End of summer, travels done

And now, here we are in August, having spent a good part of the beginning and end of summer traveling.  Rochester and Maryland in early June, quiet homesitting for the better part of July, then a week-long trip by train (going) and plane (returning) to Austin, a week of homesitting after, then a 9-day trip to Ireland at the very beginning of August.  I should have written down more recollections from the earlier trips - Tess, Garveys, Emilia and Errol and Miriam (and a new one on the way), but I'm fresh back from Ireland with a lot of very happy and recent memories, intellectual, cultural and sensory still freshly rubbed into my consciousness, so I'll have most to say about that.  But hey, Ireland.

Visiting Rochester was great - I'd really never been there before - my Uncle Tom's house was in Pittsfield, a wealthy (now, anyway) country club type suburb of the city, so I had no sense of Rochester per se.  It was pretty great - a nice blend of a prosperous, intelligent-seeming city center, with good museums and cultural events, and a healthy young person environment, hipster evident but not obnoxiously so.  Tess took us to many things, especially the Greek festival at the church (where we had an excellent tour of the church with an excellent explanation of aspects of the iconography and ritual done by a sincere, unapologetic believer - this makes a big difference in the presentation. Excellent visit to a children's museum concentrating on play and games.  We took a trip to Letchworth State Park, a beautiful  place along the Genesee River, and got in some good walking.  We met Mo, who seems very nice, kind and intelligent, and very fond of Tess.  She's thriving there, good friends, lots to do; I'm sure she'll miss the place when/if she leaves.

We then drove down to Maryland with Tess, stopping overnight in Frederick to visit with Stephen, Gina and Maggie - they're doing well, and it's always good to be with them without everybody else around.  In fact, I learned pretty conclusively that that's the best way to spend time with all of the individuals in my family - I can give much more attention to them in their own environment and appreciate them for who they are when we're not all trying to be a part of a group.  I'll have to try to find a way to work this out in the future, or at least plan on how to deal with it.  We stayed with Maura and Don after this (Don's doing very well, after months and months of recovery), and that was great too.  Spent some time with Dad, and basically let him talk about things (which he's great at) and tried not to talk too much - too frustrating for everybody.  Got him to connect to Hulu for the Criterion films, which he's clearly taking great advantage of, so that's good. And, we had a very nice evening with Peter, Laurie and Michael and his wife; this visit, more than any other, convinced me that we all do best one on one, since there was great conversation, no internal comparisons or anything, and it was clear that we have lots in common, where that's not always been evident in previous family gatherings.  All his other kids are off elsewhere, doing their own things (as are all the kids, actually), but Michael is currently back home living with them - his life is still very tricky, I think.  Poor kid.

Then we split up with Tess, who drove the rental back, and flew back to Illinois, where I began a pretty quiet month.  I learned to play Minecraft (woohoo) and gradually wasted a bit too much time doing that, but I worked around the yard too, and got in lots of walking.  It was the quiet time for the summer, without question.

This year, rather than driving, I took the train to Austin, while Barb went to a conference in Cincinnati.  The ride was pretty good, although much longer than it should have been, but train travel is always pretty easy overall.  It was predictably hot in Austin, but not as bad as I remembered from last year (mostly because it was very dry - no humidity to speak of at all, but they were in a drought, which is not a great thing.)  We had a lovely time - Emilia didn't feel as driven to take me places this time, which was fine; Miriam is growing beautifully, and being around a 14 month old is very satisfying.  No talking yet, or not much, but she had just learned to walk and was busy trying that out in creative ways.  She's a very good-natured baby, didn't fuss much, slept well and ate voraciously.  When Barb flew out, we kept on the same way, but then let Emilia and Errol go off for an anniversary overnight date, and then drove down to Houston for an overnight as well.  We met up with Amy in her new church, had a good creole dinner, and a good visit to the Houston Art Museum, which was lovely.  Then we flew back, but got stuck in Detroit due to a very tight missed connection.  It was late, no possibility for a replacement flight until late the next day, so we rented a car and Barb drove the 5 hour trip to Bloomington (with a surprise guest, a young Indian man), getting in about 4 in the morning.  And then Barb went to work the next day.  And I slept.

Finally, our trip to Ireland.  It couldn't have gone better.  But that's all I had to say about that, apparently.

