Rose Parade - Look for Pao

This year the Cardinal Regime is going to the Rose Bowl parade.

The local band from Golden Valley High School was choosen to represent California Bands at the annual Pasadena Rose Bowl Parade. Its a great honor. It is an amazing experience for a huge amount of students that don't usually get out of our own community. Our community has many families that can only be described at impoverished. For the band to raise money and organize the trip to the Rose Bowl is pretty phenomenal especially considering the economic conditions. The Rose Bowl committee has chosen fewer bands to participate this year. They want the whole thing to conclude within the allotted time.
They are also trying to make sure that all the entrants have a good chance to be highlighted on their time in the sun.

One of my students, Pao (pronounced Pow) is a trumpet player in the band. This band has the most beautiful tone. The band leader, Geg Christiansen is a horn man himself. Pao is a freshman hmong student. He was born in the United States. My freshman students were born in 1994. This is pretty hard to understand because I think of 1994 as just a little while ago. This is most certainly an artifact of old age.. Ha!
Pao's extended family got together and at graduation (from Junior High) got him a really nice trumpet. He represents the pride of many members of his family. All dressed up in red and gold with white pants he represents the pride of this community. This community has really put out to get his band down there to participate.

Greg the band director has only once before had the honor to take a Merced Band to Pasadena. It was in late 80's. I had a student in that band too. He was not such a good player so he was held in backup in case a student fell ill marching down the street in competition. The band was from the one and only school at that time from Merced. It was nick named the Merced Marching 100. We used to laugh at that designation. The reality it is more like the Marching 260. They were marching on the street about 160. They also had backups in every category. When they went to the Rose Parade, they pulled in from their ranks alumni from a couple of years back to inflate their appearance. I do not believe that this will happen this year.

The individual fund raising for each member to go to this event was over 700 dollars. That is too much cash to bring in stand ins in alumni and dress them to participate.

So as you watch the Rose Bowl Parade look for the short Hmong trumpet player from Golden Valley. It just may be my student Pao!

Have a safe New Year's Eve tonight

Love
Pat

Life's Lessons- Marley and Me

Sue and I went to see the Movie Marley and Me.

Its got some good drama,and believe it or not Annison can act.

IT follows the progression of a writer/reporter and his wife and eventually his kids as they relate to a Golden Retriver named Marley.

If you love the jerk of the tear, this one is for you. I am one usually fond of this kind of movie. The tear jerk was a little too much this time.

The kids are sweet. The story of the reporter vs the columnist is okay. The story of the dog defying training was cool. There were several variations on it. The life story as we progress and our animals age faster than we do was pretty hard. I really hate that trip to the vet.

So you know what is going to happen in the end.

Sue and I both left the theatre in tears, as did everyone else there too. If you are a dog lover you will really be hit.

Sue said that if she knew it was going to be like that she probablly would not have wanted to see it... yeah I have heard that one before.

: ) Pat

Save the Data..er Your files

What looks like a new toy is really a lifesaver.

My book, a one terabyte hard drive by Western Digital, followed me home from Costco the other day. It is quiet and will save my proverbial a@#. At least that is the plan.

Only 134 dollars after instant rebate, it sits 6 and quarter inches tall beside my mac. My internal hard drive has been giving off some pretty funky sounds recently.So if it does.. I will be ready.

One word of caution, all hard drives will crash and die.. its only a matter of time. While replacing the the hard drive on the IMac 20 incher is not a big deal, losing all of the movies and Itunes library on it would be more than a little tragic. Its amazing.. I let my reunion pages expire a couple of years ago off of GoDaddy, thinking that I saved them on the hard drive and pull them up when needed. Well, the hard drive died before the website could be redone.. so no resources to draw upon, no internet FTP to pull the files from.. This year's reunion website for the class of 1968, El Camino High had to be resembled from scratch and I had to relearn the program that it was written in.. Adobe GoLive. And granted, it was better.. mainly because of the advancements in technology and that we are no longer in dial up mode. Thank goodness for Lynda.com and the ability to pull info from the web to put it together. I had to rely on others to send me scans of their photos from the past reunions and strip them out of the emails and format them for the current site. All of this could have been avoided if by hard drive had not died. It was a big for that time 56 gig hard drive. But don't feel smug, it was fewer years than it would seem. if your internal hard drive is less than 250 gigs this could be you. You are operating on borrowed time.

Go out and get one of those bigger hard drives and back up your data. Or as the dental hygenist would say about flossing, only floss the teeth you want to save.. oh that is bad. Only back up the data you want to save... Sorry for the metaphor.. but only I can talk to you this way..

Saving is better than recovery...

Pat

19 second pull

Its important to have a "coffee person running your Starbucks.

My double short cap on my walk today had acceptable foam. After 2 years of going to the same Starbucks, they are getting the foam right. The manager asked me after drinking it if the foam was okay. I replied to him that it was.. but the coffee tasted better.

Some folks feel that if the drink is going to end in an espresso based beverage, it doesn't matter a whole lot whether the coffee tastes good in the drink. It just has to come across as bold and strong. Well friends there is a difference. A slopped up coffee pull can make your drink taste rather skanky. The result is a very bitter less than flavorful cup of coffee.

The manager revealed to me today that he has set the machines at this Starbucks, when he is there to pull at a "slower" than Starbucks recommended speed. The usual setting for an espresso pull at a Starbucks is around 12 to 16 seconds. This is the Starbucks company recommendations. Mine today was set at 19. The manager suggested that I request a 19 second pull for the cap to taste the way I liked it. I suppose that this is the major difference between Pete's and Starbucks. It might be the espresso blend but I suspect that it is also the length of time the pull takes.

My friend in Italy, Franco, says that he hates to get espresso coffee products in the US because the add so much hot water to the pulls. If you do them yourself at home, their is a point in time where the coffee maker just fills up the shot with hot water to even out the pull. He always wants them to stop at that point, let the hot water run into the drain and give him the straight shot. If the machine more slowly produces the shot, there is a chance that more of the oils that give it flavor will go into the cup instead of staying in the grounds..

So what do think about that? My professional baristas?

Love
Pat

Wasting a Day on Football

After all of these years I should know better.

Sunday I wasted a whole day watching football.. granted a High Def screen and signal are compelling.. but..

The 10 o'clock start and the raiders beat the Tampa bay "men in pewter pants." It pretty well kicked the door down on the chances of Tampa Bay doing anything in the playoffs. Its a little sad because their quarterback Garcia has a very compelling piece to him. He is not one of those superman quaterbacks 6 feet four inches and 230 pounds (like the Raiders Jamarcus Russell) He is about 6 feet tall and pretty scrawny. Linzi and I were down to the interview with him after the 49ers demolished the Buffulo team composed of rookies. He had a few cuts and scrapes but he didn't have the "quarterback" presence of a Steve Young or a Montana. So I always thought that for him to succeed in NFL was really great.

The 49ers played a game that followed. Starting at 1 o'clock the 49ers worked the clock even without the major running back. They too won the game but lost the season. There were some good running plays up the middle and the teams looks a lot sharper than they did when they squeaked out a win from behind in the St. Louis stadium. The sun was shinning brightly in SF and the game was beautiful in HD.

The evening game between the broncos and the chargers was played in the San Diego. The winner would get into the playoffs the loser would be out. The ponies (the Denver Broncos in their most depreciated form) didn't have the horses in the tank. While it was an interesting game, the Chargers blew them out in the end.

So those of us on the West Coast will be hoping for the Chargers to make it through the playoffs. Arizona will also be in the playoffs.. but few people are giving the cardinals much chance against their East coast rivals.

Next week the wild card games begin. They are usually the best games of the playoffs.. but there is a time cost.. and how many diet cokes can you drink before you have to find the "facilities". At the park this could be a major issue.. as more is on the ground than hits the hole.. I know I could have gone along time without saying that..

Happy Monday.. Pat

New Photos on Flickr

Please check out the latest of the pbrownie photo stream.

There are lots of photos of making lemon shooters.. mini lemon meringue pies on top of mini phylo cups and the fun we had putting on beards and acting foolish for the camera on Christmas day.

The Christmas party was great. We missed a major person in it. Kelly had enough of pressures.. who could blame her and opted out. Renovating any part of your house is enough to make you want to sit down and cry. Let alone a phd study and a bi bay lifestyle.

I made two lasagnas. One of them used portabella mushrooms. That was a first for me. Also I made up a meat lasagna that was more like chili mac without the chili. Booth of them were successful and we had plenty of leftovers.

I also tried my had at making crustini with pesto. The pesto was really good.. made with fresh basil and olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and pine nuts. Just a little goes a long way.

Mom made a ham. It was great although there were not many ham eaters in this "going" vegetarian oriented crowd. She was glad there weren't any turkey leftovers.

Linzi and Sean invited a Christmas "orphan" from Oakland to join us. He is a ginger. See her blog for an explanation.

We all tried on funny Santa beard masks for the Christmas shot. It was a lot of fun. I added some strictly casual shots for my flickr stream that you may enjoy. A more formal shot may be referrenced in Cammie's flickr stream.

Hope you had a great one.. One thing can be said today.. it is over.

Love
Pat

Its Crab Season!

I fondly remember a great time we had in Sebastapol with my sister Kelly. We had the girls and the local grocery store got its first special on crab.

Kelly went down and bought up. We ate those babies New England style. Spread the newspaper out on the table and have at it.

We demolished them.

This year's carb experience was not as emblematic of the great crab harvest. I bought a medium sized crab.. on sale for 3.99. and I picked and cracked the meat out. Sue and I had a crab salad sandwich apiece.

Crab salad is pretty easy. First you have to peel a crab. You get rid of its gills and its guts. Then carefully washing all the center meat and cartilage you end up with a lump of crab. You crack the legs and pull out the meat. You put all you don't eat in a container. Then immediately take the shell out to the trash. That stuff stinks.

A couple of tablespoons of mayo.. it you dare and a finely chopped up stalk of celery and you have crab salad.. yum..

Our parents had no sympathy for those that were not crab eaters. Their philosophy.. more for the rest of us..

