Too much stuff to drink and no way to do it.
The old way has been rejected by the FDA as too intrusive on the kidneys. The way Sue was supposed to get to the colon inspection was to drink this gallon of mixed up stuff. It didn't work so the whole thing had to be cancelled.
We went out to IHOP and split a chicken fried steak breakfast. Man it was almost too much for two. This morning I have catching up with the laundry. I put too much in the cold load and and had to stop it and restart it with fewer items in it. The cold load always has to be hung. So that got done this morning. The other project is cleaning out the refrige. It really needed it. We have one of those great fridges that has glass trays that collect the spills and each one of them come out like portable shelving with the angle brackets. I paid extra for that kind of shelf and it is really worth it when you go to cleaning them out. I just redistribute the goods on another shelf and take the glass parts to the sink and scrub them down. In the process I pitch out anything that has an expired date or that looks over the hill.
I know what I have and what I will need when I go the the grocery store at the first of the month.. its coming.. I hope.
I need to pull some weeds. My front yard is looking like the set from the jungle. I pulled weeds from around the new kumquat tree. I hope that it produces some fruit this year. My poor lemon tree needs to be relieved of its fruit burdon so that in a week or two when the blossoms come out it will be ready to give me more for lemon pies and "shooters" for Thanksgiving.
So much to do and so little time. We all live busy lives..
Love
Pat
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
Its a Rosebowl Afternoon
California used to get a number of new immigrants from the snow country every time the Rose Bowl parade and football game occurred. People would look out the window (or so the story goes) and they would say.. pack your bags Ma were headed to California. If they could see this afternoon they would do the same. It is 74 degrees out and hardly a breath of air. It is beautiful.
This morning I did my usual classes.. the afternoon classes had a minimum day and closed it out before 12:30. At 10:45 I was waiting in the office of my sleep doctor. I am thinking that it is about time for another sleep study. That office said that I am severely over the time line. The doctor gave me the business for not doing the yearly follow ups. The last time I was in was in 2000. I have gone through another machine since that time. He thinks I am ready for another.. each it gets smaller and smaller. The one the next time is about the size of a paperback.
Sue is starting the sequence for a colonoscopy on Saturday. The worst thing that she says is not the procedure itself but rather drinking the stuff before had. This time she has about a gallon to down in 8oz incrments every 15 minutes until is is clear.. joy.. nothing but clear non colored liquids tonight.. I will be with her when she starts at 7:30 Saturday morning.
You just have to take care of yourself and do what needs to be done when you reach 50+
: ) Pat
This morning I did my usual classes.. the afternoon classes had a minimum day and closed it out before 12:30. At 10:45 I was waiting in the office of my sleep doctor. I am thinking that it is about time for another sleep study. That office said that I am severely over the time line. The doctor gave me the business for not doing the yearly follow ups. The last time I was in was in 2000. I have gone through another machine since that time. He thinks I am ready for another.. each it gets smaller and smaller. The one the next time is about the size of a paperback.
Sue is starting the sequence for a colonoscopy on Saturday. The worst thing that she says is not the procedure itself but rather drinking the stuff before had. This time she has about a gallon to down in 8oz incrments every 15 minutes until is is clear.. joy.. nothing but clear non colored liquids tonight.. I will be with her when she starts at 7:30 Saturday morning.
You just have to take care of yourself and do what needs to be done when you reach 50+
: ) Pat
Thursday, March 26, 2009
The Wind came up
Just when we were starting to enjoy spring weather last week, it decided to rain and start to blow.
Today the cold wind blew out and the warm wind from the south replaced it. The students were in a terrible mood. I had to send a student out to OCAR for funky attitude.. this just never happens in my class. She came in aggressively bored.. and then continued to strut her stuff as we were getting everyone to the potty before we could start.
Second period is a natural break for most students in the class. They have too much to do or they don't want to go in front of others.. or be caught in the bathroom.. so everyday time has to be allowed for them to take care of their restroom needs.
Today I was working on space and and where to be when you are walking with someone else. Also we talked about the times that people give you the not so subtle hint that they don't want to walk with you. Or for you to be around them. My autistic students need a lot of practice in doing this right.
At lunch time the wind was really whipping. As I left the cafeteria an fight broke out. The yard guards were doing flying tackles on kids with raised fists whiles others were standing around and watching and then two more singular fights broke out with 25 foot taunts and students running to close the gaps. Our job is to get students back to moving to their classes. As I was helping to facilitate that, a student came up to me and told me that I needed to see his homework.. I did not have the student.. he was just getting me out of the area.. trying to same my life..
A total of 6 students were involved.. probablly gang affilated. Some of the are headed for explusion, some are headed for 5 days of suspension at home.
What a waste. I think that the problem with students is students.. its not parents, its not teachers, or management. We have a lot of students that have no interest in being in school except for the criminal piece. We collect ADA on these students but we are basically wasting our time and money. It is time for sociologists to really look into what can be done for these students to get them to be productive.. what are the links?
Our institutions are crumbling. Our education based on no child left behind is about as crazy as just say no to drugs.
We need to grow up as a society and figure out ways to solve our problems.
soapbox Pat
Today the cold wind blew out and the warm wind from the south replaced it. The students were in a terrible mood. I had to send a student out to OCAR for funky attitude.. this just never happens in my class. She came in aggressively bored.. and then continued to strut her stuff as we were getting everyone to the potty before we could start.
Second period is a natural break for most students in the class. They have too much to do or they don't want to go in front of others.. or be caught in the bathroom.. so everyday time has to be allowed for them to take care of their restroom needs.
Today I was working on space and and where to be when you are walking with someone else. Also we talked about the times that people give you the not so subtle hint that they don't want to walk with you. Or for you to be around them. My autistic students need a lot of practice in doing this right.
At lunch time the wind was really whipping. As I left the cafeteria an fight broke out. The yard guards were doing flying tackles on kids with raised fists whiles others were standing around and watching and then two more singular fights broke out with 25 foot taunts and students running to close the gaps. Our job is to get students back to moving to their classes. As I was helping to facilitate that, a student came up to me and told me that I needed to see his homework.. I did not have the student.. he was just getting me out of the area.. trying to same my life..
A total of 6 students were involved.. probablly gang affilated. Some of the are headed for explusion, some are headed for 5 days of suspension at home.
What a waste. I think that the problem with students is students.. its not parents, its not teachers, or management. We have a lot of students that have no interest in being in school except for the criminal piece. We collect ADA on these students but we are basically wasting our time and money. It is time for sociologists to really look into what can be done for these students to get them to be productive.. what are the links?
Our institutions are crumbling. Our education based on no child left behind is about as crazy as just say no to drugs.
We need to grow up as a society and figure out ways to solve our problems.
soapbox Pat
Monday, March 23, 2009
Working with Occupations
I was teaching me students about occupations from photo cards this morning. The VP in charge of Special ed at Golden Valley, stopped by to do an unannounced work through. She seemed to be very happy about what she saw. The students were engaged and we were working through what do you call the job of .... and using the photos as a prompt to get the labels. Then develop each to add more threads of meaning on each. The VP wrote a nice response and pased it to me on the way out the door.
