Calzones

This is in honor of Dinah. When I lived with her, I remember her making calzones all the time, and I was so impressed! I thought she was such a good chef!

One of Mike's favorite things that I make is homemade pizza, so I've gotten pretty good at making that. The other day I was trying to plan my menu, and I remembered Dinah's calzones. I took my recipe for pizza, tweaked it a little, and voila!

(They tasted pretty yummy, too!)

Crack Attack

All right. I debated on whether or not posting this was going to offend someone. I'm sorry if it does. However, Mike keeps bugging me to do it (he's just proud because he was the one who snapped the pictures), and I decided that enough people in my family would get a laugh out of it, so I decided to do it. I hope I don't offend anyone!

The other day, we had an appointment set up with our power company to update our meter. They wanted to put in some new digital thing that would allow them to read it from the street rather than from inside the garage. So the guy shows up and knocks on the front door. We talk to him for a little bit and tell him to go right into the garage. He turns around and BAM!

I turned to Mike and said, "Did I just see what I thought I saw?!" He said, "Yeah!" Then he promptly ran to get the camera and snapped a few pictures so I could share this lovely experience with you.

(This is a reconnaissance photo taken through the blinds.)

Sigh. And I thought it was just supposed to be plumbers...

The Knife.

(See why it has a capital letter and a period at the end?)

So the story behind this lovely beauty is as follows: At the end of last school year, I was packing up my entire classroom. As I was doing that, Emily called with some questions about the class play I always do. I ended up giving her some tips and saying that she could borrow some of my costumes if she wanted to try a play I had done a few years ago. I dutifully packed the costumes and mailed them to Emily. (You know, they ask at the post office if you have anything dangerous in there, and of course I said no...)

So Emily got my package, and a few days later she called to ask me a question about it. Then she's like, "So what's with the knife?" And I'm like, "I have no idea what you're talking about it." It turns out this lovely beauty was somehow in the bottom of the box! I think it was because I had packed the costumes in a random box that was hanging around the school waiting for teachers who needed it to pack, and it must have somehow been in there!

Anyway, Emily sent it back with the costumes, where I showed it to Mike and asked what to do with it. Believe it or not, he actually likes this knife! He kept it and uses it! Sigh. What do you do with THAT thing???

ACT Prep

Some of you know that I work at Sylvan. One of the programs I teach is an ACT math/science prep class. Normally I can explain the math quite well, but for some reason I came across a problem tonight that I couldn't solve right away! (Now that I've figured it out, it's really not that hard, but for some reason it stumped me.) It bugged me enough that I had to copy it and bring it home, where I worked it out and made Mike show me another way to solve it.

So, here's your big chance. I'm going to put the problem here. Post your answer and how you got that solution, and I'll come back with my explanation later! The only rule is be honest - try to work it out BEFORE you look at the comments section for everyone else's ideas! (Eric B., you are banned from posting until at least 5 other people have taken a shot. Otherwise, everyone else will just look at your answer.)

Here's the problem: "In a downhill ski race, Margo posted a time of 2 minutes and 24 seconds for a course 1.2 miles long. About how many miles per hour did she average for the race?"

Have fun!

De-Cluttered!

Is it just me, or do you also have those piles of clutter? You know, the stack of papers on a desk or counter here, the old mail or magazines you haven't read yet, a stack of receipts to put in your checkbook, and various other things that you know you need to sort through, but you just don't have the time right now?

Yeah, I hope so, because I don't want to be the only one!

And okay, don't start thinking I'm a major slob, because I'm not. Generally our house is very clean. But I do have a few corners of miscellaneous junk... or at least, I DID!

Starting this weekend and finishing tonight, I went through quite a few piles, including some school stuff I've been intending to sort since LAST school year and never got to, and I can now officially say I am de-cluttered! I have put everything where it goes, and for one small moment, my house is in perfect order! Whew! Doesn't it feel good to de-clutter?!

Fall Adventures

I had 2 new fall adventures yesterday.

First, several of my friends have posted about going to farmer's markets, but I had never been to one before. I was on my way to the grocrey store when I passed our farmer's market. I decided to swing in and check it out! I got some potatoes (yukon gold - yummy!), a zucchini (for bread, of course!), and sweet corn. Mmmm... although I thought everything was supposed to be cheaper than the store? The prices were just about comparable. Oh, well, it was still fun.

My second fall adventure was the Fort Dodge Fall Fest. I didn't even realize it was going on, but my boss at Sylvan mentioned something about it as I was leaving work. It was a beautiful day and the festival wasn't too far from our house, so I decided to drag Mike to it. And... well... Okay, so it's not that great. There were several bouncy castles that are lots of fun for little kids, and not so great for childless adults. There were quite a few food stands, but we didn't bring any money, so there goes that. There was a show with antique cars... for all of you who know how much I love those! The Cat in the Hat was there... again, great for people with kids, but... There were also several stalls selling crafts. You know how much Mike loves crafts! So basically, we just wandered around for about 20 minutes and left. (Although we managed to run into 7 people I knew in only those 20 minutes! You can tell we've been here for a while now!) So much for the Fall Fest, but I'm still glad we went. At least we tried something new!

Hymn 73

I just finished choir practice, and I LOVE the hymn we are singing! It's hymn 73, which I had never heard before, but I love it! The notes are great, every part is fun, and the words are wonderful! You can hear it here if you don't already know it - just type 73 in the search engine. Did any of you already know this song? Has anyone sung it in choir before? What do you think of the song?