Favorite Books

I've been digging around in my memory to make a list of my favorite books as a kid. I've started to reread one and have found that it holds the test of time. I'm laughing out loud while reading it 25 years after I first read it and caught myself recapping it for a friend last night. How weird is that?!?

The book: Anastasia Krupnik. A 10-year-old smartie who makes lists, writes poetry, and thinks a lot (a.k.a. Becca at 10).

Movie of the Day: Wuthering Heights. Another book I love is Katie John and Heathcliff. She is a tomboy who falls for the fictional character. Can you say "melodrama?"

Archeology of a Yard

The snow is melting, piling up, and then remelting again around town and I've started to notice the "unearthing" or "unsnowing," I guess, of lots of Christmas yard decorations and outdated political signs. There are wisemen, wreaths, John Edwards signs, and garden decorations starting to peek through their frozen prison bars.

A true sign of Spring.

Movie of the Day: National Treasure. You never know what you'll find.

Three Questions

If you had to write the three most important questions you can think of, what would they be?

Carol Burnett

Carol Burnett is one of my favorite actresses. I am so pumped to hear her in Horton Hears a Who! I watched her variety show on cable every day as a kid. I read her biography for a school book report in junior high. I would happily buy the seasons of her show, if I could find them. Just imagine coming home from a long day in the mine (Oops, I mean at school) and popping in an episode of The Carol Burnett Show and decompressing! Doesn't that sound awesome?

Movie of the Day: Horton Hears A Who (I haven't seen it yet, but I will).

Pi

Happy Pi Day, Everyone!

Pi is the ratio between a circle's circumference and it's diameter. So, the distance around it divided by the distance straight through it. The number is irrational, which means we don't know where its decimal places end or repeat (at least we don't know yet, big computers are working on it).

I only have 3.1415962 memorized, but some of my students memorized up to 100 digits in middle school.

One might think that I would buy pie for my classes today, but I think that might be over the top. I did tell them that they could bring in pies if they liked.

Movie of the Day: Pi. It's disturbing, so be forewarned.

Glacier: Kinda

A glacier in Duluth? Huh? The above picture was, indeed, taken in Duluth, MN. Some might think this is normal in the Frozen North, but actually, it's rare. So rare, in fact, that it's human-made. Yes, I felt dooped. I thought maybe something amazing had happened, but it was just someone with a hose. Nonetheless, it is beautiful, cold, crackly, and an amazing shade of blue. If you are in town, check it out.

Movie of the Day: Ice Age 2: The Meltdown. This might melt too. Eventually.

What's On My Computer

For years, I had one picture on the background of my computer. One. Ever After's Dougray Scott and Drew Barrymore. It was in color (not like below) and was a bit bigger, centered in the middle. Now, I like to switch things up every so often. I'll pick pictures I've taken like the ones below. Or, I will put up pictures of friends or relatives. To protect the people stuck being near and dear to me, I'll leave those off. All of them are clean; well sometimes T. has booggers, but otherwise, clean, clean, clean. Once in a while, I'll like a picture enough to even put it on there in spite of me being in the picture. It's weird to go to your computer and find your own face looking back.

This picture below was on my school computer's background for eons. Now, I have a stormy picture of the Boundary Waters. Sometimes, I think it's too gloomy. It might be time to switch things up again.
Movie of the Day: Ever After. If I can look at that picture every day for years, it's definitely worth watching the movie.

Soul-Laughter, Please.

Sometimes, I feel like I'm just grazing the surface of my life. I wake up. Drive to work. Teach. Drive home. Wander my lamp-lit house, waiting for Spring. Sleep. Wake. Drive to work. Teach. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Until the weekend when I can goof off a bit. Then, it starts again.

I want to be present, but sometimes I wonder if my grazing is self-protection. When I do dig deeper, especially at work, it hurts. I dig up old wounds or find out new, shocking things about my students that send me out wondering how on Earth I think I can make a difference. Twice in the past month, students have said things that have left me speechless.

Movie of the Day: Martian Child. This is a wonderful movie. He made a difference in this kid's life.