it's in the bag

Got invited to play Trivia last night~figured after all the years of shrieking at the TV screen while Jeopardy was on, it would be a fun thing. The humidity lifted, the cicadas were singing, fireflies were zipping about, and the patio was strung with my favorite Texas lights.

And best of all?? Our table won!! I had NO idea that you could get money for knowing random factoids. As there were five of us, I got $10. Woo-hoo. I just may go back. 

It's so handy that it's summer and the heat is off, so I can store my groceries on the vents/ledge. 

One of my favorite students brought me a tin full of Moroccan treats~at first glance, I thought it was fried meat of some kind. But no! Delicious almond pastries.

Today's elective was ice cream in a bag. Since I'm a lazy busy teacher, I did not do a test run to see if it actually worked.  

To all of our delight, it does!!!!

I am so doing this for my next party.

quiet pleasures

I did not realize that my coffee mug coordinates perfectly with my new plates!

Another palate testing day.

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!