Love to all you crab eaters out there.. go out and eat some crab!

Pat

Santa Sez

Linzi is getting trees this year,

Today I dropped into Lowes and they had all of their bare root (As usual bagged and tagged) trees ready to go. So on the list were 1)a fig tree (black) 2)a Persimon Fuyio 3) An apricot (Blenheim). All are in full size except for the apricot.. which is semi. So Its a good start. I am hopeful about going up to Sacramento on Monday afternoon and planting them. Linzi said that she would start digging the holes today!

This afternoon we took a jaunt up to Modesto. Sue loves the thrift store up there. We did thrift store and Trader Joes. We topped it off with dinner at Olive Garden. Sue love the way the do Talipia there. I had what Sean would mostly order, tortellini. It has some braised beef and some mushrooms thrown in. I am crazy about their zuppa Toscano. That sausage potato soup is hard to beat. Sue likes the salad. She even order a glass of wine tonight. She said that she is starting to like the red wines... Just a sip or two. I had a sip or two (I was the driver) and she enjoyed the libation.. about 5 sips. It was very busy,but we only had to wait 30 minutes. Service was good... 33 dollars for two. hard to beat.

I hope you had a great Saturday.

Pat

Grades are In!

The part that is hardest about teaching actual classes is that you have to actual class kinds of things. One of those is grading each student in your class.

So what do you grade? Some of my students don't read or write.. not even a little. Most of them do however. Much of their written and spoken constructions are not anywhere near their age equivalents. So.. what makes an A or B or even a C?

I think that effort and try should be what my students are graded upon. Students trying their hardest should be rewarded for this. Many have given up long ago and it takes some priming to get the pump working. Most of them have a voice spoken and written. The burden is on the educational setting to allow for that individual voice to be developed. If students are given choices and allowed to express their involvement as they go along they will grow. Most students have been pushed down a certain pathway that making decision and expressing choice is truly an upper level skill. So they need help looking at alternatives and possibilities and trying out choices that won't inflict damage. This builds confidence and eventually independent thinkers.

So the year is half over. The first semester is completed. So far its been a pretty tough year.

We haven't negotiated yet except around the contract violation that sent 300+ cases to the grievance process.

I am glad we were able to come up with a solution for that.

: ) Pat

Rainbow

Its going to rain in Merced today.

On my morning walk to Starbucks I saw a complete rainbow in the west. The clouds were broken up in the East. Everything in the sky to the East is black clouds. Everything to the West is rainbows and grey blanket clouds,

Today's work is to get the grading done and the grades posted on Aires the computer grading program. The kids took the finals yesterday. I bought muffins from Costco and juice. Cranberry and Blueberry/pomegranate. It went over well.I gave the last 5 to a student that his 5 kids at home. They completely drank all of the juice. Juice seems to go farther than soda. Most kids have completely converted to juice. The schools were mandated to do that under the Governor's healthy schools provision. I think that many parents have converted their students to this too. Many of the classes were watching movies without commentary this week. Many of the students were talking amongst themselves as the movie droned on.

Some of my lower students has a chance to go over to the rest home and make cookies and distribute them to the residents. I am sure they were a big hit. One of my kids with nothing shared his stash of cookies with me. The Sever Handicapped students did not come over for finals which was good for them and for me.

I think this afternoon we are headed up to Modesto to do some thift store scouting. If it doesn't rain. We are kind of fair weather travelers with the powerchair hanging off the back of the expeditty.

: ) Pat

Scrape the Window Cold

This morning was decisively colder than the week leading up to it.

Its a finals day. The frost had to be scraped off the window with a credit car since it also rained. Today it is more like a Colorado day. It is bright and sunny with not a cloud in the sky. The wind has picked up and so we are in the grips of Winter,

My students are taking my final. I didn't get it printed through the Riezo in time so my home inkjet printer was pressed into action for the two periods of finals that needed to be printed. Each final is four pages. The students also added up to two pages of commentary regarding the two major movies we watched in class this semester. I actually guessed correctly on the number of copies I needed. One student was did not attend and I had one copy to support with and also to use to make copies for the other school.

I bought them some muffins from Costco. They loved them. I also had some cranberry juice and some blueberry pomegranate juice for the liquid part. Overall the activity pretty much consumed the 90 minutes each final period was allotted.

I think that my final wasn't hard. It allowed for some individuality and it covered the main ideas of the semester.

Hope you are having a great day.

Pat

What to do when your Pro Football Team is a Dog?

Sue the Raiders are a dog team.

I turned off the TV when the Raiders ran one all the way back from a kick off and then the Patriots on the very next play did the same thing.

There is not a place worse suited for a rainy day then the Oakland Coliseum. It is dank it is dark and with all of the concrete there is nothing poetic to see.

Bob and I shot one game there with the Seahawks in town. The result was there lovely Olympus cameras ended up with water between the lenses. The tele extenders didn't really work and the conditions were such that under that stands was much preferable to playing or watching the game. What a bust. I think the first game that dad shot down on the field was also in such horrid conditions. Those poor guys along the sidelines that have to get a shot.

I think that dad has the right idea about when you team hits the cellar and doesn't come up to see the light in the season. Go out there and prune on your trees.

This week I heard the most likely candidate for his wrath was the lemon tree.

Then again there is always next year...

: ) Pat

News News

Christmas venue to be changed!

We are not far enough along to expect a crowd at our house for Christmas.

We have had a couple of tough weeks and despite significant progress of "moving" in.. after the house was remodeled.. we are not ready to do the Christmas event.

We are hoping that it will all be ready for next year's event.

Mom has agreed to host the event.. so you are not off the hook regarding your homemade-recycled gifts. I have mine and am looking forward to choosing yours. Same event as last year... picking numbers etc.

I hope you all can come. We will be bringing the food so bring your happy face and everything that comes with it too..


Love
Pat

Christmas Music

Its tiem to get out the Christmas music if you haven't already.

My sister has sent me a couple of new ultimate Christmas albums that we are enjoying. Ultimate is up to 5 and 6 this year.

We always try to add some new ones every year. Sue needs to have actual singing in them for them to be successful. I am little more tolerant of instrumentals. When we were growing up the common radio format was to have an instrumental after each vocal. As you know if you have listened to the radio, this is not the current order of music now.

My latest Christmas acquisition is an oldie from the Tijuana Brass. Its pretty ironic since Herb Alpert, the leader of the band is jewish... but so is Neil Diamond and he is on every compliation of Christmas music out there.. And then there is Barbara Streisand... the list goes on.

The Tijuana Brass was a very favorite group of mine growing up. As a junior high trumpet player, TJB with its Toro lonely bull was the end all. All of us who were picking up the instrument strove for the tone that Herb Albert popularized in the middle 60s.

So on with the TJB and its Latin (what ever that means) instrumental Christmas album, with.. can you believe it? Winter Wonderland? Incredulous.. but then sometimes that is the taste.

Have a great Sunday

Pat

Navy Beans and Ham Hocks

Saturday seasonal fare:

I soaked a pound of navy beans last night with significant handful of salt. Rinsed the salt off the beans and cooked them up this morning. In the pot was four ham hocks and an onion. They cooked up in an hour and a half. I added two carrots and simmered them in the pot. I also baked up some corn bread and made some honey butter.

Sue completely ate her portion.. did not even get to the corn bread. So it was a success.

People always tout a gas stove for its ability to quickly heat. It also makes a great simmering source. I had completely forgotten about that until I was using the stove to to make the cowboy beans and chicken soup for Thanksgiving. I think that next time I make the soup I will use dried navy beans and start soaking them the night before. I think if you do it yourself they have a better chance of maintaining in the next degree of heat rather than using canned white beans.

We have another couple of meals off of the ham hocks and beans. I was a little shocked that ham hocks are about 5 dollars a package. I used one package. They are hard to beat in this kind of recipe. If you have multiple meals off of them you can amortize the meat... ha

Love
Pat

Drizzled pavement this AM

The walk this morning had damp sidewalks along the route down Yosemite Ave to McKee. The clouds overhead looked like the rain would be likely all morning. Half way along, however, the clouds scooted East and the sun broke through the patch that allowed the clouds to vanish.

Its going to be a warm.. at least for December Saturday morning.

I met a fellow teacher at the Starbucks and then after passing conversation decided to take the "long route." This walk is one that I do only once a week. It make the trip longer than an hour and the actual gain is not as productive as many short walks. I also had an almond brioche from the goodie counter so I felt that I needed to walk it off.. like you really could.

Friday I had a little gimmick in the morning. I used a bit of garland (red) as a mantle for speech. Then each student could name three things that fit in the category that I provided. If they did, they could choose who would wear the mantle and fill the categories. This worked well until two students kept choosing each other back and forth to wear the mantle and answer the category questions. So the game needed to be modified.

In the afternoon the two sides were chosen and then we played category be exclusion. What are 10 things about Christmas that the other team would not put on their list. Then each team would reveal the one item that the other team did not have on their list. The other team would look at their list and see if it was there. If it was not there, then it went on the board for that teams list. The only thing that has to happen as a game master, is that you have to give each team a chance to propose their contribution, and the game master must try to keep track of which team originated the entry. It was fun and the students enjoyed it. It also encouraged the "whisper" response so that the other team would not hear. It requires a writer on each team.. so you have to "seed in" instead of strictly allow chance to take its turn in collaborative learning. Shy talkers need to be the responders. But they can ask for help from the more verbal students. Then the reading writing part is a bit problematic if there are not students that can do this easily.

I hope you have a great weekend!

: ) Pat

White Bean and Chicken Soup

I made this for Thanksgiving.. it was a little much for that celebration. It made a hbig pot. It would be great for a soup eating party. It was published in the December 2008 issue of "Food & Wine."
Active 35 min total: 1 hour 35minutes 8 servings for a main course

By using chicken thighs instead of breasts , F&W's Melissa Rubel gives this hearty, jalapeno spiked soup ultra rich flavor.

