The Power of Ten

I blog-napped this game from another blog...feel free to play by email or comments- I tag anyone with a name beginning with J!

Ten Years Ago
I was living in a 550 square foot efficiency apt. in South Miami, Florida and teaching first grade in Homestead, FL.

Ten Months Ago
I was remodeling the floors in my new house (we moved in a year ago now!) and enjoying summer vacation .

Ten Weeks Ago
I was waiting excitedly for K. to arrive for a spring break visit!

Ten Days Ago
I was working late scoring writing samples with my kinder team (till 7:30 pm!)

Ten Hours Ago
I was assessing my K's for the last report card.

Ten Minutes Ago
I was blogsurfing on the couch while D. ate wings and watched basketball playoffs. (um still doing that)

Ten Minutes from now
I will still be blogsurfing while wrapped in the afghan K. gave us for our wedding.

Ten Hours from now
I will be sleeping blissfully

Ten Days from now
I will be filling beach buckets with books, flashcards, pencils and goodies for my kinder's goodbye gifts. :(

Ten Weeks from now
I will be setting up my classroom for next year (We will either have 20 kids and share a room with another teacher or each have 30 kids.)

Ten months from now
I will hopefully be pregnant!

Ten years from now
I will be a busy mom!

Rhythm

photo by boho girl
I feel like I'm getting my rhythm back. I come from and surround myself with musicians, I took violin and piano lessons as a young child, yet I haven't played an instrument since my ten years as a percussionist beginning in 5th grade and ending with a bongo class in college. My father is a gifted keyboardist as is my husband. I have toyed with the idea of learning electric violin or electric bass in the past few years, but this photo by boho girl has inspired me to find the joy of rhythm again. I just love it.

the bowl

Tuesday night was my third experience at The Hollywood Bowl. I drove down to D's office as soon as our staff meeting ended at 5 pm. The weather was sunny and clear; it was actually fun to drive on the highway as there wasn't much traffic (could it be due to $4.19 gas this week?) Ha. Then we drove into LA and parked near Hollywood and Highland. That is the new-ish complex with the Kodak theater (think red carpets) and walked down a stretch of Hollywood Blvd. to eat at a sushi joint with long curving hot bars (each seat has a built in cookpot, just in case you change you mind and want your sushi cooked.) No, just kidding. We had views of the downtown skyline as we ate. We shared tons of edamame and three rolls, then walked up the hill to the bowl, stopping en route at one of the three starbucks we passed for a cappucino topped with cinnamon. (It was going to be a chilly night, after all.)
Throngs of people were making their way up the hill on foot, since parking near the bowl can run up to $40 (for non-stacked spots) Most spots near the bowl lock you in until the person behind or in front of you leaves. The bowl is a huge, outdoor amphitheatre. I'm not sure the total capacity, but Sting kept saying there were 18,000 in the audience last night. We found our "bleacher style" bench seating as Elvis Costello was opening the show. Can I just say...Sting rocks. So does Stuart Copeland. I found myself drumming along with my empty starbucks cup as a makeshift bongo. He made me want a roomful of percussion instruments. They broadcast on several video screens since the actual people on the stage look like ants, but we did not lack for visual entertainment up in our section. One lady was dancing in the aisle with some HIGH ENERGY. That's all I can say about that. And two other ladies were having issues with the gentleman at the end of their row. I can only infer that it was due to them not fitting comfortably on the bench. I can only say it was not because of him that they couldn't both sit down. One ended up standing the whole time, with several raucous interludes with event staff from time to time. Every song was a dream...we got home about 11:30 pm. A fun LA night. It's kinda fun living close to the glitz of Hollywood.

Indy

Well, we certainly made up for not going to the movies in months this weekend. After seeing Ironman Friday night, we went with N and A to see Indiana Jones yesterday afternoon. At dinner after, D. spotted a kid outside wearing Mr. Jones' hat, and when I took a look, I realized it was my own student; an Indiana Jones enthusiast who has been waiting for this May release at least since the holidays! Ha! how cute! I've spent entirely too much time blog-surfing this weekend. One fun result was finding pyzam.com, which has a ton of free templates for blogger. Finally got a look I like. (If you've noticed, this blog has morphed a lot in the past few months.) Lu and D. are enjoying the day off by sleeping in, and I am enjoying a sesame bagel.

wacky weather/ironman

Last Saturday was over 100 degrees; today is chilly and rainy after a week of heat, wild winds, (causing tornadoes, hailstorms, and snow in some local parts), and now rain. weird!

Went to see Ironman at the local cinema last night; an event in itself since we rarely go to the movies anymore. Robert Downey Jr. was entertaining to watch. My favorite part wasn't the action, but rather witnessing the life he had created for himself and how he went about making the shift.

List for today:

catch up on netflix movies
finish reading for my LAST class!
study italian online with rosetta stone
work on manuscript
declutter!

Happy Saturday to all...

a month of mileage

week 1 - 60 miles
week 2- 99.9 miles
week 3- 55 miles
week 4- 12.7 miles

Next, I'll calculate the gas expenditures.

