Demolition

As I speak, EZ is almost done with the joists and then he will be laying down deck. Here are some before and demolition stages, including the big hold EZ jackhammered.

Our Old deck (10ftx12ft our new deck will be 15ftx16ft):



The hole EZ dug and the pile of rock he jackhammered out:






The sod on the side of the house I dug up and then the new plants (really the old plants that were around the deck just got transplanted to the side of the house):




The back of the house after EZ demolished the old deck:


Next up will be the deck as it goes up hopefully soon!

The 99 cent bookstore

A new used bookstore opened up in Mebane not too long ago and I went to check it out the other week. Every book in the store is 99 cents! And you can sell your books back there for credit as well. I left the store with only 5 books, but how can you beat the price. After my trip to the other huge bookstore earlier this summer when I bought 7 used books (not 99cents though) and I ordered a few more the other week, I am at a all time high of books I have but have not read yet!

I read a few books lately, Nature Girl, Rich Dad Poor Dad, and The Red Tent. Nature girl was really not that good, I learn a decent amount from Rich Dad Poor Dad and The Red Tent was pretty interesting. Currently I am reading The Time Traveler's Wife which I am thoroughly enjoying (and is our book club book this week)! I should finish that this week and then I will have to decide what to pick up next.

Oh and demolition of the deck occurred on Saturday, now our back yard is completely empty! EZ is hoping the permit from the city is approved this week so he can get building this upcoming weekend.

First Day of School

It always comes up fast don't you think? I was finishing my syllabus for my 12:30pm class today at 11:00 this morning. No I am not a procrastinator, just got busy with other stuff. And once I get going on one of my classes I keep going when I should stop and work on something else. So for my two Calc classes I am already prepped through the first 4 weeks or so!

The big hole in the back yard is done, EZ jack-hammered out the rock and filled it in with the sod I dug up from the side of the house. EZ had to help me transplant all the plants from the around the old deck to the side since they were too heavy for me but it is getting there. The old deck will be ripped out this weekend. All of this labor has made both EZ and I so sore we could barely move Sunday afternoon!! I have some pics but will post them when there is some more progress.

The Incoming Freshman Class

Check out this article from the USA Today that was brought to my attention at our faculty meeting yesterday and I found it rather interesting, or maybe more alarming:

Most alarming are these main comments about the incoming freshman into collage:
40% of students were not able to use the correct adverb or adjective form in a sentence, use the correct preposition in a phrase or make sure that the subject and verb agree in a sentence.

•30% were unable to evaluate the contribution that significant details make to a text as a whole.

•Nearly 40% could not solve multi-step problems involving fractions and percentages.

•40% could not predict the results of an additional trial of a scientific experiment.


Oh the future of America...

Fun Filled Weekend

We had a busy and fun filled weekend. Saturday was a great day to catch up with friends we haven't seen in a while. It started with a great run of 5 miles and then some homemade quiche for a brunch we were having. Two of my grad school friends/old office mates met up here with their families for a few hours of catching up and good food. It was great to see them again!

After a little down time in the afternoon we headed to Durham for a Durham Bulls baseball game with some triathlon friends from the triangle area. Game food is always so good and it was nice to finally meet Keri! The fireworks after the game were pretty good too!

We started Sunday with some work in the yard...and I was spent after like 1 1/2 hours of digging up sod, while EZ has been digging a hug hole in the back and breaking up a rock so that we can actually grow grass back there. Our approval came on Friday for our new deck and patio so the next who knows how many weekends will be spent working on that. My job so far is the digging up the sod and moving all the plants from the back, and tearing down the deck. But it will all be worth it in the end!

Someone Might Think You're Training

I was out for a bike ride with EZ and our friend Ben and it dawned on me that I rode my bike 3 times last week. Then I go off and do a 5 mile run, the longest in at least 6 months and then do a 22.5 mile bike ride (5 longer than my longest ride in at like 10 months). Hmmmm...did I mentioned I swam 750meters the other day. EZ actually tells me I better watch out, someone might think I am training!

Don't worry, it won't last long. Once school starts back up in another week or so, I won't be at home every day thinking I need to go out and workout. And trust me, I don't consider this training, but a little more than just exercise perhaps.

Camping in Ohio

The other weekend we decided to drive up to Ohio and meet my sister and family for a weekend of camping. Why Ohio??? It just so happens this is halfway between my sister and I (about 7 hours each). We left early Friday morning and drove up to right outside Akron and met them for lunch. Then off to the campground to set up camp, do a little playground action with Amelia and then dinner and smores around the campfire. You can never go wrong with true smores around a campfire!

We spent Saturday at Cuyahoga National Park doing a little hiking and seeing some waterfalls and a little more playground fun for Amelia followed by a stop at a local ice cream place. Then of course more yummy smores at night. Sunday our plans were to head to a beach there but it started raining over night so we found a local diner for breakfast then packed up our stuff, did a little more driving around the park and seeing some waterfalls and then headed home.

Here are a few pictures:
Amelia really wanted the blue ice cream:



The last day on a short little walk to see a small waterfall:



My sister has a really cute one of Amelia and I on the first night, but she won't be posting her pics for a while since they are a little behind on their blog!

EZ and I managed to listen to The Kite Runner on the trip and it was an excellent book. Even EZ really liked it. It was a great story and interesting insights on the Muslim world. I also read a short novel called Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. It is the story of two teenage boys who have to be re-educated during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. So they are sent off to a mountain village for their re-education and the story is about their time there and some secret books they read and a Chinese Seamstress they fall in love with. It was really easy to read and very good story and novel about that time period. The author is Chinese who also went through the re-education period during the cultural revolution.

Still running and yoga and a day or two cycling every now and then, nothing earth shattering. We are talking 4-5 miles of running a few days a week and 15-20 miles on the bike when I manage to get out on that thing. Yoga is going alright, it is much more difficult than I imagined and I can't begin to explain how tight my hamstrings and my pec/shoulder area is. I am trying to stretch more during the week now to see if that will help.

