Aggressive Grass

That is what we are going to be growing in the garden from now on. When I arrived back home after my trip to New York, I found the garden had been basically neglected but because I had put in rows the weeds that had taken over couldn't be mown either. It was a hot mess. Well, I have since re-tilled a few times and the area is now basically plant free. I tilled this morning and raked the area somewhat smooth and then rolled the whole are using a lawn roller that I rented from the Home Depot. It was really smooth and really compacted so after raking and rolling I raked again to scarify the area before spreading some Bermuda grass seed. The packaging describes this grass as an "aggressive grass" that is extremely heat resistant. I am sort of afraid. And for good reason. While tilling this morning, I reached down to pull a tall weed out of the ground next to the fence where the tiller wouldn't go. This weed is some sort of broad leafed grass that grows to be at least three feet tall and in some areas it is as tall as six feet. I think that I have seen grass like this all over the country - it is quite common. Well, this piece wasn't that tall, but it was well rooted. I grabbed and pulled and it didn't uproot at all. Instead part of the stem broke and the other part peeled sharply off the broken piece causing a deep cut across pinky and ring fingers on my right hand. I am sort of worried about the pinky finger. It was cut really deep but the cut was so sharp that it barely bled at all. I went in and wrapped it tightly in a band aid to keep it closed but my hand was shaking as if I was very cold when I went back out to work. Hours later, I changed band aids and it still gushed with blood when I took the old one off. I have been more careful about how I have changed band aids since then.
If the new grass is more aggressive than all that, I am really afraid.

Running Journal

Here are two photos that I copied from the first race of the Summer Road Race Series that I participated in on the 12th. I finished 44th overall. I was 9th in my age group. My time was 21:53. I would like to improve but I am happy with that time. I think that I will probably get slower before I get faster.

This is me at the start.

And this is me at the finish. There is another race this Sunday. Wish me luck. My legs have been bothering me this week. I think that I will be fine for the race but I am planning on slowing my first mile down a bit. I really died off in the last mile of the race that these photos are from (in spite of the fact that I was smiling for the camera in the second one) and I am hoping to have a little more consistent pace over the course of the entire race. I am not sure how well I will stick to that plan, but I will post updates afterward to let you all know.

me

Adivinanzas

1. ¿Qué hace un pato con una pata en un corral?
   
2. ¿Cuál fue el último animal que hizo Dios?
   
3. ¿Cuántas estrellas hay en el cielo?
   
4. ¿Cuál es la fruta más paciente?
   
5. ¿Qué hace una manguera en la calle?
   
6. Cuándo pelo choca con pelo, el pelado se queda adentro - ¿Qué es?
   
7. ¿Cuál es el animal que menos come?
   
8. ¿Qué dijo el mar al pez?
   

Right under our nose

Before 6am this morning:
I was up looking at lesson material for today's lesson. I suggested to Becky that she get up and do some work in the yard that she is planning on getting done today. It is a lot cooler out this time of day and it is supposed to rain today so I figured it was a good time to start. Gabe and Rosco both followed her out when she went out. Rosco peed in the grass and Gabe dropped his drawers and peed right off the edge of the porch.
I took him to the zoo a couple of days ago and he did something very similar. He was at the playground and I got a text message that made my phone beep. I looked down and when I looked back up he was standing in the middle of the playground hosing everything in sight.
I jumped up and grabbed him as other parents laughed at what he was doing. I guess it is funnier when it is somebody else's kid.

Goal tending

I ran the first of the Memphis Runners Track Club 2009 Road Race Series earlier this month on the 12th. I have another race to compete in on the 26th. This was my New Year's Resolution. I think that I am still on track with it, but I have a lot of work to do.
Tonight, I am making another goal - I am going to see if I can stay off of FaceBook for a week. Why is it that this seems like the more challenging resolution here? I can do it, right? It should be no problem, right?
Uff. Why am I blogging about being on FB too much? Why do I just replace one big time leech with another?
Pray for me.
haha
Thanks.

me

Tired

Worked. Worked. Got home. Made dinner. Gabe didn't want to eat it. Sat on the floor. Didn't want to get up. Gabe came and got me up. I still need to get stuff together for tomorrow. I still feel like sitting on the floor and giving up. I am glad that Gabe is here with me.

