penn

Sampling the PNW

I should have gotten more pictures here. We went to Dick's Drive-in, Ivar's, and had seafood in Cannon Beach. Matt tasted sushi for the first time, and we made salmon at home.

Somehow, none of those experiences were photographed. Maybe it's because I was having too much fun eating some of my favorite foods. But we did photograph something: beer tasting. Oh, yes, we enjoyed quite a number of beers on our PNW vacation. In moderation, of course, but tasty tasty microbrew moderation.

After hiking Multnomah Falls . . .

Sampler trays and tasting glasses = more beer to try

Multnomah Falls

Just three weeks after the fact . . . I'll be posting PNW vacation pics and tidbits for the next few days. I've got all the good pictures up at my flickr site, and I'll just put a selection up here to share some of the beautiful things Matt and I saw. The vacation was wonderful and refreshing; it was delightful to finally see some of my favorite people after a very long time being away from friends.

A boy and his dog: Josh and our happy little beagle Belle.

Belle can't keep hiking unless she knows we're coming.

The dizzying height of the falls

Happy little bits for today

1. We made several gallons of maple syrup today! I myself participated in the finishing of two gallons of syrup. I also emptied lots of sap. We'll be going for one more week, so I'm hoping we put up a good amount. My workplace uses the maple syrup for a pancake breakfast and various public events, so I have the fun of educating people and getting something yummy.

2. Also related to maple syruping, I got to teach three small boys about taps and sap today. And they were smart little boys! The sap (water + 2-3% sugar) comes from the roots up to the top of the tree, and they figured that out when I showed them that the hole for sap is in the bottom of the spile (spout) that we use for tapping. Plus, the boys reminded me why I love my job; one of my favorite things to do is share neat stuff about the outdoors with people.

3. My keen Keen shoes are busted. But never fear! They are still under warranty, so I'll be going to REI on Saturday to exchange them for a new pair.

4. I had broccoli and shrimp stir fry for dinner after I went to the gym. Good evening.

On a less happy note, please hold the people of the Red River Valley in your hearts and minds. They are set to experience a 100-year flood this year. Matt went to college in Moorehead, Minnesota, which is across the Red River from Fargo, so this feels especially close to me right now.

Our Weekend Pursuit

We started on Saturday evening and managed to get it all put together today. We're apparently quite good with puzzles. We bought another puzzle today, so I imagine we'll get to that soon.

Other fun things this weekend:
- volunteering at the maple syrup open house at my workplace; Matt and I taught folks how to tap trees and get the sap.
- taking the Praxis in St. Paul (it's a step toward teacher certification)
- going to REI and Ikea to begin spending my awesome dividend.

Okay, really?

In an article I swear should have been in the Onion, apparently the latest "drug craze" is kids "smoking" smarties.

Some of the better quotes:

Some children have even taken to snorting it, all to the horror of parents, teachers and the 60-year-old company that manufactures the candy. Through the years, other candies have endured misuse, such as a craze that began by mixing Mentos with Diet Coke to cause a frothy eruption. But few have involved such obvious mimicry of lethal adult vices.

Apparently, kids are evening making how-to videos to share on youtube. Aghast! For shame! How dare our children attempt to do something creative, interesting, and skillful. Don't they know that job-worthy skills only come within the boundaries of a classroom?

The best part is the reaction by parents and by the Smarties company itself.

"I have made it clear to our students that possession of Smarties (or similar candy) will result in a Class II offense," which usually means detention, the note said.

Jody Puryear, whose son Grant attends the school, says smoking Smarties could be a gateway leading "to smoking cigarettes or pot or anything else like that."

For some teens who have tried smoking Smarties, comparisons to cigarettes or drugs are part of the point.

. . .

Officials at Ce De Candy Inc., the Union, N.J., makers of Smarties, are decidedly opposed to the craze. "It's just dumb," said Eric Ostrow, Ce De's vice president of sales and marketing.

He remembers as a child puffing on candy cigarettes that blew out fake smoke -- a practice that he thinks may have led to years of smoking the real thing. Mr. Ostrow quit smoking in 1994, and Ce De Candy banned smoking at its factory in the early 1980s, long before ostracizing smokers became mainstream, he points out.

Thankfully, a few parents do have some sense. Again, from the article, about a kid named Titus who made an excellent how-to on youtube:

Titus's father, Melvin Williams, says he was initially concerned that the video might glorify smoking or evoke drug use. But after calling a family meeting to discuss the video, Mr. Williams decided Titus was merely being a kid. "I just thought it was funny," he says.

I smoked candy cigarettes as a kid, and I distinctly remember snorting pixie sticks (outcome? it burns. a lot). Heck, in grad school, I even snorted salt on a dare . . . through a rolled up dollar bill (outcome? it burns. a lot). Does this make me a drug addict?

Maybe, in this day and age, some people have trouble blurring the line between fantasy and reality. Adults, I'm looking at you.