Another Trip to Buffalo

We made a quick trip back up to Buffalo last weekend as EZ's gma passed away. She would have turned 98 yesterday. It was wonderful that we made a trip up there last month and got to see her and the funeral was beautiful. We know she is in a happy place now and will rest in peace. It was good to see family again, and we saw some of EZ's family we haven't seen in a while.

I finished reading my 60 papers which is nice not to have that looming. But I was smart enough to volunteer to read math abstracts for an undergraduate research conference...I have 100 of those to read by next Wednesday. The more stuff I do, the more valuable I am right!

As for books, I read Flatland, which was interesting enough but not something I would call a page turner. I did enjoy the mathematical aspects to the books and the idea of what life would be like in these different dimensions. I also read Catcher in The Rye which was rather depressing and I am not sure I liked the ending but it is what it is.

God Bless You Grandma Zack.

Last Day of Summer School

Tomorrow is final exam day! Yeah!! Made it through another "semester." My class this summer started out good and slowly digressed to high school antics, but oh well, it is practically over now and I can be done with it. I have been making a dent into all the reading of freshman papers I had volunteered for, hopefully after tomorrow I will be through 45 of the 60 I have to read so I will only have 15 left.

I have taken a hiatus on the reading schedule, this happens when you are teaching summer school in the month that the Tour de France is going on. There is just no time to read when your evenings are spent watching the best cyclists in the world race up the steepest climbs possible. It has been an exciting tour all around, so it has been fun to watch. I am in the middle of reading this "math" book called Prime Obsession about the life of a mathematician Riemann. Then I just started The Code Book (another dorky math book) about the history of cryptography. It actually has started with Julius Ceasar and his famous code called the Ceasar shift and then Mary Queen of Scotts secret language. Quite interesting. Although I am reading this because I am creating a course at HPU that will use this book so I have to read it eventually.

My friend took me to this enormously large used book store and I walked out with maybe 8 new (used) books at a few dollars a piece. I have more books that I haven't read then I know what do to with. On top of the two mathy books I am reading I started a third mathy book called Flatland by Edwin Abbott. It is extremely short (less than 100 pages) and actually was not written by a mathematician but by a literary man. It was written in the late 1800's and it has all sorts of undertones about society and classes and religion but in the form of geometry. I am also reading this book because I will be assigning it in my class this fall. I have read 1/3 of it before but just never finished.

Hopefully I can finish some of these books so I can start something a little more for my pleasure than just for knowledge. I picked up a few classics that I have been wanting to read (or reread actually): The Catcher and the Rye, East of Eden, and The Jungle.

Lots of Exercise

I haven't been exercising too much lately, perhaps doing something almost every day, but nothing really hard or long. I am maxing out at 30 min of running/elliptical and I did an hour last weekend on the bike. But I had a crazy spurt of 24 hours from yesterday morning to today.

I woke up yesterday morning for a nice run, which actually wasn't too bad. The first time in a couple weeks I was able not to stop and walk for part of it. Then last night EZ and I played 45 min of tennis (we are getting much better) and then I walked for an hour with my neighbors who are trying to lose weight. Top that off with an early wake up call this morning to run to the gym and do the elliptical and that makes 4 workouts in 24 hours.

Something is seriously wrong with me. What am I training for...absolutely nothing!

On the flip side, I tried out a new recipe, some chocolate pb puppy chow mix, which is pretty good!

Strength and Flexibility

I had been talking with EZ about how I wanted to start yoga back up again. I did it for one semester back in grad school and I felt like I was regressing on flexability issues. So I had plans to start back after Europe and then the day I was going to go was the first day I got sick, so here I am finally feeling like I have the strength to make it through class.

A brand new studio opened up a couple months ago by a women in our neighborhood so I headed up there Monday night for their "basic yoga" class. I told the guy leading the class that I was extremely inflexible and he handed me the block and the strap. I didn't do too terribly except for the countless times we had to go from downward dog into the plank (think slow push up for those of you out there that don't do yoga)...and after a couple times I had no arm/shoulder strength to get me through.

Well I am way worse than I thought on the flexibility issue. Countless years of biking and running with not enough stretching has not been good to me and I couldn't do half of the yoga poses properly without a block or strap! The only thing I can do is sit on my feet thanks to year of swimming and having flexible ankles! But I know it is good for me, so I will keep going back hopefully 2x per week, first I need to at least wait for my shoulders to not hurt anymore!

Mail

This funny piece of mail came for me yesterday:




I have never been an All American (been honorable mention 3 times), but it seems so far away that I was training for triathlons. It has been almost 10 months since my last tri but seems much further than that. I looked up the rankings online and I was pretty far down the list, not even close to the AA status (I was one spot away a few years ago). And I would never think of myself as an AA anyway. I think that comes from my years of swimming and what it took to be an AA then, and I only once in high school was name AA for the 500 yd free, and I was a much better swimmer than triathlete. Or maybe not!

Nice Long Weekend

We had a relaxing long weekend, full of errands and a small get together and a little working out, oh and some good ole bocci ball! I have run a couple times and went on a easy 10 mile bike ride and it is nice to do a little bit of exercise again. My first week of summer school flew by and it is already exciting to think there is less than 3 weeks left!

I managed to volunteer for some reading papers for HPU this summer. Turns out I need to read 60 freshman papers in the next month and rate them. Doesn't that sound like a fun way to spend some of my remaining summer afternoons!

I went on a reading spree of some easy summer reading. I read Itty Bitty Lies by Mary Kay Andrews. It was a very entertaining funny story that had great characters. I would recommend this book and her other one (Hissy Fit) if you want a brainless fun read. I then read Chasing Harry Winston (author is same as Devil Wears Prada) and it was just an alright book. Not as exciting or captivating as Itty Bitty Lies, but a decent easy book to read about three best friends who make a pact to change their lives. Next up was a book called How I live Now. I think it is a "young adult" book and it won some awards. But the story follows this girl who goes to the UK to live with her cousin and a war breaks out there and basically she is left with her cousins to figure out a way to live and survive. It was a decent book, but nothing I would say was wonderful. Lastly, I read the 4th Twilight book, Breaking Dawn...it was by far the best one and it was really quick and easy to read. The novels really got pretty good on three and four, so if you can get through the first two, the last two were worth reading.