et al

Sunsets, flowers, fabulous skies.... These, and so many more, are some of the photos that I have taken recently. I went with Gabriel to the zoo yesterday. We got there just after 5 pm but they stop letting people in at 5 pm so we sneaked (snuck?) in through the exit as somebody was leaving. It was nice to be in the zoo practically all by ourselves but we really didn't do much. I got photos of him looking at the lions and the tigers. After that we went to the park that is connected to the zoo and Gabe chased squirrels and birds and looked for fish in the pond. I took a few decent photos. Here is the problem - my picasa web albums have reached their quota. That means no more photos on the blog for the time being until I upgrade or dump old photos. I don't know what to do. I don't want to spend the money to upgrade to bigger storage and I don't want to delete my old photos.
For now, all I can say is 'use your imaginations.' I got a lot of good stuff.
Later,
me

Independence Day

I have felt a lot of writer's block here on the blog lately. I just don't know what to write about. I don't want to be too open and yet I don't want to be constantly censoring myself either. I had a smooth flight home. I got here and ate dinner at the neighbor's house and after that Becky, Gabe, and I as well as many of the neighborhood teenagers who hang out next door went to see the fireworks show in downtown Memphis on the riverfront. I was really happy to do this with Gabe. Last year, I was in Costa Rica last year for 4^th of July. Two years ago, Gabe L-O-V-E-D the fireworks. I was so much fun seeing them with him then. I didn't want to miss the chance to spend this year with Gabe on the 4^th. That was my whole reason for not staying in New York to see the biggest fireworks show in the country, but I was really disappointed with the lameness of Memphis' fireworks show. The whole thing lasted 15 minutes from start to finish. I was over before we could even settle comfortably into our seats on the curb (yeah – I was sitting in the gutter with my son). Here are a few photos. I didn't get many photos and the only camera I had with me was my phone.

Speaking of my phone – it broke while I was in New York. I went sleep about 2 am on the 28^th of June. I use my phone as an alarm (it crows like a rooster in the morning to wake me up) and the battery was low so I plugged it in. I got up about 6:45 am and looked at the phone but it was not on. Nothing I could do would turn it on. I have a spare battery but even that didn't help anything. I took it to Sprint and they replaced it for free. Still, I was without a phone for about a week. I got it back on the 2^nd of July. It is a good phone. It has a good camera. I am glad to have it back.

Finally, here are two videos from Gabe's first fireworks experience way back in 2007. He loved it. I liked the fireworks that we saw in 2007 a lot more than the ones that we went and watched this year. I was seriously disappointed this year. Maybe a part of what disappointed me was that Gabe wasn't as thrilled as he was two years ago. I guess that you just can't do a FIRST time more than once. I really like his spontaneous dancing at the start of Video 2 as well as his clapping at about 1:15 in Video 2.





love,

me

Sooooo.....

My knees hurt. I am really tired. I was sort of down yesterday.
Oh, well.

Music

So, I am going to try something different with my Music Post. Perhaps most obvious is that it is not Monday, or maybe it is more noteworthy that I am doing this at all (after my long hiatus here).

Really, there is a lot of music that I like, and that I would like to share, but two obstacles that I was struggling with were, first, I really listen to a lot of the same stuff over and over again (all the time) so continuing to find new music or different genres of music is a challenge and, second, I really can't always find the stuff that I want to share on http://www.youtube.com/ or other video hosting sites, or when I actually do find videos that I want I can't always embed them.

This brings me to the something different that I want to experiment with - I am putting a downloadable link of music from my own computer rather than a music video. If this is offensive to anyone, let me know - I will try to be both responsive and responsible in handling any complaints about the sharing of music via the Internet.

To listen to the song, you have to open or download it. I know that this works though Mozilla FireFox but I don't know if it will download through Internet Explorer. Leave a comment and let me know how or if it works for you. If readers of my blog actually want to know HOW I am doing this, perhaps I will explain it in a different post. To those who are timid about clicking on a link, these are virus-free downloads. Now you can add my play list to your play list. :)


All I really have to say about these songs is that I like them. I especially like the second song. Both of these are The Gypsy Kings.

The Gypsy Kings - Quiero Saber
Download as MP3


The Gypsy Kings - Montana
Download as MP3

Two Days (edited)

This is a Skype video snapshot. This is how Becky, Gabe, and I have stayed in touch while I have been here in New York. It has been nice because Gabe and his two cousins are learning to communicate with one another and to stay in touch with Skype as well. In two days, they will get to hang out in person. Becky and Gabe will be here on Wednesday. I think that the three cousins will have a great time together while Becky and Gabe are here. I know that I am looking forward to seeing them and spending time with them.

I miss you two.

Love,

me

My Students’ Comments

At the end of each semester, students at the University are encouraged to take part in teacher evaluations. The evaluation results are confidential and mostly presented in a numerical format but there is a section for comments. Here are all the comments that I received from the over 60 students that I taught this semester. It is possible that up to three comments (one in each column) are from one student.

