Door County, Part Two: The Happy Birthday Edition

This morning dawned bright, clear, and cool.  LR and I went for a three mile walk while SB made French toast and bacon, which LR had requested in honor of her birthday.  While we were walking, we saw

Flowers

Spiderwebs

Wet plants

 We returned to the suite and before we ate breakfast, we sang

Happy Birthday (number 1).

Door County, Part One: The Arrival

This weekend, to help celebrate LR's birthday, she, SB, and I went to Door County, WI.  I have never been here before, but they had, and my parents have, and my boyfriend has, and they all have said it is a beautiful place.  Having been here for about four hours, I can totally agree.

No, really, I'm alive.

Remember that time I was blogging a lot, and held a contest to see when my 100th post would be?  I had lots of interesting projects planned and I'm sure you're dying to know how they turned out.

Most of the projects didn't happen.  I didn't knit a sock, I haven't been running very much, and I haven't cooked anything spectacular lately.  I have, however, done the following:

1. acquired a fantastic, wonderful boyfriend named Tony.
2. got a part-time job shelving in a library near where Tony lives.
3. played tennis for the first time since gym class.  Tony is a tennis aficionado, and an excellent teacher.
4. started spring classes for my library degree: Reader's Advisory and Children's/YA Services.

So that's why I haven't been blogging.  I'll try to get back on the blogwagon (again), but no promises.  As for the "guess when the 100th post will happen" contest, let's say you're all winners!  Anyone who wants to write a guest post is welcome to submit content, and I'll put it on the blog!  Leave a comment here saying "I want to guest post!" and include your email address, and I'll get in touch with you.  Thanks!

Children Are People

"To be a "gifted" teacher is really just possessing the knowledge that children are people and then proceeding to treat them like people, loving them, and listening."

I have said things like this before; that the way teaching happens these days is not the way it should happen.  The best advice to teachers is to treat students like people.  This sounds like a "duh" kind of thing, but think back to your own school years.  How often were you treated like a cog in a machine, or a person of less value/standing/importance than the teacher, or simply one of the crowd of students?  I would bet that it happened, and still happens, more often than we like to admit.  Those stellar teachers who manage to break the mold end up being the most effective and the most loved.

The above quote is from Teacher Tom's blog, and I highly recommend reading more of his posts.  He teaches preschool in a play-based learning center.  I would love to explore how the ideals of play-based learning could apply to school-aged children and even higher education.  What do you think?  Leave your thoughts, ideas, and comments below.

[This is post #98.  We're getting close to 100!]

Running update

Lots of fun new things in this department.  My brother (barefoot running aficionado) gave me a gift card to Dick's Sporting Goods for Christmas.  Although Dick's doesn't stock Vibrams, they did have the Adidas version, called Adipure.  I went and tried a few pairs on to determine the correct fit, and decided to get them.

I'm still here!

Although it may have seemed that I invented anti-gravity shoes and subsequently fell off the earth, this is not the case.  The truth is much more mundane: it was a busy end-of-semester, then I was traveling, then I was home with my family.  None of those activities inspired me to write a blog post.  But never fear!  I am hopping back on the blogwagon (heh, heh) here in the new year.  Look for updates about running, knitting socks, cooking food, and other enticingly exciting topics.

Book review: The Maze Runner Trilogy

The Maze Runner
by James Dashner

In this first book of the trilogy, we meet Thomas as he wakes up with no specific memories of his past, on the way to what we learn is The Glade.  Thomas and some other boys are apparently being kept here, surrounded by an impenetrable maze filled with deadly monster-machines.  None of them have any memories.  Suddenly, the first girl ever arrives in The Glade, and triggers catastrophic events.

Seemingly the love-child of The Hunger Games and Lord of the Flies, this book is fast-paced and interesting, if not very deep.  It's mostly the desire to solve the multiple mysteries that keeps one reading.  Unfortunately, if that is your main motivation (as it was mine), you'll have to finish the series to really answer everything.

 The Scorch Trials (Maze Runner #2)
by James Dashner

A direct sequel to #1, picking up pretty much exactly where we left off.  Thomas and the gang have escaped the Maze, but find themselves thrust into yet another life-threatening experiment where many will die.  Thomas might even be one of them.

Somewhat satisfying in that as Thomas slowly gains back some memories, we can start to piece together what has happened.  Since we, the readers, are not faced with death (and near-constant exhaustion, as Thomas does), we have more leisure to go back and fit his sketchy memories together.  We won't have all the information, though, until book 3.

The Death Cure (Maze Runner #3)
by James Dashner

In the final installment, Thomas and his friends try to figure out how to deal with the organization that has stolen their memories, made them distrust everything and everyone, and killed their friends.

Questions are answered, mysteries solved, and the human race goes on.  Hooray!

Final verdict: a fun, quick read.  Much more cheerful ending than Hunger Games.  Gotta read the whole series to be happy, but don't really have to reread ever, in my opinion.

[This is post #95.  When do you think I will get to 100?  If you're right, you might win!]

African Violets

This is a photo of my African Violets back in June of this year:

 

And these are pictures of them now:

My question: why are the flowers so very white, with hardly any "violet" left on them at all?

[This is post #94.  When do you think I will get to 100?  If you're right, you might win!]

FLYING!!!

My good friend N got me a flying lesson for my birthday, back in September.  We couldn't get it scheduled until this past Sunday due to weather and conflicts, but we finally did it, and it was AMAZINGLY AWESOME.  N took some great photos, to which I will now subject you.

It was pretty cold outside on the ground.  Nice and warm in the plane, though.

Thanksgiving Leftovers

Today, I used some Thanksgiving leftovers to make a casserole.

Ingredients:
Leftover cooked white-meat turkey
Leftover roasted Brussels sprouts with bacon & walnuts
Sliced mushrooms
1/2 an onion, diced
Egg noodles
Olive oil
Heavy cream
Flour and turkey gravy seasoning

Directions:
Heat the oil in a pan, and stir in the chopped onions.  Cook until translucent, then add the flour/gravy mixture.  Brown for a couple minutes, then add the heavy cream and some hot water.  Heat through, then add more flour or more water until you have the consistency of cream of mushroom soup.  Alternatively, use a can of cream of mushroom soup.  Add in the chopped turkey and heat through.  Add salt and/or pepper to taste.

At the same time, cook the egg noodles according to the package directions.  Heat some butter in a separate pan, add the mushrooms, and cook until browned.  Then add in the Brussels sprouts and heat through.

When everything is heated, mix it together in a casserole dish.  Sprinkle crushed cracker bits, dried cranberries, and Parmesan cheese on top.  Put it in a 350 degree oven until the top is slightly browned, about 10-15 minutes.

Sorry for the poor picture quality; one of these days I will get a real camera.