Test test 123..

Ho ho ho..

This’s fun!!

We finally got to try out my sister’s telescope tonight cos my dad brought back the tripod. After much twisting and adjusting and tiring exercise, we finally managed to get a real clear view of the moon! ((((: And I even managed to take a photo of it! Okay so it’s not even a full moon, the picture ain’t all that clear or beautiful. BUT STILL. SO EGGS SIGHTING YOU KNOW.

Here is ze picture!

Not bad for a cheapppp telescope eh?

The moon moves so fast though. x.x We had to readjust several times because the telescope was no longer pointing at it.

GREAT FUN. I WANNA LOOK AT JUPITER ND HER MOONS.

What's the mnemonic to help us spell "field" correctly?

A mnemonic is a sentence or short poem to help you remember something. I’ve always been on the lookout for good mnemonics to help in my teaching, and awhile ago I came across a really neat little book called i before e – old school ways to remember stuff. I thought I’d share six fun little mnemonics that you can use in your teaching (well, maybe not the last one…).

1 Spelling rule: i before e, except after c. This is the most famous one, used to remind us how to spell words like friend, or field. Actually, to make up for the exceptions like weight (which goes against the rule) there is a longer version I found which goes

i before e, except after c

or when sounded like a, as in neighbour and weigh.

2 Spelling Wednesday – remember how to spell this with the following. The book I mentioned above has a whole chapter of these!

WE Do Not Eat Soup Day

3 The months of the year. Most readers will probably be familiar with this one, Thirty days has (originally hath) September, April June and November; All the rest have thirty-one… But how does it end? I always ended with the lame “except February, which has twenty-eight”. I’ve found two other versions though, which I put below.

Excepting February alone, And that has twenty-eight days clear, with twenty-nine in each leap year.

Excepting February alone, which has but twenty-eight, in fine, till leap year gives it twenty-nine.

4 Parts of speech. The American readers of this blog might have been familiar with a song: Conjunction junction what’s your functio (if you are one of those poor deprived souls who did not grow up with Schoolhouse Rock, you can see a video here) Anyway, here are a couple of others:

The preposition shows relation, as in the street, or at the station.

Conjunctions join in many ways, sentences, words or phrase and phrase.

5 Commas. I think this one is cute:

A cat has claws at the end of its paws

A comma’s a pause at the end of a clause.

6 Finally… I wanted to include one very useful mnemonic for English teachers for the upcoming end-of-year party (and also to get this in before the TEFL Tradesman said it

Beer before liquor, never sicker… Liquor before beer, never fear.

This year we’ll wait until tomorrow for the big meal, because we want to have it with Gene and Rezia, and they are out of town today, visiting Gene’s family in western Kentucky.  In the meantime, maybe I can finally resize and post the pictures from last week’s anniversary celebration.  And here is a list my pastor shared with us at his most recent sermon, giving us reasons to be thankful for things we normally aren’t thankful about.

I Am Thankful:

• For the teenager who is not doing dishes but is watching TV, because that means he is at home and not on the streets.
• For the taxes I pay, because it means that I am employed.
• For the mess to clean after a party, because it means that I have been surrounded by friends.
• For the clothes that fit a little too snug, because it means I have enough to eat.
• For my shadow that watches me work, because it means I am out in the sunshine.
• For a lawn that needs mowing, windows that need cleaning, and gutters that need fixing, because it means I have a home.
• For all the complaining I hear about the government, because it means that we have freedom of speech.
• For the parking spot I find at the far end of the parking lot, because it means I am capable of walking, and that I have been blessed with transportation.
• For my huge heating bill, because it means I am warm.
• For the lady behind me in my place of worship when she sings off key, because it means that I can hear.
• For the pile of laundry and ironing, because it means I have clothes to wear.
• For weariness and aching muscles at the end of the day, because it means I am capable of working hard.
• For the alarm that goes off in the early morning hours, because it means that I am alive.

and finally….

• For too much e-mail, because it means I have friends who are thinking of me.

Happy Thanksgiving!  And see my message from last April 9 on when and where the first Thanksgiving really happened.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Guess what everybody… I have Thanksgiving off of work!

Being a baker, it is extremely rare that I get a holiday off.  Two days ago I got a call from my manager and she said that Thursday was over staffed and that someone was going to have to miss out on the day.

So here I am, not preparing for work

Instead, I get to go down to Woodstock, VT and have Thanksgiving dinner with Liza and her family.  It’s a beautiful little house and she  has a great family… I am wicked stoked (Don’t blame me.  Blame Massachusetts).  There’s little that I enjoy more than good food, good people, and good times.

Another surprise…

I am going to be leaving for my first race soon!

It is the 33rd annual 5k Turkey Trot at UVM in Burlington, VT.  It’s a short one, but I am hoping (hopping?  I never could figure out that one) to do well

Wish me luck!

À bientôt

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

• Baked brie, caramelized onions w/french baguettes
• Homemade hummus
• Glazed roasted duck w/sour cherry sauce
• Roasted fall root vegetables-beets, turnips, carrots, onions, leeks, purple potatoes, garlic
• Brussel sprouts w/dill, chives & garlic
• Homemade ciabatta stuffing
• Roasted acorn squash w/spiced butter, toasted pine nuts and sage
• Rosemary & garlic potatoes
• Sonja’s fabulous homemade cheesecake
• Wine, beer, cocktails, coffee

I’m still waiting to hear on revisions for Prisoner in Paradise, and the longer the wait, the more you start to worry. Strange, how that sending off euphoria lasts only a wee short while before turning to paranoia…

Luckily I had four glorious days away to take my mind completely off life, the book and everything, and I spent them with some fabulous girlfriends up at Noosa, on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland.