I feel like I should read something more serious, so I just started a book called Prime Obsession, which is the story of a famous mathematician and the Riemann Hypothesis. The book alternates chapters between math stuff and then history stuff. And no, I didn't pick this book up, a friend who actually read it (the nonmath chapters) read it and gave it to me saying it was pretty good.

Joys of Summer School

It is that time of year again to make a little extra money. I started up teaching summer school on Monday. It isn't bad though, 4 weeks, 2 hours a day, with a class I taught last summer. I do all my notes on my tablet, part pre done and then write on them as I go and so there is absolutely no prep for me. It is great. It is a simple class, for people who are majoring in something that only requires a basic math for the core curriculum, and I only have 10 students. I also do all my homework online, so no grading for me either. This boils down to just about a little as work possible in a short time for a decent amount of money. Money that will be spent renovating our back yard/deck area.

I am finally over the stomach bug, thank goodness. And feel so much better. I am back to eating just about what I was eating before and can handle regular foods now too, so I am going to try and do a little cardio this evening or tomorrow morning. I am getting close to finishing the last of the Twilight series. I had my doubts after the first two novels, but gave the third one a try which turned out to be good, and the 4th one is great. It is lots of teenage drama and I skim through some parts, but overall, the story is finally very entertaining and captivating. Should be done with this one in a few days.

The Power of the Stomach Virus

I am finally able to eat after 3 days of just trying to survive. I ended up going to the doctor yesterday who said there was nothing they could do, that these types of things can last up to 7-10 days. At that point, I might not have been able to move. I did fairly well drinking fluids but food was another story. I am down 7 pounds now in 4 days to a weight I haven't seen since I was in college, swimming. Not the way to lose weight though, I do not recommend it! The only good thing is that I don't start teaching summer school until Monday so I should be able to manage.

Buffalo

We headed up to Buffalo last weekend to see EZ's family. We got in late Friday night and went straight to bed. Saturday entailed lunch at my favorite Chinese restaurant-this tiny little chinese place that makes the best lo mein EVER! Got to see one of EZ's long time friends and his wife and their baby. Then we had a big family dinner with EZ's parents and brother and his family followed by a couple rounds of Opashaw.

Father's day I joined in with EZ's brother and dad and ran a 5K in the local park that I always run in when I am there. I had no goals or plans since I haven't been working out and was gone for those few weeks in Europe but I manage to run a respectable 24:40 which I thought wasn't bad for so little training. What was most impressive was the spread after the race. Chicken, BBQ sandwiches, goat cheese pasta salad and my ultimate fav-strawberry shortcake with whipped cream! Yum yum!!!

We hung out with the family the rest of the weekend, saw EZ's grandma and walked around the neighborhoods with the big homes and beautiful yards. Quite nice. I have come down with some stomach virus though, so not pleasant. But at least I am not working right now, so I can stay in the comfort of my own home while sick and hopefully it will not last for too much longer!

Reading

I have finished a few books since being back from Europe. Obviously I already mentioned Pillars of the Earth, which I really enjoyed. A very interesting book with a little too much sexual violence at times, but the overall story was captivating.

I then read Jodi Picoults book Handle With Care. The story of a family with a daughter who has OI (brittle bone disease) and the mother sues her doctor, who is her best friend, for wrongful birth. Basically she has to say that if she had known about the disease she who have had an abortion. The story is extremely interesting and the hardships of the family and what the lawsuit does to the family dynamics. I have read My Sisters Keeper by her and loved it, and this book does not disappoint either. Written in the same style, where each chapter is told from the perspective of a different character in the book.

I then read the third Twilight series book, Eclipse. It was actually really good. Much better than the second novel and I really can't wait now to read the final 4th novel. Her novels are very easy to read, like the Harry Potter books. Sometimes there is too much teenage drama but overall the book was good and once my neighbor finishes reading the last novel she will let me borrow it.

Now I am stuck with what to read next. I have a pile of books in my room of books I have ordered or gotten from people that I haven't read yet. But none of them were jumping out at me. We'll see what I decide in the next couple days.

Blueberry Pancakes

Early this year I convinced another friend of mine to go in halvesies with EZ and I on a CSA (Communitry Supported Agriculture). We live in an area with no local farmers market, and while they are in the process of getting a coop, it won't be here till next year at the earliest. My sister told me about these CSA's. I had no clue what they were so had to do some research. Basically, in case you are just like me and didn't know what they are, is a local farm that grows their own produce and you buy a share. Each week we then get a basket or whatever of fresh, local produce.

Each CSA was different, some were all organic, some had meat and eggs in addition to veggies, some had only veggies and no fruit. I found a great website (local harvest) and researched all the local CSA's near me. Turns out there was one pretty close to us (actually on EZ's and mines usual 25 mile bike route) and it was most local. It was also one that didn't seem as organized. But whatever, we signed up for 4 months of fresh, organic produce from the most local farm there was.

Last week was suppose to be our first pick up. But the farm was flooded from the oodles of rain we have had and the ground hadn't been dry enough to really get too much stuff, but yesterday we headed over to pick up our first share. The farm is pretty isolated but the guy running it could not be any nicer and I am super excited that I am supporting the most local farmer that I can. After splitting all the stuff, I have 4 grocery bags full of all sorts of great goodness-blueberries, blackberries, zucchini, squash, green beans, snap peas, some other kind of pea, green onions, beets, kale, mustard greens, lettuce and basil. And he said this was a slow week since everything is just coming up! I can't wait for all the things he says he has coming, watermelon, sweet potatoes, pumpkins...

So this morning, we decided to make blueberry pancakes with a blueberry syrup. I made my own concoction of a blueberry syrup which turned out great and the blueberries were so great in the pancakes. This might have been one of the best breakfasts we have created in a while, soooo good!

The CSA was a great idea, and am glad my sister mentioned it to me...and if you want to do something about buying local, find a CSA to join and hopefully yours will be as good as the one here in Whitsett!

