Deficiency

Alternately titled “It Seems I’m Not Doing as Good a Job as I Thought.”
Punkin’ Pie came home on Friday with a recipe and a request from her class.  It seems they’ve been studying regions of the U.S., and, as part of their study, they’re looking at foodways and traditional recipes from those regions.  Punkin’, along [...]

Read Full Post »

Summertime Meme

I shamelessly stole this from Tense Teacher, who said she found it at Kwizgiver’s blog. Since memes are made for sharing, feel free to steal it for yourself…
S U M M E R C H O I C E S . . .
Pool OR Jacuzzi: I’d have to say “pool” here - though [...]

Read Full Post »

More Chickens…

Every time something like this happens, I think of Malcolm X and his famous “chickens coming home to roost” comments. A little history lesson for those of you who may not be familiar with the situation: following a speech, Malcolm was asked by a reporter what he thought about JFK’s recent assassination. [...]

Read Full Post »

Cutting Off Our Nose…

…to spite our face.
I’m posting twice today, Gentle Readers, because I just can’t stand it.
I was reading the Language Log this evening, where I was directed to a NY Times Op-Ed. piece written by Stephen Benjamin, a (now former) translator for the U.S. Navy. Go ahead and read; it’s not long. I’ll wait….
You’re [...]

Read Full Post »

Parenting

I teach a public speaking class at a local community college (which, for the sake of simplicity, I refer to as Tiny Community College, or TCC). As part of their final exams, my students are required to research, compose, and deliver a persuasive speech.
Ten students have delivered their speeches so far - I have [...]

Read Full Post »

Before and After

Mrs. Chili spent this afternoon cleaning.
The clutter had reached a critical stage - that point where it begins to take on a life of its own and can no longer be ignored (and there are no more places to put MORE clutter..). Observe:

You know.. looking at that picture, it really doesn’t look all THAT [...]

Read Full Post »

And Away We Go…

So! All three of Punkin’s sleep-over guests have RSVP’d in the affirmative. Well, that’s not technically true; one girl has said she’s planning to stay the night, the other two are all hedgie and are bringing their sleep-over things, but aren’t sure they’ll want to actually sleep over and may want to be [...]

Read Full Post »

Ten Things Tuesday

Ten bits of language I’ve collected from books I’ve read (or, in the case of the first quote, a book I’m reading right now):
1. [we] were attached, like keenly mismatched Siamese twins cojoined at the back of the mind.
-Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver.
2. She’s a brass-bound bitch because she believes she knows best. [...]

Read Full Post »

Horrors

Maybe there’s a reason “horrors” was Elphaba’s first word…
Punkin’ Pie decided that, for her tenth birthday celebration, she wanted to have a sleep-over party.  She and I sat down at the computer and composed invitations, printed them out on pretty paper, and she brought them to school to give to three girls in her grade.
I’ve [...]

Read Full Post »

WHERE Does This Stuff Come From?!

Kids, seriously; I woke up this morning with THIS song in my head. WHERE did I get it?! I have no FREAKIN’ idea!
It’s not a bad song - I LOVE me some Stevie Wonder, and he really doesn’t have a clunker in his entire collection - I just can’t, for the life of [...]

Read Full Post »