Back again--Part 2

Classes are over for the summer.  All that's left are finals on Monday, and then I have to turn in the grades, but that shouldn't be too much work.  I suspect I'll get a few e-mails on Monday and Tuesday, after grades are posted, with people wondering about their grades.  I really hope that it is nothing major, that is, I hope I don't have to deal with many upset students.

I've been thinking, too, that this experiment--this blog--is almost over, too.  I started last August, and July is coming up fast.  I'm somewhat in a state of disbelief that this blog has lasted as long as it has.  I have 55 posts so far, which averages a post a week over the entire year.  It's half as much posting as I originally intended, which was 2 posts a week.  I still feel good though.  I've never kept a diary of any sort for so long--I used to always be amazed, absolutely amazed, by those who could keep diaries.  I never had the discipline, or the interest.  Yet, here I am.  

The blog has served its purpose.  I find words coming to me much easier now.  I think teaching helped, too, having to get up in front of people everyday and making sure the thoughts that were in my head came out of my head in coherent sentences.  It's one thing to read.  It's another to craft those words together yourself, and not just take in what another has put together.  

Teaching  has been a good experience.  I do like having the schedule.  I like having a goal each day--this is the lesson plan!  It wrecked my sleep schedule--I would go to bed at 1 am, wake up at 5 am to prep for my 9:30am class, then around 3 o'clock or so, come home, sleep until 7 or 8 pm, wake up and be awake until 1 am....and wake again at 5 am.   It was a strange schedule, but I adapted, and towards the end, felt well rested each day.  It was confusing at first, I must admit.  I'd wake up, and wouldn't be sure if something happened yesterday, or the day before yesterday.  I had been used to marking my days by when I went to sleep, and when I was sleeping twice in one day, it threw that system out of whack.

I think my stomach is also thankful that classes are over.  Towards the end, I thought for a while that I was getting an ulcer.  

People have asked me, what grade would you give yourself?  I think I'd give myself a C.  I was not the most prepared teacher.  I think there might have been things that I explained better.  I think I might have incorporated more activities into classes, made it not be as lecture oriented.  But I went over all the material that I needed to go over.   And my students' exams have averaged around a 76%--right where the average needs to be.  I think I did expand over and above the book a little bit, so that I was not redundant.  And, as far as I know, no went marching over to the dean's office to complain about my teaching.  So, I give myself a C.  We'll see, later, if the teacher evaluations agree with my own assessment.

Besides classes, not much has been going on.  The only thing worth mentioning is that a few weeks ago, after taking my car through the automatic car wash, I was double checking the hood, and I noticed several small rust spots.  They have been repaired, and as always, I had to make it into a project: 1000 grit sandpaper for the rust, primer, touch up paint, 2000 grit sandpaper, polishing compound.  That's five different items I purchased for 4 rust spots, each the size of the tip of a ballpoint pen.  I don't know why I go overboard on everything, and yet, if I don't, I feel like I haven't done enough.  

It took 2 weeks to do everything.  I applied a coat of touch of paint every night for a week.  But before that, of course, each day, I'd go out to my car with a bucket and a sponge, wash off the dirt from the hood, dry it, and then, after that, I'd apply a tiny dot of paint to each spot.  My neighbors, I'm sure, now know me as the girl with OCD about washing the hood of her car.  This is what happens when you live in an apartment complex with no A/C and it seems, a third of the residents having toddlers that like to go outside as the sun sets.  

I now own way too much paint:  paints for the suitcase project, paints for the purse project (6 bottles!), and now, two more paints for my car (paint and primer).  

And finally:  Squirrel!

It's a piebald squirrel.  I usually only see one or two a year.  This was taken with my new camera, handheld, at 17X zoom. 

(Apparently some towns celebrate the fact that they are the home to colonies of white squirrels  or black squirrels )

The penny remains.  

Back again

It's been a month since I last posted.  I'm not sure where to start. So let's go stream of consciousness!