Working Out

I have started to do a little bit of exercise and it has not been pretty. I manage to run 20 minutes yesterday before I thought I would die. I have started walking with my neighbors which has been fun and I am going to start yoga next week. I did not make it to the driving range yet, but EZ and I went up to the clubhouse to play (attempt to play) tennis last night.

We are heading up to NY next weekend to visit EZ's family. We haven't seen his brother and kids for almost a year and a half so it was time to go up there. Just so happens, since it is fathers day, his dad and brother are running a local 5K and maybe have talked both EZ and I into running it. It sure won't be pretty but if I keep adding a few minutes to my runs, by next weekend I should be able to make it, just rather slow!

A few other randome thoughts about Italy that I forgot. Sometimes they answer the phone with "Pronto" which means ready. Also, to say goodbye, many of them use Ciao. But they don't say it once, but like 5 or 6 times. It is rather funny.

Ciao, Ciao, Ciao, Ciao, Ciao.

Vacation after Vacation

It has been nice coming home from our vaca in Europe. Basically I am on vacation now from work since it is summer. I am teaching summer school in July, but for the next couple weeks I can just relax and I am super excited about it. I have been dreaming about these days where I can hang out at the pool and read and get tan...so what have I done since we got back...

The first couple days it poured rain, I got my hair cut and got my nails done since I had forgot to cut them before we left and then tack on 3 more weeks without cutting your nails produces some serious issues. I cleaned and did laundry, got groceries and all that. But I did manage to get to the pool on Sunday since it was sunny and hot. I only was there for about 2 hours until a kid pooped in the pool and they had to shut it down. No worries, in those two hours, I finished Pillars of the Earth, a great novel that was rather long but wonderful and I was thoroughly captivated (is the sequel World Without End just as good?), and I managed to already get a good sunburn, which means no pool for a few days, what a bummer! I am on to reading Handle with Care, Jodi Picoult's newest book, which so far is really good.

But it is nice being on vacation when you get back from vacation! I am slowly exercising, I ran for 15 min yesterday and I rode my bike for an hour last Sat. It was slow and rather relaxing, which was nice and even EZ came which is a first for him in quite a while. I am taking it easy as I would rather not be focused on anything, I think I might go to the driving range today and perhaps convince EZ to go to the clubhouse and play tennis tomorrow.

I learned...

Some of the things I found interesting in Ireland/Italy.

In Ireland-
1. It does rain as much as they say and that means it really is as green as you can imagine.
2. I was more scared being a passenger on the other side of the car than when I attempted driving on the other side of the car.
3. There are a lot of sheep.
4. The ketchup they use tastes funny.
5. Sometimes there was a harder language barrier here than in Italy.
6. I loved seeing all the signs in Gaelic.

In Italy-
1. There are Gelatarria's on every corner like there are Starbuck's here in the US.
2. It is amazing how cheap you can get getlato, good sized scoops for 1-2 euros.
3. Don't order a coke/soda in a restaurant. We paid 4 euros for a bottle of coke, that is close $5.50 for a single bottle.
4. Order the house wine instead-we could get 1/2 Liter, which is enough for us non wine connoisseurs for 3-4 euros.
5. The Italians smoke A LOT. It was unreal how many people smoke there. We even saw in the airport someone had bought a huge carton of cigarettes and the huge warning label on the carton said Warning: Cigarettes may raise blood pressure and cause impotence. Funny that they don't mention cancer.
6. Most people speak english there and their english is way better than my Italian, or occasional slip up of speaking spanish, which they understood as well.
7. The lemons there are huge, the size of grapefruits...no wonder I loved lemon gelato.
8. I wasn't a fan of how the set up their menu. Getting a first plate of pasta and then a second plat of just meat was strange. We got veal meatballs at one place, wich were good, but strange to just be given a plate of 6 meatballs. So instead, we stuck mainly to ordering an antipasta and then a first pasta dish.
9. We had a conversation with our host in Rome who explained she thought it was strange that in the US we can't drink outside. This is coming from the same country where the is no age limit for purchasing beer.

Back Home

We made it back last night after a last couple days in Italy. I must say it was a great finish to the trip. The Amalfi Coast was incredible, it was like the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland with the Cinque Terre in Italy but on steroids! It was a wonderful adventure.

Our last day in Italy was jammed packed. We arrived early in Milan (6:50am) took the metro to the downtown square to see the famous cathedral there then took it back and headed up to Lake Como. This might have been one of my favorite places. I was done with cities (as I am not really a city person) and we stopped in Varenna on the lake
and just chilled there in a cute small town. Took the ferry across the lake to hang out in Bellagio with all the rich peeps and then came back. We then headed to Bergamo where we were flying out of and it was actually a pretty cool city too. It was a great last two days of our trip.

We had a great time and would totally go back to Italy and chill in a few places. It was a very busy trip which made it somewhat exhausting but it was worth it. Here are a few pictures of our last few days.

The Vatican:


St. Peter's and the Vatican in Rome:


Mt. Vesuvius:


Pompei and Vesuvius:


Lemon Groves in Sorrento:


Amalfi Coast:


Milan:


Lake Como:


Bellagio:


Varenna:

Almost Done

This trip has been long to me. I think 3 weeks is just a little too much, but it could be that we really don't have much stops and rests. Yesterday we headed to Pompei and the up Mt Vesuvius and today we are heading down what is suppose to be the breath taking Amalfi Coast. Then we take the night train to Milan and tomorrow we changed our plans and are going to spend the day at Lake Como before our flight out back to Dublin. Then we come back to the US.

The trip has been great so far and I am so glad we came to see most of Italy! I doubt I will be back on the internet until we get back, but I will post more pics then.

Rome

Rome is busy and bustling and for the first time it hasn't been excruciatingly hot! Little did we know the Champions Festival (or something like that) was going on last night. This would be the final soccer championship between Manchester United and Barcelona, in which the Spaniards won. We happend to be at the Spanish Steps last night after if was over and it was fun seeing all the crowds singing songs and what not. Our B&B here is really cute and a great host!