The toughest job to remember.. conductor. Some students came close.. engineer. So distinctions needed to me made. The nice part about having a class is the we can review with a short turn around time what they learned today. Its all good.
Last night I made a chinnese chicken. A big pot of boiling water is made with room for the chicken to take a splash. When the water boils up again and cooks for about 4 minutes, then the whole pot with the chicken and its accompanied water is set off the stove for an hour. It can me taken off the bone and the juices remain in the chicken rather than being lost to the pot in the broth.
So tonight.. its chicken enchiladas. I just need to go over and pick up some corn totillas at the grocery store.
: ) Pat
The toughest job to remember.. conductor. Some students came close.. engineer. So distinctions needed to me made. The nice part about having a class is the we can review with a short turn around time what they learned today. Its all good.
Last night I made a chinnese chicken. A big pot of boiling water is made with room for the chicken to take a splash. When the water boils up again and cooks for about 4 minutes, then the whole pot with the chicken and its accompanied water is set off the stove for an hour. It can me taken off the bone and the juices remain in the chicken rather than being lost to the pot in the broth.
So tonight.. its chicken enchiladas. I just need to go over and pick up some corn totillas at the grocery store.
: ) Pat
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Keeping a Printer alive
I have been working on some photos from our cruise from LA to the Mexican Rivera. Its been both fun and exasperating. My epson 2200 is a great printer.. but.. it takes 8 cartridges and there is always one that seems to be going out.
The benifits of a very large format printer is that it makes more than usual sized prints. 13 inch by 19 inch are really "hang them on the wall" kind of prints. Dad as the lowest end of the size. He loves it because there are only two cartridges and they all seem to hold more ink. He gives up some of the delicate colors..but to him it really doesn't matter. There are some very nice photos that he has made with his printer. The real key is the eye of the photographer and the printer is mostly secondary. For most family portraits, the larger size is really not appropriate. It takes a lot of wall space to be firing big stuff to be hung. There are a few nice photos that should qualify for the "hang them on your wall" category. I think the corn lady is one of them. I like the photos of the PV cathedral and the carnival ship coming in.
Sometimes this photography stuff has to be looked upon similar to fly fishing. If you fish to eat, you are joking yourself about the relative cost. It would be a whole lot cheaper to buy your fish in the grocery store than to buy all the equipment needed to catch fish. Photogaphy is the same thing. To think that you can do it on the cheap.. you have got to be kidding yourself. Digital photography has accomplished a major milestone. We are pinned to our computers to do the dark room stuff rather than in a poorly heated isolated place than has to have running water and a drain. Many of my friends don't even print their photos anymore. Costco and Walgreens are their photo lab. That is okay as long as they can keep the subject in the frame. Some of my small photos they have chopped the back end off the ship as it was heading into harbor. Something that I would not accept if I was doing my own printing.
The 2200 has expensive cartridges.. and the newer one looks like they are going to charge even more for their cartridges. The new one has even a cartridge for orange. I neededa new cartridge for the light magenta color. Staples is the only place in town that carries this cartrige. The going rate is 18 dollars for each color. Their are 8 colors.. I have won some bids on Ebay for complete sets. I will be waiting for them to arrive in case another color goes down.
Hope you had a great weekend.
Love
Pat
The benifits of a very large format printer is that it makes more than usual sized prints. 13 inch by 19 inch are really "hang them on the wall" kind of prints. Dad as the lowest end of the size. He loves it because there are only two cartridges and they all seem to hold more ink. He gives up some of the delicate colors..but to him it really doesn't matter. There are some very nice photos that he has made with his printer. The real key is the eye of the photographer and the printer is mostly secondary. For most family portraits, the larger size is really not appropriate. It takes a lot of wall space to be firing big stuff to be hung. There are a few nice photos that should qualify for the "hang them on your wall" category. I think the corn lady is one of them. I like the photos of the PV cathedral and the carnival ship coming in.
Sometimes this photography stuff has to be looked upon similar to fly fishing. If you fish to eat, you are joking yourself about the relative cost. It would be a whole lot cheaper to buy your fish in the grocery store than to buy all the equipment needed to catch fish. Photogaphy is the same thing. To think that you can do it on the cheap.. you have got to be kidding yourself. Digital photography has accomplished a major milestone. We are pinned to our computers to do the dark room stuff rather than in a poorly heated isolated place than has to have running water and a drain. Many of my friends don't even print their photos anymore. Costco and Walgreens are their photo lab. That is okay as long as they can keep the subject in the frame. Some of my small photos they have chopped the back end off the ship as it was heading into harbor. Something that I would not accept if I was doing my own printing.
The 2200 has expensive cartridges.. and the newer one looks like they are going to charge even more for their cartridges. The new one has even a cartridge for orange. I neededa new cartridge for the light magenta color. Staples is the only place in town that carries this cartrige. The going rate is 18 dollars for each color. Their are 8 colors.. I have won some bids on Ebay for complete sets. I will be waiting for them to arrive in case another color goes down.
Hope you had a great weekend.
Love
Pat
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Juicing the Housecleaning
To juice something is to enhance it or get it started.
Today we are juicing the housecleaning with the help of one of the aides from school. We are paying her to "help" us clean the house.
It really works. Sue participated more before and during the housecleaning chores. I did some of the really nasty stuff.. because you really don't want to reveal that kind of mess to someone that doesn't live in it.. cat boxes, around the toilet.. In the mean time while she is cleaning Sue is picking up stuff.. granted it is very difficult for her to pick something up off the floor.. but she is doing some of that. I am taking the recyclying stuff to the limited places that collect the stuff. This morning there was a significant line to do that.. an all of the tops had to be off the plastic bottles. Its not such a hard thing when you have a little.. its kind of major when you have a lot.
So having some one juice the activities multiples the success greater than the mathematical inclusion of one more helping to clean the house.
The first thing that she did was dig into the public areas and their floors. Boy was that needed. Of course there were ancillary projects that arose off of that.
I have been having difficulty getting some decent prints from my printer.. and Dad was right as usual, you just have to print a great deal on the Epson 2200 to keep the heads from clogging.
Yesterday I replaced three cartridges.. the biggest change occured when I changed the magenta cartridge and the yellow. It was trying to print everything with the light magenta.
Suddenly the rusty sculpture on the Malacon of Puerto Vallarta was actually rusty looking. I have some very nice photos of the girls and the public sculpture. Its amazing what these little cameras can do. The first one I had was a sony mavica.. it tried to reinvent photography. The big feature was the photos could be storeed on a plastic computer disc. The ones that the first macs sort of invented.
My latest is a neearly undistructable canon SD 790 IS Elph. A no visible plastic model. It takes credible movies as well as 10 mega pixel photos that match pretty closes the 14x19 paper that I run in the epson 2200. When it works.
Have a great Saturday
: ) Pat
Today we are juicing the housecleaning with the help of one of the aides from school. We are paying her to "help" us clean the house.