3 pounds of skinless, boneless chicken thigh, cut into 1 inch dice
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
2 medium onions diced
3 garlic cloves, diced
1 jalapeno minced
2 tablespoons of all purpose flour
2 tablespoons chile powder blend
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon of dried oregano crushed
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
8 cups of chicken stock or low sodium broth
three 15 ounce cans navy beans drained
Tortilla chips, sour cream, shredded Monterey jack, clinatro and diced avocado for serving

1. Season the chicken with salt adn pepper. In a large enameled casserole, heat the oil until shimmering. Add half of the chicken at a time and cook over moderately high heat until lightly browned all over, about 8 minutes per batch. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the chicken to a plate.

2. Add the onions to the casserole and cook over moderate heat stirring until tender. 5 minutes. Add the garlic and jalapeno and cook until fragrant. Add flour, chili powder, cumin. oregano and cayenne and cook stirring constantly until fragrant. Add the stock, navy beans and chicken and bring to a simmer. Cover and cook until the chicken is very tender. 30 minutes.

4. Uncover and simmer the soup over moderate heat until slightly thickened, about 30 minutes longer. Season with salt and pepper and serve with the tortilla chips, sour cream, jack cheese, cilantro and avocado,

Make ahead: This soup can be refrigerated for 2 days. Reheat gently before serving.
Wine: Fruity, floral white blend 2006 Beringer Alluvium Blanc

As you may have guessed, the cayenne pepper was dropped as well as the cilantro and the avocado.. for Sue. It still was highly successful.. This soup makes a huge pot. It will make your whole house fragrant.

enjoy..

: ) Pat

December Morning in the Central Valley

Five days of fog

34degrees.. not reallly that cold

cannot see across the street

Its dark outside.. its black except the fog makes it gray

The cars are still making their way.. sharp light burn holes in the cotton sky brought down to earth

Home from the walk and its a little better

No problem getting to work.. the sun has come up.. but it is still gray overhead

After the first hour of work the sun is out..

Oh the glorious sun

We all feel like cats that have found the rightous spot.. oh my

Let me bask in the glory of the that wonderful winter sun that warms your insides

Its still cold outside

But the promise of a warm afternoon.. its 54 degrees

Means

More dense ground fog tomorrow

: )

Pat

Fruit Cake was a Success

After quizzing each student for possible allergies, many of my students got their first taste of fruit cake.

This was a very rich "heavy" fruit cake with candied cherries and pineapple and a little lime for the fruit. Many pecans and walnuts were in the body of the cake. It was sweet. I bought two for 9 dollars each.. my nuts have gone up in price.

It was a good day overall. I helped them storyboard back from the ending of the movie. For each block there was a "why" and then a "what happened next". I hope that they give me some good writing on Wednesday.

Sue won a bid on 14 readers digest condensed books. 14 for 7 dollars plus 9 dollars shipping. Bring it on E-bay. What an invention.

We actually saw the sun today.. for about 3 hours.. how delightful. Hopefully there will be enough light to work the security gates at the school. I am always parked on the outside since my arrival is about 11:30 each day.

Have a good one

Pat

Fruit Cake

One of things that the character Will did in the movie. Iron Will was survive on his mother's fruitcake.

This was kind of a wonder to my students because they did not know what fruitcake is. So tomorrow I have bought a couple of small loaves of fruitcake to share with the students that would like to try it.

Will used fruitcake so that he would not have to carry so much on his winter journey. He did not have to stop and make a fire and all of the stuff that goes with winter survival and cooking for yourself in the winter.

Just like the real thing sometimes sugar bound proteins "pooh out" and don't give you the endurance that you would like. So true with Will. Near the end he has nothing more to give and almost loses the race. Thank goodness for that leader dog, Gus.. to pull him through.

A small loaf of fruit cake is on sale at Raley's for 9.99. This loaf is about the size of your hand in length and about three inches tall. I guess the price of nuts has really gone up when I wasn't looking. Let alone candied fruit.

The Italian panitone is less expensive and have more bread with it. Every time I eat it I think of having lunch at the off ramp restaurant in Italy on the road to Orvieto. Francisco was driving and we had a scoop or two of lasagna and the restaurant was passing out free panatone to each customer. It was fresh and delightful. The lasagna was really good too.

Happy thoughts

Pat

Disney's Iron Will

Today we are finishing up a movie started a week ago.

It is captivating the classroom audience. One of the paras that helps one of the students in my class was particularly interested in me finishing up this movie today.

She is going to be gone tomorrow and certainly wants to know what happened. One of my students thought about not coming today.. but remembered that we were finishing up the movie and decided to come.. there you go

Its one of those classics that was created by Disney in 1994. It stars Mr. Kevin Spacey, the same actor that plays the teacher in the last class movie, "Pay it Forward." In this movie he plays the reporter reporting on a dog sled race in 1917 from Winnipeg, Canada, to St. Paul Minnesota. This is a distance of over 500 miles.

There is some dramatic action sequences which results in some situations. Some critics on line call it a sappy Disney melodrama.. but it introduces students to a different way of life in a different era than there own. It promotes some good "stick to it" kind of morals and the hero barely wins at the end.

There are lots of things to talk about in this movie, so there is plenty to stimulate predictive thinking and choices to be made. Most adults that have seen this movie walk away pretty uplifted. The students love the dogs. The are fascinated by the big white dog that is the dog leader,Gus. He was his dad's dog, and has first loyalty to Will's dad who dies unceremoniously at the beginning of the movie. Will must then overcome his fear of the frozen river that took his father. He finally does this in the final scenes of the movie.

There are many scenes of the rich following the race from the comforts of the train. There is some attempted bribery. Will hangs tough with his principles.

Will initally is in to get money to go to college and pay off the debt on his family farm. The prize for winning is 10,000 dollars. In the process he helps others and learns to keep a straight keel and in the end wins.

So tomorrow its fruitcake to try, and hopefully a look at my experience with sled dogs in Alaska. We will also talk about what they may write about on Wednesday.. writing day of course.

Finals for the first semester are next week.

Love
Pat

Saga of Lost Keys

The keys to our little Escape have been lost.. or rather the one key that we have for our little Escape has been lost for more than three months.

I had some serious fears that I had left them outside on the chair lift and that we had driven away and they were living a comfortable life in Timbuktu or Dos Palos.

But no, they were found yesterday, sadly in a chair that I usually sit upon. In the night, the cats had pulled the seat cushion away from the seat I normally sit upon and son of a gun, the keys were there exposed on the side of the chair.

We had scoured the house. We had offered 100 dollar finder fees but no keys were found.

Finally I had the car towed to the Ford dealer, using my trusty AAA. They told me that it would not be a big problem and the issue could be solved in a day.

WEll.. no

The vin numbers did not match the lock. So the locksmith had to be called to make tumblers that worked.

WEll..

The ignition column had to be removed and housings had to be replaced as well as any other keyed part of the car.

6 hours of labor later.. they are only going to charge me for 2, The car is fixed with new keys...

And then I found the old ones..

Sometimes the only luck you get is bad luck.

The internal optimist in me says.. you didn't have to replace the other keys that were on the ring.. so that is good.

Oh well..

Pat

Poor Oakland

Tonight the Oakland Raiders played on the NFL network.

The NFL network broadcasts games that are played on Thursday night. So with
games on Sunday, Fox and CBS, Sunday night on NBC, Monday ESPN and Thursday night NFL network it would seem that there is plenty of NFL on TV. More than enough if you are asking my mom.

It seems that if you don't have cable or a satellite connection you could be missing out on some really important games.. well no..

The Oakland Raiders are showing what a dysfunctional family they are. They only scored a touchdown on a run back. Their number one draft pick of a couple years ago is throwing interceptions and in the 3rd quarter twisted his ankle and is out for the game.

The team the Raiders are playing, the San Diego Charges have only one 4 games this year. They look like a tier one team. Sure, the aren't running down the field in wild abandon, but they are consistently scoring on their hapless California brothers from up north,

So goes the NFL on this Thursday night.


Pat

Sick Doctor

What happens when your doctor gets sick?

If you in Kaiser..not much.. they are replaced by doctors who are not sick.

If your doctor is in private practice.. the office shuts down and you can forget getting drug refills or authorizations.

So what is the economic costs of a day of no billing? A doctor let slip to one of my friends.. 4000 dollars.

We have a doctor that was sick this week when Sue needed a "patch" refill. Luckily she had an out of date refill on one of her patches that game her three day grace period.

Pretty serious.

Tonight I am going down to pick up the refill for the month. I always check to see that they have the medication on their shelves before I leave the pharmacy. Sometimes they don't and I have to take the paper to the cross town pharmacy and hope they have it on the shelf. Its one of those triplicate meds. The patient must request it nearly the same time that it is due. Then the pharmacist must fill it and it must be picked up right a way.

So today I did the delicate dance to get this to happen.

Have a good one

Pat

Fog Fog and More Fog

Fog has hit the valley,

In town our travel is not impeded however. The heat of the city allows for clearer drives.

I have started to prune the trees. The trees in the front (my front orchard) is now 8 years old and in the prime of its bearing. I have a few trees that were planted later that are yet to produce.

It was colder yesterday than today. The fog belt seems to get cooler as the day wears on. It certainly makes for a darker day overall. These are the days that drive the Colorado folks crazy.

One time when Lin and Candy stayed with us for a couple of weeks there were only 6 hours of visible sun.

At least it isn't bitterly cold or even cold by East coast standards. You would not go to work with just a fleece in Colorado either. I had a nice walk today with just a fleece jacket.

Today is the second day that I have yard duty. I will only have it once this year. So I am off to school.

Have a great day!

Pat

Hancock

The local redbox had Hancock so I rented it.

It has Will Smith in a semi comedic role as the super hero that gets in trouble by "overdoing" it and ending up with more cost to the government and the people that he "helps" than what they desire.

He "saves" a media marketing man that then tries to rework him. There are a couple of surprises in the movie. He has to learn how to say "good job." He then proceeds to use that expression in the wrong places or at the wrong times.

The stunt work is pretty cool. Its worth the 1 dollar itself.

The alcoholism part is pretty uncool. The motivation to "get Hancock" at the end didn't make sense. The kid actor played a credible role.