Here are some shots from that weekend…

This is the shoreline around the National Park walkway. Fabulous to be where the forest literally meets the sea.

Aren’t they gorgeous? No wonder they inspired characters in early Aussie children’s books. They look like a gang of hairy no-gooders.

The walk along the beach turned inland and along a sandy path that joggers ran along while we all suffered in our thongs (the foot kind of thongs – not the other:-))

But then the path diverted through rain forest and we were in paradise.  We saw brush turkeys (the pics too blurred to show) black cockatoos and trees that devoured others.

What a wondrous place. My last foray up to the Sunshine Coast ended up being immortalized in my novella, Back in The Spaniard’s Bed. This time too, there will be a book. The Noosa book, and already it’s simmering away in there.

Meanwhile, I’ll leave you with a message I read on a stony beach in Noosa. It was a long way down, must have taken an age to make, but the message was one that we could all do to remember…

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.  I pray that yours is filled with love and joy and a deep recognition of the One to whom all thanks should go because of all that He has done, is doing and will do for us.

And just for fun…

Hola Kitty!

Little curious cat says ‘hi’

(Colour pencil on paper)

Yes we finally gave Brody his first haircut! At 10 months we did trim the mullet a little bit, but technically that doesn’t count.  He loved it-NOT!! Looks like we have another Ayden on our hands-LOL. We strapped him into his booster, with him screaming then entire time we made a team effort and got the haircut done! Though there honestly isn’t that much hair on his head, it was still time.

The beginning!

The middle!

The end!

Today, Liza directed me to an article from The New York Times about Roald Gundersen, aka “The Forester Architect”

Photo: Paul Kelley for The New York Times

He built his house (and 100 by 20 foot solar greenhouse) using whole trees and straw-bails among other materials.  The article is here, and If you have any interest in architecture (*cough*lucas*cough*) you may find the article (and links to other amazing houses at the end of the slideshow) interesting.  My favorite part of the house is this room…

Photo: Paul Kelley for The New York Times

Maybe someday I will live in a house like this… Hey, A guy can dream right

Arividerchi

So why was it in the list of things Google News thought I’d be looking for when I typed X and only X?

What’s up with that?

Oh, and I think I have a new way to find stuff to blog about – typing each letter into the search box of Google News and seeing what people are searching for. A lot of it turns out to be names of people I’ve never heard of, like Kimbo Slice, which is just a super awesome name. If I were into Ultimate Fighters enough to gamble on the “sport,” I’d throw a dollar on the dude just for that. Go Kimbo! Slice his ass!

Storkcraft is doing a recall on cribs if anyone bought one of those recently.

Balloon Boy is still interesting to the FAA, which is wrapping up an investigation into that silly and very expensive hoax.

And lots of articles point to Google’s own “offensive search results” result and the deletion of a picture of Michelle Obama looking more like a monkey than herself. Of course, some people hit the Print Screen button before it vanished…

Yes, yes, I can foresee many posts where I play with that feature instead of trying to think of something good on my own. Yes indeed.

—-
Edit it does turn out there’s an xhamster.com which leads to porn. Figures.

Congratulations to the fifty contestants who won a free copy of JumpStart Escape from Adventure Island!

• Alecia R. – Secan, Pennsylvania
• Alexa C. – Vestal, New York
• Amanda H. – Circleville, Ohio
• Amy N. – Victorville, California
• Amy W. – Madison, Wisconsin
• Andrea H. – Owensboro, Kentucky
• Angela P. – Appleton, Wisconsin
• Ashley S. – Cove, Arkansas
• Barbara F. – Oakboro, North Carolina
• Betty R. – Florala, Alabama
• Christine W. – Wauwatosa, Wisconsin
• Deanna K. – Dallas, Texas
• Desiree K. – Hurst, Texas
• Dezi A. – Layton, Utah
• Erin D. – North Logan, Utah
• Eve D. – Centreville, Virginia
• Hallie G. – St. George, Utah
• Hollie D. – Ammon, Idaho
• Jason W. – Elkton, South Dakota
• Jeffrey W. – Milpitas, California
• Jennifer C. – Hallock, Minnesota
• Jennifer P. – New Albany, Ohio
• Jessica C. – Burlington, Iowa
• Jill L. – Shippensburg, Pennsylvania
• Julie H. – Chandler, Arizona
• Karri M. – Eaton Rapids, Michigan
• Katherine M. – Cary, North Carolina
• Kendra F. – Bainbridge Island, Washington
• Kimberly O. – Olympia, Washington
• Kimberly W. – Milwaukee, Wisconsin
• Lara D. – Severn, Maryland
• Marybeth I. – Raleigh, North Carolina
• Michelle H. – Noblesville, Indiana
• Pamela L. – Genoa, Illinois
• Patricia S. – Alto, Michigan
• Rachel O. – St. Paul, Minnesota
• Renee T. – Shelby Township, Michigan
• Sarah G. – Purcellville, Virginia
• Shonda B. – Littleton, Colorado
• Stephanie R. – Ennis, Texas
• Susan S. – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Tammy L. – Sioux Falls, South Dakota
• Tricia F. – Oak Lawn, Illinois
• Trina W. – Grand Haven, Michigan
• Bernadette
• BrooklynNJ
• Leah D. – Lincoln, Nebraska
• Lisa (samasam)
• Mat S.
• Megan B.

And another congratulations to the three contestants who won the Ultimate Escape Prize Packs!

• Beth B. – Milfay, Oklahoma
• Dixie C. – Lincoln, Nebraska
• Nicole M. – Bellevue, Nebraska

Thank you all for participating!  We loved reading all of your entries, learning how delightfully imaginative everyone is, and seeing the tweets fill the air!  Read about the fantastic escapes of our entrants here.