I heart flowers

Elias and His Malady

So imagine my surprise when Elias was playing with Garvin last Tuesday and Bill's father informed me there was a large lump. Like the size of an egg on the skin under his jaw line. Apparently they had been playing and Garvin snagged Elias along the inside of his lower gum creating a puncture wound that went through the main vein in those parts. This promptly had a balloon like effect filling the skin in his lower jaw with dirty blood. We had a drain put in on Saturday but because it is staying in until this coming Saturday I will not be traveling to Short Mountain.

Elias is in good spirits and has enough antibiotics to stop the plague. As you can see the area effected was quite large and it gave me quite a scare but the vet says he is doing fine.

Christmas a bit early

Micheal and I did Christmas on Monday as we both spent the actual holiday with our families. I roasted a chicken and made miscellaneous side dishes. Micheal who is much classier about such things then I am made cute little rice domes and threw together a really tasty pan sauce. We opened presents; though I had spent much of the week trying to get him to open things under the tree. He got me some lovely books and a camera (hence my ability to blog again) and Elias got a nice bed so he can stop taking over our bed.

Holiday party

Michael and I (he's my new and lovable man) decided to throw a small holiday party where we invited numerous friends.

Most everyone had a wonderful time . Michael arranged this table and tossed together some amazing home made ice cream and I made boilo, apple dumplings, and questionably shaped crepes.

Alex made pouty faces in response to my taking pictures of him. Poor Elias was banished from the party but seemed very happy to be back today when we picked him up from my house. As usual he cuddles with everyone else instead of me.

His Eye is on the Sparrow

Taken in the shrub nect to the Teaism Statue on R ST NW where the little guys wait for salty oat cookie crumbs.

Adams Express

This glorious broiled eel roll was 6.50. I was perusing yelp and was amused to find a description of a hole in the wall Korean restaurant that served sushi. I was walking by and so stopped in and was greeted by an old Korean couple the gentleman was in the back cutting up leeks and while the old lady took my order and happily made my sushi softly singing to herself the whole time.

The entire restaurant has something like 8 very rickety stools placed at a bar that is slightly to high for them looking out onto Mt. Pleasant street. I was very happy and am looking forward to getting acquainted with actual Korean food there.

Chocolate rat pastries

We came home to find Elias perched in the window like an overgrown cat awaiting our late night arrival.

Michael.s tree

Books I am Reading at the Moment

So I've been really enjoying a few books at the moment. First on my list is The Brothers by Lesley Downer about the Tsutsumi Family of Japan who have the infamy of being among the wealthiest of that countries families. I unfortunately can not find a cover image for it but here is an amazon link.

Two Brothers

I am also reading a book on the American Chestnut Tree that has proven to be informative more about the sociological niche that tree held in the Appalachian South than about the tree itself.

I finished reading a book on Mule logging a few weeks ago that was intriguing because of the series of interviews that the author held with loggers. Sustainable forestry is one of my interests and I am currently waiting to get in two books about forest agriculture using perennials that require very little maintenance. This is all part of my long term of goal of having a few acres of forest with a cottage in the future.


Finally there is this delightful little volume on the history and uses for clay. I try to use illustrative examples for my students about different technologies and this book has given me a number of ideas. Last year i did a project for my Sumerian unit where the students wrote cuneiform on clay tablets; this spring I'm goign to attempt to make a bake oven on the grounds at Ballou.

Awww

Ella and Mackenzie

Ella really likes to squirm and kick. I meandered up to PA today and will back in my beloved city after spending some time with my family. Elias really appreciates all hesmall people to play with.

Finished Pies

Well I almost had enough filling for all four pies. The last one ended up being a tartlet of sorts. Now it's off to deliver the pastry of Thanksgiving to some of my favourite people.

Pie Filling

This evening I set out to make for pumpkin pies using my often fudged but now relatively perfected filling. This is my largest bread bowl filled almost entirely. Because I like to use cast iron for the showy pies I have to make considerably larger amount of filling then would be necesary if I were using pie tins.

Classroom management

I put unwieldy students behind this miscellaneous wall like thing. I'm not sure what it is actually for but it makes a decent rampart against thrown pencils.

Baking Day!!!

Today I am off and so have decided to sit around and bake pascha watch Lord of the Rings and knit.

It should be noted that i really love getting flowers

Alex mining in my mom.s candy tub

Hunting season in pa

Oh Shenandoah

Yesterday Elias , Niko, and I went to Overall Run in the Shenandoah National Park. The hike was about eight miles, four of which were uphill. The end of our hike was this waterfall which is the largest in the park and I believe in the state of Virginia at 93 feet.

If you look behind Elias we came around the ridge just above his ears. The valley floor is roughly 1400 feet below where the waterfall is. We meandered up a switchback trail and got back to the car around 6 .

Habu!

Flying yoga

Dear Jomo and Gregory decided to do some yoga at the beach on the Chesapeake last week. Here are a few pictures of them.
I of course was busy knitting.
Elias for his part was very dignified and looked on from a safe distance at the balancing men.

Pirohi and Eli Pictures Taken by my Housemates

Me making pirohi


Roofus and Elias being ridiculously cute as always.

Great a fire.

The Student Body here has a proclivity for setting fires in the trash cans located in the bathrooms. Sometimes they coordinate multiple fires to go off in sequence on really nice fall days so the fire company will keep us outside. Normally this means a good portion of the student body escapes into the neighborhood and goes home to do who knows what.

I've lost a whole 84 minute period as a result.

Education makes me smile.

Carry Your Own Damn Pizza

There is no pizza delivery service in the part of DC.

I wonder why?

Surely it can't have to do with safety concerns for the drivers. I can't think of any other reason though.

I'm here until seven today and will have to order out something.

Dearth of Posting

I Haven't been posting much lately because I have manged to loose the cord that connects my camera to the computer. I have ordered a new cord from some miscellaneous company online. School is proceeding apace with my students are both precocious and insane.

In lieu of a real post I present you with a blue sheep. The poor thing.

My dog is rather gay and it appears submissive . Elias' new friend is named Jake and appeared to be a corgi.

More on Books

Remember how I said that my students had little respect for books?

Well yesterday a student actually threw an encyclopedia at me.

I love this weird school.

Human Resources

I have still not been paid here in public school land and had to leave my class room yesterday to ty to sort the ness out. Needless to say my kids ran amok and I am not happy.

Grumble.

Mackenzie first day of school

For the Love of Books

Ok I nearly eviscerated two students first period today. They put their textbooks on the floor. Roughly; as in they dropped them because, "they are too heavy".

Now I love books. They are easily my most prozed possesions. I have schlepped them by the hundreds across country. It was actually gut wrenching to see the way my kids treat their textbooks. There is a decided and utter lack of reverence for any single object or classification of objects and I can't help but wonder whether this is due to the apparant lack of religion or even worse bastardized Pentacostalism of the few who are religous. It makes me reticent to bring any of my librrary in to the classroom

Doors Opening ; Please Stand Clear of the Doors.

So school is roughly a half hour drive for me in the morning and then a 45 minute drive on the way home. It should be mentioned that I intensley dislike driving. I would much prefer any other mode of transportation. Biking or walking requires physical and mental engagement to some degree whereas driving involves merely mental occupation.

This morning I decided to take the mtro to work and it only took 45 minutes. Plus I got to scare the ghetto children by knittign on the bus. I'd much prefer spending an hour and a half knitting or grading papers then spending an hour and fifteen minutes driving so I think I'll be taking the Metro unless I am running late in the morning or need to haul something into or from school.

Shenadoah; 462

Well this was a distressing story in the Post today. I am amazed at how accurately they portrayed the complexity of ethnic/race relations in the Coal Region. It seems some high school football players got drunk and beat a Mexican guy to death in July. Life is not easy in the Coal Region for anyone but especially not for outsiders and Shenandoah is known as a rough little town. We avoided it if at all possible except for a few italian restaraunts and my karate lessons in middle school.

The Story.

School is Rolling Along

Well the 9th grade is a tiring entity but I made it through my first week in the school system without any of my kids exploding. This is a very distinct possibility on any given day. My class roster runs about 80 students of whom 60 have shown up and out of which only twenty have been here every day. The biggest challenge seems like it is going to be just getting students to come to school on a regular basis.

I was at a party a few nights ago and met a rather beautiful man who Teaches at Georgetown Day School , 36,000 a year for tuition, and who claimed that his students recieved as little attention from their parents as mine did. The difference of course being that his parents can afford to hire out their parental responsibilities where as mine are simply negligent and lack the fiscal resources to hide it under nanies and drivers.

Today we are learning about the basis of religion and early christianity. Tommorow we'll do map work and talk about the spread of Christianity and the medieval Church. It should eb noted that at the moment we have one copier for 50 teachers to use. The educators here are like starvation victims when it comes to paper; they hoard it in their rooms and carry around reams for use in the copier which is our fickle goddess bestowing favors on most but breaking down and damning other teacher's lesson plans to oblivion.

How cute

Work Starts Tommorow

So classes start next Monday with my little self reporting tommorow for HR Orientation (finally) and wandering down to School during the afternoon.

My dear friend and housemate Dan read this poem at a reading last week and I thought I'd put it here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The History Teacher - Billy Collins
Trying to protect his students' innocence
he told them the Ice Age was really justthe Chilly Age,
a period of a million years
when everyone had to wear sweaters.

And the Stone Age became the Gravel Age,
named after the long driveways of the time.

The Spanish Inquisition was nothing more
than an outbreak of questions such as
"How far is it from here to Madrid?"
"What do you call the matador's hat?"

The War of the Roses took place in a garden,
and the Enola Gay dropped one tiny atom on Japan.

The children would leave his classroom
for the playground to torment the weak
and the smart,mussing up their hair and breaking their glasses,

while he gathered up his notes and walked home
past flower beds and white picket fences,
wondering if they would believe that soldiers
in the Boer War told long, rambling stories
designed to make the enemy nod off.

Maybe if i wait right in front of the door

I hate being left waiting on the stoop