Have a great Sunday!

Pat

Lights up Saturday

Throughout my walk today, there were many families putting up their outdoor Christmas lights. I think that this day should be designated as such. Arnold, my neighbor said that he thought he just took them down. He was helped by his granddaughter. She was pleased to announce that she had been to two Thanksgivings and had two kinds of gravy!

There is always a Saturday just a little behind the Turkey. College bowl games are pretty much determined. As one person said on the radio last week, if you don't go to one of the big rivalry schools, the big game doesn't really mean much. In the NFL the good teams are pretty well sorted out. From the Bay Area, the 49ers and the Raiders are both headed home soon. There will be no playoff tension involved with both of these teams. Those headed for the games will be there for the party not the game. They both may be fun to watch.. but probably not to the point where the lights don't get hung.

I have always played my procrastination of light hanging on energy saving. Sue loves this kind of stuff on the outside of the house. We will go and watch the others in the neighborhood display their best.

I had to pitch 6 pomegranates into the green waste today. They had split and the moisture int he air had contributed to a little mold growth. Two were rescued and will at the vitamin C intake around here. I guess next year I will harvest them sooner and see if I can freeze or can their juice.

This morning I got up and washed all the pots and pans that were used in the Thanksgiving preparation.

Out in front I have been doing some more pruning so that the perfect shape of the trees may be maintained at arm length.

Happy Saturday!

Love, Pat

Black Friday

Whats behind black friday?

Traditionally it is the day the most businesses are in the black from the entire year of not making a profit.

It is a huge retail day. Some people crowd the stores early in the morning to get a special item that is on sale. The national media declared this day to get especially good buys in electronics.

Clothes are more likely to be on sale before Thanksgiving and other items after Christmas.

So unless you were after some electronic toy or goodie the black Friday sales are not particularly good.

Target had "all hands on deck" for their black Friday sales in the electronic department. They had extra people including folks who understood the video games that were helping customers get the stuff they needed and to get out of the electronics area with their treasures.

We arrived about 11:00 and there still were many electronic goodies on sale. Many movies were left at 3.99 each. We bought a couple. We are now the proud owner of a duo guitar set up for the Wii including an extra set of songs beyond the aerosmith ones that come with it. Its the world tour package. I hope you will all come over at Christmas and try it out!\

After our Target adventure, we crossed the overpass to Ross.

I bought some very nice small casserole dishes at Ross for a third of their original price. Sue's claim to fame was that she did not buy any clothes!

We drove by the outlets in Gilroy. There was a line 500 feet long of people trying to get into the Sony outlet. The fire marshal's occupancy requirements were being obeyed. The people in line were not concerned. Not a parking spot was to be had..but

We ate at Healthy Choice on the outskirts of the mall for lunch dinner and everyone was happy. Sue opted out and eat Arby's on the road over the pass. She loves that "horsey" sauce.

I hope your "Black Friday" was successful.

Love
Pat

Austrian Apricot Dumplings: Marllenknoodle

On the phone the other day to Francisco I told him about my apricot tree. He told me about this really good use for them.

Apparently this is pretty common in Austria. They take a apricot and remove the pit. They replace the pit with a sugar cube. A potato dumpling with homemade cottage cheesse, is made and wrapped around the apricots. The dumplings are boiled and then they are rolled in a sweet crumb topping. The sauce they are served with is a sour cream brown sugar and lemon combination.

It must be one fine desert. The sugar cube turns the apricot center into a jam consistency and whole works is one fine taste combination.

I found a great recipe on the web.. of course.

Have a great day..

: ) Pat

Expressions:

I went looking for the meaning for the expression often used in our family:

"Its colder than Billy be damned" What is the origin of this expression.

I didn't find it yet on the web.. but I found a Vermont collection of expressions. One of them caught me eye in light of home ownership:

Rather have what he owes than what he owns.

If we all subscribed to the meaning of this expression we all would not own houses, or drive newer cars.

: ) Pat

The Easy Drive

It is an easy 2 hour drive home from Sacramento... that is unless there is fog or there is construction.

On the way up there, there was a delay as Cal Trans was repaving 2 lanes of freeway. True there was plenty of warning, and I could have gone up 5. But our directions to Linzi and Sean's new house were predicated on coming up 99. So.. we stuck it out through the Hammer Lane road construction mess, and though we were later than we wished, we were able to find their new old home pretty easily.

Our drive home was pretty uneventful. There was a wisp or two of over the road fog in Livingston, but other than that, clear sailing. The guest cats came with us and they were soothed by Heather in the back seat.

I was able to get a second coat on the bathroom before the girls arrived back home. Bob and Mikie stopped by to see if Heather needed a ride home.. that was really nice. Bob was able to get those wicked high corners over the bathtub that I was unable to get with the second coat of paint. Sean will cut the blue tape off and paint the edge of the moldings.. so it looks pretty sharp for a bright pumpkin bathroom. Linzi is an orange kind of person.. so that will get her day going great with a positive color outlook in the bathroom.

Today is Monday and a lot of work needs to be done today.. I am running to the bank to transfer funds into the accounts to pay for our cruise in February. I hope you are coming with us! February 14th on the Norwegian Sun out of LA.

Love to yall.. Pat

In Sacto Helping out

We made it up to Sacramento this weekend to help Linzi and Sean move into the ulra cute new house. The BrownKorbels were here in force when we arrived. Bob was putting on the first coat of pumpkin in the new bathroom. I started helping Sean's friend Phil but together the new futon that went into the front bedroom.

Up to 9 people helped them move. We also brought up a new recipe cake for the crew to enjoy and to celebrate Heather's BD. It was an absolute hit. It was a coconut cake to end them all. It has an entire can of coconut milk in the cake to help the texture and flavor. Some of you may have seen this cake on the cover of Family Circle this month. it is righfully deserving of its cover star status. In future blogs I will publish this recipe.

The result of all the action.. and hard work of many hands most of the stuff has been moved from one house to the next.

This cute house is located in a very nice part of old Sacramento. Its on 34th street where the neighbors all know each other. Many have already been over to introduce themselves to Linzi and Sean.

Sue and I stayed at the very comfortable Holiday Inn Express Downtown that we captured for 58 dollars a night on Hotwire.. with 16bucks of tax we still were remarkablly under the 75dollar a night threshold. Holiday Inn Express has a wonderful breakfast connection. There are cinn rolls and eggs and biscuits and gravy.. as well as the other stuff that makes a breakfast

When the girls got up I took them out to a breakfast bistro.. just a short walk away. really good.

This afternoon I am finishing up the pumpkin... and the girls and Sean are off Ekia.

Happy Sunday Pm.

Pat

Late Kudos to my Brithday having Daughter

Heather is the one:

Some teachers called her a "spy" She would seldom interact into classroom discussions, yet she knew the ropes. She could argue in a decisive way with the best of them. Yet on the her side the inner strength of this girl is amazing.

She has had some of life's serious ups and downs. She was afflicted with a serious disease for two weeks that left her weak for many years. Please not tell her that she cannot do things.. she will do them despite the call.

Her education came from through the country. She knows the east coast she knows the west and everywhere in between.She was born in Turlock on a very foggy day.. we waiting all night and into the morning for her to arrive. She was worth the wait.

She has always brought us happiness. We are very proud of her accomplishments. One of California's newest MFTs. She did it the hard way. She conquered her fear of math, thanks to the outreach of Aunt Kelly. She still would prefer not to do the math thing but it will not stand in her way.

Daily she proves that her compassion for humanity is beyond what most people have. She is exemplary in her mission in life. She represents everything that we could hope that the younger generation will have. Grace, honor, and mission to make the world a better place.

Hats off to you Dare!

Your dad : ) Pat

Talking Around the World.. Rome

Last night I got a call from my dear friend in Rome.

Francisco finally got a hold of me and we talked long distance.. me in Merced and he in Rome for about 2 hours.

He called about 4 in the morning his time. We talked at length about the reunion and all of the wonderful people that he met at the party he was looking forward to in LA. Micheal Learned threw a wonderful party down in West Hollywood when we went down. Of course you know Michael Learned.. as Francisco would say: Her is her web bio:

Four-time Best Actress Emmy Award winner Michael Learned was born on April 9, 1939 in Washington, D.C. The oldest of six daughters of a U.S. State Department employee, she was raised on her family's farm in Connecticut. The family moved to Austria when she was age 11, and it was while attending boarding school in England that she fell in love with the theater and decided to become an actress.

Learned married Oscar winner Robert Donat's nephew Peter Donat, a Canadian citizen, when she was 17 years old, a marriage that lasted 17 years and produced three sons. She learned her craft while acting for the Shakespeare Festivals in both Canada and the U.S. while simultaneously raising a family. She and her husband Peter acted together with San Francisco's American Conservatory Theatre (ACT) in the early 1970s. Her breakthrough came when she was appearing in an ACT production of Noel Coward's "Private Lives", where she was spotted by producer Lee Rich, who cast her as Olivia Walton in his new television series about a Depression era family, "The Waltons" (1972).

Learned won three Emmy Awards playing the role, and another Emmy for her next foray into series TV, "Nurse" (1981). She escaped typecasting as Olivia Walton (although she re-prised the role that made her famous in a 1995 TV-movie reunion) while appearing on numerous shows and TV movies, including top-drawer, made-for-TV specials such as the 1986 adaptation of Arthur Miller's All My Sons (1986) (TV) with co-star James Whitmore.

He also had a chance to meet the famous 95 year old architect photography, Julis Shulman. He is best known for the photo of the Laural Canyon house that hangs over the edge of the canyon at night. There is an exhibition of his work at the Getty now.

It is amazing that we could talk so clearly from so far away.

Pat

Big Vehicles as Energy collectors

The really interesting part of this article is at the end of this article. This is from the Huffington Post.

So You Want A Big Electric Car?
President-elect Obama's plan to put a million electric vehicles on the road in 10 years is doable and should be surpassed by its own momentum. As people discover the many advantages of electric vehicles (EVs), this momentum will build. Not only are these cars green and responsible, they also enhance National Security. From all we've been told about EVs we know a little. They are cleaner. We've heard about plugging them into our homes to recharge overnight. But most of us don't know much about electric cars yet.