It really works. Sue participated more before and during the housecleaning chores. I did some of the really nasty stuff.. because you really don't want to reveal that kind of mess to someone that doesn't live in it.. cat boxes, around the toilet.. In the mean time while she is cleaning Sue is picking up stuff.. granted it is very difficult for her to pick something up off the floor.. but she is doing some of that. I am taking the recyclying stuff to the limited places that collect the stuff. This morning there was a significant line to do that.. an all of the tops had to be off the plastic bottles. Its not such a hard thing when you have a little.. its kind of major when you have a lot.
So having some one juice the activities multiples the success greater than the mathematical inclusion of one more helping to clean the house.
The first thing that she did was dig into the public areas and their floors. Boy was that needed. Of course there were ancillary projects that arose off of that.
I have been having difficulty getting some decent prints from my printer.. and Dad was right as usual, you just have to print a great deal on the Epson 2200 to keep the heads from clogging.
Yesterday I replaced three cartridges.. the biggest change occured when I changed the magenta cartridge and the yellow. It was trying to print everything with the light magenta.
Suddenly the rusty sculpture on the Malacon of Puerto Vallarta was actually rusty looking. I have some very nice photos of the girls and the public sculpture. Its amazing what these little cameras can do. The first one I had was a sony mavica.. it tried to reinvent photography. The big feature was the photos could be storeed on a plastic computer disc. The ones that the first macs sort of invented.
My latest is a neearly undistructable canon SD 790 IS Elph. A no visible plastic model. It takes credible movies as well as 10 mega pixel photos that match pretty closes the 14x19 paper that I run in the epson 2200. When it works.
Have a great Saturday
: ) Pat
Thursday, March 19, 2009
What Happens when you Think it Happened and it didn't?
A teacher was about to be non-relected.
This teacher submitted a resignation letter to the principal instead.
The principal may or may not have forwarded it to the HR person.
The HR person went ahead and processed the paperwork so that the teacher could and was not relected for the next school year.
The principal in during this time submitted to the entire faculty a letter of resignation posted to the end of the year.
The teacher's resignation was not honored, but the district's non re election was honored and the board passed the non re election.
The principal's election for the next year was honored at the board meeting and the principal's name was offered and voted to be renewed for the next year.
The teacher did not want the non re election on her record. The district's HR person said that after talking with counsel, there was no way to "undo" a non re election. When asked to recognize the date and meaning of the letter, the HR person said that the HR person needed to consult with counsel.
The HR person was very sorry that an error was made. The HR person said that good recommendations would be provided if asked since the teacher's evaluations were good. Still what was done by the board could not be undone.
The issue lies on the continuance of the HR person to remember the situation or to even stay in the same job during the need for recommendations. We are in a very scary position when a dated letter of resignation is not honored and the machinery of process continues to take its toll whether right or wrong.
Pat
This teacher submitted a resignation letter to the principal instead.
The principal may or may not have forwarded it to the HR person.
The HR person went ahead and processed the paperwork so that the teacher could and was not relected for the next school year.
The principal in during this time submitted to the entire faculty a letter of resignation posted to the end of the year.
The teacher's resignation was not honored, but the district's non re election was honored and the board passed the non re election.
The principal's election for the next year was honored at the board meeting and the principal's name was offered and voted to be renewed for the next year.
The teacher did not want the non re election on her record. The district's HR person said that after talking with counsel, there was no way to "undo" a non re election. When asked to recognize the date and meaning of the letter, the HR person said that the HR person needed to consult with counsel.
The HR person was very sorry that an error was made. The HR person said that good recommendations would be provided if asked since the teacher's evaluations were good. Still what was done by the board could not be undone.
The issue lies on the continuance of the HR person to remember the situation or to even stay in the same job during the need for recommendations. We are in a very scary position when a dated letter of resignation is not honored and the machinery of process continues to take its toll whether right or wrong.
Pat
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Sac Bee Bento Boxes
I know of a couple of readers of this blog that are very interested in the Bento box lunch idea. This Sacramento Bee article lists some pretty low cost on-line sources for that interest.
Bento-box lunch guidelines
ShareThis
Published: Wednesday, Mar. 18, 2009 - 12:00 am | Page 2D
• Try to abide by the color rule: Have at least five colors of food in each box.
• Food should be tightly packed inside a bento box. Use reusable muffin cups as dividers and fill gaps with foods like cherry tomatoes and grapes. This not only gets the portion right but also keeps food from moving around.
• Generally a 600-milliliter bento will hold 600 calories if it is packed with about three parts carbohydrates, one part protein and two parts fruits and vegetables.
• An easy way to keep bento packing simple is to keep three bins – one in the refrigerator with grapes, blueberries, single-serving cheeses and hard-boiled eggs; another in the freezer with leftovers frozen into reusable muffin cups such as frittatas, dumplings, rice balls and mini-hamburgers; and a third in the pantry with portioned-out nuts, crackers and puddings.
Sources: www.lunchinabox.net; www.globalgourmet.com;
REUSABLE GEAR
Regular Tupperware can be used to carry lunches, and two online companies sell lunch gear: • www.ichibankanusa.com (items cost from $1-8.50)
• www.laptoplunches.com (the basic lunch box with containers that fit inside costs $22.99)
Bento-box lunch guidelines
ShareThis
Published: Wednesday, Mar. 18, 2009 - 12:00 am | Page 2D
• Try to abide by the color rule: Have at least five colors of food in each box.
• Food should be tightly packed inside a bento box. Use reusable muffin cups as dividers and fill gaps with foods like cherry tomatoes and grapes. This not only gets the portion right but also keeps food from moving around.
• Generally a 600-milliliter bento will hold 600 calories if it is packed with about three parts carbohydrates, one part protein and two parts fruits and vegetables.
• An easy way to keep bento packing simple is to keep three bins – one in the refrigerator with grapes, blueberries, single-serving cheeses and hard-boiled eggs; another in the freezer with leftovers frozen into reusable muffin cups such as frittatas, dumplings, rice balls and mini-hamburgers; and a third in the pantry with portioned-out nuts, crackers and puddings.
Sources: www.lunchinabox.net; www.globalgourmet.com;
REUSABLE GEAR
Regular Tupperware can be used to carry lunches, and two online companies sell lunch gear: • www.ichibankanusa.com (items cost from $1-8.50)
• www.laptoplunches.com (the basic lunch box with containers that fit inside costs $22.99)
Monday, March 16, 2009
New Photos from Mexico on Flickr
Slowly the photos from our trip are starting to appear on the Flickr photostream.
Some are taking some more work than I imagined.. I think the results are worth it. I took some very nice photos at twilight in Puerto Vallarta. I am sure that some people will be a little squimish regarding the big iguana that I took in the trees. I really don't think that he is real. Every time we have been near the overpass, an excited native is quick to point him out to us in hopes that we will drop a few pesos in his hands for spotting such a wonderful piece of wildlife.. I really think he is stuffed.. or at least is maintained there so that people will be in awe of him.
In Cabo as you walk into the town there were iguanas dressed up in funny costumes. Its amazing what our species does to others. Iguanas should not have chaps, a cowboy hat and a holster on. These animals I assume were born and raised in captivity.
There are some really nice photos of the PV cathedral. The horizontal one needed extensive clone work to remove the idiot photographers in front of the photo. I know I could have waited for them to pass. Its kind of interesting to see the before and after shots.
