weekend update

Thursday night the restaurant club went to a fantastic Afghan restaurant, where I picked out the best meal on the menu. It had lamb and vegetables in some sort of delectable sauce.

Friday, it rained buckets so we took advantage of the situation and put on our swimsuits and rain boots (and clothes - not really sure why we bothered with those) and splashed around in the rain. Laura tried boogey boarding down the hill, but there wasn't quite enough water.

Then our Brazilian neighbors got jealous that we were having so much fun and came out to play soccer.

I also made lots of shaved ice with my new gourmet shaved ice syrups that already arrived!!! (I decided to go with package #2.) And when my package arrived, I also received a note from the seller (I bought them off of ebay) letting me know that next time I order, I can pick whatever flavors I want! My favorite 15 out of hte 99 options available!!! I'm already excited for next summer.

Saturday, my roommate and I made strawberry-rhubarb pie and lemon buttermilk sherbet. It was quite possibly the best combination of dessert flavors ever. I'll have to post the recipe for the sherbet. It made my little heart go pitter patter. Saturday night, we tried to go to the National's game but the cheap seats were sold out (who knew the Nats were popular?) so we went down to the mall for the folk life festival, which was over. But we saw enough to know that we are going back. Mission accomplished.

ps - read my mom's blog. sometimes my family blows me away. in a good way.

dear brother,

thanks for not killing me when we did the paper route together. I owe you my life.

and happy birthday.

love,
poodle

my books are here!!!

I ordered a book from Amazon last week all about robotics and designing and building sensors and what not. So it turns out that when my school asked me if I'd like to teach a robotics class, I forgot to mention that I really don't know that much about robotics. Lucky for me, everybody else in the school knows exactly zero about robotics, so when I tell them that I can program a robot to look for objects and pick them up, they think that's really fancy. This book should help me turn my class into an actual high school/pre-college class as opposed to something along the lines of "Fun with Legos".

invoke your right to vote

So, a few weeks ago I bought an electric shaved ice machine, which is just about my favorite purchase of all time. So, since shaved ice is no good unless you have some shaved ice FLAVORS to go along with it, I found some syrups on sale that I am debating. One package has 14 flavors ($14) and the other has 15 flavors ($15). The problem is, the flavors are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. So it is your job to tell me which package you think I should go with. I may or may not listen to your suggestions, but I want to hear them anyway.

Package 1 includes the following flavors:
Blue Raspberry,
Cherry,
Pink Cotton Candy,
Grape ,
Root Beer ,
Watermelon ,
Sassy Green Apple ,
Banana ,
Strawberry ,
Blue Bubble Gum ,
Orange ,
Lime ,
Pineapple ,
Tigers Blood (Red Fruits & Coconut)

Package 2 includes these flavors:

Wild Cherry (Red, tangy cherry)
Rock n Roll (Blue Fruit Punch)
Black Cherry (Dark, Sweet Cherry)
Wild Thing (Wild Cherry & Black Cherry mix)
Red Apple (Red, Candied Apple)
Blackberry (Just like the fruit without the seeds)
Peach (add a little evaporated milk to have peaches & cream)
Red Hot (Red, Hot Cinnamon)
Kiwi (Tangy)
Coconut (White - no food coloring)
Pina Colada (Pineapple & Coconut)
Red Raspberry (Just like the fruit without the seeds)
Margarita (Bright Green)
Strawberry Daiquiri
Pink Lemonade (Pink, Sour)

So what do you think?

the weekend

Overall the weekend turned out to be pretty fun. Friday night, I watched Freedom Writers, which always makes me feel inspired about being a teacher. I think it might have graduated to the title of favorite movie of all time.

Saturday, we went down to the mall (national, not shopping). The weather was SO perfect in the shade, and the barbecue festival smelled perfect. However, the barbecue festival required a large fee, and nobody wanted to pay it. So we just stood and stared and smelled. But boy, the smell was worth it. Ahhhh....

We then went swimming, ate dinner, and went down to a party at the French Embassy. The party wasn't quite as cool as we had hoped for, but the strawberry lemonade smoothie I bought in Georgetown was definitely as good as I had hoped.

update

So this is what we've been doing this week in my summer robotics class. I now have a strong testimony that I should never, ever teach twelve-year-olds. I just don't have the patience for pre-adolescent antics. They love the battle bots, though. The real fun starts in the fall. Stay tuned.

During my free time, I finished reading this book:

Nice story, great ending, and after the first two pages I was already worried about the main character.

I also started this book:

So far, it's interesting and pretty funny. It's a great summer book because it's easy to get through, but still thought-provoking. What a great combination.

I also bought The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down and Peace Like a River, which I am excited to start:

belize

Occasionally, companies, rich parents, or other philanthropists donate items to our school that are given via random selection to faculty members. Usually these prizes involve football tickets, ballet tickets, or tickets to other local attractions. However, as a grand finale to the school year, someone donated an all-expenses paid trip for two to BELIZE!! And guess who won?!?!