The momentum of the Electric Vehicle Age will stem from enhanced performance, smoothness of acceleration, quietness, and superior control. The way an electric car can be tuned to behave a certain way for a certain driver allows for a whole new feeling in the driving experience. People just don't know how cool these cars are.

Existing designs can be manufactured as electric cars with no change to the tooling of the existing designs. Adapting kits are possible. Build electric versions on these existing tools to keep people working and get people interested in buying again. The technology to make these new electric vehicles exists today right here in this country.

From Wichita, Kansas we get this report: A 1959 Lincoln Continental repowered to be a self charging electric vehicle by a small group of engineers and local services, is now achieving up to 65 mpg in informal tests. Work there continues. The goal of the project is to attain up to and beyond 100mpg for the biggest and heaviest car made in 1959. The car has been driven in California and Kansas and shown to over 15,000 people. In an audience of 12,000, one tenth of the people raised their hands when asked if they would like to have a car like that. That Lincoln represents a future for Detroit. It is the possibility of Big Clean cars that do not promote Global warming. Let's build them now, as well as economical small clean and green electric cars and let's put people to work. We already have the existing tooling and the facilities and manpower.

From Detroit we get this report:

We have devoted significant resources to this project: Over 200 engineers and 50 designers are working on the Volt alone, and another 400 are working on related subsystems and electric components. That's how important we think this is, and that's how much stock we place in the future of extended-range electric vehicles like the Chevy Volt. - Tony Posawatz, Vehicle Line Director - E-Flex Systems and the Chevy Volt, GeneralMotors Corp.

The GM, FORD and Chrysler CEOs then each boarded private personal business jets to be paid for by taxpayers money, and flew to Washington to ask tax-payers to give them a 25 billion dollar infusion to save hard working American's jobs. Have they changed direction but it's just too early for our senators and congress representatives to see it yet? I don't think so. Maybe introducing a new high-performance fossil fueled Shelby Mustang and jumping into a private jet to go to Washington for a bailout was not such a good idea.

Efficient technology can power the existing designs we have today.

We don't need a car that looks different with a new sunroof over the back seat creating an air conditioning challenge as a feature.

We don't need new tooling to start building electric cars now.

We need kits to adapt what we are currently making to today's demands.

We need new thinking from new leaders and we need new perspectives from unions.

Today the news is Hybrids. Everyone is making them. Some of these hybrids offer very poor mileage in the 20-30 mpg range. They may be already on their way out because of the inherent inefficiency of their design. An electric motor and an internal combustion engine both driving the wheels in one car may not be the most efficient approach. Forward thinkers are wondering about that inefficiency and working on ways to solve it. Plug-in kits are now available for Prius and Ford Escape, allowing these vehicles to plug in for a re-charge, increasing their efficiency and reducing their negative impact on the environment. Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) look like the future, but are they the future?

There are huge limitations. The battery is the biggest. An average EV is only good for a short trip before it needs a charge. Maybe 40 miles or so is a good estimate. Some electric cars get a long range like 100 miles before they lose power and have to recharge. The Tesla (a super light sports car) goes over 150 miles on a charge. Two things that all basic EVs have in common is they are small in size and they have to stop and re-charge. If you run out of power you are down. Just like gas.

To re-charge, you need a power source. It may be your home, or it may be your parking garage at work. It might be a charging system that is privately owned and is a business enterprise (Better Place), or it may be a public utility service (PG&E). You may have a cable to plug in that identifies you so your account can be automatically charged. One thing is for sure. You need to re-charge. So you are going to be more conscious of your energy use.

Not every EV has to plug in. For some, it's optional. Cars like the Chevy Volt have an onboard generator to re-charge batteries or power the car. These cars are Self-Charging EVs (SCEVs). That means on long trips you use gasoline. A long trip is over about forty miles in a Volt, on level ground. When the battery starts to die, an onboard generator rescues it and powers the electric motor, while slowly recharging the battery. This sequence cycles on and off while you take a long trip. Mostly the generator is on... using gasoline, a fuel widely seen as a National Security disadvantage. The Volt generator will charge the batteries faster if the car is not moving, by using gasoline. On short trips, you won't even use the generator. You will go the first 40 miles on plug-in power. An average commute in the USA is about 35 miles.

Efficiency in the self-charging electric car is the big decider. If the efficiency of your charging system allows you to make electricity with less financial cost than buying it from the grid, then your car can power your house and turn the meter backwards to reduce or eliminate your electric bill. Potentially, you may even be able to sell electricity to the grid someday. That would be a good reason to buy a SCEV with a highly efficient self-charging system. These cars are mobile power plants.

Big electric cars are left out of the story so far by major manufacturers. They have made some very poor hybrid SUVS. SUVs, big sedans, pick-up trucks are all by the wayside. They have been relegated to dinosaur status. But don't count them out. A big Self-Charging SUV with a super efficient self-charging system would create enough power to support 6 homes. You could be part of a distributed power system by using the grid backwards, selling power back to your Utility Company. In this approach, power enters the grid from plugged-in vehicles, avoiding the loss found in the lines when power comes to you from a central Power Plant located miles away. Imagine a big electric car that earns you income.

But you just wanted a big electric car. You may be surprised to know why size is important. Big SCEVs, while taking big power to run, and requiring large battery banks and big electric motors, will undoubtedly be getting up to 100 mpg or more in the near future. A big developmental car, Lincvolt, seen at Lincvolt.com , is proving this technology. Big SCEVs may well be earning you money while you are charging the grid. They may be recharging with super efficient self-charging systems, and even using Domestic Green bio-diesel fuel, a fuel that does not contribute significantly to Global Warming. Big may be an unexpected Green alternative.

Good News Apple in Modesto

The latest of the new Apple stores is.. can you believe it.. Modesto.

The vintage faire Mall is home to an Apple store. It was opened on November 15th. The current apple third party folks..Mac Daddy are not happy about this in the least. Their two stores in Fresno were reduced to one when the apple store came in.

What is cool is that definitive genius bar service will be available. Of course don't ask dad about the genius bar service. His new 24 inch all in one IMac is still not talking to his blue tooth mouse.. oh my.

Apple calling

: ) Pat

Your Refrig.

Hello.. this is your refrigerator talking:

More than likely you have stuff in it that is spoiled. Get it out! You gave up the science experiments when you left college. How many times do you need to find out that the little dab you don't want to throw could make you throw up?

The dishwasher is full of containers tonight that have been recycled into new usable containers for new stuff.

Food management is always difficult. How do you stop cooking for 4 when their are still two of you that likes what you made for four?

If you try to go the grocery store just once a week, life in refrigerator management can become difficult. So clean out the refrig make room for new..

:) Pat

Chicken,Noodle, Olive, and Broccoli

Tonight we dined on the chicken I roasted last week.

The casserole, had egg noodles.. yum broccoli, yum, Olives, yum, and a Béchamel sauce, with added chicken gelatin.. topped with grated Parmesan cheese. A couple of cloves of garlic flavored the Béchamel..

It went over really well with Sue. She even requested a single serving set aside for lunch warm up..

Its great to cook in a kitchen that has all the tools and wonderful pots.. thank you Magnalite pro.

Students in my class were practicing ordering donuts from the bakery. Not an easy task when you have to put the kind in front of the item.

"I would like to buy a half dozen chocolate donuts."

Everyone gave it a try and some had to practice a couple of times to get it right.. but of course that is what speech is for.

: ) Pat

Check it out!

We are planning on taking the Norwegian Star to Mexico during ski week 2009. Some of you know this week as the President's week. Many people get at least one day off during these days in February. The ship leaves dock on February 14th.. which if you don't know is Bob and Micheal Sue's wedding anniversary.

Currently there is a deal afloat through Vacations to go. It is 449 each for an interior cabin, 499 for a cabin with a window. There are some extras that get tacked on, but for a week of vacations with food and entertainment included it is hard to beat. February is a pretty cold month in Central California. We will be in shorts and dipping our feet in 70 degree sea water... wonderful. Ports of Call.. Cabo San Lucas, Mazatalan and Puerto Vallarta. We all leave from Los Angeles (San Pedro).

Here is the vacations to go listing..

http://www.vacationstogo.com/fastdeal.cfm?deal=14272

I hope you can join us!

Pat

A Drive in the Country

On a beautiful afternoon on a mid November day calls for a drive into the country .
Sue said that she wanted a few more than her share of the yams that we took to mom last weekend, so we drove out of town to the outskirts of the rural central valley to the farm where they sell yams.

As we moved out to the McSwain area, the narrow two lane road heads for Gustine and the new houses dot the landscape with their 1-3 acre lots accompanying the homes. A few of them are in foreclosure just like over a thousand other homes in the city. Its cool to be out in the country to see the livestock, including a band new calf. Moma cow was taking good care of it. She was licking it for all she was worth.

The yam farmer has given up his cows although the cautionary sign to drive slowly so as not to scare the cows is still there. We know which farm is his because there is a sign out of the road that says yams for sale. Its hand written and pretty self explanatory. There is another sign along the two lane road that advertises upholstery work too. It is a little closer to town.

As we crossed over their little culvert over the irrigation canal. We pulled up to the modest home with a couple of welders going at it on the outside of the barn. Accompanying them was an black lab dog that was mildly distracted by the smell of something in the flower beds. We found out that his name was Clint. Sue tried to pet him and did but his main interest was something int he flower bed. As we pulled up They called the dog back and I rolled down my windows and told them that we were interested in buying some yams.

They called out to the older farmer in the house who was probably watching the game. They told us to drive on a head to the concrete slab. I did. The older farmer came out and asked what kid of yams were we looking for. Sue said the little dark red ones. He said that he was out of those but he had some others that might do. In the barn there various grades of yams in the boxes. Not knowing one from the other I called Sue out of the truck to take a look and choose which box she desired. She thought the 7 dollar yams were okay. He loaded us up and I paid him. He asked it the motorized chair was ours hanging off the back end of our expedition. I said yes. Sue has arthritis. He said we should get a "hemi" for that chair so that we could pop wheelies in it. We all got a chuckle out of that. He said that he knew several people with them. He said that we all may get down to using them later in our lives. He just wishes that he could stay as healthy as he is for another 20 years. Yep and who doesn't.