I think a really nice photo is the one with the girls watching the waves come in on the wrought iron bench of the Malacon. When I printed it at home I lost a lot of the delicate tans in the photo. They over saturated and its just not the same.
The new photoshop has some keen features with adjustment layers. Its a big improvement.
: ) Pat
Some are taking some more work than I imagined.. I think the results are worth it. I took some very nice photos at twilight in Puerto Vallarta. I am sure that some people will be a little squimish regarding the big iguana that I took in the trees. I really don't think that he is real. Every time we have been near the overpass, an excited native is quick to point him out to us in hopes that we will drop a few pesos in his hands for spotting such a wonderful piece of wildlife.. I really think he is stuffed.. or at least is maintained there so that people will be in awe of him.
In Cabo as you walk into the town there were iguanas dressed up in funny costumes. Its amazing what our species does to others. Iguanas should not have chaps, a cowboy hat and a holster on. These animals I assume were born and raised in captivity.
There are some really nice photos of the PV cathedral. The horizontal one needed extensive clone work to remove the idiot photographers in front of the photo. I know I could have waited for them to pass. Its kind of interesting to see the before and after shots.
I think a really nice photo is the one with the girls watching the waves come in on the wrought iron bench of the Malacon. When I printed it at home I lost a lot of the delicate tans in the photo. They over saturated and its just not the same.
The new photoshop has some keen features with adjustment layers. Its a big improvement.
: ) Pat
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Tuba Music acquistions on EMusic
One of the latest acquistions form E-Music is an album from the modern jazz tuba project. Here is the scoop on them:
The MJT Project is a ten-piece modern jazz group consisting of professional jazz musicians, primarily based in Nashville, Tennessee. Barely three years old and MJT has already produced two critically acclaimed recordings ("Live at the Bottom Line ", Heartdance Music HDM 1090 & "Favorite Things", Heartdance Music HDM 1120) and has presented performances at the Great American Brass Band Festival in Danville, Kentucky, the U.S. Army Band Tuba Conference in Washington, D.C., the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago, the International Tuba Euphonium Conference in Greensboro, NC, the Texas Music Educators Conference and the Florida Music Educators Conference.
This group presents an exciting new approach to contemporary music. With six low brass instrumentalists and a four-piece rhythm section, the MJT Project builds upon over fifty years of tradition utilizing the euphonium and tuba as lead instruments in jazz. This tradition started in the late 1940s with "the birth of the cool" and the collaboration between Miles Davis and Bill Barber on a number of recordings arranged by Gil Evans, and was extended through the 1950s by Harvey Phillips (the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra, Gil Evans, etc.) and Don Butterfield (Clark Terry, Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus and others).
Pretty cool.. hun?
Pat
The MJT Project is a ten-piece modern jazz group consisting of professional jazz musicians, primarily based in Nashville, Tennessee. Barely three years old and MJT has already produced two critically acclaimed recordings ("Live at the Bottom Line ", Heartdance Music HDM 1090 & "Favorite Things", Heartdance Music HDM 1120) and has presented performances at the Great American Brass Band Festival in Danville, Kentucky, the U.S. Army Band Tuba Conference in Washington, D.C., the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago, the International Tuba Euphonium Conference in Greensboro, NC, the Texas Music Educators Conference and the Florida Music Educators Conference.
This group presents an exciting new approach to contemporary music. With six low brass instrumentalists and a four-piece rhythm section, the MJT Project builds upon over fifty years of tradition utilizing the euphonium and tuba as lead instruments in jazz. This tradition started in the late 1940s with "the birth of the cool" and the collaboration between Miles Davis and Bill Barber on a number of recordings arranged by Gil Evans, and was extended through the 1950s by Harvey Phillips (the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra, Gil Evans, etc.) and Don Butterfield (Clark Terry, Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus and others).
Pretty cool.. hun?
Pat
Its Corned Beef Time!
Tuesday is St. Pat's Day... so its not too early to get out the corned beef and cook it up for a nice Sunday dinner.. and so we did.
In latter years mom came to the conclusion and of course its true, the its not worth your time and energy to waste your time cooking a corned brisket. It better to get a big chunk of round. You don't have to deal with the fat, its better for you, and there is significantly less shrinkage involved.
Along with the corned beef,there has to be some potatoes,carrots, and cabbage. The potatoes go in after the meat shows some tenderness. Then 20 minutues later the carrots go in, and finally in the last 5 minutes, the cabbage. Oh we dearly love the cabbage done this way.
Rumor has it that one of our stray cats (Gauguin, since departed from us) was lured out of his stray catdom by a tiny bite of corned beef. The girls have since confessed. I think that he hung out at our house in hopes of recapturing the moment of bliss of chowing down on some corned beef crumbles.
My daughter have long since believed that corned beef and cabbage is the ultimate Thanksgiving fare.. with the exception of the year that we deep fried 6 small turkeys in the front yard of Granpa's house.
So its corned beef season. Although its not really authentic, it stil spells I R I S H...
Love.. Pat
In latter years mom came to the conclusion and of course its true, the its not worth your time and energy to waste your time cooking a corned brisket. It better to get a big chunk of round. You don't have to deal with the fat, its better for you, and there is significantly less shrinkage involved.
Along with the corned beef,there has to be some potatoes,carrots, and cabbage. The potatoes go in after the meat shows some tenderness. Then 20 minutues later the carrots go in, and finally in the last 5 minutes, the cabbage. Oh we dearly love the cabbage done this way.
Rumor has it that one of our stray cats (Gauguin, since departed from us) was lured out of his stray catdom by a tiny bite of corned beef. The girls have since confessed. I think that he hung out at our house in hopes of recapturing the moment of bliss of chowing down on some corned beef crumbles.
My daughter have long since believed that corned beef and cabbage is the ultimate Thanksgiving fare.. with the exception of the year that we deep fried 6 small turkeys in the front yard of Granpa's house.
So its corned beef season. Although its not really authentic, it stil spells I R I S H...
Love.. Pat
Friday, March 13, 2009
The Pink Shirt
Today was pink day throughout California.
The CA budget for education has a great big hole in it. The only way to fix the hole is to layoff teachers and programs.
The California Teacher association along with the support from the management organization felt that the demonstration should happen at the schools not in Sacramento like it has in the past. So we all wore pink to point out that when people are not needed any more they are given "pink slips."
Today was the last day that school could get out the pink slips. And many of them did.. but much earlier. Even districts like ours with a sizable rainy day fund felt they needed to "non elect" many of the teachers and professionals they paid bonuses and encouragements to come. This leaves a bad taste in many of these professionals mouth and it make teaching a significantly less secure job.
I have a marvelous pink shirt. Its an IZod. I got it for a song on Ebay. I am sure that some poor wife thought that a very nice shirt like this would be great in her husband's closet. When he got it.. straight to the moon Alice! So on Ebay it was very cheap.
So pink day.. I wore it. The reaction was pretty interesting. Some students tried to dismiss the fact that a male teacher was wear such a shirt. They said out loud.. you can't be a teacher.. what do you teach? As the walked quickly by me.