Part 1--Austin

I last wrote shortly before Memorial Day, when I left town to go to Austin to see an old college friend, C., get ordained as a Catholic priest.  On that trip, I brought the purse that I had restored--so that's an entry I need to do, the purse restoration entry.  

Back to the trip to Austin.  I left first thing Friday morning.  I drove about 45 minutes from here, to get to a smaller, but cheaper airport.  I had never been there before, and so I updated my Garmin, and full of hope, drove to the airport.  It wasn't difficult to find at all, and the traffic was almost non-existent.  There was only one airline servicing this airport--Continental--and the waiting area had only enough chairs for about 12 people.  But that was OK--the airplanes that flew out of there only held about 12 people.  

The neat about the airport was that it served both commercial and private flights...so just walking down the hall a few feet from the commercial waiting area, there was a lounge for the private pilots and an office area with maps and a computer for planning a flight path.  On the commercial side of the airport, there was an actual cafe/grill.  Usually in airports of this size, the only things offered to eat are out of vending machines, or perhaps a few premade sandwiches.  But not this place.  The whiteboard in front was offering the "222 special"--2 eggs, 2 slices of bacon, 2 slices of toast for $2.22.  Besides the indoor seating, the cafe actually opened out in the back to a large covered patio area with picnic tables.  There were people sitting out on the patio.  

There were 8 of us on the flight out.  There were 4 TSA agents that checked us in.  Because the waiting area was so small, a conversation started up between one of the passengers--someone who worked for an oil exploration company and was travelling to Houston--and one of the TSA agents, and the whole group got drawn into a conversation about BP and what was going on in the Gulf.  

It was the smallest plane I had ever ridden.  There was no overhead storage space, and only one seat on each side of the aisle.  There was no flight attendant, just the two pilots.  There was no overhead light, either, but the air vent, the light, and the compartment for the oxygen mask, were all built into the side of the plane.  I had been a little nervous about flying in such a small plane, but the flight was not bad at all.

I landed in Cleveland.  I was scheduled to transfer to Houston after a 4 hour layover in Cleveland, but I noticed on the flight monitors that there was another flight for Houston leaving in an hour.  I asked if it was possible for me to fly standby on that flight, and I did indeed get on that flight.  Houston Intercontinental is a nicer place to layover than Cleveland.

On the flight to Houston, they played "When in Rome", starring Kristin Bell.  I didn't want to spend $3.00 on the inflight headphones, so could only see what was going on.  I wandered around the shops--got myself some nice smelling hand lotion from the sample bottles at the L'Occitane en Provence shop, and snacked with a fruit smoothie from the Nestle Tollhouse bakery.  I people watched, ate a cookie, played solitaire on my phone.  The corridors were tall, airy, and bright.  It honestly wasn't a bad way to spend a 4 hour layover.       

The flight from Houston to Austin was unremarkable.  It was around 6pm when I landed in Austin.  Unfortunately, my husband, who was supposed to arrive in Austin around 7pm, has his flight delayed until 9pm.  We had plans to have dinner together at one of the local restaurants.  But I ate at the airport instead.  It turned out alright: the airport had a number of local restaurants represented, and I had Salt Lick BBQ, which had been featured on the Travel Channel.  It was indeed good.

After eating, I found a quiet terminal to curl up and take a nap for a few minutes before my husband arrived.  I was surprised at how cold they kept the airport.  I looked for a sweatshirt, but the ones being sold at the airport were $30.  

We got our rental car.  I found out that my husband thought that I was going to bring my Garmin to help us get around town.  I had not brought it, but we used our iPhones instead.  For some reason, the first time I pulled up directions to the hotel, the map told us to make a left turn off the main highway.  We followed it, realized we were going the wrong way.  I re-entered the address--and this time the iPhone showed that we should have taken a RIGHT off the main highway.  We were on the correct road--just on the wrong side of it.    It was easy to correct--just a U-turn and a few minutes, and we were at our hotel.  Besides that, all other directions provided by our iPhone in Austin turned out to be accurate.  My husband would drive, I would hold the phone and read the map out loud.

