A few years ago, while I was discovering my love of retro design, I also began to appreciate music from the 40s and 50s. I had always been a fan of the “oldies,” as I became an Elvis fan in my early teens, and I frequently made mixed tapes of oldies that I’d play as my friends and I would cruise around town. No, it wasn’t the “hot” music, but it was unique, and we had fun singing along to Elvis and many others.
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The Best White Bread Recipe
When I was in my early twenties, I learned how to make bread. Unfortunately, it was a “teach yourself” experiment, as my own mother was never a big bread maker and I was a petulant child who never listened anyway. I started with quick breads and graduated to yeast breads, and once I experienced the magical process of creating a gluey mess that turns out to be an aromatic wonder of baked goodness, I never looked back.
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Ice, ice baby!
Stress-relief shopping
Three . . . more . . . days! That’s the mantra that runs through my head as the school year of 09-10 comes to a close. The papers aren’t all graded yet, but I see that tiny, tiny light at the end of the tunnel, and I’m spring full force toward it.
Last weekend, my mother earned her Saintly Grandmother duties and took my kids for the weekend, so I had some of that stuff that other people call “free time.” This time of year, free time is a precious commodity, and since ol’ hubby and I hadn’t had a date night in eons, it was a welcome change of pace.
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Photos that captivate my imagination
I wrote a few weeks ago about photos from Shorpy that absolutely make me feel lost in imagination and thought. Sometimes a photographer captures a scene so perfectly, so poignantly, that it is obvious to the viewer that there’s something special in that slice of light and time. Here are a few of my favorites:
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And the prairie burned . . .
Remember that last post when I whined about how busy I was? Yeah, I’m still in that frame of mind. The spring semester is always busy, but it seems especially crushing this year, for reasons I haven’t quite determined. I think it has something to do with going paperless in composition this year with Google Docs. Yes, it makes things easier because the papers are portable, but I spend a lot more time grading things because it’s so easy to highlight and make comments without trying to squeeze it all in between margins. More time spent grading = good feedback for my students, I know, but the clock and calendar have not cooperated by giving me any more time to catch up on my other obligations, i.e. things I like to do to unwind.
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Adventures in parenting
A few weeks ago I took my sons to see Diary of a Wimpy Kid. I was not familiar with the books at all, so I had no idea what to expect. The bottom line is that the movie is adorable and the creator(s?) obviously remembered middle school all too well.
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A moment in time
I’m gasping for air here, and unfortunately, it’s not because I’ve been running miles per day. It’s the spring semester, which means I have composition classes, which means I spend most of my free time correcting. I try not to think about it, but the math is staggering. Seventy kids total, with a new paper coming in roughly every 1 1/2 weeks, and it takes me about 30 minutes to correct and comment on each one via Google Docs. Basically every 1 1/2 weeks I need to find 35 extra hours in order to correct papers. Nevermind that composition is just one of the 3 classes I teach.
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I may not be a “20-20 little squab,” but this is cute
I absolutely love this slang dictionary from the ’40s that is posted over at Square America. While you’re at it, if you haven’t yet discovered this awesome site, take a look through all the great photos. It’s like your family’s photo album, but way better.
Happy Easter, everyone!
Snippets of life
It’s the end of the quarter at school, which not only means that I get to spend my weekend correcting mountains of papers, but I’ve also lost most of my ability to form paragraphs longer than a sentence or two — which yes, I know, isn’t really a paragraph. My brain is tired, but I have had some interesting things happens lately. The result? Snippet-writing time.
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