A para (classified teacher's aid) stopped by and said, "I need to take a photo of you wearing that shirt. I have a great pink shirt for my husband and he won't wear it"
All through the day I received.. love your pink commments.
I picked up Sue's prescription at Walgreens. A tough looking hispanic guy looked me over and gave me a wink.
Guys out in the parking lot shouted at me.. hey Pinkie.. and gave me the I love you sign in sign language.
I picked up pizza and the guy that owns the place pointed at me as I left and said.. pink and gave me a thumbs up.
So a pretty unusual day with the recognition of a big pink shirt on a guy in their midst.
: ) Pat
The CA budget for education has a great big hole in it. The only way to fix the hole is to layoff teachers and programs.
The California Teacher association along with the support from the management organization felt that the demonstration should happen at the schools not in Sacramento like it has in the past. So we all wore pink to point out that when people are not needed any more they are given "pink slips."
Today was the last day that school could get out the pink slips. And many of them did.. but much earlier. Even districts like ours with a sizable rainy day fund felt they needed to "non elect" many of the teachers and professionals they paid bonuses and encouragements to come. This leaves a bad taste in many of these professionals mouth and it make teaching a significantly less secure job.
I have a marvelous pink shirt. Its an IZod. I got it for a song on Ebay. I am sure that some poor wife thought that a very nice shirt like this would be great in her husband's closet. When he got it.. straight to the moon Alice! So on Ebay it was very cheap.
So pink day.. I wore it. The reaction was pretty interesting. Some students tried to dismiss the fact that a male teacher was wear such a shirt. They said out loud.. you can't be a teacher.. what do you teach? As the walked quickly by me.
A para (classified teacher's aid) stopped by and said, "I need to take a photo of you wearing that shirt. I have a great pink shirt for my husband and he won't wear it"
All through the day I received.. love your pink commments.
I picked up Sue's prescription at Walgreens. A tough looking hispanic guy looked me over and gave me a wink.
Guys out in the parking lot shouted at me.. hey Pinkie.. and gave me the I love you sign in sign language.
I picked up pizza and the guy that owns the place pointed at me as I left and said.. pink and gave me a thumbs up.
So a pretty unusual day with the recognition of a big pink shirt on a guy in their midst.
: ) Pat
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Marvelous LCD Projectors
Today we researched together the reality of the movie, "Wild Hearts Cannot be Broken" the Disney Movie released in 1991.
The students always want to know if the story of the movie really happened. Disney films claims that this story really happened.
At both schools, my classroom is equipped with an LCD projector hooked up to the teacher station. Many teachers have their "nest" that they like to work in during their prep period. This makes it kind of difficult to ask them to get off their computer and leave their planning station so that my class may have the advantage of the projector and their computer. All of the computers are hooked up to the same storage set and server so there is not much that is different from one computer than another.. so they could move.
Today, one teacher was off to intakes and the other was not in her class. I talked the students about the tools that we have on the computer that may be used to find out information. I also talked about internet security and that people watch your key strokes at school, as well as your Utube. They even have access to your home email if you check it at school. That was a big revelation to some of my students.
So I showed the Sonora Webster Carver entries brought to us by Google. One of them was wikipedia. I told them that anyone can add to the articles in Wikipeda, not just experts. Other places may have more definitive knowledge.
One place.. the graveside memorials had an actual photo of Sonora. It also had an old photo of her jump with her horse. It listed the autobiography of her story.
It was a good chance to find out more about the movie. Sonora and her sister were not very happy about Disney's attempt to portray of their story.
Lots of work for the Friday tomorrow. Intakes and getting 3 weeks of work ready for a student that will not be in school for that time.
Hope you have a great Friday.. the 13th.
: ) pat
The students always want to know if the story of the movie really happened. Disney films claims that this story really happened.
At both schools, my classroom is equipped with an LCD projector hooked up to the teacher station. Many teachers have their "nest" that they like to work in during their prep period. This makes it kind of difficult to ask them to get off their computer and leave their planning station so that my class may have the advantage of the projector and their computer. All of the computers are hooked up to the same storage set and server so there is not much that is different from one computer than another.. so they could move.
Today, one teacher was off to intakes and the other was not in her class. I talked the students about the tools that we have on the computer that may be used to find out information. I also talked about internet security and that people watch your key strokes at school, as well as your Utube. They even have access to your home email if you check it at school. That was a big revelation to some of my students.
So I showed the Sonora Webster Carver entries brought to us by Google. One of them was wikipedia. I told them that anyone can add to the articles in Wikipeda, not just experts. Other places may have more definitive knowledge.
One place.. the graveside memorials had an actual photo of Sonora. It also had an old photo of her jump with her horse. It listed the autobiography of her story.
It was a good chance to find out more about the movie. Sonora and her sister were not very happy about Disney's attempt to portray of their story.
Lots of work for the Friday tomorrow. Intakes and getting 3 weeks of work ready for a student that will not be in school for that time.
Hope you have a great Friday.. the 13th.
: ) pat
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Jana Seale in the Gatsby
On the NCL Star there is one amazing acoustic singer with her guitar.
The floor of the Gatsby has a piano and a number of nice soft chairs to listen. The people that need the bar are well taken care of here. She sings her songs piano bar style except with a guitar. She has an amazing range and has a complete notebook of wonderful songs that she can sing. The people listening to her would write a note with a song or two's title and she would crank it out with pleasure.
Somewhere along the line I missed the Leonard Cohen connection. Back when he was singing instead of talking he has a number of very well written verses. She was singing one of his more famous songs one time as we walked from one end of the ship to the other. One of the girls identified the original to me and I looked it up on the ITunes when we got home. Hallelujah. It was something else. I had to get more Leonard Cohen. Many of his songs are "story" songs.
Jana Seale comes from Vancover. She plays 7 nights a week on the ship. It must be a pretty tough life.. always rocking around and going from LA to Pureto Vallarta and back continually. This ship also goes North to Alaska in the Summer out of Seattle.
I am not sure that I could talk Sue into anther NCL trip.. at least for awhile.. she missed the "dress" up nights and the service you get from a predictable set of wait staff in the dinning room.
So.. Carnival is out.. you might as well go to Las Vegas.. which she considers the Hell Hole of the Western World. Although the best spa treatment was on this ship.
We enjoyed the indoor solerarium on the Royal Cab.. but the buffet was not good at all.. the girls still call any ship's buffet the Windjammer.
So this leaves the Princess lines.. she thinks they are the best. They were the first and of course we didn't know what to expect.. but it took her heart. So we are saving to go back to Alaska and bring our family with us.
Love to all of you!
Pat
The floor of the Gatsby has a piano and a number of nice soft chairs to listen. The people that need the bar are well taken care of here. She sings her songs piano bar style except with a guitar. She has an amazing range and has a complete notebook of wonderful songs that she can sing. The people listening to her would write a note with a song or two's title and she would crank it out with pleasure.
Somewhere along the line I missed the Leonard Cohen connection. Back when he was singing instead of talking he has a number of very well written verses. She was singing one of his more famous songs one time as we walked from one end of the ship to the other. One of the girls identified the original to me and I looked it up on the ITunes when we got home. Hallelujah. It was something else. I had to get more Leonard Cohen. Many of his songs are "story" songs.
