I’ve moved past have aprons as part of my work wardrobe, but I adore the cut of this one.
Tag: me
Possibly the last cards elementary school students will ever make for me.
These are from Ms. Mode’s first graders on the occasion of my last day of work at Sabin School. They were very sweet to read. The flowers are from the Vice Principal. On Monday I start a new job!
PKO Senior Dissertation
This autumn and winter, I’ve been helping a senior in high school with her high school dissertation, which is what her school calls the culminating senior project. I was one of three committee members and my job was editing. I had great fun looking over PKO’s research paper and her journal entries.
PKO’s focus was on animals. Her paper was about Animal Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation. She also volunteered at the Oregon Humane Society with dogs, teaching them commands to make them more adoptable. During that time she kept a journal, which included information about the different dogs she volunteered with as well as instructions for teaching commands to dogs.
Her teacher said it was one of the top three senior dissertations she had seen.
Well done PKO!
What I spent my Christmas money on
I bought a tablet!
And because I’ve learned that buying an electronic device is just the beginning of your expenses, aside from the tablet I bought a memory card, a heavy-duty case and also a new bluetooth speaker. For unknown reasons the bluetooth speaker that worked perfectly fine with my phone was all crackly when used with the tablet. I also bought a new case for my phone, as my old one was on its last legs.
One thing I like about Samsung products (and perhaps other products do this, it’s just that I’ve only had Samsung phones) is that when you get a new device and log in, everything is automatically downloaded. It’s pretty cool.
One thing I’m looking forward to is having a bigger platform to read the digital editions of the newspaper. You can see the difference here:
And look how much bigger the pictures are on the tablet!
I had a $25.00 credit for apps from Amazon and bought Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne, and Settlers of Cataan. Ticket to Ride is by far the prettiest of those apps, and my inability to win, dammit, has had me playing many games. I anticipate that not as many games will be played once I start back to work, but it’s an amusing diversion.
My old phone case served me well. And was cheery.
My new volunteer job.
I now volunteer with the Hollywood Library Teen Book Council. The Hollywood Library has such robust programming that there is a regular Teen Council, as well as a Teen Book Council, as well as some other ways for teenagers to meet and talk about books. I love Portland, the Multnomah County Library, and Danielle, the Teen Librarian so much!
Anyway, I go to the meetings where we choose a theme, and then recommend books on that theme. After the meeting, I take the list of recommended books and write annotations of the books. Then I ship my annotations back to Danielle and she puts them together in a post for the library’s website. It’s pretty cool.
In November, we watched The Great British Bake-Off and recommended books for the hosts as well as the contestants. Here’s the link to the final product:
https://multcolib.org/blog/20151229/great-british-baking-show-book-gift-edition
What I’m not doing this Christmas
There was a good three-hour window in which I was totally going to make one of these gingerbread houses. Because they are totally awesome! And then I came to my senses.
Maybe next year.
Big week ahead. Here’s my cooking list for today.
Usually with such lists I complete nearly all items. So it was with this one. I ran out of steam before the Broccoli Salad. But other than that, I was ready for this week.
Gift Certificate Spent
The gift certificate was a going away present from one of my favorite Emerson families. I was excited to try out the latest in garlic mincing (green thing on the right) and the stemming thingie that is supposed to help me take stems out of kale, collards, etc as well as herbs. These are the kinds of things I won’t spend real money on, because they might not work, but gift card money? Bring it on! So far the mincer seems to work well and clean up fast. The stem thing works so-so on kale, etc., but fabulously on herbs, which I never like to pick apart anyway.
Early birthday present: Elizabeth Gilbert at the Newmark
Kelly spotted this opportunity for a birthday present and so we went. We were excited to also get a book with our admission. (Especially me, who didn’t pay. :-))
The Newmark Theater is my favorite theater in Portland. One of the things I love is that when you sit in the balcony the view plunges straight to the stage.
I only managed to capture a so-so photo. But what with the zoom and the dark and all, this was as good as it got. I would say that bemused acknowledgement of her good fortune is probably a core Elizabeth Gilbert feeling these days.
This is either the third or fourth time Kelly and I have seen Elizabeth Gilbert speak. But this time, she talked about the redemptive power of group singing (something I’ve been yammering on about for years) and had us all sing to end her talk.
We sang “Take me Home, Country Roads” which, aside from being a song I’ve known all my life was also a YRUU standard. Neither Kelly nor I needed to google lyrics.
The displaying of the cards.
Once again, the foldable Ikea clothesline shows its multipurpose mettle as a great display space for the going away cards I received from parents, students and co-workers.