We took the yams and went to Home Depot and Costco before heading home.

Two outings on the same weekend... Sue thought she had a wonderful weekend. I am glad she could do that and that she thought that she had a wonderful weekend.

Love
Pat

A Treasured Nickle

A nickle is not worth much today.

When I was in the 4th grade it was magical. On "ice cream" days a nickle in your pocket could be traded for a fifty fifty bar.

A fifty fifty bar was a half orange flavored popcycle half ice cream novelty. Those kids with a nickle got them from the cafeteria people that were dispensing them out of a container kept cold by dry ice.

Such a delight. We always wished that some other flavor other than orange was on the popcycle side.. but in that era .. no such luck.

I just remembered that from the pile of nickles and quarters that I have floating across my computer desk tonight. Somehow they don't quite seem so important.

: ) Pat

Goodwill to Goodwill

Today Sus and I did the grand tour of goodwill stores.

I was looking for another project to do for the Christmas gift give. I found it and it will need some work. It is something that all of us could use.

Sue found some cool stuff. She is always looking for some books. She found a new royal family book.. she is happy. She also found a couple of new teapots. I was unable to hide them out of sight while she was looking at the clothes rack.. ha. But three escaped her attention.. yeah.

I made a quick breakfast this morning after my walk. She was ready to go. Modesto was beautifully warm this afternoon. It ws on of those quintessential California warm fall afternoons. I was running out of gas and needed some food when we hit the last goodwill in Turlock. Man there is some nasty furniture out there that they want a good price. Luckily at Turlock before the blood sugar dropped to zero, I slipped over and had a subway sandwich while she continued to shop.

Her greatest find today was a couple of Christmas themed tea pots. One is a Christmas house with the fireplace as a spout. The other is a Santa on a Christmas sled with a spout coming of Roudolph's nose.. oh my..

I hope that your weekend is full of treasures of delight.

Pat

Its Friday.. after a Long Short Week

Sometimes a short week can seem longer.

The usual rhythms of the week are distorted by a day off in the middle. Writing Wedneday continued as usual except that some classes had not seen the end of the movie.. which was what they were going to write on. So.. they watched the movie on Wednesday (the last 10 minutes) and write they papers on Thursday. Not true with the morning classes which had seen the movie.

Today the morning classes got to play 15 questions with analysis. The other class(first period) was into talking about parties and choosing to smoke or not to smoke or drink or not to drink. We were without one of the hot heads so progress was made.

The afternoon classes got a summary of bakery terms. Batter vs dough. muffins and cakes and doughnuts. Baking powder vs yeast. Pans and sheets and mixes. What is in a mix? We looked for some similarities.

In one afternoon class a student brought in a StarWars DVD triva contest.. it didn't get used. He did learn that the voice for Darth Vader was James Earl Jones... It took revisiting 5 times.. it wasn't on his agenda.

The artic senior with the S had a good dance experience at Sadies with the girl from Merced High. In his conversation he only had 4 s distortions in 5 minutes.. (using the dysfluency model to measure) Next time I will chart hashmarks and Os for accuracy and mistakes. Then we will have a percentage. He is happy with his progress and he claims his mom is too.

Have a great weekend
Pat

Parental Involvement

Somehow they don't get it.. the folks up in the office.

In my 6th period class came tromping along was a mother of one of the students. This parent had a history of having a problem with what the son was doing in school. So volatile and somewhat pushy was the rep.

We were writing about the ending to the movie Pay it Forward. Luckily she loved the movie and thought it was a good one for her son to see. Everything she saw in my class was nothing but positive. But:

1. Privacy of the other students needs to me considered. She now knows the other students names in my class (3)

2. Notification of attendance would allow for a more representative lesson. Which puts me in an awkward position.

3. Information gained in the classroom could be used in a negetive light against the district without a filter.. what was on the boards, how the students reacted, how the education is for a 15 year old and not adults.. etc.

So it probably worked in my favor to have the parent in the classroom. But it might not have to.

Your world is always at risk.

: ( Pat

Watercolor and Framing

Dad has become a very good framer.

For those who dabble in the water media, you know that framing is essential for bringing out the best in the colors and presentably of a work of art. It is not an easy task for anyone. Dad says it takes some serious time to do it well.. sometimes 4 hours per.

He has just done a great job on some of my summer works. They mostly center around fishing. I took some of the subjects from fly fishing magazines. These gems have some really nice backgrounds since fly fishing usually occurs in the most pristine environments. Unfortunately working the painting was a priority over casting the rod.

Current watercolor play is over some landscapes around Gunnison Colorado. Every time you work you learn something new in the process. I have been using some beautifully soft caran de arche watercolor pencils to do the drawing. Then for significantly larger areas, I use some tube paint in my butcher's pans. I really like to use them because they are seriously metal (they don't crumble like plastic does) and they do not let the watercolor bead.

Have a great day... Pat

The Wonder How to.. Thanksgiving Plans and Christmas

I was looking for connections to get dad a 4 in one pluot tree ordered and I came across a really cool short video of the field farm somewhere around Hickman in the valley where they were thinning and spring pruning their fruit trees. The Wilson nursery, which only sells wholesale had this video on their website that hooked to a flickr type site of mostly how to videos. It is called WonderHowto. As a plug in to your firefox.. you are using firefox I hope.. it sits as a contextual add on. whenever you are on a web site, it automatically scans through its libraries of how to movies and offers them as viewable short flicks with a single click. One click backward transports the viewer back to where they were. Some of the videos are about some mundane things.. but some.. like how to kiss are really funny. All of the videos are rated.. with the classic school settings.. A through F.

When I first agreed to have this as an add on to my firefox it took an overnight for it to configure.. so I used Safari during that period. I think that I will keep it on my browser for awhile.. If it gets too annoying.. its out of here.

Its nice that Kelly mentioned the cool Thanksgiving Party we had at grandma's last year. Considering that the BKs will be in San Diego, and Linzi has commitments with Sean's family for Thanksgiving.. it might be better for all if we met this year down in Morgan Hill for the Thanksgiving. We would like to be the folks in charge of the Christmas party however.. So get your presents in hand. Or as Bob would say.. gear up!

Come on over to Merced for Christmas.. This year we would like to propose the same set up.. but no food as it is gone too quickly. We would be happy to help any family member that needs support for their gift creation.. ha.. we had such a successful one last year.

Love
Pat

Vets Day!

This is always a good holiday. October is drags on and on. This day from a purely holiday perspective is wonderful. It is just one day. In this year's case it was not hooked up to a weekend. The weather is very nice in the afternoon. Today we are in the 65 degree range. I had a chance to get out and plow through my front yard pluot tree. It is always good to prune a plum (or a pluot) when the leaves are still on. this year I pruned it for strength and lowered its height. We had a huge crop of golden/green pluots this year. The last of them were eaten by the girls a couple of weeks ago. The tree needed to be opened up in the center. The lengthy branches had to be wheedled down. The overall effect should be a good crop next year but not one that will have me pitching them at everyone that I know. The pluot is a Flavor Queen. It has wonderful fruit. This is the first year I had enough to wait until the fruit got completely ripe. Boy they did get ripe. Sweet Sweet Sweet.

Sue is not happy with the amount of white peaches that I had last year. Again way too many.. can you imagine that? So I have been hacking it down today as well. This summer we should have just enough. The Sugar Lady peaches are ripe around the middle of July. My peach hedge with the redhaven (the most often planted peach), the
Babcock, (another white peach) and the standard Elberta are ready for some production this year.

Still left to manhandle is the apricot tree in the back. It give a miserable crop last year (only 8 quarts) but this year the foliage looks really good and it will produce a ground breaking crop if I don't lower its top branches to a more reasonable height. It is the oldest tree on the property.. almost 28 years old.

The pomegranates are pumping out ripe fruit this fall.. and the lemons are almost ready for harvest.. Yes there will be lemon delights at the Thanksgiving table.

Check the flickr steam for the latest lemon photo.

Pat

Pork Roast in the Oven

Its a great day to get the pork shoulder roast agoing.

I have one on. I tossed in mild chili powder. It was browned on both sides stove top. Now is braising in a couple of cups of chicken broth in my aluminum roaster.

It think that when it is ready is served it with couscous and a little homemade apple sauce from the stove top.. My it does sound like fall doesn't it.

Love to all

Pat

Cruise fuel charges

I just got an e-mail from Vactions to Go an online travel agent for cruise lines. We all know that the price of gas has gone down.. thank goodness. I suspect.. there is the cynic in me... just in time for elections. The cruise industry had imposed a fuel surcharge to recoop some of the cost of the fuel increases. Now that it is down.. this industry is not taking any chances. Here is what is going on... hmmmmmm


The steep drop in the price of fuel has prompted most major cruise lines to make changes to their highly unpopular fuel surcharges. The new policies are convoluted, but I'll do my best to explain them.

Carnival, Costa, Cunard, Holland America, P&O, Princess and Seabourn have eliminated fuel surcharges for new bookings for 2010 departures, effective immediately.

The situation is considerably less cut-and-dried for 2008 and 2009 departures.

If the price of light sweet crude oil is $70 per barrel or less according to the New York Mercantile Exchange Index (NYMEX) at the 2:30 p.m. close of business on 25 consecutive trading days, ending five trading days prior to a cruise departure, fuel supplements paid by passengers on that sailing will be refunded in the form of onboard credits.

In other words, the price of oil must remain at $70 or less per barrel for 25 trading days in a row until five trading days before your cruise in order for you to receive that shipboard credit. Passengers who booked a 2010 cruise on these lines before October 31, 2008 will be charged a fuel supplement, but they will also be eligible for onboard credit under the same fuel price conditions applied to 2008 and 2009 departures.