Jana Seale comes from Vancover. She plays 7 nights a week on the ship. It must be a pretty tough life.. always rocking around and going from LA to Pureto Vallarta and back continually. This ship also goes North to Alaska in the Summer out of Seattle.
I am not sure that I could talk Sue into anther NCL trip.. at least for awhile.. she missed the "dress" up nights and the service you get from a predictable set of wait staff in the dinning room.
So.. Carnival is out.. you might as well go to Las Vegas.. which she considers the Hell Hole of the Western World. Although the best spa treatment was on this ship.
We enjoyed the indoor solerarium on the Royal Cab.. but the buffet was not good at all.. the girls still call any ship's buffet the Windjammer.
So this leaves the Princess lines.. she thinks they are the best. They were the first and of course we didn't know what to expect.. but it took her heart. So we are saving to go back to Alaska and bring our family with us.
Love to all of you!
Pat
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Hatchet Person
The Gospel of Saint Thomas (which I often quote) states: "everything you bring forth will save you….everything you do not bring forth will destroy you."
The essence of the current term called transparency. School districts have come to the conclusion that it is easier to bring forth rather than hide. After all its the school board's decision anyway.
I met our HR person in the grocery last night. She almost didn't want to say hello. She did and I asked her about her tough week. (The week of massive non election of new teachers). She said that it had taken its toll. I said that I felt for her. She said that there there was an article about the HR folks in companies that were having to do what she was doing. They are going to need some Post traumatic help. She said that she could relate to them. I told her that I would keep her in may thoughts. She said that she appreciated that.
So goes the life of what dad would call the hatchet man.
Pat
The essence of the current term called transparency. School districts have come to the conclusion that it is easier to bring forth rather than hide. After all its the school board's decision anyway.
I met our HR person in the grocery last night. She almost didn't want to say hello. She did and I asked her about her tough week. (The week of massive non election of new teachers). She said that it had taken its toll. I said that I felt for her. She said that there there was an article about the HR folks in companies that were having to do what she was doing. They are going to need some Post traumatic help. She said that she could relate to them. I told her that I would keep her in may thoughts. She said that she appreciated that.
So goes the life of what dad would call the hatchet man.
Pat
Saturday, March 7, 2009
On LIne Censorship!
I put up a group of photos from the harbor of Puerto Vallarta in Flickr.
My sister wrote a valid comment in Flickr that the one photo had too much of a phallic flavor to it.. and guess what? That photo is somehow not available on Flickr anymore.
Coincidence? I think not. Its amazing how a comment will automatically throw a photo off the viewfinder. As you know the comment was perfectly innocent and so was the photo. There really wasn't anything phallic about he photo at all.. it was just symbolic in her eyes.
Flickr is being very careful about what goes up.
I guess that if it takes that.. so be it..
: ) Pat
My sister wrote a valid comment in Flickr that the one photo had too much of a phallic flavor to it.. and guess what? That photo is somehow not available on Flickr anymore.
Coincidence? I think not. Its amazing how a comment will automatically throw a photo off the viewfinder. As you know the comment was perfectly innocent and so was the photo. There really wasn't anything phallic about he photo at all.. it was just symbolic in her eyes.
Flickr is being very careful about what goes up.
I guess that if it takes that.. so be it..
: ) Pat
The Chair is Fixed!
Stuff like this is ongoing so to expect that it will stay like this forever is foolish.. but the chair is fixed.
Sue was sort of leaning toward taking it up to Turlock to the repair guys.. it may still need to have the brake repaired..but the handle works and the hex nut is secure under the handle so that it won't move.
The first thing that I had to do was to remove a half a roll of tape that we used to get it through the cruise. By the way, that is a pretty handy thing to bring along.. a roll of electrical vinyl tape. It can me used for all sorts of things and the request for it at the desk with the American English learners could be problematic. So pack some on your next cruise!
It would also be good to pack a phillips head screwdriver in the bag for other kinds of emergencies.
: ) Pat
Sue was sort of leaning toward taking it up to Turlock to the repair guys.. it may still need to have the brake repaired..but the handle works and the hex nut is secure under the handle so that it won't move.
The first thing that I had to do was to remove a half a roll of tape that we used to get it through the cruise. By the way, that is a pretty handy thing to bring along.. a roll of electrical vinyl tape. It can me used for all sorts of things and the request for it at the desk with the American English learners could be problematic. So pack some on your next cruise!
It would also be good to pack a phillips head screwdriver in the bag for other kinds of emergencies.
: ) Pat
Clear Bright Saturday Morning
There was a little fog earlier this morning. That is a little unusual for this time of the year. Last week should have been warmer.. it wasn't. There is promise for today.
Grades are due this week. This is a major drawback to doing classes with my students. I have a feeling that as long as the grades are okay they really don't care whether they are A's B's or C's. In the long scheme of things it really dosen't matter. Most of my students are trying hard. They are so needy in so many ways academically. Motivation has to come from other areas than grades. Still grades are required to be turned in.
I have been working on a Puerto Vallarta cathedral photo. I have one that is vertical which is nearly perfect. It has tall palm trees in the front of the photo. The horizontal is somewhat problematic because it shows wires, has an idiot like me taking photos in front of it and has red and white radio towers. Careful editing and some sky cloning is in order.
Sue's chair is in total disarray. It started going bad on the ship and has continued to exhibit problems. The arm rest that controls the speed and direction of the power chair is coming off of its support. I need to go find some screws (again) and strengthen its attachment to the arm support. Sounds like a great Saturday project.
I hope that the bees find the weather to their liking. I have not seen any bees working on my trees this year. The pluots are through blooming and the peaches and apricots and hoping for a marvelously warm weekend.. and so am I.
: ) Pat
Grades are due this week. This is a major drawback to doing classes with my students. I have a feeling that as long as the grades are okay they really don't care whether they are A's B's or C's. In the long scheme of things it really dosen't matter. Most of my students are trying hard. They are so needy in so many ways academically. Motivation has to come from other areas than grades. Still grades are required to be turned in.
I have been working on a Puerto Vallarta cathedral photo. I have one that is vertical which is nearly perfect. It has tall palm trees in the front of the photo. The horizontal is somewhat problematic because it shows wires, has an idiot like me taking photos in front of it and has red and white radio towers. Careful editing and some sky cloning is in order.
Sue's chair is in total disarray. It started going bad on the ship and has continued to exhibit problems. The arm rest that controls the speed and direction of the power chair is coming off of its support. I need to go find some screws (again) and strengthen its attachment to the arm support. Sounds like a great Saturday project.
I hope that the bees find the weather to their liking. I have not seen any bees working on my trees this year. The pluots are through blooming and the peaches and apricots and hoping for a marvelously warm weekend.. and so am I.
: ) Pat
Friday, March 6, 2009
Mixed Bag
Today I started with 4 intakes at a junior high.
I explained the program and had a chance to ask questions of the speech and lang that serves one of the junior highs in town.
It was a great opportunity to see the students of next year and their parents.