Molly.

I hate her.

only in baltimore

as heard at the airport:

"Paging airport patron Ghetto Hood. Ghetto Hood, please press zero on one of the airport courtesy telephones."

Dear Mom,

No, a lack of blog posts does not equal a boyfriend.

All it means is that I'm not that clever.

Sorry to disappoint.

Love,
Poodle

Dear Students,

Thanks a lot for demanding so many clever stories. Now I have nothing left for my blog.

This is all your fault.

I miss you,
Miss Reed

Dear Ashley,

I'm glad somebody has finally recognized my crown as fashion queen.

Love,
Poodle

hey

remember back when it was teacher's day, and six whole people boosted my ego by telling me i'm a great teacher?

yeah. me, too.

and remember how i was wishing and hoping that the parents' association would bring in some chocolate croissants from the french bakery down the street? well, guess what i found in the workroom the very next day?! that's right, chocolate croissants!

and guess what i found in the workroom a couple weeks later? MORE chocolate croissants!

that was almost as exciting as the last day of school. almost.

it's official

My baby sister is married, and is now off honeymooning in Yosemite and San Francisco. (I think.)

The wedding turned out to be fantastic, mainly because Shady was stubborn and planned everything exactly the way that she wanted, regardless of what anyone (and by anyone I mean Mom) thought.

They pulled off the alligator-shaped groomscake. How cool does this look? I had no idea little Brandon was such a cake artist:

The wedding cake had a layer of rice krispie treats (which I didn't have a chance to try) and two layers of cheesecake. They also made this themselves. Pretty, pretty:

Little Brandon is the oldest of the Harpdogs, and he and his siblings all look alike. Even the 5-year-old. I'm told my family looks alike, too, but whatever:

And she danced to Freebird, which I don't really understand. But I'm pretty sure dad was excited:

I'm pretty sure the kids had fun:

And her dress was beautiful. It's pretty in the picture, but it looks way better in person. Trust me:

so i married an ax murderer

Has anyone ever seen this movie? Because the ax murderer bears a striking resemblance to my roommate. Minus the murderer part. Seriously.

so close

There are only three days of school left. And then it will no longer be my first year at this school. It hasn't really felt like my first year since about the third week, but still...

In other news, my five days of freedom are over. My roommate is back. Not that I don't love her or anything, but sometimes I really miss living alone.

I still have not received my economic stimulus check. Unlike Ashley, most of mine is going into the bank. But having a lot of money in the bank makes me very happy. So much for stimulating the economy.

tourist season

As of this weekend, it is officially tourist season here in DC. Sometimes it's just fun to go downtown and watch the tourists look lost and confused. I have learned that there are some rules that all toursts must follow:

Rule #1: Every time you cross the street, stop and block the sidewalk to make sure that everyone is with you.

Rule #2: Speak loudly enough for everyone (whether they're in your group or not) to know where you're going and how you're getting there.

Rule #3: Always double and triple-check the map. It doesn't matter if you looked at it two minutes ago, it may have changed. Or the museum may have moved.

Rule #4: Walk in rows of at least 4 so you take up the whole sidewalk.

three days

until ALL of my roommates go out of town. for FIVE DAYS. five blessed days basking in the glorious sunshine of freedom.

food

one great thing about living in DC is the food. there are thousands of restaurants with thousands of different types of food. so far i have tried the following:

Ethiopian. Excellent, as long as it's a good restaurant. But if you don't like eating mush, this isn't for you.

Korean. Also delicious. The spicy tofu soup is excellent, and they had some ribs that melted my heart.

Chinese. (Real chinese) Custard buns are my new favorite dessert. Honey walnut shrimp is my new favorite meal. If there's a restaurant near you that serves dim sum, try it out.

Lebanese. Not my favorite, but I need to give it a second chance. I think I made a poor choice when I ordered, because everybody else's food looked way better than mine.

Indian. There's a place 45 minutes away from my house that is SO worth the drive just for the naan.

Japanese. I could eat sushi every day for the rest of my life and die a happy woman.

Maryland Crabs. Yum.

Vietnamese. Not bad, but if I'm going to pay for soup, I'd rather have the korean tofu soup.

French. We tried out a nice French restaurant during restaurant week. Great deal, good food, snobby waiter. What more could you expect from a French restaurant?

happy teachers day!!!

tell your favorite teacher (ahem) how awesome he or she is. sometimes we really need to hear it.

the parents at our school are providing a luncheon for us today. they're pretty much the best parents association ever. they make me want to jump for joy. now if only i could convince them to bring in more chocolate croissants from the french bakery down the street.

great week

The crabs Thursday night were delicious. Quite possibly one of the best meals I've eaten in a very long time. Yes, they're a lot of work for just a little meat, but the flavor was great, and the restaurant put a spicy rub on them that gave them a little kick. Perfecto.