Bike to Work Day

*photo credit Metro LA bike to work website
So today was the 14th annual Bike to Work day for LA county. In preparation, I biked on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, despite waking up with a sore throat on Wednesday. Though I haven't been sick since September ( a personal wellness record for a school year) I was in full cold mode by Thursday morning, and did NOT feel like riding. I had made the commitment and pledged to participate, though, and as my school's spokesperson I needed to follow through. So, sniffling and achy, I dragged myself into the shower at 6:50 am and finally rolled out of the garage about 7:20. I happened upon a city-sponsored pit stop on the paseos by Newhall Ave and stocked up on sunscreen, reflectors, clif bars and patch kits for other cyclists at my site. They even had bike to work day post-it notes! As I was riding off, the attendant mentioned that my seat was too low. Huh! Who knew?
Once at school, I decided to create a thinking map with my kindergartners to record the reasons they thought riding a bike to work instead of a car was a great idea. Here is what they came up with:

1. Makes you feel happy
2.Saves the polar bears (when we took a walking field trip in Feb.,we had discussed how walking and biking help prevent global warming)
3.costs less money because you don't have to buy gas (yes, a five year old came up with that)
4.Makes your muscles grow
5.No traffic jams (teacher's input)
6.Not as hot as inside the car
7.you get exercise
8.Riding a bike is easy
9.It's fun!

I agree!

After school, I enjoyed riding over to the school district office to drop off some paperwork, and then riding on to my evening class. The class released at 8 pm, and the 100 degree day had cooled a bit into an 80 degree evening, just before dusk. It was a lovely, moon-lit ride back home. I saw two of my students while biking home, and it felt good to be a role model for them. Add that to the list above! As a school, we had less than a dozen participants this year, but we'll hit that dozen mark next year, I am sure! In between, I hope to log at least 100 miles between now and next year riding to school (that's only about 20 days of riding at five miles roundtrip) so it should be an easy enough goal to surpass. This week= 15 miles.

Weather

Yesterday was about 58 and chilly-coldish
Today was 83 and warm/windy
Totally different days, and I enjoyed BOTH!
Call me a Californian!

Happy 100th Mother's Day

to each and everyone who has ever mothered another...
love truly is what makes the world go round!

Our weekend...

Happy Anniversary to...

my mom and dad, celebrating 37 years of marriage today! Enjoy~
the fun is about to begin! After nearly four decades of parenting and working
for a living, full retirement is here for both of them! Wishing them many adventures
(and more visits to the west coast!) in the coming years> I love you!

new color possibities for guest room #3

After tossing apple green and shades of blue around for a year, I suddenly came upon the perfect color for our third bedroom while driving to work today: lavender!
D. loves gray and I love purple...plus lavender goes great with chocolate brown coffee- I mean carpet. Here are some of the possibilities: (first one is a bit too dark/purply i think)

This week's menu

Sunday evening I baked "whole"made banana walnut muffins with my trusty 75th anniversary edition Joy of Cooking.
We topped them with D's from scratch whipped cream and they were a delight for dessert. They also served as great breakfasts for us (minus the whipped cream) on Monday AND Tuesday.

Monday dinner was a vegetarian's delight:
grilled eggplant rounds with yogurt doctored up with yummy spices and Indian influenced tomatoes and onions. With a side of flatbread and sliced fresh cucumbers we each ate two full plates. (Eating at 7:30 pm after some 5 pm dental work made me extra hungry!) Courtesy of chef D.

Tuesday dinner I made bbq tofu, jasmine rice and reworked yesterdays' tomato and onion mix with some tofu, spinach and chick peas. Also added the cucumber slices and more flatbread. Another veg delight. We're not trying to go veg (in fact Sunday's dinner was DELISHus! Savory pork roast with rice and spinach.) but it's nice that we often end up eating that way.

Yum!

Bloom

A Walk Through my garden...

Nasturtium- we planted about a month ago. Edible orange hummingbird friendly flowers (with a peppery bite) will bloom soon!

a succulent I bought in Silver Lake when we still lived in Los Feliz, next to Robyn's Rabbit


mint from my friend Peggy; can't wait to try some fresh mint tea!


my great-grandmother's lilac bush is growing!

our camellia from Tico Joe; needed more shade and is doing fantastic potted on the front porch. The leaves are now coming in deep green and glistening. We learned all about camellias on our trip to Descanso Gardens in April.

Teacher Appreciation Week

Monday-Each child made a homemade card and I was presented with a box of cards!
Tuesday- Each child brought a flower and the room mother made me a bouquet in a gorgeous vase (actually 4 vases!)
Wednesday-Each child brought a snack from my "favorite snacks list" (coffee and chocolate) and they gave me a very full snack basket!
Thursday-Each child brought a piece a fruit and I got a gorgeous fruit basket with mangoes, bananas, apples, berries etc.
Friday-?

In addition to all this spoiling, the PTA provided morning goodies in the lounge each day:
M-"better than Starbucks" coffee/muffin bar
T-more treats
W-chocolate fountain with dippers
Th-popcorn in red/white striped movie bags

PLUS they gave us little gifties in our mailbox every day-candles, granola bars, etc!

wow! pix to come~ happy friday

3 years!

Today is my three year blogiversary! whoa! I've 'dropped the blogging ball' this Spring and plan to resurface more regularly. For year number 4 I would like to set a goal to post 4 times a week. The 'Be Brave' project is going along swimmingly; it has been expanded to include risk-taking (within reason, of course- you do realize who's in charge of this, right?) It is based on Eleanor Roosevelt's quotation:

"What would you do if you knew you could not fail?"

So, I ask you.