Vay-Cay-Shun!

Greetings, one and everyone! We are currently on the road- in Gleneden, OR. I am hogging the resort computer in order to bring you up to speed on my life. (Now, don't you feel special?:-))

Well, we're about done with Day 3 here. Day 1 consisted of kicking back in our room and exploring our immediate environs. Day 2 (yesterday) found us tidepooling, buying a live crab right off the boat, napping, eating said crab, and going to bed. :-) Man, I love vacationing; just taking it easy-peasy and catching up on sleep.

Today, my hubby wanted to go on a hike so we asked the front desk to recommend a good trail and he did- the Cascade Research Trail in a bit of National Forest. It was a moderate uphill for about 3 miles or so in very green Oregon woods. Oregon is. very. green. This is something I really like about OR. We saw a few flowers, heard some birds, found some cool mushrooms and fungus, and a TON of mosses! Green! We also came upon several specimens of scat. Carnivore scat. (How did we know it was carnivore scat? Hey, we know scat.) Turns out, it might have come from a bobcat. I admit to being a bit freaked out, as being attacked in the middle of the Oregon (green) woods was not very appealing, and my husband's claim that the vicious beast would flee if I put up a good fight was less than reassuring.

Anyway, after 3+ hours of hiking we were both ready for lunch, but since we hadn't a clue what was a good place to eat, we pulled in to some seafood place and had fried seafood with potatoes for lunch. It was OK, not bad, but not wonderful. Honey will definitely check the internets for tomorrow's lunch.

Now, we're "home," having bought some veggies at a local organic store and before coming down here I was ensconced in front of the TV watching the Travel Channel and knitting. :-)))) Lurves me some vaycayshun!

Tomorrow's adventures- tidepooling part II and glassblowing!

While I Was Grousing

Well, something amazing happened to me today. You may have noticed (especially since I've told ya' up front) that this hasn't been what I would call a "banner year" for me. But, in spite of all that BS a small flower budded out of it. (I guess it liked the fertilizer??)

This was my learning goal for the day: Get Kids To Know That The Atomic Number Tells Us The Number Of Protons In The Nucleus Of An Atom. Or, Mysteries of the Periodic Table Revealed Part I. (Yes, I actually do announce it as such in class.)


Anyway, after getting the kids to write the above in their notes we broke out the periodic table in the textbook. I passed out mini-white boards, markers, and erasers and made the kids find out "How many protons does gold have?" and "Which element has 98 protons in its nucleus?" and such. **BTW the answers are "79" and "Californium."

Anyway, some of the classes were able to move on to finding out how many neutrons are in the nucleus (in case you forgot, you take the atomic mass and subtract the atomic number).

In the end, most of them agreed it was quite easy using the periodic table to get these numbers and a few even said that the periodic table was a lot less scary than they thought. In fact, they all felt very smart!

And that was the magic: making these kids, kids who hate math and read at the 4th grade level, who don't speak/read English, who want to join gangs, enabling them to do something totally different and "sciencey" and feel smart.

I'm glad it happened in spite of my pissy mood.

So Many Emotions, So Little Time

Sad- I miss my ratties. Recently, I had a dream where I looked in the old cage and found a bunch of baby rats! They were so cute and looked a lot like Janola, Barbara, and Fat Rat! I was looking around for Monkey Rat when a voice told me she died, followed by the smell of death. :-( I woke up feeling very sad and missing my pets very much.

Happy!- About my trip, of course!! Just 3.5 months left, can you believe it?!? We bought our France and Africa (Tanzania) tix and have a room in a Parisian hostel. Gosh, I can't wait to be relaxing in and cuddling with Tim around the world.

Frustrated- Sheesh! With school, of course. The kids can be so infuriating. They've been the most unmotivated bunch I've ever taught. They like having fun, but really don't want to do any thinking and they don't seem to care if they pass or fail.

Stressed for Time- Man, I got some serious knitting to complete before we pack up! I owe a wristwarmer to one of the teachers (I promised to make this about 2 years ago). I have a pair of bunny slippers, mostly completed, for a niece (gotta finish before she's too big for them). I owe another niece a felted skull bag which she wanted for Christmas but didn't tell me soon enough. And, I want to knit all 8 nieces and nephews an Easter treat (a little bunny egg cozy).

Anger- Actually, I'm not really mad at anything. Except the scale. That doesn't seem to want to go down. Only up. Especially when I count everything. Except nuts. Maybe I need to count nuts?

Tired- time for bed.