Today we saw the town gearing up for the finish of the Giro here in Rome in a few days (although we will be in Naples that day so we won't see them).

A few more photos of Rome:

7 Years

We spent our 7th wedding anniversary in Cinque Terre which was beautiful! We just got to Rome and are off to see some stuff... Here are a few pictures from around Italy!

Pisa-


Siena-


My 8th Gelato in 4 days (I love it here!)-




Tuscany-


Driving the Vespa-


Happy Anniversary-


Cinque Terre-

Tuscany

We rented a Vespa yesterday and "drove" around the countryside...we did not make it back in time to see the Giro but saw the Barloworld team cars leaving the city as we were making our way back. Oh well. Either way, it was really beautiful to just drive out in the countryside and see all the vineyards and olive tree groves.

We arrived in Siena today and it is the color of Burnt Siena. We head for our vacation within a vacation tomorrow as we go to the Italina Riviera and the towns of Cinque Terre. Each place we have been seems to be great and different in its own unique way and we are really glad we came.

Here are some pictures of our last stops in Ireland and some from Italy:
The Burren:


Cliffs of Moher:


Right Before we got stuck on the beach:


Venice:


The Basillica:

Italy

We finally made it out of Ireland and the cold and the rain! The last few days of Ireland were fun and very picturesque! We decided to drive onto the beach one day (we saw other cars do it) and ended up getting stuck in the sand. Eric spent 30 min digging us out while I kept trying to drive us out...it was quite an interesting experience. We drove a lot around the Burren and saw the Cliffs of Moher (in the rain), but our last day in Ireland we saw lots of sun and we got out and did a little hike!

Italy is HOT and crowded! Venice was way cool and we have walked around everywhere! Today we are in Florence and the Giro comes by tomorrow so that will be cool to see to! We saw Michelangeos David today which was way bigger than we had imagined, and so far our trip in the cities of Italy has been fun.

No pictures today! Maybe next time! Caio!

And for my family-
Happy 2nd Birthday Amelia! and Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad! Love you all!

Pictures

We spent the day driving...driving the Ring of Kerry, Driving the Dingle Pennisula. We have found some great B&B's to stay each night. I have tried the fresh fish and chips, but most often it doesn't have any taste...is that what fresh fish is suppose to taste like?

It is beautiful here, no doubt about it, but it has been rushed so far. A few more days here and there would make our trip a little more relaxing. But there is just only so many days! We are spending the night in Dingle, the Pennisula is one of the few places left thats first language is Irish (Galeik), so we thought it would be a nice stop. Another driving day tomorrow up through the Cliffs of Moher and The Burren and on to Galway. Before our last day back across the country to Dublin and on to Italy.

Oh, the sun made an appearence today in between the rain!

Here are a few pictures from our trip:
Powerscourt


Pet Cemetary, Powerscourt:


Guiness Storehouse:


St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin


Trinity College, Dublin:


Driving on the Ring of Kerry:


Muckross House, Killarney:


Us at Rock of Cashel:


Celtic Cross at Glendalaugh:


Eric doing a great job driving on the right side of the car, left side of the road:

Colder and Wetter and No Accidents

Yesterday we started off a little late, took too long at our first two stops and then rushed to try to make the third and missed it by 4 minutes!

We stopped at the Powerscourt gardens which were pretty cool then off to Glendalaugh Monastary which had we known we wouldn't make it in time to the Rock of Cashel we would have stayed longer. Very cool park with some neat trails to hike on.

So we ended up staying in Cashel to see the castle this morning, which was nice then another 2 hours to Killarney where we spent the afternoon in the cold, wind and rain. It rained pretty good today and the wind has been crazy. But it is super green here and really pretty.

Eric has only managed to make a few wrong type turns on the roads, but is doing really well for driving on the wrong side of everything. And Ireland is the land of roundabouts!

We are now in Kenmare and will drive the Ring of Kerry tomorrow...we have heard crazy driving on the side of the cliffs, so make for a fun day. Too bad the weather forecast is rain for the next few days! Sorry, still no pictures!

Cold and Wet

Dublin is cold and drizzly...

We forgot the camera cord to post some pictures and don't know what it will be like as we venture out of the city tomorrow. I am scared about EZ's attempt to drive on the wrong side of the road, should be interesting.

It took a lot of adjusting once we got here yesterday morning. We both only managed about an hour of sleep on the flight over, they served dinner at 10:30pm and by 2:00am they were serving us breakfast.

The city is pretty neat and we have seen a lot of stuff, it is just cold and misty here. Maybe our adventures out of Dublin will be a little warmer and clearer! Tour the Guiness plant and I had a coke while ez had a beer. :) Too bad I am not a bigger beer fan!

Off to a pub with some live Irish music.

Kittens

So I have a soft heart for kitties...always have. A few months ago I rescued a cat that had been injured, they ended up amputating her leg but I have been told she is doing great now and acting just like any other cat.

Well, about 5 months ago we starting seeing a baby kitty in the dumpster across the street, it was really scared and me and my neighbors would put food out for it. Eventually she started coming to my door and eating and then she starting being really cute and friendly. So I have been working on trying to find her a home. The humane society was going to take her but then things got crazy and now they can't. Then a week or so ago, Eric and I decided we thought she might be preggers.

On top of that we leave for our trip on Tuesday so I was trying to find a place for her asap. I found a vet that would spay her and abort the kitties and this was all going to go down tomorrow.

Well Friday night pepe (that is what I call her) didn't show up to eat. What is going on??? She has come every night to our house for like 3 months now and I was thinking the worse. But no no, she showed up last night minus the belly. Now I had no clue she was that far along. She only weighed like 3 pounds to being with and is only about 8 months old. Well we followed her and found her babies, she has two.

We have them all harbored in our spare bathroom at the moment. :) Here are some pictures of cute pepe and then the so very tiny 2 day old kittens!