Fortunately, this process will be automatic--passengers will not need to apply for the onboard credit or try to track the price of oil themselves. However, Carnival Corp., which owns and operates these cruise lines, has raised prices on all 2010 cruises to reflect the fact that even at $70 per barrel the price of fuel is significantly higher than in the past.

Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Azamara and Norwegian will not apply fuel surcharges to bookings made on or after November 10, 2008 for sailings that depart on or after January 1, 2010. Fuel surcharges still apply to 2008 departures. For 2009 sailings, and for 2010 sailings booked before November 10, 2008, these lines may refund fuel surcharges as onboard credits. Refunds will be determined on a quarterly basis: If the price of West Texas Intermediate fuel is $65 or less at the close of the NYMEX, two weeks prior to the beginning of an upcoming calendar quarter, then onboard credits will be provided to all passengers on sailings that depart during that calendar quarter.

Still with me? Here's how it breaks down:

If the price per barrel is $65 or less on December 18, 2008, passengers departing between January 1 and March 31, 2009 will receive onboard credit.

If the price per barrel is $65 or less on March 18, 2009, passengers departing between April 1 and June 30, 2009 will receive onboard credit.

If the price per barrel is $65 or less on June 17, 2009, passengers departing between July 1 and September 30, 2009 will receive onboard credit.

If the price per barrel is $65 or less on September 17, 2009, passengers departing between October 1 and December 31, 2009 will receive onboard credit.

The same timeline and conditions apply to 2010 sailings booked prior to November 10, 2008. Again, the shipboard credits will be automatically provided.

Saturday with the Rents

Staving off a most certain visit from the parents... Sue and I reversed trend and ware and tear on them and made the trip to the big Morgan on the other side of the pass. We took the collected group off to the Home Town Buffet. The Gilroy HTB is smaller than the Merced one. The Merced one is a converted Bank of America Branch.. that was first converted to a Chuck E Cheese.. and now a Home Town Buffet.

We had a great time. The Brownie Korbels joined us and everyone had a chance to eat what they wanted to eat. Dad relayed the day they were eating there and the field works came in mass to eat. 150 of them came in out of the rain, filled their plates to the brim and politely ate their food. This was quite a scene in this upscale community.

Dad had finished framing some of the summer watercolors that I had painted. Several were made from the fishing series. Mom had a gift for Sue's birthday that was burning a hole in her pocket. She had some new towels that go with the new gold bathroom that we have. Sue was very pleased. She loves linens.

For moom's birthday, we had a happy green witch to add to her collection.

I made a birthday cake.. Lady Baltimore from scratch. Cream cheese frosting festooned its top. I tried something new. I layered a slather of plum nectarine jam between the layers. I think that it added another flavor to it. A Lady Baltimore cake is a pretty dense cake. It requires 5 egg whites. Homemade cakes do not have the lift that packaged cakes have. But the flavor.. oh my I really the love the flavor of homemade cakes over mixes... and no transfats.

It rained on the way back from Morgan Hill. There was also a little fog on the top of the hill. Just a little reminder that fall is on its way.

Have a great Sunday

Pat

What to say!

Today my classes were learning what to say when you go to a wedding and you come to the bride and groom in the receiving line.

1) Most had trouble with eye contact

2) Many forgot their lines or jumbled them together

So we talked about saying "Congratulations, thank you for inviting me to the wedding."

I had a couple of adults that are coming in with their hand helds (students that need in class supervision.. or at least some supervision from one room to the next. They helped me "coach" the lines and encourage participation.

It was a good lesson.. and I had an administrative walk through in the middle of one of the classes. She left telling the students that they must enjoy their class (mine) because of all of the good work they were doing. I identified her to the class and told them that she was an administrator. None of my students could say what an administrator does.. so they were not threatened in the least.

We are into the dog days of November.. if there is such a thing. Progress reports (Ds and Fs) have to be into the registrar by Wednesday.. No one in my classes are headed for one except the kid who is never there.

I will never forget the day that I got a "cinch" notice from my biology teacher, Mr, Mezzeta, in high school. I was out with mono and be adninistered an F notice. I think I also got one in graphic arts.. not enough projects turned in.. we had a dark room at home and so I cranked out a few "alternative" projects. I graduated from high school without an F but also without a semester A as well.

Everyone is looking forward to Tuesday being off and a pretty light Monday due to Veterns Day.

Have a great evening.

: ) Pat

pomegranate Day in Speech

Last night I check out my pomegranate bush in the front yard. As expected, they had started to split. This is a sure sign that they are ripe. I think that the rain and the really cool weather matured the fruit to this stage. If you don't pick them at this stage they tend to mold and you have lost the crop. This year I have 14 of them. Most of them are the size of softballs.

So in the spirit of my own curriculum, I chopped up about 8 of them and took them to school.

Pomegranates on the school carpet is almost problematic. The juice is a beautiful red but you certainly don't want it coloring your carpet or your clothes. All of my students were very careful in eating this fall delight.

Many of the students have never had them before. Their natural interest bouyed their spirits to try.

I bought to school a roll of paper towels and a steak knife to seperate the skin. Underneath the tough skin, is a series of honey comb like structures with wonderful sweet sour fruit.

I hope that next year my little bush will produce enough for my classes again.

: ) Pat

Obama Wins Heather Loses : (

Obama won with a landslide tonight.

Heather gave an extra 30 bucks to the campaign on Saturday for a chance to be flown to Chicago and meet the next president backstage.

She did not win. I do believe that she is in line for an Obama tee shirt for her efforts however.

I have met many people my age that are skeptical of turning the reins of government over to a crowd so young. The fist ppumping crowd that seems more interested in many of the things that we older folks don't get. But you get it because you are reading this blog! Don't try to hide your smug smile..

Very few of my cohorts blog or read blogs. Many do not get "text" messaging. They don't understand why anyone needs 700 TV stations when good old ABC CBS and NBC works for them. Sadly many of them missed the wonderful graphic look and the op ed work of CNN's staff.

They even holographized (not sure its a word) a reporter in Chicago to be in the studio with the team while the New York based reporter, Wolf asked her questions in real time without a whole lot of interference.

It was a historic night. We both voted absentee. So the presence of waiting in line for a chance to cast our ballots was not required. From the reports of precincts many people had to have an iron will to cast their ballot.

Personally I was disappointed in seeing any state go to Mc Cain. Don't they get it?

A big thank you goes out to Heather's friend Michael the San Francisco native who lived in the Farmington New Mexico to donate a month of time to the Obama campaign. I heard from Heather that there were some dozzies in the tales he tells of going door to door in New Mexico. I was very happy to see that New Mexico went Blue.. yeah!

I hope you had a good election night.

: ) Pat

9 New pages and growing

The El Camino class of 68 40th reunion has grown 9 new pages over the weekend and Monday. Thanks to the work of Rose, and the others that have sent in (via electronic means) all the photos.. it is pretty spectacular. Despite the spread there are still people that attended the reunion that didn't get the photo included. I am still using Go-Live in the grid mode to move photos on and off and to get alignment. Adobe has abandoned this product in favor of Dreamweaver. That means that eventually I will have another learning curve with another product for web production.

I have discovered in photoshop the best solution to the dreaded red eye. There is a color replacement brush. When this is set to black,the user can swish out the red. Sometimes the issue is the luminosity. This happens when the photo has a white glow in the pupils. Truly these people are not aliens, they are just caught by the reflection of the flash. There is a setting for luminosity too.

Last weekend we had a very nice visit with our daughters. We all are going cruising on president's week. NCL is leaving the 14th of February and we are going to be on it. Check with Linzi for details or look it up with your discount on line travel agent.

Tonight's the night of the election returns. Expect to hear and see a lot of space mission talk. This is the time the commentators earn their money. They have to keep the patter going and interesting while serious information develops. I hope that the Obama win will be decisive and over before the western states come into play.. Then what will they say?

On the other hand.. sometimes even the exit polls cannot be trusted.

Join with me tonight and be a political junkie..

Pat

Page Still in my cut and paste

Here dear readers is a chance to see some reunion pages before they go up.

Most of these people may not mean anything to you.


Its a interesting challenge to keep the names with the photos.

http://www.elcamino68.com/PageFiles/Reunion2008/Rose%20Pages/RosePage2

Have a great day!

Pat

Working on the photos

The reunion is over.

This year there were a million shots taken as the reunion gathered up people that wouldn't begin to talk to each other in high school but they became good acquaintances at the party.

The big topic of conversation among us all.. when will you retire. Some have retired and are working for their kids.. imagine that. Bill King is working for his son who has a construction company in Sacramento.

Some were interested in what kids we had and what they did. One, Frank Drago was interested in what Heather did since he is a judge on many cases that deal with the same people that Heather works with.

Last night I started to tackle the first photos that Rose has sent me. They are going into pages on the website. It is sure nice to deal with digital photos. First they are color corrected.. I usually need to do a little curve treatment on them. Then I look at the eyes and wipe out the red in the eyes.. Photoshop has a replace the color brush.. it is wonderful for dropping on some black which turns to grey when it is painted over the red. I have an action that renames and re sizes each photo to give me a 75 dpi 400 wide pixel photo. The height is one constraint that I don't mess with. This is done is a batch. The group of re sized photos is loaded on to the external hard drive and then imported into the web page design program in the proper folder where I may use them to compose the pages. I compose the pages and copy and paste in the caption data that was e-mailed me at the same time as the digital file. Then the parts need to be uploaded to the server and checked with an outside browser, Whew that does look like a long process. No wonder more people do blogs.

Love
Pat

From Carousel , Modified

We had a real good reunion.
We're really glad we went.
The vittals we et were great you bet
The company was devine

A great time was had by all.. at least the class members.
No one got splashed by red wine because they took another's boyfriend 40 years ago (that actually happened)

It was really nice to see some of the class members that haven't been coming to the others. We even had an almost party crasher. He was a older administrator and his wife that had just attended a 50 year reunion and he thought that he would drop by the 40th one that was being held at the El Rancho. We invited him in even though he was an administrator of Capp (the San Bruno high school) instead of El Camino in SSF.