Breakfast the next day was at Cafe Java, not far from our hotel.  I would recommend it.  It was clean, service was fast and friendly, and prices were average.  Then, it was to the ordination.  The church was packed--even though we arrived almost an hour early.  We were able to find a seats in the last row on the side of the church.  I then practiced taking photos with my new camera.  

The ordination ceremony started at 10:30 and took 2.5 hours.  I got lots of good pictures--well, good considering that they were taken from the very last row of a large church.  I was happy though, and the camera purchase was definitely worth it.  

After the ordination ceremony, I met up with my college friends.  One of my friends had brought along her neighbor and co-worker, Rebecca.  Rebecca knew me--my friend had told her that I was "the one with the most sense, but also the only one who almost burned down the apartment."  ::sigh:: Those were the good old days!  

Rebecca had gone to the University of Texas, and was therefore familiar with Austin.  I suggested we go to lunch at The Magnolia, another famous Austin restaurant.  Our whole group went-Rebecca knew how to get there, but my husband and I used iPhone directions--this time with full success!  There was lots of eating and talking.  Afterwards, the rest of the group returned to the church to attend C's first mass.  My husband and I went to the movies, instead.  We saw "Babies."  We then stopped at Target, where I bought a hoodie for the flight back and we picked up food for dinner.

I wonder if I'm becoming a food tourist.  

The next morning, I got on a flight back to University Town.  The hoodie kept me comfortably warm on the plane.  On the flight from Austin to Houston, they were handing out free inflight headsets.  I was happy--I got two pairs.  I would be able to watch in the in-flight movie from Houston to Cleveland.  Except, that this time, the plane from Houston to Cleveland didn't have TV screens.  Foiled!   However, for any other long flights in the future, I have spare headsets.  I will remember to bring a one next time.  

End Part 1  (The penny remains)

One week down...

I hadn't realized that it had been two weeks since I last posted! 

My one "off" week went pretty well.  I did prep work for class, but didn't feel quite prepared.  I'm teaching a 6-week class this summer.

Last week was my first week of teaching.  It was mixed.  I thought I had prepared enough material for three days of class.  Instead, I lectured all the way through Monday AND Tuesday's class material on Monday.  Monday night, I expanded what I had originally planned on being Wednesday's material, and taught that Tuesday.  It went very well, and I was very happy.  However, I was now out of class material.  I threw together a slide set for Wednesday.  It was a disaster.  The lecture not only was short (the class periods are 75 minutes, and I only taught for 50 minutes), but I found myself reading the slides off the screen!  It was the great faux pas of presenting:  never just read the slides!  Thursday, I redeemed myself slightly--the class was 60 minutes, and I was back to presenting, rather than reading.

My sleep schedule was wonky, too.  I would go to bed at midnight, wake up at 4 am to prepare for my 9:30 am class.  Then, in the afternoon, around 3 o'clock or so, I would go home and nap for 4 hours, wake up, continue preparing for class until around midnight....rinse, repeat.  I lost all sense of normal time.  I would wake up from my mid-day nap panicked, thinking I had slept through my class.  Things that happened earlier on the on the same day, I believed had happened the day before.  

And yet, it was a good week.  I had burned a penny-sized hole in my carpet (a story for another time).  I went to Lowe's, looking for a carpet sample so I could cut a plug out of the sample and patch my carpet.  Lowe's didn't have sample sections of carpet there, but they called the manufacturer, and had them sent me a carpet square directly--at no cost to me.  I love Lowe's. 

For carrying lunch, I bought a food storage container from the Rubbermaid "Premier" line.  As someone who had been using the disposable Ziplock food containers, the Rubbermaid was a revelation.  It was actually sturdy, and the plastic was glasslike in how clear it was.  I used it for carrying black bean soup (yes, the same soup I wrote about in my last post).    

I finished up my leather project!  Expect photos of the purse revitalization project in the near future. 