When I returned to school, I taught my students about story boarding the movie, Wild Hearts cannot be Broken. We had a couple of multiple meaning words that worked themselves into the discussion. I explained the difference between a carnival and a county fair.
The story board is a form of a current "in" thing in education. The fancy name for these things is a visual graphic organizer.
The final period I was able to test a student that is doing well enough to be considered for exiting from the speech program at the high school.
All in all it was a pretty good day.
Check out the story board from my white board in the flickr postings. I just put it up this afternoon.
: ) Pat
I explained the program and had a chance to ask questions of the speech and lang that serves one of the junior highs in town.
It was a great opportunity to see the students of next year and their parents.
When I returned to school, I taught my students about story boarding the movie, Wild Hearts cannot be Broken. We had a couple of multiple meaning words that worked themselves into the discussion. I explained the difference between a carnival and a county fair.
The story board is a form of a current "in" thing in education. The fancy name for these things is a visual graphic organizer.
The final period I was able to test a student that is doing well enough to be considered for exiting from the speech program at the high school.
All in all it was a pretty good day.
Check out the story board from my white board in the flickr postings. I just put it up this afternoon.
: ) Pat
Its Friday and all the Angels rejoice
Its Friday in the valley and almost everywhere else.
Friday is a day to make sure you got done everything you wanted to do this week.. or..
Today I am off to do intakes at the Junior High. There seems to be fewer coming in next year with speech services on their IEP.
This week brought some very bad news to some teachers. Some in our schools were told that they were not coming back next year. This is not the layoff because there are no funds kind of thing. This is officially a "non re-elect". So some of us suspect it might be because of the budget. People in management are coming down to take the jobs of non permanent teachers because their management job has been eliminated. Some of these people have not been in the classroom for 4 or 5 years. Many have been advising people in the classroom. They may be in for a rude awakening. In normal years they would seek administrative jobs in other districts instead of taking the pay cut to come back into the classroom line of fire. Our district is starting a new model next year based on RTI. This could also confuse the mix. In the mean time the non permanent teachers are left gasping for air and seeking jobs in other districts that may or may not materialize in August.
Our painting class was a lot of fun this week. We are starting to explore new options on watercolor paper. This week we did some collage building on gessoed watercolor paper. We were using all kinds of packing and trash to build texture on the paper. Next week we will be painting on it and starting another new project. In the mean time Kate is exciting about some successes in local juried shows. Yeah Kate! We are having a great time and Sue is getting out to do something every week. This week she even walked from the parking lot to the art room without a wheelchair. It was a bit a stretch to get back to the car in the evening but she did it with a couple of resting periods.
Its hard to believe that we are still in drought condtions with all of the rain that we have had this week. A lot of the rain just soaked into the parched soil with little runoff in the lower elevations.. that is us.
Have a great Friday..
: ) Pat
Friday is a day to make sure you got done everything you wanted to do this week.. or..
Today I am off to do intakes at the Junior High. There seems to be fewer coming in next year with speech services on their IEP.
This week brought some very bad news to some teachers. Some in our schools were told that they were not coming back next year. This is not the layoff because there are no funds kind of thing. This is officially a "non re-elect". So some of us suspect it might be because of the budget. People in management are coming down to take the jobs of non permanent teachers because their management job has been eliminated. Some of these people have not been in the classroom for 4 or 5 years. Many have been advising people in the classroom. They may be in for a rude awakening. In normal years they would seek administrative jobs in other districts instead of taking the pay cut to come back into the classroom line of fire. Our district is starting a new model next year based on RTI. This could also confuse the mix. In the mean time the non permanent teachers are left gasping for air and seeking jobs in other districts that may or may not materialize in August.
Our painting class was a lot of fun this week. We are starting to explore new options on watercolor paper. This week we did some collage building on gessoed watercolor paper. We were using all kinds of packing and trash to build texture on the paper. Next week we will be painting on it and starting another new project. In the mean time Kate is exciting about some successes in local juried shows. Yeah Kate! We are having a great time and Sue is getting out to do something every week. This week she even walked from the parking lot to the art room without a wheelchair. It was a bit a stretch to get back to the car in the evening but she did it with a couple of resting periods.
Its hard to believe that we are still in drought condtions with all of the rain that we have had this week. A lot of the rain just soaked into the parched soil with little runoff in the lower elevations.. that is us.
Have a great Friday..
: ) Pat
Monday, March 2, 2009
Puerto Vallarta
Every time I have been to Pv it has been delightful.
I was up early in the morning as we docked a little before 8am. I took a series of photos of the Carnival ship, Pride coming into to join us in the tiny cruise section of the port. The steamy tropical mountains rise above the mist in the early morning. The layers of mountains around the port seperate out and spread before the development. Right in front of the ships park is the local Walmart. I have not been in but I heard that it is somewhat different than stateside's Walmarts. There has been significant development since were we were here last. More condos are built or being built, Cranes dot the new city sections.
The cruise park has great expanses of lawn around the dock. The park is completely fenced in and is secure. A long series of white tents usher the disemarking guest to the taxi and tour bus turn around.
When we first got to Puerto Vallarta the air temperatures had risen another 10 degrees. Many of the first people off the ship were a little older than we were. They were headed back to the boat when we were getting off. It is so nice not to have to tender. These people came on the boat looking tired and said that it was too hot to go ashore. Sounds like a tale for mid February. It was warm when you go off the boat, but once you put your hat on and felt some of the ocean breeze it was wonderful.
Sue got a chance to get off again and took it. She had a great time shoping for a mexican dress, some sandals and a little jewelry. I tagged along and through the merchants off balance. They didn't know who they were bargaining with mammacita or pappa. We had a great time. After mom had had enough, we got her to get some food aboard ship for lunch.. its always nice to have a spot to provide basic sustence and liquid. I had a marvelous lamb shank.
On the way back to the ship I spotted an atm. My ATm card from the credit union worked! It didn't on the ship. So I pulled out the maximum I could at one time.. in pesos.. 1,000. It pitched them out in two 500 peso bills. The exchange rate is 15 to one so the 1000 pesos was really 65 American dollars. So we worked with pesos in the afternoon as much as possible. The merchants were less happy to deal in pesos although after most of the bargaining in English in the morning the merchants translated it with a calculator to pesos and all the receipts were listed in pesos. The 15 to one ratio is a little harder to figure than you would expect. So I basically figured from the 1000= 65 ratio and that means the 500 equals 33 dollars.
Mom was happy to get some rest, while the girls and I set out to walk the river walk shops. Under the canopy of wild exotic trees were a group of wild iguanas that lived up in the trees. They have red highlights on their combs. The shops that follow the walk are particularly nice with everything you could imagine in in stand level crafts. There were also a couple of very nice stores that contained a rather select artisan set of crafts and Mexican pewter. The girls and I found some very nice treasures in a couple of these stores.
We also found a very cool restaurant/bar that looked out over the walk. It looked like a very nice place for a cool drink. The bar was advertising two for one happy hour.. so we got happy. I was wondering how we were going to do the two for one bit especially since we were strictly top shelf margarita drinkers... and there were three of us.. No problem man.. they brought us six. We sipped and watched the crowd walk by. It was getting late afternoon and people were gettting past their siesta. Linzi asked the manager where she could mail a postcard that she had made in Cabo with me up on the deck. He asked the waiter and pointed and described a place back up the walk to the swinging bridge and over to the grocery store. She found it and made it back to finish the drinks.