Here is pepe with the crazy eyes (before giving birth):



The brand new kittens:


Mama and the kitties:

Final Grades

One of my least favorite things about being a teaching is giving out grades. I do all sorts of crazy percentages and stuff to try and help out the students, and most of the time all is good. I have submitted grades for 3 of my 4 classes. The last class I am done with the grading but I haven't yet decided on the actual grades to give out.

The problem becomes, do I curve the final exam...it was hard, but not TOO hard. Especially since I allow students to have a 5x7 notecard with anything they want on it. Yet still the grades were really low, and then if I do curve the final, how much to curve it? I messed around with different curves, 3pts, versus 5pts, no pts. And what happened this semester is that almost 2/3 of my class went up a +/- letter grade with a curve. Most of the time my grades are pretty good, I don't have a lot of borderline people, this was one of the first semesters it was this bad.

I have problems with curving a exam, especially one that you get a "cheat sheet on". And in a class where I have give out an opportunity for some extra credit. I really think that the students at HPU don't care that much about their grades. They aren't studying enough, or not studying correctly. One of my students is transferring to Virgina Tech because he says their is no competition in the classroom, that other students just don't care that much. I really think that is true.

Well, at least I am DONE with exams, done with grading, just have to decide to be nice and bump grades up or be mean and leave them as is.

Sometimes I wonder

If my students ever pay attention to what I am saying...

If I say that I will replace your lowest test grade with the final exam grade if it is higher, then hand out a sheet with the same sentence on it, then still get an email from a student (who was in class) asking if I will replace the lowest test grade with the final, obviously they were not paying attention.

What does that say about the rest of the semester???

I decided to completely ignore the email...don't know if it was the best way to handle it, but it is too frustrating to handle incompetent students.

T Minus 8 days

One final down...three to go. A Friday evening spent at a Baccalaureate , Sat morning listening to Buzz Aldrin speak at Graduation.

Then a little r&r and what hopefully will be a great vacation!

Read 2 more books:

"Ask Again Later" by Jill Davis. An quick fast paced read about a woman and her life, dealing with different issues in her family. It was pretty good.

"The Reader" by Bernhard Schlink. Quick read as well and really interesting. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. While I didn't really like the characters in the novel, the story was good and the writing was good.

Math Competition

A while ago, I posted that our Math Club that I am trying to get going decided they wanted to host a local math competition, to which I was told there was no way I could pull it off. This said competition was this past Saturday, and it went surprisingly well. My students did work hard, and they did submit questions to me with answers, but the problem was, many were just not that difficult.

Now a week ago, I had only 1 team that had entered the competition. I panicked...what do I do??? Then I got an email saying another team was sending 2 teams. Ok, so now we are up to 3. I sent an email out to many schools who told me they wanted to come. And I got 2 more teams. So the competition ran with 5 teams, which for the first year, isn't so bad.

I think it was pretty successful, other than the fact that I was spending Thursday and Friday nights at my computer coming up with questions. The bad thing was, I did this so last minute, that I was doing my solutions late Friday night, and I had a few incorrect answers. Yikes, I am no math teacher right! Luckily, some of the other teachers were doing the problems and a few challenged my answers. I think on the total of 61 questions, I had 2 incorrect.

We will probably do it again next year, with some modification and I think we can have twice as many teams come, so that will be great.

I am feeling better, I think I am finally over my sickness...I went for two walk/runs last week. Only running a total of 10 min each time, which was rough, and went for a 22 min run yesterday. It was not the best feeling, but what do I expect after a 3 week hiatus of being sick and stressed out.

Only 3 more days of class....then final exams, semester is almost over!

Still Sick

Still alive but still sick...on another round of meds and feeling better but still have to sleep propped up on pillows or I cough all night long and just keep coughing and coughing all day...

The Thirteenth Tale...one of the best books I have read in a really long time. Extremely interesting and great writing style!

Detrained

I think I have run a total of 2 times in the past two weeks. Things got hectic, then we were in Detroit. We came back and next thing I know I am crazy sick with 101 degree fever. I am on some meds but I am severely tired and coughing up tons of stuff. Together, this does not make for good training. I was planning on doing a 5K before our trip but that will not be happening. Oh well. Looks like just more getting out of shape.

Finished a couple more books: Bel Canto by Ann Patchett which was pretty good. The story of a a terrorist group crashing in on birthday party trying to kidnap the president of Argentina who decides not to attend the party at the last minute. The story is mainly about all the different relationships that form between the different people that are there. It was good for me but not great.

We listened to Away by Amy Bloom to and from Detroit. It is the story of a girl who loses her family and travels to US to find work. Then she hears that her daughter might be alive and it goes through the journey of her trying to make her way to Siberia where she might be. The story becomes basically a collection of other stories of her travels and the people she meets. It was interesting and a decent read.

I am currently reading The Thirteenth Tale which is really good so far. I am thoroughly liking this somewhat mystery novel.

Thieves in Detroit

A summary of the strangest weekend I might have ever had:

Friday afternoon: drove 11 hours to MI, arrived at 11:37pm. Left my school bag in my car parked in my parents driveway. Bag contained purse.

Saturday morning: 7:45am I go out to the car...car has been broken into. Bag with school stuff (aka school laptop) and purse are gone. File a police report.

Sat evening: attend final four games...Go Tar Heels!!!

Sun morning: MI police recover my bags!! Minus the school laptop, brand new cell phone, money and TI-89 Calculator. My quizzes I was going to grade are still there...so my students will not receive all A's. And thank you to the thieves you left my purse which had my wallet, 2 pairs of sunglasses, and 2 inhalers. I at least don't have to get all new cards for grocery stores and libraries and my drivers license.

Sun evening: the craziest game of cards with my family...my sister was in the rarest of all forms!

Mon: pack all our stuff in the car to drive home after the game. Watch UNC win the national championship game!! Yeah!!! Kind of a blowout, but fun to be a UNC fan!!
We walk back to our car to find stuff from our trunk all over the ground by our car. What the heck...another car break in! Is my car screaming "come to me"??? This time the GPS is stolen but nothing else. They left our stuff on the ground for us to pick up.

At least no broken windows right?