Things I got paid to do today

1. Enjoy the hot, hot weather. It is 64 F!!!

2. Teach a new staff member how to photocopy.

3. Run a compass course and check for errors.

4. Plan a lesson on code-breaking.

5. Teach said lesson on code-breaking to junior high kids.

Coraline 3D

Saw Coraline today in 3d, and it was really interesting. The movie is quite reminiscent of Nightmare Before Christmas and similar animated films.

In a nutshell, the movie chronicles the first few weeks of Coraline and her family in a new home. They've just moved from Pontiac, Michigan, to Ashland, Oregon, and her parents are busy working on a seed catalog in order to make ends meet. Despite writing about gardening, they're not really gardeners as far as I can tell; the mom doesn't even like being in the mud. Alone and lonely, Coraline begins to explore the house and ultimately finds a door to a parallel house with an "other mother" and "other father" that she can visit in the middle of the night.

These other parents are nurturing and pay plenty of attention to Coraline. They cook her favorite foods, sing her songs, plant flowers for her, and more. But they are strangely offputting and have buttons for eyes. Still, Coraline returns night after night for the attention. Ultimately, the situation with the other parents turns strange and Coraline has to figure out how to deal with the unexpected twists.

The ending, for me, was a bit simplistic and felt somewhat rushed. But the rest of the story development was nice, and I think the movie was overall fine considering that it is geared to a significantly younger audience than the twenty-something female. I enjoyed the acting except for the fact that Teri Hatcher's voice is really recognizable, so I had a hard time seeing her as something other than Susan (from Desperate Housewives) acting in the movie.

The three-d part was pretty awesome, and I forgot about it after awhile. The glasses were big enough to slide over my own glasses, so I had no problems seeing. I enjoyed seeing birds fly around rather than just across the screen. I had reservations about seeing the movie in 3D, but it was the only option at the theater I had available, and I'm happy I went.

Finally, seeing Coraline by myself means that I've now seen two movies alone (this and Wall-E), and I am two-thirds of the way to completing goal #89.

Happy Birthday!

A very happy birthday to my dear old dad. I love you!!!

Green Life

In one of the best "green tips" article I've ever seen, the NYTimes interviews Eric Corey Freed to find out the 5 best steps to a green home that anyone can do. My particular favorites (and ones I use) are the programmable thermostat and the power strip to avoid vampire power sucking.

We've got a programmable thermostat here in the home where I live. I actually bought and installed it myself; it was super easy to do (I followed some tutorial online; just google and look around until you find one with pictures that makes sense), and I've been quite pleased with it. Mine has three settings for every day: "sleep," "awake," and "away." Technically, I think you can make four settings by having different awake temps in the morning and evening. Because our basement is cold, we only turn our temp down to 60 at night, but it's 60 or 58 during the day while we're at work. We do go up to 66 in the morning and the evening, and sometimes my roommates turn it higher when I'm not home (I'm the real stickler on the thermostat). I know one of my roommates uses a small space heater in her room, but that's still cheaper than heating the whole house. I really enjoy having one to take the thought out of reducing your energy load.

The power strip thing is something I pursued more aggressively last year, when my roommate and I turned off everything (TV, microwave, etc) when not in use. We actually saw a difference in our power bill! And, from anecdotal evidence from friends, I've heard that turning off your computers overnight also results in some big energy savings. My proudest electric saving ever came last summer, when I rarely turned on lights (yay for natural lighting), didn't use the dishwasher, and actively tried to conserve power. I got my power bill down to $15 for one month, and this was when I was paying extra money on my bill in order to support renewable energy.

I like the other initiatives listed (low flow shower head, grey water recycling, and less water per flush), but they're a bit more intense than what I've done already. I keep meaning to look more into an ultra-low flow shower head, and I would love to someday do grey water recycling for all the water in my house except toilets.

Perhaps my favorite thing of all about these green tips is that they will all ultimately save you money. A few of them have higher start up costs, but most of them are cheap to do and will save you money within a few months. Nothing better, in my mind, than being kind to the environment and to our wallets at the same time.

Legacy

One day, in a forest in southern Minnesota, a great tree will fall down. This tree might become covered in lichen, moss, and fungus as it slowly decays. It may become a home for small animals or a damp, dark, warm place for invertebrates. Perhaps the tree may be split up for firewood.

Eventually, someday, this tree will no longer be standing.

And when it comes down, someone might be poking through the remains. Whether the tree rots or whether it is split up, some being will inevitably find a strange piece of metal there. This piece of metal, long ago absorbed into the tree and healed over, will be a lasting testament to practices of a previous era.

And this little piece of metal will be my fault.

The tree in question is a maple tree, and the cold nights and warm days mean that sap is running here in Minnesota. Somehow, today, one of my students managed to break off the tip of a drill bit inside the tree. It was freezing today, which may have made the metal more brittle; the cold weather certainly made tree tapping less fun, since the sap will only run out once the weather warms up.

In any case, there is now a lasting testament to my work here. By next year, no one will be able to see this inch of metal bit. But years in the future, someone or some thing will find this bit and know just a little more about the past.