Heather fell in love with a ring in the silver store and the proprietor had no probems with a mix between my leftover pesos and a few American dollars.
The ride to the river walk in the suburban like truck was 3 dollars each. The driver took 7 passengers form the ship. One passenger was headed to a bar a little further out, he was charged 4 dollars. We were charged 4 bucks each to get back to the ship in a little Honda. The three of us was enough to get the taxi driver to make the run.
The end of the River Walk put us on the ocean. The Malacon fronts the ocean in PV. There are some cool galleries and some really classy stores along the way. Of course it is also the home of Senior Froggs.. the most marketed designer tee shirt/bar/restaurant in Mexico. Apparently there are Senior Froggs both of the coasts and not unlike the hard rock cafes, collecting the ones from the different locations provides some folks a chance to buy something Mexican. We enjoyed the walk at dusk along the other side of the street where the public sculpture meets the ocean.
So we had a great time in PV. Everyone in the family got to enjoy a little taste of it on shore and the port did not disappoint.
: ) Pat
I was up early in the morning as we docked a little before 8am. I took a series of photos of the Carnival ship, Pride coming into to join us in the tiny cruise section of the port. The steamy tropical mountains rise above the mist in the early morning. The layers of mountains around the port seperate out and spread before the development. Right in front of the ships park is the local Walmart. I have not been in but I heard that it is somewhat different than stateside's Walmarts. There has been significant development since were we were here last. More condos are built or being built, Cranes dot the new city sections.
The cruise park has great expanses of lawn around the dock. The park is completely fenced in and is secure. A long series of white tents usher the disemarking guest to the taxi and tour bus turn around.
When we first got to Puerto Vallarta the air temperatures had risen another 10 degrees. Many of the first people off the ship were a little older than we were. They were headed back to the boat when we were getting off. It is so nice not to have to tender. These people came on the boat looking tired and said that it was too hot to go ashore. Sounds like a tale for mid February. It was warm when you go off the boat, but once you put your hat on and felt some of the ocean breeze it was wonderful.
Sue got a chance to get off again and took it. She had a great time shoping for a mexican dress, some sandals and a little jewelry. I tagged along and through the merchants off balance. They didn't know who they were bargaining with mammacita or pappa. We had a great time. After mom had had enough, we got her to get some food aboard ship for lunch.. its always nice to have a spot to provide basic sustence and liquid. I had a marvelous lamb shank.
On the way back to the ship I spotted an atm. My ATm card from the credit union worked! It didn't on the ship. So I pulled out the maximum I could at one time.. in pesos.. 1,000. It pitched them out in two 500 peso bills. The exchange rate is 15 to one so the 1000 pesos was really 65 American dollars. So we worked with pesos in the afternoon as much as possible. The merchants were less happy to deal in pesos although after most of the bargaining in English in the morning the merchants translated it with a calculator to pesos and all the receipts were listed in pesos. The 15 to one ratio is a little harder to figure than you would expect. So I basically figured from the 1000= 65 ratio and that means the 500 equals 33 dollars.
Mom was happy to get some rest, while the girls and I set out to walk the river walk shops. Under the canopy of wild exotic trees were a group of wild iguanas that lived up in the trees. They have red highlights on their combs. The shops that follow the walk are particularly nice with everything you could imagine in in stand level crafts. There were also a couple of very nice stores that contained a rather select artisan set of crafts and Mexican pewter. The girls and I found some very nice treasures in a couple of these stores.
We also found a very cool restaurant/bar that looked out over the walk. It looked like a very nice place for a cool drink. The bar was advertising two for one happy hour.. so we got happy. I was wondering how we were going to do the two for one bit especially since we were strictly top shelf margarita drinkers... and there were three of us.. No problem man.. they brought us six. We sipped and watched the crowd walk by. It was getting late afternoon and people were gettting past their siesta. Linzi asked the manager where she could mail a postcard that she had made in Cabo with me up on the deck. He asked the waiter and pointed and described a place back up the walk to the swinging bridge and over to the grocery store. She found it and made it back to finish the drinks.
Heather fell in love with a ring in the silver store and the proprietor had no probems with a mix between my leftover pesos and a few American dollars.
The ride to the river walk in the suburban like truck was 3 dollars each. The driver took 7 passengers form the ship. One passenger was headed to a bar a little further out, he was charged 4 dollars. We were charged 4 bucks each to get back to the ship in a little Honda. The three of us was enough to get the taxi driver to make the run.
The end of the River Walk put us on the ocean. The Malacon fronts the ocean in PV. There are some cool galleries and some really classy stores along the way. Of course it is also the home of Senior Froggs.. the most marketed designer tee shirt/bar/restaurant in Mexico. Apparently there are Senior Froggs both of the coasts and not unlike the hard rock cafes, collecting the ones from the different locations provides some folks a chance to buy something Mexican. We enjoyed the walk at dusk along the other side of the street where the public sculpture meets the ocean.
So we had a great time in PV. Everyone in the family got to enjoy a little taste of it on shore and the port did not disappoint.
: ) Pat
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Just a lIttle walk this AM
I had my camera in hand.
Dad always laughed at grandma Nelly (mom's mom) because she always wanted to be a photographer. She had a brownie camera and enjoyed taking photos of her flowers. She literally had a quarter of an acre of roses in front of her house in Palisade. She moved on up to a Ansco 120 twin reflex camera that the photographer looked down in the ground glass and focused the image on a 2 and quarter inch paperbacked film. It was a heavy camera that swung from her neck with a neck strap. There were a few settings but it was pretty simple. The classic quote comes from my grandfather Bayard. When she was futzing with the camera and worrying about the results, grandpa would say,"Just leave it the way the man sold it to you!"
And so now we are in the digital age of photgraphy, and once again there are no rangefinders and we are popping off photos from a "digital groundglass." The more things are different the more they are alike.
Check out my new additions to the flickr photostream. There are some photos of the dogwood in bloom as well as the start of the Bradford Flowering Pear tree collection.
Have a great Sunday!
Pat
Dad always laughed at grandma Nelly (mom's mom) because she always wanted to be a photographer. She had a brownie camera and enjoyed taking photos of her flowers. She literally had a quarter of an acre of roses in front of her house in Palisade. She moved on up to a Ansco 120 twin reflex camera that the photographer looked down in the ground glass and focused the image on a 2 and quarter inch paperbacked film. It was a heavy camera that swung from her neck with a neck strap. There were a few settings but it was pretty simple. The classic quote comes from my grandfather Bayard. When she was futzing with the camera and worrying about the results, grandpa would say,"Just leave it the way the man sold it to you!"
And so now we are in the digital age of photgraphy, and once again there are no rangefinders and we are popping off photos from a "digital groundglass." The more things are different the more they are alike.
Check out my new additions to the flickr photostream. There are some photos of the dogwood in bloom as well as the start of the Bradford Flowering Pear tree collection.
Have a great Sunday!
Pat
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