I also stopped by the mall on Thursday to pick up the vacuum we bought for our apartment, and obviously needed to check in my favorite stores just to see what the sales were like. Good thing I did, because I bought a 100% cashmere sweater that was originally $100 for only $10!!! Don't ask me how I do it, I'm just lucky.

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.

spain

oh, so many stories to tell. we decided that while costa rica was the trip of many adventures, spain was the trip of many stories. such as

• when we walked around the Alhambra for an hour searching for the entrance
• or how, if I had a dollar for every time Brian looked at a map and said "Um, I think we need to go back where we started" my entire trip would be paid for
• or how we rode bikes along the beach in Valencia
• and driving in Spain almost gave me a heart attack

Stay tuned for pictures and details. You won't regret it!

the beast

Since today was the last day of school before spring break, and half of my students had already left for Europe and therefore were not in class, we had contest to see who could build the strongest bridge out of only a few sheets of paper. Here is the winner:

It held 100 lbs of weight without collapsing. It could have kept going, but we ran out of weights. It is named The Beast, for obvious reasons.

I am leaving school in exactly 29 minutes and heading home to pack for my trip to SPAIN!!!

what i've been up to

The majority of my time these days has been consumed with counting down the days until Spring Break and I leave for SPAIN! If you hadn't noticed, it's been kind of all-consuming.

For the sake of well-roundedness, I've taken a few breaks from counting down to listen to non-stop Air Supply and Chicago. I need to defend my title as name-that-cheesey-love-song champion. Brian has no idea what he's getting himself into.

Besides that, I've been reading, enjoying the lovely spring weather, talking kids into signing up for my robotics class, and getting ready for the summer.

numbers

1 - number of weeks until I am in SPAIN

4 - school days left until Spring Break

4.5- average hours of sleep I've been getting per night this week

5- hours of napping Friday afternoon

16-times my roommate and her "boyfriend" have broken up over the past 3 months

5,000 - hours I have spent listening to my roommates complain about each other. Rochelle now calls me "Switzerland". Haha.

tongue in cheek

So last week one of my students left a note on my desk telling me what a great teacher I am and how she learns so much, but still has fun. So nice.

And of course, I hung it up on my bulletin board and made all of my other students read it so they could also appreciate how great I am. I thought it would brighten their day.

Jeff (the same Jeff who lets me call him Betty) has made it his personal mission to win class MVP, and obviously could not be outdone. So he pulled out a piece of paper and with tongue in cheek, wrote the following note:

Dear Ms Reed,

Your work ethic and all-around excellence have continued to impress me daily. Your upbeat attitude and energy infuse the classroom with excitement and adrenaline-pounding anticipation to learn. You give every student an insatiable hunger to want to learn more and more. Great job so far and keep up the good work!

-Betty

spain spain spain

The trip is less than 3 weeks away, and is looking like more fun every single day. So far the plans involve:

• Finding a great deal on a rental car that was a good $150 cheaper than anything else. Same rental company, same car, less money. I don't know how I do it, but I amaze myself with my bargain shopping more and more every day.

• Flying into Madrid on Saturday, and heading down to Granada to see Brian's friends and explore the city. We'll go to church in Granada on Sunday (Easter Sunday), see a little more of the city, and then head out.
  
• We're spending Monday and part of Tuesday biking and exploring around here:



• Then we're headed out to Valencia to see the City of the Sciences, parks, and other adventures:


• Then back to Madrid to see the Museo del Prado and anything else that looks cool. (The details of this part of the trip are still in the works:

ooh, jealousy

My students are doing a project where they pose a question and try to answer it using physics. Most of them picked Mythbusters-type questions like "can dropping a penny off of a skyscraper really kill someone?" or "how many helium balloons do you need to lift yourself off the ground." One kid, however, decided to test the horsepower of different cars, and see how closely it matches the power output on a closed course. Which means that he has access to multiple cars and a track on which to drive.

So he turned in his preliminary data tables last week, which included the tested horsepower of six different cars, including:

Lexus

Corvette

Aston Martin

and another car I've never even heard of, but which I was informed is worth $1.5 million. It's a good thing he's such a nice kid.

school, school, school

So the few weeks before spring break are generally the most frustrating of the school year. While most of my students get more adorable and lovable every day, those few who are not quite as adorable and lovable get under my skin just a little more every day. And I'm pretty sure I annoy them more every day too. Not a good combination. Lucky for me, I only have about 3 kids who frustrate me, but they are definitely trying their best to get to me. Kids can be sneaky like that.

