ghetto-ified car window

my car is now 2/4 on the functioning windows.

drivers side back window hasn't worked for years.

passenger's side decided to stop rolling up on monday morning. funny how it rained all day monday and today. but we have "fixed" it. temporally. will be better fixed tomorrow when I can buy a c-clamp rather than the binder clip that is currently "holding" the window up.


but whoo hoo there is currently the inside of a door in my trunk

KTD's

conversation with my students today

them: I hope I dont get sick I went to mexico for spring break

me: you dont have to worry unless you start oinking

them: (with all innocent trusting eyes) really?

thunderstoms: the good and the bad

the good: kitten snuggles. yes I may be profiteering from her fear, but she was super cute



the bad: rain apparently pours into our bedroom window even when it is closed. cool apartment building, cool




on a side note...this is blog number 3 for the day...clearly Im putting off work.

FRAMABLE PICS!!!!

claires left here to go home and do work so what does she do as soon as she gets home. video chat us. apparently to make faces like these

long busy week (aka blue gold post one week late)

not much posting all week. busy week. car dead monday night. big adventure. nice tow truck driver. (my wife works with disabled children, i work with disabled cars, we have that in common), early el ride tuesday to school. ride home tuesday in Jag with jags (mr miller's new nickname) late nights with lots of work all of rest of the week...all this my excused for a week late blue gold post.

went to the bend for blue gold game, only my second because I was always sailing that weekend during school, it was fun to be back at ND even though it's change a lot in the two years since we graduated.
we got there early so nick and claires and nathan could run a 5k. we were a little late since claire got pulled over going 83 in a 70, then nick face missed the start of the run while looking for a bathroom, (silly emily suggested that perhaps he was kidnapped, but I assured her those things dont happen at ND) then we headed to studebagels for some delisious bagels


then we hung out outside of the bookstore,


then in the book store


visited the abj


swung on the sorin porch swings


took some framable pics


went to the grotto (though there are no pics from that) and then took our seats in ND stadium


then went back to kalamazoo, mi (a little slower than on the way there) for a game filled (extreme bocce ball, liers dice, chicken foot) saturday night and sunday morning before heading back to chi-town

music and memories

some of my favorite songs have become my favorite songs because of the memories that are attached to them and listening to my ipod is a walk down memory lane. where I was when I heard the song first...who I saw the band in concert with...conversations about the song shortly after it was played.

Appalachian music will always take me back to the week I spent building a trail in the mountains, Jimmy Buffett will always take me back to the boathouse (as will just about any song off the drunkin sailor or freshman ice breaker CD), matt wertz, dave barnes, guster, blue october, luce all send me back to concerts attended with linds, but sometimes there are more specific songs and memories that have become linked. for example:

whenever big stong man by carbon leaf (though its not really their song) gets played I go back to lindsey's 21st, where I was dragged on stage to lead motions through another song. the guy asked for someone who had never been there before...and since lindsey's mom had snuck her in underage, I was the lucky birthday party representative.


or eve 6 the open road song...straight back to spring break sophomore year, driving on the open road all the way to florida. and of course it gets turned up. ALL the way up.


or better than ezra's sincerely me...kerry and i practicing to make sure I knew the words to sing along when we saw them in concert on campus junior year. we played it over and over again practicing the words.

Easter Day / Timmy's Birthday - - in pictures

I found my basket


and my present from my grandma and grandpa


and tim found the thundersticks


and his birthday presents

Easter Shenanagins day 2

and the easter madness continued today...in the ways illustrated below.

my mommy put my hair in an easter "bun"ny


emily and my mom spent several minutes trying to decide which of the "hard boiled" eggs were not actually hard boiled...since suddenly we had 25 hard boiled eggs, and my mom only hard boiled 24. ...side note a hard boiled egg will spin easily, a raw egg not so much, due to the inertia of the liquid inside the egg. likewise a hard boiled egg will stop when you stop its spinning, a raw egg will start spinning again after you stop it momentarily due again to the inertia...Im always teaching


and then I dyed some eggs....with being attached over my shoulder


here are my eggs (plus one that my mom made before I got the chance to)


and then we made some bunnies with our honeys (though one of my honeys is far away)



and here is my hoppy easter carrot cake that looks like it was done by a small child


and yes....I wore the ears for all of this

unpacking little bunnies and baby chicks

every time I embark on a new project there is a moment where the mess of the project is so great, and I just want to stop and leave it for someone else to come along and finish. it's always been that way...when I was little and "cleaning" my room I first would take everything and put in the middle of the floor and sort through it then put it all back, I just like to assess the situation before the downhill stretch at the end.

today the project was the easter decorations. this was about the point where I thought...easter is in two days. it would be a lot easier to just put this all away rather than put it all around, to just have to gather it all back up and put it all away a week from now.

I pushed through. there are now little bunnies and baby chicks all over the house. life is good and easter is almost here (and I'll be well on my way back to chicago before these decorations come down)

snapshot from home life

first night home on break....sitting in the family room after dinner...dad jabbering about something as usual. text message conversation between me and emily

me: dad is telling me all of his stories. come save me
emily: ignore them. hes goign to tell them all to me again tomorrow
me: I told him he had to ration his stories
emily: and then he will tell them all for a thrid time when tim and elizabeth come sunday
me: I KNOW why did I come home first???
emily: I lived with it for 5 years. just say huh
me: you should skip class and come home NOW
emily: Cannot I have homework due.

how did we mock our parents before text messaging???

101 eggs later

here are some quality photos from our egg drop competition today....you never know what you are going to get when I give the students your camera.

my first class of the day...it was a little cold

class number 2...still cold

my turn to drop eggs

class number 3....by now the sun was at least shining...you can tell they are a little happier about being outside

crazy girls

more crazy girls

this egg was in honey...the honey was freezing on Jackie's fingers when she had to retrieve her egg

happy girls

class number 4...by now it's a tropical paradise outside

this is franklin the sad turtle ball

mr miller is braver than me on the ladder...I was down a few more steps

love this pic

love the duck

and class 5 for the day...my seniors.

two at once

me and hadeal and her egg head

mary fran after her egg was dropped in her basketball shoes

retrieving the egg. i gave my camera to a good student this class...she took some nice picsseniors waiting for their eggs

the aftermath.