For school, I bought new shoes, and for my upcoming summer trips, I bought a new camera.  It's a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35.  To go with the new camera, I took out a book from the library: Photography: The art of composition by Bert Krages.  

I still plan on using my current pocket-sized camera for most of my shooting, simply because it is much easier to carry.  Plus, I'm never been much of a technical person when it came to photography.  I guess I've always seen it as an art, and not a science.  An interesting point made by the book--I've read the first two chapters--is that artists don't spend alot of time arguing about tools, their pencils and brushes, but it is not uncommon for photographers to spend countless hours arguing about which camera is best.  At some point I really do need to get into the whole technical side of the art--but right now, I'd like to figure out the art side fo the art.  I have to be able to see first, right? before I start trying to get a machine to copy what I see. 

The exercises in the book are supposed to teach one how to see objects as points, lines, and shapes, and is based on theory from Betty Edwards book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain".  The first exercise in Krages' book:  photographing still points: Rocks.  This means that in the next few weeks, expect to see photos of rocks on this blog.  (The section of photographing points ends with points in motion: birds in flight, and moving balls in a sports game.  I then graduate to the section of photographing lines, starting with still lines: Forks!  Rocks and forks, I can't wait!)  But I guess that's the point (ha, ha) of having a person photograph common objects--it forces a person to see things they normally overlook. 

Anyway, one week down for teaching.  Five more weeks to go.  This will be a short teaching week for me, since on Thursday there is an exam. 

Happy Pentecost!        

The penny remains.

Summer starts

Last week was the last week of the semester.  I turned in my last paper on Monday, and then I mostly took the rest of the week off.  I got a haircut, watched "How to Train Your Dragon" (my first current generation 3D movie), and did heaps of laundry, as I put away all my winter clothes and took out the spring wardrobe.

Of course, last week, it was sunny, with temperatures in the high 70's, low 80's.  Today, it's dark and rainy, and in the 40's.  I had to turn the heat on, again, and I'm dressed in layers.

I had high hopes going to see "How to Train Your Dragon."  I had spoken with several people, and read reviews, all with positive things to say, and who said that the 3D was well worth it.  I enjoyed the movie--it was a cute, feel-good, kids movie.  However, the 3D did not agree with me--I found it uncomfortable to view, and in the end, I had a mild headache.  I was a bit surprised, as I had thought that this new generation of 3D had fixed the problem of nausea and headaches that the old generation red-and-blue-glasses type of 3D had been known to cause.  It might have been due to the type of 3D--I believe the type used in my showing was XpandD, and not the polarized RealD glasses.  I do know that when I put the glasses on before the start of the show and was looking around the theater, I noticed that it made it look like the sconces were flickering.

I hadn't cooked in a long time.  On Friday I made a chicken pot pie, and a black bean soup.  The soup was black beans, diced onions, and chopped tomatoes and potatoes, with a chicken broth base.  I had completely forgotten how fun cooking could be.

Once again, it was based off a Dean Ornish recipe.  Next time, I will add corn.

The end of semesters are always times when I feel open to possibilities.  For the summer, I'm thinking of working on my photography more seriously.  I think I'm going to get a book on composition from the library, and see if I can't photograph along with the chapters of the book.  And maybe...start posting twice a week again.

I'll be teaching my first class the first summer session.  Next week will be spent preparing.  And then I start the week after that.  I hope all goes well.

The penny remains.

Rainy season

It's begun to rain in Universtiy Town. Summer is close. I remember when I first came to University Town, it was late summer, and every time I needed to go out, it was raining. It was for the summers that I purchased a pair of "Aqua socks" type shoes for walking to school.

I apologize for not posting last week. I was working on a report. This week is not looking much better...it's the last week of school. I've got two reports and two presentations due this week.

Around April 9th or so, I started working on the cleaning and retouching of my handbag. I've got it cleaned with the Leatherique, and now I'm working on recoloring the discolored spots--I purchased Tarrago shoe polish in "Pastel Blue." I never realized they sold shoe polish in so many colors, but am very happy that they do.