Franscisco was going to be picked up hy us. but we were running a little late (into the no host bar time) so his sister delivered him to the reunion with his mother. We went outside when he arrived and I reaquainted myself with his family.

The buffet was really good. There were many fruits and vegetables at the beginning of buffet line and salmon and prime rib at the end. The deserts were great too. Carrot, chocolate decadence, lemon, and white cake with strawberry moouse cake were offered. There were not many that passed up the cake.

We all had a great time. Fransisco stayed for the after party. We were long gone. Our eyes were flashed to death by the digital cameras that everyone sported.

We sat at the table with Bruce Burns and Carole Brown. There were six of all together. There was plenty of room for the 80 people that attended.

A large number of members came up and thanked me personally for my work in getting the web pages up and updated. It was nice to feel appreciated.

The next day we met up with Earl and picked up Heather and went to the legion of Honor. There was a great visiting display of art for the Simon collection in Berlin. Some of the really ancient artifacts were on display from the Sumeria Babylon era. Most impressive to me was a shiny black bull sculpture dating to the 25th century BC.
I also was impressed by the artifacts that were collected from the silk trail that connected the European counties with China. Some of the original silks were held under dirt to keep from prying hands.

We had lunch at the cafe and headed home in the teeth of the football crowd who suffered through a crushing defeat at the hands of the seahawks. Monet's waterlilies topped that any day.

We whistled on home tired but gratified for a great weekend.

: ) Pat

Off to the Reunion

My high school class is having their 40th reunion at the El Rancho in Mibrae.

We will have over 70 attendees. Many, including me are bringing their spouses. In this modern world there is open.. guest along with the name on the list of the member. Some members are bringing their daughters to be a part. I remember going to our 30th reunion in San Mateo. I thought the folks that were heading downstairs to their 40th reunion looks a whole lot older than we did. Now we are wearing those shoes.

Its an interesting age.. 58. Some are retired. Some have passed away. Some are just getting it right. Many have had multiple marriages. Some have even married the same wife twice after have another wife in the middle. Most are pretty secure with their station in life. If you haven't found something to do in your life that you like,and that pays, you are waiting to start a new life in retirement.

Francisco, Earl Julius, my friend in high school has flown in from Italy. (I know, his arms are tired) It is the first reunion that he has attended. He said that he had a difficult time getting here because there were many airlines that would not take an Italian credit care.

: ) Pat

Cross Town Rivals Week

It used to be South City vs El Camino. One game I remember occurred on Thanksgiving. I took my sister, Michael Sue to the game. We had parkas. It rained and rained. It was the big game of the year.

Golden Valley is playing Merced High tonight. In the past the game had playoff implications. Tonight it is not so. The once mighty Golden Valley High School, the new school (now 15 years old) has lost its advantage. Its new coach is trying to field a "safe" team. There were just not that many guys that went out for football. When you look across the field there are only 12 guys suited up when the one offense is on the field. This means there are not a huge amount of special teams, and there are some guys that are playing both sides of the line. They will be on the field throughout the game. This is what I mean by a "safe" team.

The Merced High Bears on the other hand are blessed with a great team this year. They have been romping up and down the valley leveling teams in their way.

The pranks are going on as well. Since Golden Valley High School is the team with the gold and red colors, someone climbed over the gate and boldly stroked upon their quad mustard and catchup streaks the letter M and wrote upon the seats, Merced is the best team.. etc.

I share the room at Merced High with a teacher who is the faculty sponsor cheerleading squad. With all the girls accounted for they number just under 50. This is pretty amazing since the cost to the family per student is over 600 dollars. They come during my teaching hour and sign the sign in sheet so that they may continue to get credit for their cheerleader activities and the adviser has some accountability for their whereabouts.

My students were working on introductions today. We stopped our lessons and learned how to pay a verbal compliment. The cheerleaders responded with thank yous and smiles. I told their adviser that they should be complimented for that. She said that she will tell them.

I hope you had a great week

: ) Pat

Orange Sky October

As I was rounding the block heading home this morning on my morning walk, an inspired sky lit up the morning walk. It was a special kind of glow that occurs for only a few minutes on only a few days. It was really one of those moments that make you think that getting up for the sunrises is special. Most of my morning walk is clearly in the dark. The Starbucks on my walk has finally received an order of the proper sized "here cup" so that my cap won't be drowned in milk. Not only do I get a cap the right size and flavor, I no longer need a spoon to scrape the foam off the bottom of the cup.

Yesterday in class we were working with doctor visits. The two words were assistants and physicians. The two words today were receptionists and vitals. I pulled two kids out in my pull out session today. One of them is up for an IEP on Monday. The other I am working with has a obterator to close the cleft palate. She has good intelligibility but she is missing the formation of some basic sounds in the front of her mouth.. like S and Z.

My three kids in my last class are trying to work up a comedy routine. One kid is practicing the introduction of the major comedian. He is looking for some minor jokes for the introduction person to use to warm up the crowd.

The SH kids came streaming in with their bilingual aide today too. They seem a little more likely to talk and their understanding is improving.

Overall I had a pretty good day. and 'Wednesday is "Writing Day"

: ) Pat

This Week's Scenarios

This week the scenarios center on the informing function:

1. You need to let the school librarian know that you have lost a book. What will you say?

2. You tell your mother what clean clothes you need tomorrow. What will you say?

3. Your friend has been gone from English class the last two days, and you wonder whether she has remembered there is a test tomorrow. What will you say?

4. You dentist wants to know what kind of dental work has been done in your mouth in the last couple of years. What will you say?

5. You social studies teacher wants to know what is the most difficult kind of test for you to take. What will you say?

6. Your friend is interested in finding out what you did last weekend. What will you say?

7. Your mother wants to know if there are any clothes in your closet that are too small for you and that she can give away or put up for sale. What do you say?
8. You are interested in telling your friend about a movie that you saw last weekend. What do you say?

9. You just observed a middle-aged woman shoplifting and decide to tell the store clerk about it. What do you say?

10. A foreign exchange student wants to know how expensive it is to go to the movies in America. The student also wants to know where the nearest theatres are and what times the shows play. What will you say?

11. A teacher wants to know how your family gets around most of the time. (e.g. by car? By bus?) What will you say?

12. Your birthday is coming up, and your family and you want to make sure that your friends know what you would like. What will you say?

13. Your parents want to know what kinds of curfews your other friends have right now. What will you say?

14. You r friend wants to know if you have ever been permitted to stay alone all night long. What will you say?

15. Call the doctor’s office and let them know that you would like to make an appointment for next week. What will you say?

16. Your friend wants to know your sister’s name . What will you say?

I will be helping students rehearse conversations that center around informing. Looks like fun

Pat

A forwarded note in Email

Jan Choma sent me this via e-mail. It may become an urban myth.. but it is a good thought and last should be considered when ever we send our youth into harms way:



The Sack Lunches



I put my carry-on in the luggage compartment and sat down in my assigned seat. It was going to be a long flight. 'I'm glad I have a good book to read. Perhaps I'll get a short nap,' I thought. Just before take-off, a line of soldiers came down the aisle and filled all the vacant seats, totally surrounding me. I decided to start a conversation.



'Where are you headed?' I asked the soldier seated nearest to me.

'Chicago - to Great Lakes Base. We'll be there for two weeks for special training, and then we're being deployed to Iraq '



After flying for about an hour, an announcement was made that sack lunches were available for five dollars. It would be several hours before we reached Chicago, and I quickly decided a lunch would help pass the time. As I reached for my wallet, I overheard soldier ask his buddy if he planned to buy lunch.

'No, that seems like a lot of money for just a sack lunch. Probably wouldn't be worth five bucks. I'll wait till we get to Chicago.' His friend agreed. I looked around at the other soldiers. None were buying lunch.



I walked to the back of the plane and handed the flight attendant a fifty dollar bill. 'Take a lunch to all those soldiers.'



She grabbed my arms and squeezed tightly. Her eyes wet with tears, she thanked me. 'My son was a soldier in Iraq; it's almost like you are doing it for him.'

Picking up ten sacks, she headed up the aisle to where the soldiers were seated. She stopped at my seat and asked, 'Which do you like best - beef or chicken?'



'Chicken,' I replied, wondering why she asked. She turned and went to the front of plane, returning a minute later with a dinner plate from first class. 'This is your thanks.'



After we finished eating, I went again to the back of the plane, heading for the rest room. A man stopped me. 'I saw what you did. I want to be part of it. Here, take this.' He handed me twenty-five dollars.



Soon after I returned to my seat, I saw the Flight Captain coming down the aisle, looking at the aisle numbers as he walked. I hoped he was not looking for me, but noticed he was looking at the numbers only on my side of the plane. When he got to my row he stopped, smiled, held out his hand, and said, 'I want to shake your hand.' Quickly unfastening my seatbelt I stood and took the Captain's hand. With a booming voice he said, 'I was a soldier and I was a military pilot. Once, someone bought me a lunch. It was an act of kindness I never forgot.' I was embarrassed when applause was heard from all of the other passengers.


Later I walked to the front of the plane so I could stretch my legs. A man who was seated about six rows in front of me reached out his hand, wanting to shake mine. He left another twenty-five dollars in my palm.



When we landed in Chicago I gathered my belongings and started to deplane. Waiting just inside the airplane door was a man who stopped me, put something in my shirt pocket, turned, and walked away without saying a word. Another twenty-five dollars! Upon entering the terminal, I saw the soldiers

gathering for their trip to the base. I walked over to them and handed them seventy-five dollars. 'It will take you some time to reach the base. It will be about time for a sandwich. God Bless You.'



Ten young men left that flight feeling the love and respect of their fellow travelers. As I walked briskly to my car, I whispered a prayer for their safe return. These soldiers were giving their all for our country. I could only give them a couple of meals. It seemed so little...

A veteran is someone who, at one point in his life wrote a blank check made payable to 'The United States of America' for an amount of 'up to and including my life.' That is honor and there are way too many people in this country who no longer understand it. But for those who do, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.