But on another note, I gave a really tricky quiz in my advanced class today, and they did awesome on it. It's so much fun to watch them struggle with a problem they've never seen before, and then conquer it. (Well, most of them conquered it.)

happy weekend

My weekend turned out fabulous. Fun-filled, excellent weather, good company. Saturday, Rochelle and I went to the japanese robot exhibit. The robot part was just okay. More geared towards kids, but I did learn a lot about Japanese culture. Their development of robots is much different than what you see in the US (not that you see much of it in the US) because of their culture and immigration policies. Fascinating. Along with the robots, however, was a "polka-dot" exhibit because "the universe is full of polka-dot forms." Pretty funny.

Then we headed to Guapo's for a mexican dinner. It was pretty good, but nothing to write home about. I still am craving a Beto's-type restaurant. The fruit tart we had for dessert was just okay. Next time, I am making a homemade lemon tart topped with fruit. Much better.

Sunday, we made a Japanese dinner. (Turns out most of my friends here are Japanese, or love all things Japanese. They're rubbing off on me.) It was make-your-own-squid-ball night. Delicious. They're cooked in an ebilskever pan in the middle of the table. In case you can't tell, I had just woken up from my long, long Sunday nap.

For dessert, Brian made brownies and Merry made a rice cake with pretty flowers on it. Both were a hit.

happy friday!

I need this 3-day weekend like nothing else. I am counting down the minutes till I'm free. I have a fantastic weekend planned.

• wake up at 4:30 tomorrow morning to take my roommate to the airport. she is so lucky to have me around.
• come home and eat the breakfast my other roommate promised me if i would get her out of taking laura to the airport. she's a great cook.
• go to the robot exhibit at the Kennedy Center. it's going to be awesome.
• dinner at guapos before stake conference. mexican restaurants in this city are few and far between, but i've heard great things about this one.
• watching children of heaven and eating a fruit tart to celebrate rochelle's birthday.
• a long, long sunday nap
• homemade japanese food on sunday to continue the birthday celebration
• hopefully finishing a thousand splendid suns and re-reading east of eden
• try to plan an interesting lesson on electromagnetic waves. this could be tricky

58 minutes to go...

a nice break

So sometimes teachers and students all need a break from lecturing and note-taking and the overall brain-numbing that high school sometimes is. For my classes, today was that day. It's Friday. It's sunny and warm outside. Nobody felt like sitting in a desk, and I didn't feel like making them.

So a couple of weeks ago, while we were learning about rotational motion, we did a lab involving angular velocity and moments of inertia of a skateboard. But apparently skateboards are going out of style and razor scooters are the new cool thing to have these days. Who knew? Being the good samaritan that she is, Debbie brought her scooter to class today, so I could learn how to be cool too. Now, for those of you who don't know, 15 teenagers + 1 razor scooter = zero attention span. Even with good, hard-working teenagers like the ones I teach. So I scrapped my lesson plan, roped off the hallway, and gave them "razor scooter challenges" , which involved riding the scooter up and down the hallway and running some calculations. Anything I could think of that did not involve sitting in a desk.

The point of the story is, I love my job.

letters

Dear Penn(sylvania),

Thank you for letting me call you Pennsylvania. And thank you also for tolerating all of the borrowing pens from Penn jokes. I know you probably got tired of them somewhere around the first grade, but I just can't resist.

Also, please take robotics next year. You will love it.

Your favorite teacher,
Ms. Reed



Dear Roommate #1,

I have one more recommendation for getting along with your roommates. When my pay stub falls out of my purse, do not examine it and calculate my yearly salary. And then do not compare it to yours. There's a reason I've never told you how much I make. Because it's none of your business.

Thank you,
Poodle


Dear swim team,

Trust me, I am way more happy than you are that the season is finally over. I am praying that I never have to coach again. However, you are all still delightful children.

Love,
Coach Reed


Dear IRS,

Thank you for the tax return. And for allowing me to itemize my deductions. I am looking forward to a nice fat check in the mail.

Love,
Poodle


Dear DC metro area,

Thank you so much for the beautiful weather recently. While I would still love at least one snow day, the warm sun is fantastic.

Love,
Poodle

a must-see

Today I watched A Class Divided. Watch it. You won't regret it.

how to confuse high school students

So our school decided that since our kids work so hard (which they do) and the winter is long and cold (which it is) we would give everyone a day off from classes, and prepared a "Beyond the Books" program for today. Which we did not tell our students about until they showed up at school. We herded them into the auditorium for our weekly assembly and the principal told them to take off their ties and untuck their shirts because all classes were cancelled for the day. And then they stared at us in confused, baffled silence. It took a good 15 minutes to convince them that this was not a joke.

unanimous approval

I presented the proposal for my robotics class to the curriculum board today, and they unanimously approved the course! Mainly because it sounded really cool and they don't know enough about robotics to question what I was telling them.

At one point, I mentioned C programming and that I was sure they had all heard of it. They laughed at me. Turns out curriculum committees are not usually made up or programmers.