Maine Trip

Just some pictures from our family trip to Maine this summer!

Gorges Trail up Cadillac Mtn

Almost to the top of Cadillac Mtn, highest point on the East Coast

Bar Harbor from the top of Cadillac

Famous island author with her books at Sherman's and an interested reader

Waiting for the fireworks from the top of Cadillac

Classic Vbergh Penobscot Mtn hike

Jordan Pond and Pemetic Mtn

the few ripe blueberries

Jordan Pond and Seal Harbor

Jordan Cliffs Trail

Rewarded with lemonade and popovers after a long hike

Bubbles Pond (our biking day)

Bar Harbor

1920s Picnic Boat we took out to spread Poppa's ashes

Seal Harbor

Lunch on the rocks

Thurston's Lobster Pound

Wonderland Rocks

Yankee's game in NYC!

Rain delay :-(

Reflections on 2012-13 School Year

Some things that I'm going to be sure to do next year...

-Student info sheets at the beginning of the year...did this my first year and it helped get to know interests and outside of school stuff, didn't do it this past year which was a mistake
-I want to try Remind101...if only Blackboard would send messages to phones!

WHII
-moving up to honors so notes need to be more student centered, no more fill in the blanks!  Need to figure out how to be half-way between Standard style notes and APUSH...
-Start the year with Geog again, vocab and battleship definitely, and add back in the map project, but get rid of those worksheets
-World in 1500...changes notes to a SPEARS cooperative learning activity
-tests with different versions and more writing, even just short answers

APUSH
-want to do more writing workshops (organizational categories before essay #1) and have students record in their folders after each essay is handed back what they need to work on to improve...did this for the last essay and it helped
-integrate more articles into class, start with the 3-2-1s again

Settling In

We're in the process, in between world traveling, of settling into our new place!

Original bedroom set up..some things have changed since

Living room complete with a rug and Flounder (the fish)!

Dining room table helped provide a space to eat

Hung some art

A bench and a rug for the entry, plus a mirror to brighten the space

I'm sure more changes will come soon when we're all back in September!

Goodbye 910 N. Edgewood

Sad to move out of 910 N. Edgewood, it was a great house in a great location, and I had some great roommates, but sometimes you just have to move on when life presents you opportunities and you've changed.

The empty room, ready for the next person

Thanks for 2 great years!

Bookshelf re-do

When we rented the new place I realized that the walls in the bedrooms were all white, and going with a smaller bedroom and dark furniture it would be way too dark, thus led to deciding to paint my dark laminate bookshelf.

A couple DIY blogs had suggestions on how to paint laminate and all suggested using the Zinzer oil based primer, so that's what I started with, no sanding necessary.

After two coats of white primer and letting it dry, I moved the bookshelf outside and put on one coat of generic white.  The oil paint really smells, so it's best to do outside or in a garage, and fully let each coat dry before the next one, meaning 3 hours, not 1.5.

Due to rain, the bookshelf made it's way to the living room where I put a second coat of white on, and then painted the back with a light turquoise/aqua!

A few tips learned: double the tape when painting the back so you don't get any on the white sides, and place pastic on the bottom for any drips.

The final product!

On to a new place!

Still living in Arlington and teaching at the same place, but the three of us...

are moving to a new townhouse in Ballston.  

My attempt at drawing the floor plan...

The Entry

My room from the door

My room looking to the back of the house

The Den, with a working fireplace!

Fantastic kitchen

View from kitchen to open dining room/living room

Other side of the kitchen

Living, dining and kitchen from the front

Cool nook shelves next to stairs down

Apparently the house was owned by an architect, who then rented to UVA frat boys (so a neighbor thinks) who were major partiers, had to re-do the house and then sold it to our landlords, who just bought a house in N. Arlington.  So we grabbed it up after one open house and they picked us!

Fixing Congress

Warren Buffett, in a recent interview with CNBC, offers one of the best quotes about the debt ceiling:

"I could end the deficit in 5 minutes," he told CNBC. "You just
pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more
than 3% of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible
for re-election.

The 26th amendment (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds)
took only 3 months & 8 days to be ratified! Why? Simple!
The people demanded it. That was in 1971 - before computers, e-mail,
cell phones, etc.

Of the 27 amendments to the Constitution, seven (7) took one (1) year
or less to become the law of the land - all because of public pressure.

Warren Buffet is asking each addressee to forward this email to
a minimum of twenty people on their address list; in turn ask
each of those to do likewise.

In three days, most people in The United States of America will
have the message. This is one idea that really should be passed
around.

Congressional Reform Act of 2012

1. No Tenure / No Pension.

A Congressman/woman collects a salary while in office and receives no
pay when they're out of office.

2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social
Security.

All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the
Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into
the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the
American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.

3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.

4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise.
Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

5. Congress loses their current health care system and
participates in the same health care system as the American people.

6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the
American people.

7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen/women are void
effective 12/1/12. The American people did not make this
contract with Congressmen/women.

Congress made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in
Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers
envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their
term(s), then go home and back to work.

This is how you Fix congress!