Who has this kind of luck to have your car broken into twice in 3 days. I am not so upset about anything except the laptop...the school laptop, with all of my work for all of my classes on it. The rest of the "stuff" is replaceable.

Why hadn't I backed up my files over the past year???? :)

I am avoiding Michigan at all costs. No more visiting the family for a while until the economy turns around!

Random Thoughts

1. Am I the only one who just doesn't understand Twitter? It seems like it is just a status bar on Facebook that you can update at your choosing. So what is so special about this? And why are so many people saying (on facebook even) that they are addicted to it?

2. I am a secret Kelly Clarkson fan...always have been. Her songs make me smile and are great beats to run to, and I like her new song out right now. Actually, EZ secretly likes her too.

3. The weather here is finally going to settle down and stop bouncing between getting warm and then cold again. This will be a huge relief because my allergies finally had enough this past week and I felt like my head was living in a cloud. Getting better, but going out to exercise has been tough. Even using my inhaler, I have been having issues breathing.

4. Major sporting events should not be played at 10:00pm. First, I don't think athletes are used to having to play a game that late, it is unfair to them right! And second, I cannot stay up that late night after night watching these bball games. You west coast people get it easy.

5. Someone told me my eyes were mesmerizing the other day. I have very dark black eyes, so dark that you can barely see my pupils, like black holes, they suck you in! This isn't normal, as I have never met any one else with eyes this dark, so does that make it part recessive gene? And since EZ has blue eyes, which is recessive, I wonder what kind of eyes our kids will have (when we have kids).

Books of the Month

My latest readings:

Night by Elie Wiesel. This was an extremely short memoir of Wiesel's account of the days leading up to his deportation to Auschwitz and then his days at the concentration camp. I read it in a couple hours and once I picked it up I didn't put it down. It was very touching and interesting to hear the story told from his perspective. I also have his two short stories Dawn and day to read as well. Highly recommend this book to anyone.

An Irish Country Village by Patrick Taylor. Our book club picked this in honor of St. Patty's day. It was a cute story, and some fun irish speak, but I just thought it was OK. I wasn't fond of the style of writing, VERY wordy, and I just don't like that. And many of my book club people agreed with the style and we all seemed to say we found ourselves skimming over sections at a time. But many of them really liked the story of the simplicity of this little village and the story of the people who live there.

The Good Earth by Pearl Buck. This is a classic novel about the story of a chinese farmer who rises up to power through his land. I really liked the story of being attached to something so valuable to live off the land and have it pay you back in return. But in the process of rising to power, I was heartbroken at his children's generation and how he thought he was helping them move up in the world and give them things he did not have, but in return his children did not see the value of the land and what it gave them. I understand why this is a classic book and I enjoyed it!

I have given up on the Omnivores Dilemma. And currently am just starting Bel Canto by Ann Patchett (my book club suggestion for next month).

Haagen Dazs Five

Haagen Dazs has created an all natural ice cream they call "five." This stands for just 5 ingredients-milk, cream, sugar, egg, and the flavor:

Vanilla, Passion Fruit, Ginger, Brown Sugar, Coffee, Chocolate, and Mint

I am a member of SheSpeaks-an online organization that reviews products and shares what they learn about them. It is all free and then they send you products to try and review. So when I got an email asking if I would taste Haagen Dazs new ice cream...Helllooo, of course! They wanted me to have an ice cream tasting party, so yesterday 8 people came over and we tasted all 7 flavors of the ice cream. Shespeaks sent me the ice cream and coupons and recipies to hand out, plus little cups and spoons for the tasting.

It was quite fun and I must say, the ice cream is really good. The ginger was rather interesting, if you like ginger it is definitely worth trying. And the Brown Sugar flavor was different too, but good. My favorites were the passion fruit and the mint. But they all were very smooth and creamy, yum yum!!

Two Great Games

Wow! The games at here in Greensboro yesterday were so much fun! Put 20000 people, 1/3 of which hate UNC and 2/3 of which hate Duke, made for two fun games. The UNC/LSU game was really exciting. And the Duke fans cheered for LSU as if they were Duke. I must say the Duke students are the best fans. Chanting and screaming the entire time. You would think that after so many years, the UNC students would step it up. Either way, it was exciting to see the Heels play great against a strong LSU team.

The Duke/Texas game was interesting. Texas hung around most of the game but played really sloppy, missing who knows how many free throws and numerous turnovers. Texas lost the game because of their own mistakes. Really, not a lot of play calling and team work. Duke didn't play all that well, so in the end, the game was great. And once Texas finally tied it up with a few minutes, the entire UNC crowd was on their feet cheering for Texas. And as much as I don't usually cheer for Texas, I just can't cheer for Duke!! It was quite a fun Saturday.

It has been an exciting tourny so far! Thanks T for the tix! Here is EZ enjoying the Duke/Texas game:

Uncomfortable Seats

We were lucky enough to score awesome tickets to the first 2 rounds of the NCAA tourny. So yesterday after my two morning classes and a not so brief faculty meeting, I bolted and headed to the Coliseum. We got there right at half time of the first game (LSU vs Butler) and saw a second half great game. I was cheering for LSU since I had picked them, but it seemed the entire stadium was routing for Butler. Then the UNC game, in which we witness Psycho T break the ACC all time career points (which JJ Redick held...not a fan of by the way).

We took a break in between session and grabbed some chinese buffet before heading back to watch a decent Minnesota/Texas game. Minnesota definitely had the best pep band of the four games. And then the Duke game, which we only stayed through half time. By then, it was 11, I was so tired and my back hurt. The seats in the collisium are TERRIBLE. Really uncomfortable and hard as a rock! When we go back tomorrow, I am bring something to sit on for sure.

Probably did not help with my back problems, but I have visited the chiropractor 5 times so far and I must say, I haven't felt better in quite a while. Still a little bit of residual pain in places and sometime, but I have to say that it is working! I was going to run the 5K tomorrow morning, but since my back flared up, I took it really easy the past 2 weeks, only ran 2x this week and easy and on the treadmill to soften the impact.

