I found our first Hobo Sign in front of our house today. Unfortunately, I do not read hobo, and it does not appear to be any of the documented symbols. Anyone have an idea?
Archives for April 2009
Bitter Disappointment
It was an odd weekend around here – a lot to do and two slightly-unwell-feeling people doing it. Lloyd had a bit of a stomach bug and I was convinced I had pink eye, minus the actual pink. Anyway, we ran our errands on Saturday and after a giant nap I had the urge to try a cookie recipe from Smitten Kitchen. It’s for chocolate wafers, which sounded deliciously crunchy, and requires one of my favorite skills – thinly slicing things.
So, I dug out the food processor (this makes the fourth time it’s ever been used) and went through the steps. I like to halve recipes since it’s just two of us around and we wind up throwing food away if I make the whole batch. (The recipe is here if you’d like to see it.) I had even purchased ultra-fancy cocoa powder for this project! Samith, if you’re wondering why I was distracted on the phone when we talked, it was because I was measuring ingredients into the processor. (In literature, they call this ‘foreshadowing’.)
I was so proud of me – I rolled it, waited the whole hour for it to chill in the fridge, sliced it ever-so-thin, turned the pan around halfway through baking and everything! When they came out, I was impressed that they were already kind of crumbly-textured like Oreos! I broke off a little piece, blew on it so it would be cool enough to eat and popped in in my mouth.
In my head: “Mmm…. still warm. Crumbly. Too crumbly? Not very sweet. Is that the fancy chocolate? Not sweet. Not sweet at all. What’s wrong? Good night – what is this grossness??” Spit.
Sugar. I forgot the sugar. I blame Samith.
So, I wound up throwing it away anyway and starting over. Drat. The real thing was totally worth the sacrifice of 7 tablespoons of butter and 3/8 cup of cocoa.
A Never Ending Struggle
This is one of my favorite things about my classroom. Last year a student brought in a bag of army men. I’m not sure why they were there, but the bag was sitting in my room for about a week before I asked Ben if he had any plans for it.
He didn’t, so I suggested he dispose of them in a more regimented fashion about the room (lumped up together in a bag not being the normal disposition of army men). He completely missed my meaning, and the next day there were smaller piles of army men in various locations around the room. Oh well.
Then this year I noticed that there were actual troop movements and various scouting expositions being carried out on a regular basis. I’m not sure what the over-all objective is yet, but most of the action takes place in the jungles scattered around the room.
Friday Night Light
It’s been a long week at school – Parent/ Teacher conferences, our annual Potato Bake, and various and sundry things that I put off for too long. Did you know that Sunday is Palm Sunday? Sheesh – where did the time go?
Anyway, I sacked out for a bit on the couch when I came home – trying to sleep to ‘Highlander’ on the t.v. – but you just can’t rest well when immortals are trying to hack each other’s heads off. So, I got up, made some coffee, and the Pesters arrived! What a pleasant surprise! We had a nice visit with two highlights – Tim, whose vocabulary is increasing by the minute, gave Pfennig a few strokes and then walked off saying, “Hairs. (Which he pronounces ‘heers’.) Hairs come off.” Translation: Your cat is broken, lady.
The second is that our exercise equipment finally got used in 2009. Thanks, kiddos!
Life was better then…
Happy Birthday to my nephew Jacob and also Steph!
Kids, back in the good ol’ days before these new-fangled computers were all the rage, instant messaging was called a ‘phone call’, e-mail was called ‘mail’, and a website was called a ‘pen pal’ – and you only had one commenter.
‘Way back in college I had a pen pal, Garth, who lived in Montana. He was older, cooler (in a band), and best of all – thought that I was witty. We only knew each other through the post office, and wrote fairly regularly, and that was my gateway into the world of Interesting Mail. We would make our own stationary by photocopying stuff in our pockets, write quotes from famous authors (him) or popular songs (me), and best of all, doodle on the envelopes. Garth had a schtick that I have since adopted as my own – the sign post.
These are just a sample, and they read: Shazam!; The old blah, blah, blah; Life is too short; and a little complete envelope with a signpost of a little complete envelope. (Yes, I saved them. Someday when I am even older these letters will make me smile.)
Anyway – Kristi, “Lloyd” is going to try to get a package in the mail on Saturday (not the soap. I still have to figure out where to send the soap), and this is on it. Lloyd took a picture of it and thought it would make a good post – I have enjoyed the walk down memory lane. (Insert barf noise here.)
Want some soap?
The people at Laundry Tree gave me a $2.00 off coupon with my soap nut prize, and since they have really nice packaging (for which I am a sucker), I purchased some more soap nuts. I bought a medium sized bag and a little sample bag. Since I’d like to share the bubbly joy, I’ll send the sample to you. Maybe. The baggie has about 8 inside. No, wait. Exactly 8, if my tired eyes don’t deceive me. Math is hard. Here’s the deal: Tell me the vastness of your need to try out these sud-nuggets, and the third-best answer wins. If you don’t want them, tell me who I should send them to, and why. (Gee, you must really hate that person, huh?)