Last week, buffing the polish into my handbag was something of stress relief. If I needed a few minutes break, I took a microfiber cloth, and just buffed. The shoe polish smelled very much like a strong hand cream, not like traditional shoe polish.

I'm still trying to get the color in some of the spots just right. I purchased a stamping ink--Colorbox pigment dye--from Michael's, and now I'm trying to find Memories brand dye ink. I've been taking pictures. I plan to put up the entire process in one post when I'm done. I'm happy the way things are turning out, and I'm happy that it's something of a long process--it gives me a little something to do, something to keep me interested, something to learn. I mean, there is probably an easier and faster way to do what I'm doing, but I like the feeling of accomplishment as I muddle along.

I did find this guide helpful: Restoring Damaged Leather Handbags & Products To Use. The guide recommended a shoe polish brand and a seller--I went to the seller's store, and though I didn't find the brand of shoe polish that was recommended, it was how I found out about the Tarrago brand of polish.

I received a very sweet anniversary card from my husband yesterday.  It's going into my permanent collection.

Other than that, I got a wireless keyboard: the Logitech K350. I'm using it now, with my laptop, and I'm finding it to be lightweight (the keyboard is resting on my lap, while the laptop is on a stand) and the ergonomic "wave" design to be comfortable.

Yesterday, I was making spaghetti, and accidentally knocked the box off the counter. It made a beautiful mess.

I thought it looked structural:

From underneath:

And the same, taken with flash:

The penny remains.

Photo dump: Signs of Spring

By reader request:  photos of springtime in University Town

2010-04-12 Spring

Happy Easter

Happy Easter/Resurrection Sunday!

It's been a good holiday.  Last week I sent out Easter cards, and everyone received them.  I got to talk to all my card recipients, and I was thanked by all of them.  The highlight of the evening was having a nice talk with my parents.

As for earlier this week, I received my anniversary handbag in the mail.  I had gotten it off e-bay, and while it didn't seem so much in the picture, it seems that the bag was either well-loved, or not loved at all.  It was a little disappointing, but also inspiring--I have another project!  I did some research on automotive leather products, and eventually ordered two products by Leatherique--the Rejuvenator Oil and Pristine Clean.  Eventually I hope to post "before/during/after" photos.

I felt a little silly, because the leather cleaning products cost as much as the handbag, more if you count the shipping.  Did I really just double the price of my handbag?  Eventually I came to the conclusion that it's a separate project.  I wouldn't have problems with wearing the new handbag as is.  I've got other handbags that could use a little cleaning.  Plus, I have leather gloves that could use some TLC before I put them away for the summer.

And gloves!  I've taken out my unlined leather gloves for spring.  And now that it's after Easter, I can bring out the white ones and the pastels.  I'll wear them over my freshly cleaned rings.

I've been eating out of boxes, bags, and cans, it seems, for a while.  I started cooking again.  Yesterday, I made a flourless chocolate cake.  The recipe was from the Whole Foods website.  I bought a springform pan specially for the occasion.

I used Hershey's Special Dark chocolate chips, as well as their Special Dark cocoa powder.  I only used 1 cup of sugar, instead of the 1 and 1/4 cup in the recipe.  Also, I partly used liquid egg whites--I had the equivalent of 3 eggs worth of liquid whites in my refrigerator.  I thought I had enough for the entire recipe, but then my carton was empty, and I had to run to the store to buy (regular) eggs to finish the mix.  Luckily, the store had them in stock.  (I have been to a store where the eggs sold out on the evening before Easter.) I guess that's the danger of using liquid eggs.

Here it is 1) right out of the oven, 2) with the glaze on top, and 3) with a slice removed.  And yes, the cake deflated a little when it cooled.

The cake was brownie-like.  It was dense and moist, and the texture was somewhat crumbly in the mouth.  The inside of my refrigerator now smells like chocolate cake.  

The penny remains.