.

That was the good news. On the bad, and temporary front, I have come down with the season's first cold--a nasty sore throat followed by prodigious phlegm. I took a day off on Thursday and a half day on Friday. Friday was our grandparents and special friends day, so I felt obligated to be at school, but I high tailed it out of there soon after the associated assembly (actually in the middle of the assembly).

Blue Fractal

This is a slightly changed version of the image. Can you see the difference?

new fractal

Etching and The Beginning of the School Year

The year has begun. I have a new co-teacher, a student teacher, and much new curriculum. Thus, I have been pretty absent from this blog. I thought I'd share a project I just finished with my class. We did some glass etching which will lead to both a unit on soil, air, and water quality and to a unit on algebra. Here is a picture of the student teacher's water bottle that she etched.

One Heck of a Morning

This morning started early with the new bed delivery. Yes, they said 7:00 to 11:00, and guess which end of that bracket they arrived. At least this time it fit up the stairs. The guys who delivered were nicer than the last set. Then, I called a guy who I was going to buy a drafting table from off of Craig's List. I set up a time to meet him at his storage locker and went about trying to print directions. I knew I had to put new toner in the machine, and it took a while to figure that one out as I had never done it before. The printer refused to print. New toner was not the only problem. Now, after noon has passed, I have finally troubleshot that issue, but at the time, it ate up my time until I just wrote down the directions knowing I would be a bit late after stopping at a bank to get some cash. Ooops, the ATM spat my card out informing me that it was expired. Sure enough, I hadn't gotten around to sending in my new address, and the replacement card had been sent to the old apartment. Things like that do not get forwarded. Now I was really late, so I called up, apologized and rerouted my trip to pass by home to pick up the change of address form that Reena and I had filled out and to swing by a bank to turn it in and get cash. Fortified with cash, I set off. Yup, I don't know good routes yet in the Boston metro area, and I was stuck in traffic quite a few times. I finally got there an hour and a half late, although I had kept the seller appraised of my lateness. It worked out for him in the end as he had some shopping to do in the area. I like the table (it is still in my car right now), and stopping for my new glasses and eggs on the way home put me back after midday. That was a 9:30-12:00 trip just for a table! Much has been accomplished, but I feel that it was reactive instead of proactive.

Here's hoping the rest of the day is of a different nature.

Intentional??

Here is an alcohol ad next to a "Live outside the bottle" ad.

Old Friends and Boxes

I am just arrived back home from my Midwestern road trip in which I caught up with several friends I was planning to see and a few that were pleasant surprises.

After packing all of Tuesday (including the entire night), I headed from Cambridge around 12:30 in the afternoon toward Bloomington, Indianan. It was wonderful. After a night on the road, I pulled into Bloomington in the early evening, set up my tent, joined the community for dinner, and then danced until 1:00 A.M. It was during the evening that I reconnected with Rose who used to live in Bloomington. What a sweet surprise.

A day of hunting fossils and food with some naps thrown in for good measure followed, and Saturday night was another dance. I danced late and stayed up later talking with friends. 3:00 A.M. finally saw the curtain close for me, and Sunday morning was the time to drive up to Chicago. There, I got a chance to catch up with Sarah who I have know almost all my life. Monday afternoon, I picked up Jay from the airport, and we took the train to Wrigley for a Cards/Cubs game. Cards won!

We left at the rain delay and headed to St. Louis. I stayed at my folks house in the blazing St. Louis summer heat. Downstairs is air conditioned. Upstairs reminds me of what it was like growing up in St. Louis without air conditioning. My folks and I finally sat down to look at wedding pics over a year later. All good things happen in time. That evening, Jay and I went to a Cards/Marlins game and another Cards win.

The next day, Jay and I explored the world of adwords, Google's search ads. I even went as far as to set up an account. If you read this, don't search my artwork and click through. It'll cost me each time. So far, quite a few people have clicked through to see my site. What fun.

Jay headed back to San Fran, and my dad and I went to the ballgame. Yup three games in three days, and each one was a win for the cards.

I left early the next morning to drive back to the East Coast. Thursday got me as far as Syracuse, and then Friday I pulled in to Cape Cod to catch up with Robin, a very close friend in college who I had not seen in a long time. It was a wonderful day of walking, talking and seeing the cape for the first time.

The next morning it was back to the new house and setting up wireless. Next project is setting up my desktop so I can download pictures to illustrate this story.

Sunrise in New Hampshire

I awoke after having a hard time sleeping this morning. I caught a glimpse of sunrise about to happen, so I got my camera and gorillapod and went out to catch the event. This is from Wendy's family's cabin in New Hampshire. It is on a lake. This morning, well after sunrise, we went to the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen Fair. Beautiful craft items. I especially was into the wood, quilts, and stained glass this year.

And the Packing Begins!

Friday comes and it is a day of rest. Nope. The rush has begun.
My to do list:

• Packing
• Design next year's curriculum
• Finish up BWP things (extract stuff from e-anthology, write response paper)
• Prepare for road trip
• Work with my new teaching parnter
• Look at the two pages of to do list that I created at the beginning of the summer and have not reviewed since.

Yup, there are some heavy hitters on this list. I have started packing in a very random and non-effective way, but it is the only way I have been able to tackle this daunting task. I am sure I will give happier news midweek next week.

new fractal after re rendering

This fractal took a bit of doing. After rendering fractals and finding they were too small for the poster size at Cafepress, I decided to up the resolution, and it took two days to render the image. Unfortunately, in those two days something happened, so the image was useless. I rerendered it, and it worked. This is a very low res version of that image that will be put on my cafepress store.

Shakespeare

Last night I went to see the Shakespeare on the Common--an entertaining version of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Standout performances by Bottom and Helena carried the show. Puck was passable, and the techno colors and music added a fun twist.

I remember going to one St. Louis Shakespeare Festival performance. I don't remember which. I loved the pre-performance entertainment.

It is amazing how well the material still plays.