Other random news...I went and heard Thomas Friedman speak Wed night at HPU. Our president was/is a big business person who knows a lot of people and brought him in (did I mention our graduation speaker this year is Buzz Aldrin). I heard Friedman speak on the Colbert Report (or maybe it was the Daily Show) a few months ago, but haven't read any of his book. He spoke for a little over an hour about his new book Hot, Flat and Crowded, and it was really interesting. Very good speaker and great presentation and information. Based on his talk, the book sounds really good.

Lets get ready for two more great bball games tomorrow!!

Happy Pi Day (+1)

Yes, yes, yesterday was Pi day! That would be March 14th, you know 3/14, as is the first few digits of the number Pi!

If you love Sudoku puzzles, you can find one here in honor of Pi day.

A Lovely Weekend

My sister and little Amelia came for a few days and we had the most beautiful weather. Temperature in the 70's and 80's and sunny! Even getting a little sunburn, but now back to some dreary clouds and cold rain. It was a nice visit with the sis, did some shopping, running, hanging out, went to the park, watched some bball. She took some pictures and I am sure will post on her blog sometime.

On a not so great note, I am in some serious back pain. Probably about 2 weeks now, and we are talking excruciating pain. It hurts to do just about anything but be still. My sister was kind enough to work on me a little and suggested to go see a chiropractor and I did. My two lowest vertebrae are coming together and pinching (more like squashing) the nerve they share, even causing some nerves not to fire in my right leg. So yeah, expensive month this one will be...he thinks roughly 16 visits will do the trick to get me back to feeling good as long as I do some exercises for the back and strength stuff once I can get some movement of my lower spine back. The xrays were rather interesting to look at and actually see that my lowest vertebrae has already grown a bone spur because of the degeneration of the disk above it. Oh well, what can you do...

Here is hoping for some pain relief soon!

Snow and Books!

After being close to 70 last week, we got 4 inches of snow Sunday night...and HPU canceled classes yesterday! That makes for a short week now and next week is spring break!!

I thought I would update on some books I have read over the past few weeks...

1. The Shack by William Young. This is a deeply religious book that one of the book clubs picked. It was a rather quick read but I didn't like it nearly as much as The Christmas Sweater. I think it touches different people in different ways and depending on what you are going through depends on how I think you feel about the book. It was interesting and I did like how the author viewed God/Jesus/Holy spirt as the different people, and the ideas of what everything represented.

2. New Moon by Stephanie Myers. This was not on my list to read, but my sister is coming to visit this weekend (YEAH!!) and wants to take the books back. So I picked up the second book in the twilight series. It was OK and got kind of interesting at the end. I skim some of the fluff I don't like reading and it really is a serious teenage drama, but my sister swears 3 is better and 4 is really good, so I am pretty sure I will end up reading these.

3. Animal Farm by George Orwell. I had never read this book and I am trying to weave in some classics into my mix. I really enjoyed this, it is super short and I loved the meanings behind a lot of the characters. I got invested into some of the characters and was not happy with what they did to the horse, and loved the ideas behind governing played out on the farm. I do realize this has much more meaning if I go back and study some history and I might spend some time doing that.

I am still reading The Omnivoires Dilemma, I read a few pages every few nights. It really is hard to get through it but I am learning a lot. And I am reading An Irish Country Village by Patrick Taylor (book club), which is an alright story which takes place in Ireland. I am also listening to The Good Earth by Pearl Buck in the car right now. Maybe I will be done with these in the next couple weeks.

It can be done...

I am trying to start up a math club here at HPU and getting students to get involved is rather hard. I find lots of interests when I ask my students in class, but no one yet is willing to step up and take charge, except for me.

I do realize that getting this thing going is going to take work, so ok, I am committed to work at this for a little while hoping that by the fall I can find some dedicated students to really get it together.

They decided they wanted to host a local math competition for high schools. I said OK, I will try to see what can be done. I tell my boss this and his response to me is that I won't be able to pull it together in time (end of April).

I sent out 30 emails today to local schools, already 6 have responded that they want to do it. That is pretty good turn around for just a trial to see if there is interest. So guess what....game one. I gave a student a list of 30 more schools to contact and he said he would do it this weekend. Now I have to really nail down some details as to level of competition, entry fee, the time, etc. But it all just takes a little work right! I was discouraged until I saw the responses come in today, it was very encouraging!

I also managed to get get a professional poker player turned math professor to come give a talk later this semester and am organize multiple workshops for the students that they have asked for.

All of this has surely kept me busy...and tomorrow is another long day of interviewing prospective incoming freshman for scholarships here, yeah. Now it is time to go off to a dinner for them and their parents, even more fun!

The Students of Today

There was an article posted in the NY Times last week that one of my friends posted on facebook (thanks J). It is about student expectations...that the students we have today have this idea that they are expected to receive grades based on what they think is work, but what educators think of as expected.

"A recent study by researchers at the University of California, Irvine, found that a third of students surveyed said that they expected B’s just for attending lectures, and 40 percent said they deserved a B for completing the required reading."

So there is this sense of entitlement for them, partially because I think that is the norm throughout high school. Time and time again, my students ask me for extra credit at the end of the semester because they are not satisfied with their grades. There is so much pressure on high school teachers to keep their grades up that I think students are failing to actually learn how to learn. Oh I could go on all day about this...you can read the article here (have to be a subscriber to the NYTimes-it is free).

Then two students emailed me Friday afternoon asking if they could put me down as a reference to be a peer mentor. That they were being interviewed Saturday morning, so they needed to know Friday evening. I did get both emails Friday night, but was disappointed that students don't even have the common courtesy to give you time to respond to things like this. I waited until Sunday morning to respond, telling them in the nicest way I could that I would have been happy to be a reference but that in the future they need to get not all professors ample time to respond to situations like this, that it is just common courtesy. One girl actually emailed me back and said she was sorry but that she did put me down as a reference. That blew my mind too. So I hadn't even said yes, but she put me down anyway....back to this sense of entitlement.

And lastly, EZ sent me this post on you tube about a customer arguing with Verizon...it is a scary world out there that people don't understand simple math like this: