armchair (kitchen table) travels

 This is only one set of bags that I schlep to work~which is why I am strongly anti-carrying-any-kind-of-purse on the weekends.

My classroom windowsill is super fun these days. 

A student in a completely different class brought me some delicious homemade granola today. I had it for lunch~she's bringing me the recipe tomorrow. 

Today we went to Asia with a cold noodle salad. 

Chopping, dicing, slicing, cutting, grating~all new words integrated into their vocabulary. 

They also showed fierce math skills as we tripled the amount of noodles and they needed to adjust the sauce to fit.

I'm sayin' we need our own food truck.

facing Monday with my sassy pants on

Tackling how words in English can morph from noun to verb to adjective.

won't you be my neighbor

Googly eyes going on a gift to a housewarming party. 

Found objects~this lovely little footstool is now my new project. 

The office manager at the music school is a fellow alum (even if we were there at different times), so we've power bonded over memories of professors and classes.  And she just happened to move to my 'hood.

Nice to have neighbors with whom to spend time. 

Darlin' little bundle is now three months old!

I'm sailllllling

Somewhere on the Orange Line, there are some happy eyeballs.

Got to sail on the Potomac for the first time today~it was an ideal day. Breezy and warm.

This is the smallest sailboat I've ever been on, but it's a calm river. 

Heading out. 

Looking at DC. 

One of my ESL cohorts. 

Googly eyes at a Greek restaurant~have 18 sets to go!

the gods smiled

at least for a few moments. I love these flowers~not sure what they are, but this one bush looks lovely both in full sunlight and in the twilight.

A little weary of having most of my stuff in storage, so while looking for kitchen supplies for school, I came upon these fun plates. And best of all??? They were deeply discounted!

I just discovered that my community has a small pool and shockingly, it was empty this afternoon.

in which we learn that lemon curd and Nutella do not go well together

Today's elective took us to France. 

I think Grandma Dunston would be pleased that her measuring cup is well-loved and well-used. 

Such a fun crew today (while there are enrolled students, they are very relaxed with attendance, so we scoop up whomever is wandering the hallways to help.)

The "Manager" showing them how it's done. 

After a couple of mangled ones, they started turning out beautifully.

The winning combo (for the students) was Nutella, strawberries, mint, and chocolate shavings. Mine was the lemon curd and powdered sugar. Bon appetit indeed!

starting with the man in the mirror

Received a v. fun card in the post yesterday with the mission to spread goofiness around. 

I started with my work computer~stayed tuned as these eyeballs get scattered around the region.

And England dashed my hopes today by losing to Croatia~fortunately, today is 7/11, so I could get a free Slurpee to recover.

!Viva la tortilla!!

It might be warm if your plastic jar of nuts is wilting in the car. My car is generally parked in underground parking during the day, so this is remarkable.

Since my class was struggling with the way English words can morph from noun to verb to adjective, I made word cards and made them walk around make physical sentences for awhile. Once they felt confident with that, they got to make them on the floor.

The conversations and process is hilarious~I ought to record it sometime. 

For my elective today, we visited Mexico for our culinary inspiration. 

Learning new vocab and important life skills such as: never touch your face after you've diced peppers.

Our man of the burner got confident enough to flip the tortillas in the air. 

We finished in time to rush out to the school lobby to watch the end of the match between France and Belgium.  We'll gather tomorrow to watch England v. Croatia. So much fun to watch World Cup with a group of international peeps.

Walked to Penzey's for some cinnamon after school and found $.15~in different places. Evidently, I've forgotten my Texan lesson of "don't pick up coins on a hot day."

Brazilian brigadeiros

I love words. I love chocolate. So, what better way to kick off the week than to learn "brigadeiros" which equals delicious chocolate truffles?

Vanessa (one of my students in the cooking elective) made them and brought them in to share! Comer! Mangia! Bon appetit!