weekend recap

My weekend was enjoyable for so many reasons:

• I joined the DC Restaurant Adventure Club. Every Thursday night, we try out a new local restaurant just for fun. This week is Maryland Crabs.
• We made cinnamon sugar popcorn. Easy to make and tastes absolutely heavenly.
• We ate cinnamon sugar popcorn while watching Waitress. Funny movie, with a great ending. No matter how crappy your life is, being dishonest will not make it better.
• I chapheroned prom and the prom after-party. I was supposed to make breakfast for the kids Sunday morning, but they all got tired and left before I had a chance.
• I made a magnetic rail gun. I went ahead with the JB Weld, and it works beautifully. I'm so excited to show my classes tomorrow.
• I found a website with an unbelievable amount of resources for my class. It took me about 10 minutes to plan my lesson for Monday. What a relief.

post #3 (for bexar)

I'm having my students build little stirling engines this week. I spent the majority of my weekend building my own for troubleshooting purposes. I'm pretty sure they're going to be awesome.

And we built marshmallow blow guns last night for the forthcoming summer marshmallow wars. I can't wait.

I also recently discovered instructables.com. It's the best website known to man. It even trumps craigslist. What a miracle! My summer will now be filled with project after fun project.

gauss accelerator

I'm trying to build one. It looks like it should be easy, but it's not working! I'm thinking I need to use some JB Weld to secure the magnets to the rail. Any suggestions?

Dear Bexar,

I am sorry for the lack of posts recently. I will do better.

Love,

Your most fun sister

summer is coming

And because summer is coming, there is an obvious need for homemade ice-cream. So I bought this ice cream maker:

Only $25! And it got great reviews. All it has to do is last me through the summer and it'll be well worth the cost. First up is ginger ice cream, to go along with the citrus-marinated shish kabobs we're making this weekend.

This weekend will be spent basking in the sunshine with a book (Winter of our Discontent), lots of ice cream, and a grill.

more spain

The Easter bunny came all the way to Spain! How did he find us there?




The Alhambra had lots of pools. Once we finally got in:



Spainiards celebrate Easter in a BIG way.

While we were hiking, we found a hidden passageway.

Traveling with Brian wore me out.

spain, in pictures

This is how we felt when we landed:

After Brian took us on our death tour, we decided to abandon the bikes. But it was naptime in Spain, so we basked in the sunshine while we waited for the bike shop to open up.

We decided that hiking would be safer than darting in front of moving cars. It was beautiful:

While we were in Granada, Ashley decided to dress up as a missionary:

We stuck our feet in the Mediterranean:

Then we were almost attacked by a shark:

I found the geographic center of Spain. I also found a great jacket on sale! Look how cute it is:

The entire main floor of the Prado museum was closed, so we had to find art elsewhere:

my weekend, in pictures

Most of my weekend was spent eating and watching conference in between meals.

Saturday morning, we had aebilskivers for breakfast, stuffed with cream cheese frosting and topped with berry sauce:

For dinner, homemade macaroni and cheese with cheese sauce and steaks marinated in whiskey. I've never been one for homemade mac and cheese, but wow, this was good:

Sunday morning, I made peach french toast (with real french bread):

and chicken bryan with asparagus for dinner:

I think I gained ten pounds.

another story

So, we were sitting around the apartment last week, eating the salads that we had bought for dinner when Julie brings in a box of chocolate and offers every one a piece. Then the following conversation ensued:

Rochelle: Thanks, but I'm trying to be healthy, so I'll pass.

Julie (in a serious tone): But this chocolate is from Switzerland, so it's good for you.

Me: That makes absolutely no sense.

Julie (getting just a bit defensive): Yeah, it does. It's from Switzerland. So it's real chocolate. So it's good for you.

This girl gets stranger every day.

since i've been back

After I slept for a VERY long time, I headed out to DC's cherry blossom festival, where we walked around the tidal basin,

took lots of pictures,

and ate cinnamon almonds. Yum.

Tonight, we're headed out for Sushi. We're trying a new place that we're heard good things about. I'm so excited.