7 mai, 2015

It's been several days, but I'm ok with that; my initial obsession  interest should sound familiar to me, who knows me.  Something takes total control of my interest, and is really, really important for a while, but then it palls.  But that's not what I want this to be, neither obsessive nor abandoned.  It should be a repository when things build up that I want to remember or chew over. So let's get comfortable with each other, journal and I, ok?

Here's a thing I've been thinking about the last several days.  There are tons of clickbait things where old people are reminded of all the things that were commonplaces for us that these kids today have no idea about.  That's fine, as far as it goes, and if nothing else, it reminds us how much technology has been a factor throughout our lifetimes, which has its good (mostly, for me, ready access to information whenever I want it) and bad (capitalism in full flower, cough cough) sides, but what I started to mull over was, what are the things that these kids today have grown up with and take entirely for granted, as truths and not choices, which we either have come to acknowledge as maybe true, maybe not, and accept or not.

The day ended, surprisingly, with Barb's diligent efforts to get me behind a tiller and into the garden.  It took about three hours (plus a bit), but I got the whole thing tilled, and she also bought plants, which we got in just as the sun was really going away, viz: 4 romas, 1 mortgage buster (and one beefsteak that Gloria had extra) and an orange tomato called Old German.  Also, four bell peppers, four chili peppers, four brussels sprouts, four collards, four red cabbages, and two rows of beans (two types).  Also, a new tarragon plant (which I hope takes, adding to the thyme and oregano I already have thriving out there) and cilantro.  Not bad for going so late.  Here's how it looked before the planting:

I'll have to skip potatoes this year, because it's so late, and wait for the fall planting for cooler weather crops.  But I can still get in more brassicas, okra (which I should work on really using this year) and zucchini, cucumber, and probably another squash, just to try.  And onions, garlic and shallots, of course.

Goodness, it's been a while.  End of the school year, coupled with taking off for Rochester, then Maryland, then the first real week of down-time vacation, made me pretty lax at sitting down to anything like thoughtful composition.  I've been on the computer a lot, of course, but mostly looking at what other people are doing in their lives, posting little snippets of our travels and visits, and doing crosswords.  I'm trying to balance feeling like I should be doing work around the house, figuring out what to do, then avoiding as much as possible.  Although, when I do something, I realize it wasn't that big a deal to begin with, and wonder what took so long.

I don't know what I've learned, recently, since that is the point of this blog.  I have been putting a lot more things on Pinterest, with the hope that I'll remember to look for them there later when I want them.  It's been interesting.

1 mai, 2015

In which: I discover that if the weather's right and the sun is beautiful, le premier mai is a pretty wonderful experience.  Muguets everywhere (except in reality; still too chilly, but ours are in bud, at least).

En ce premier jour de mai

Reçois  ce brin de muguet

Qu'il ensoleille ton cœur

Et qu'il te porte bonheur!

Next thing - I was in Beesley's group with Comp Lit 1, and they were looking at an article on their screens - my first impression that they were working on In Design, and it was one of his jokey articles about the school.  But no....cover story from today's News Gazette.  Oops.  Good future example for careful checking of email distribution lists.  Although no one will ever speak of this again, in all likelihood.

April 29, 2015

Just got a homework assignment emailed from a French 2 student.  I'm beginning to think that having them submit homework digitally, allowing me to make corrections/comments immediately, might be the way to go - I can squeeze a whole lot more correction into a document this way, and if I go the next step and have them correct to submit again, some of them might benefit from the revision.  Have to try this with an assignment or two before the end of the year, maybe?

First lawn-mow of the season yesterday - only did the curbside parts (what do I even call these - easements? They're not berms, shoot - I should have a word for them) since Barb had pointed out pointedly that they were getting pretty shaggy.  The only really grassy grass in the yard is there, so...
Mower started, surprisingly, on the first pull.  Hoorah.  Didn't really mind a bit, but it was disappointing that the new audio book I had just loaded on the phone (Dorothy Sayers' Unnatural Death) had a volume setting too low to hear over the mower.  Listened to WWW instead.  Nothing serious to report from that one.  It's been a long time since I read/listened to a Wimsey novel, and listening to it on the way in to school this morning was a most pleasant reminder of how much I like her prose and Lord Peter's character.

Been considering getting a cordless electric lawnmower (like Mad and Joe have) and so far, this is the one I think I like best:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Ryobi-20-in-40-Volt-Lithium-ion-Brushless-Cordless-Walk-Behind-Electric-Lawn-Mower-Battery-and-Charger-Not-Included-RY40107A/205336359?N=5yc1vZc5arZ1z0ylm1  Need to discuss this with Barb.  Now I just wish (although I haven't, to be fair, looked yet) that I could find a cordless tiller with any power.