You can read all this for yourself. How seriously should I take this sort of thing? The vast majority of students don't leave comments – only the really happy and the really unhappy – and in statistical analysis it is common to drop the highest and the lowest values because they don't represent the mean. Using that logic, I think that I should just ignore all these comments.

Positive characteristics or strengths of the course/instructor	Criticisms concerning the course/instructor	Additional comments and suggestions
	The Vistas program sucks. It counts simple spelling mistakes wrong. I can`t spell in English, How am I supposed to know how to spell in Spanish?	I always felt like I was being picked on whenever He called on me and I got the answer wrong.
really cared about the class, very envolving, good graduate teacher, best one I`ve had here	Don`t think he should get so peaved when some of his students are acting like idiots, I`d just tell them to leave	keep it up, would take 1020 from him if he taught it
The class was very interesting because I never knew what way the instructor would incorporate learing a new language. I enjoyed the variety he offer.
Great professor! He was always willing to help and never made the students feel as if they could not succeed in his course. Provided extra credit and great lesson plans on a daily basis. I was never bored in his class. I wish all of my professors were like him.
	a pompous prick! more concerned with showing he knew spanish than teaching the class. he should be a tutor not an instructor!
Obviously knowledgeable but not very prepared. First day, he had ever even opened the book. Scary.	Not very prepared for class until the last few weeks of the semester. Gave quizzes but a few were never returned.
Very good instructor. He presented the material well and supplemented the material with helpful extras. Made the course much more interesting.

Hmmm. What do you think?

Caring Adult

Last night: dinner. Today: to school and back.

1. 
   Last night I helped with dinner. Alon made steak. I had bought some plantains and some yuca (not yucca) at the store earlier that day so I offered to make the yuca as a side for the meal. Yuca is a root and in that way it is similar to a potato but it takes a little more work to prepare because it has a thicker, almost barky skin instead of the thin peal that potatoes have. Additionally, it has to be boiled for a little longer than a potato. Other than that, yuca is very easy to prepare – all you have to do is boil it. There are other ways to prepare it, of course, but this is what I prefer. I like the fact that it has a somewhat buttery flavor without having to add any butter at all. I prefer it with well sautéed onions. It is good as a side just like that or it can be served with a fried egg or with fried cheese and eaten as the central part of a meal.
   
2. 
   Here you have the yuca in the foreground and the onions still on the heat.
   
3. 
   Sorry about not providing a before photo. I was mostly done eating when I took this photo but it should give you some idea of dinner last night.
   
4. 
   This morning was some sort of Caring Adult day at Nola's school. I guess that that means that the kids are allowed to bring an adult to the first hour of school with them. I also think that this sort of day is designed to open the door for kids who don't have parents that can go with them for whatever reason. Nola and I were the first people there. There were a lot of different stations – the kids could write a poem, read, or do other reading/writing activities. A lot of adults showed up.
   
5. 
   I took this panoramic photo. It doesn't really show much.
   
6. 
   Here is the poem (prose) that Nola wrote. It is about her little stuffed dog. That is the dog with the black face and brown legs. It likes to jump over red slides. Nola put herself in the top of the picture as well.
   
7. 
   While Nola was in school, I watched a bootleg copy of the movie Up! on my computer (at http://www.watch-movies-links.net/movies/up). I liked it. I got pretty emotional a few times during the movie. I also spent a lot of time looking at Wordpress.com. I like the fact that wordpress blog posts show how many comments they have in the feed on Google Reader. I don't know if I am really willing to switch over to wordpress (I have a lot of posts here in blogger), but there are several things about it that I like more than blogger (easier image uploading, the comments in the feed, the fact that it takes care of its own statistics without having to go to sitemeter.com or any other similar site. I am sure that there are other advantages as well, but that isn't really what this post is about – but if I start a new blog in the future, I will probably go to wordpress). After school, I went and picked up Nola and a friend of hers from school. It was raining and I was really tired (I should have napped today). I stepped into a corner store to get a Coke and the girls held my umbrella. It was pretty heavy for them so they sank to the ground with it.
   
8. 
   

   For the first part of their play date, they were all hypnotized by Disney. Yay!
   

I am a caring adult. Now you know.

Love,

me

Different Colors

So, today I went for a walk. I woke up thinking that I would like to go for a run but I decided that if I run it is very hard to get photos and there are some things that I would like to take pictures of along the route that I have run a few times. I mean, I am talking about the Brooklyn Bridge, after all. As it turned out, I didn't cross the bridge. I just walked around Brooklyn. I went to the bank and I deposited some of my tip money so that Becky would have money in the account.

1. 
   This was the first thing that I took a photo of today. All these bottle tops were scattered on the sidewalk right around the corner from my sister's house. I was impressed by all the different colors – none of them are the same.
   