Oh, thank you Mallory Ortberg/The Toast.  Basically any day you post something about
Art History I learn something new (and laugh intellectually), and this one is just out of the park (since I learned a tidy little story about Aristotle that I have never ever heard before, but must have been enough of a Renaissance thing that there were pictures and paintings made of it.)
http://the-toast.net/2015/04/29/here-are-some-paintings-of-a-woman-riding-aristotle-like-a-pony/

One of my favorites...




Did a blank map of Europe exercise with the French 2s today, and they were quite involved.  This made me think of another similar thing I could do, which in turn let me learn a thing.  I've casually wondered before how to generate a poster-style print for blowups of smaller images, and a quick search brought me to http://www.blockposters.com/create/ , which allows you to customize documents by size and number of pages to make a blow up.  The map it made for me (four sheets across and four down) will actually also be a puzzle to put up, since they're disassociated sections of the full map.  Then they can tape them up to the board and label the countries (EN FRANCAIS, S'IL VOUS PLAIT!)  Whoo hoo, new stuff.

April 30, 2015

Lynda's Poem in the Pocket today: Christophe Plantin, (1514-1589)

Le Bonheur de ce monde

Avoir une maison commode, propre et belle,
Un jardin tapissé d'espaliers odorans,
Des fruits, d'excellent vin, peu de train, peu d'enfans,
Posseder seul sans bruit une femme fidèle,

N'avoir dettes, amour, ni procès, ni querelle,
Ni de partage à faire avecque ses parens,
Se contenter de peu, n'espérer rien des Grands,
Régler tous ses desseins sur un juste modèle,

Vivre avecque franchise et sans ambition,
S'adonner sans scrupule à la dévotion,
Dompter ses passions, les rendre obéissantes,

Conserver l'esprit libre, et le jugement fort,
Dire son chapelet en cultivant ses entes,
C'est attendre chez soi bien doucement la mort.

Also, Hugo's Demain, des l'aube will be a very useful (and touching) poem to use for introducing the future tense of irregular verbs (aller and etre, anyway). 

April 28, 2015

I'm paying attention to things.  We had a longer than necessary session to complete the applications for transfers yesterday, and more than ever, it seems difficult when upper-class teachers are examining the new student applications under the assumption that, by the time they get them, the difficultly quirky kids will be nice, interesting and tamed.  I guess this school thrives on a core of quirks, though, and I do appreciate the marginalized kids in a different way than I do the successful, privileged ones.  So it's a delicate balance.  I do think it's a valuable service to the school, though, and will continue to help with the committee whenever it's possible.

Heard a good WWW this morning - the origin of the word "mall" as we use it.  I had figured that it came from the London "Pall Mall", but hadn't realized where that in fact came from.  It was apparently given to a particular alleyway (more treelined than nasty, from the description), that was used to play a particular ball game, and the name came from the Italian (hence the unique pronunciation) pallamaglio, ball and mallet, although there is a suggestion that it came via the French for the same or a similar game, paille-maille, for the straw hoops that one sent the ball through.  And then of course it evolved into the notion of a public promenade, then eventually to the idea of a large public gathering place, so the shopping mall.  Good background.  I should go back to smoking them, just so I can casually drop that information whenever there's a lull in the conversation.

Just learned the ways to change the layout, font, background etc. of this blog.  Seems like there is a great deal more possible variety than when I first tried it, years ago now.  Don't know if I'll keep it this way (the font looks a bit like my favorite of the fonts I drew with the font paint application, which is both good and bad), but we'll try it for a while.  It looks different, anyway.

And, note to self: when I noticed the comprehensive test available for French 2 the other day, I didn't check whether there was something similar for French 1.  There is, but it's in the assessment material for Unit 6 - don't forget this one - it's pretty good for a final.

Thanks, as usual, Alex Tarr - he posted something from today's Writer's Almanac, which prompted me to look for it on FB - it's there, so now I will never miss another one.  Good little thing, in its way.   http://writersalmanac.org/ 

Small thing, but the roasted broccoli dish from SK today went very well with the risotto from Aldi.  Plan to do each again, hoping that Aldi still carries the risotto, and that it wasn't just seasonal.