   
   

2. 
   This is another photo of different colors. This is something that I have seen a lot of here in New York. It is pretty easy to see who the nannies are. I commented to my sister about this and she said that a lot of people hire women from the West Indies who will work for less money as long as it is cash money (because they are not legal immigrants?).
   

   
   

3. 
   Just your neighborhood Trader Joe's. What a great building!
   

   
   

4. 
   What I was really trying to capture with this photo was the two pigeons.
   

   
   

5. 
   A little fountain.
   

   
   

6. 
   There are a lot of these street vendors but I didn't see any selling post cards. I will look again, I promise.
   

   
   

7. 
   

   I watched this squirrel climb the stairs. It saw me looking and ran off to the side and then took a minute to check me out.
   

Aside from my visit to the bank, I got a haircut and I bought a spare battery for my phone. It is a great phone but the battery life is not great. Oh, well. I like it a lot.

Love,

me

The Chocolate Room and other stuff

Well, unlike some of the posts like this that I have done in the past this one is arranged starting with the most recent photo and ending with the oldest one of the set. In this group of photos, I have some photos of roses (right now the roses here are all in bloom and looking amazing), little girls (looking cuter than ever), a block party at the local school, and a Chocolate Room.

1. 
   I was on the phone with Becky when I walked past these purple roses. It had rained earlier that day. I worked and it rained on our way to the job. The people that Alon and I moved had a heater on in their apartment and between the heat, the humidity, and the heavy lifting I was sweating like an animal. Later, I got rained on by a really heavy shower on my way home from work. Anyway, this was later than all that but there was still water on the petals and I thought that it looked really beautiful. I called Becky right back after taking these photos.
   
2. 
   
3. 
   
   
4. 
   This is The Chocolate Room. How could I resist? I was walking out to find post cards to send to people. Ari said that because of the rain, none of the street venders would be out. I guess that you can buy lots of really cheap post cards from people selling them on the street. Anyway, I was walking, I saw this, I wasn't sure that I would find cheap post cards so I opted for some chocolate instead. This place was great. I sat in the back next to a big window. There is ivy and plum trees back there. It was nice and peaceful. I liked it. I like to walk and relax.
   
5. 
   I ordered some drinkable hot chocolate, dark, with homemade whipped cream on top. I was surprised by the small size of the cup (it is like a 6 oz cup) and I remarked to the sales person that it was pretty small. She consented but assured me that it is really thick chocolate. Can you see how thick it is? She gave me a cup of chocolate mud. This stuff was not really drinkable. Near the bottom, I literally had to eat it with a spoon because it was so thick. I think that this was a serious chocolate overload. It took me like an hour to get to the bottom of the cup. I just had to take my time with this chocolate and eat it nice and slow. I enjoyed it. Mmmmm – chocolate. Just thinking about it makes me want more. The other chocolate on the table is a sample of chocolate sorbet that they brought me when I sat down.
   
6. 
   This was lunch on Monday. Fried chicken and fried plantains – also known as fried deliciousness. The other things on the tray are pine apple chunks and a coke. I was pretty happy with this as well.
   
7. 
   I love the star here. This is one of my sister's roses.
   
8. 
   This photo was taken on Saturday. Nola got her face painted at a school block party on Friday and the next day she was still wearing her war paint.
   
9. 
   This was Friday at the block party. One of the most impressive things about this area, about NYC in general really, is the incredible diversity of the people here. It is hard to see in this photo because of the movement and many of the people's backs are to the camera but there are all kinds of people here – Asian, Black, Redheads, Muslims, Jews – all playing and working together. The block party was a big fund raising event and there was even an art auction of students' art work that appeared to be doing really well.
   
10. 
    Here is Nola. Hello, Nola.
    
11. 
    On the way to the block party, a woman who drives an ice cream truck that parks where Alon parks his work truck gave Talia an ice cream thing. This is part of the effect that it had on her – it is like her war paint.
    
12. 
    I don't know what you call this thing. It is some sort of ice cream thing but it is really drippy and pretty scary looking. I don't like it but Talia loved it. I tried to wipe her hand off with a bandana I had in my pocket and she freaked out. Talia is a head strong little girl – watch out, world, when this one grows up.
    
13. 
    

    Bye, bye Talia.
    

So, there is a small sample of recent happenings here. I have pretty much wasted a lot of time today. I am feeling pretty beat up after the last several days of work. I think that I need to take a nap, eat some pop corn or ice cream, or consume some other frivolous calories that will put some gas back in my tank. Tomorrow, I definitely need to go for a run. My abs and back could use some tightening and the frivolous calories don't help me with that at all.

Love,

me