When in Indy...

Last week I got a very exciting coupon in the post: $20 off if I spend $49 or more at DSW (Discount Shoe Wharehouse).  It is a great store, with racks of sale shoes with further 30%, 40%, 50% or 60% off items ordered by size at the back (and that's where I beeline). Lots of lovely, cheap but good quality shoes.  Unfortunately, there are no DSWs in Bloomington.  LUCKILY we were going to Indy so Jbird suggested we look at the DSW there.  I found two pairs of Roxy (! fav. surf label).  I got some jandals, some cute boat shoes (very American of me) and some insoles.  Here’re the savings, if you’re as interested as the two people in my family were.  I spent $31.09.  My receipt tells me I saved $46.89.  Wowzers.

A defeaning silence

I should let myself get bored so that I can be creative.  We teachers often want to fill our teaching timetables with lots of productive things that keep the children 'learning', all the time.  Or simply busy work, to make us feel better about running out of productive things to do. 

I now believe that children will learn at a deeper level if they’re given challenging problems and the space to knuckle it out, to be frustrated.  A lot of the time (not every time), I look at children struggling and give them some kind of a clue, big or small, therefore taking away their opportunity to do something mentally challenging, some real, deep learning.  It’s my insecurities that make me do this: that giving them a chance to think silence can be deafening.

Thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Bird, Sr.!

For Jbird’s birthday this year, he got money for a piano.  We weren’t very good at accepting it and when we first got to Bloomington, we started looking around for el-cheapo uprights or top line electric keyboards.  However, the benefactors insisted we needed a more respectable piece of furniture in our lounge for this degree.  We do.  And we’re very, very grateful.

We became rather disheartened with the lack of decent pianos available to buy here in Bloomington so I did some asking around and we were informed of two great stores up in Indy (Indianapolis).  It took us nearly two months to get up there but we finally made it yesterday.  What’s that saying?  Veni Vedi Veci - We came, we saw, we conquered!  We are the proud owners of a shiny brand new Kawai Studio in mahogany, Model 506N.  

I’m looking forward to cashing in on some free piano lessons. Usually, I'm really familiar with Jbird's music.  I can't wait to hear what he's playing at the moment. 

Veni vedi veci actually means "I came, I saw, I conquered".  I think Julius Caesar was wrong when he said that, I bet all the minions did the work for him.

I'm taking my time

I’ve got this idea that I’ve been thinking about for a couple weeks and I really like it.  It came from all the reading I’ve been doing for a paper on issues in mathematics education, as well as a blog post I read from some smart mum living in Thailand.  I’m quite sorry it’s taken me so long to grasp this as it would’ve helped my teaching a lot, I think, as well as other things about other parts of my life. I was going to expand on it but I’ve decided to just state the idea and I’m sure it’ll come up again.  I'm ready to stop bowling on ahead. 

The idea is this: I should let myself get bored so that I can be creative. 

I never knew what I was missing

We have been really lucky: we have had beautifully warm, t-shirt and shorts type weather for the passed couple of weeks.  This week, fall came for real!  Suddenly there were leaves everywhere.  I was on pick up duty for a couple of tykes I look after which meant I had the privilege of driving around and really seeing the full glory.  

I have never seen so much colour.  One tree can be a rainbow in itself. Not just the oranges and browns I imagined but a whole display of pinks, yellows, reds and every green in between.  I can't believe how beautiful it is.  People and books have described it to me.  Baltimore also had a bit of this glory they call fall (but sooo much concrete in between).  Now I know why we only ever call it Autumn in Auckland, NZ.  Of course, I taught said tykes to look for the largest bundle of leaves and walk through it, enjoying the swish swish rustle beneath our feet. It took us f-or-ev-a to get to the car.

Raisins they are a rum-soaking

I’ve never been a big fan of Christmas Fruit Cake.  I mean, really.  Fruit.  Inside cake.  When it’s so good outside of cake...why would you?  But Jbird loves it, especially his Grandma’s recipe.  We even had to have it as one of the layers in our wedding cake.  

So for our two married Christmases, both away from mum (and Grandma), I have attempted to make him a successful fruitcake. I’ve even come to enjoy it!  It requires wrapping, slow cooking, rum soaking, and aging.  But I’ve always only added raisins, craisins, citrus peel and some chopped nuts (!).  “Nuts, Annabel!  Christmas cake doesn’t have nuts! That’s not how Grandma makes it.”  But that’s how I like it, none of that gooey fake cherry ick.  

Our tradition is to start it on boxing day – Christmas day already has too much food goodness going on.  Jbird can’t remember my fruit cakes (though I remember him enjoying them) and doesn't really complain, but this year I bought 400g of Christmas fruit mix for HIM.  With cherries and pineapple ickyness.  I’m fairly sure it will be very similar to how his Grandma made it.  They’re soaking in some rum for the required 24 hours with some raisins and craisins to balance it out a bit.  I’ve got nearly 10 weeks to age the cake if I make it tomorrow. It's the first year I've remembered to make it early enough to age as the websites tell me it’s meant to.

Cafe Bird

I drink coffee every day, twice a day.  Jbird doesn't - I cannot convince him to -  but he will have a cup of tea with me.  There’s something about the process of making and drinking that reminds me of companionship, even when drinking alone.  When I’m not working full time, I get the shakes after the second cup (and sometimes even the first).  So at the moment I only have one caffeinated coffee a day.  Espresso or plunger coffee (French press) are tied in preference.  I only drink coffee machine coffee if I'm desperate <ew>.  Plunger gives such a full, rich, thick flavour and the oils from the beans are an added treat.  Espresso - generally a cappuccino - is like a dessert.  We have an espresso maker but no plunger (unfortunately).  We got it for a steal AND its steamer works a treat.  Libby used to work in a cafe and she once told me (6 or 7 years ago) "never wank the milk".  I always always think about that, just 'cos it's funny.  My milk is getting better and I'm even starting to try some designs.

I find that if I make a really good coffee at home, I no longer crave one when we’re near a cafe – I’m saving a bundle! 

One Tomato, Two Tomato

A kind benefactor/ess who was probably the previous tenant in this apartment, grew a grape tomato plant (or perhaps merely dropped a tomato) along the south facing wall of our apartment.  It gets sun all day on sunny days and is producing a large quantity of itty bitty grape tomatoes.  There are so many of them ripening that Jbird and I can barely keep up.  So today I made this: http://www.yummly.com/recipe/Roasted-Tomato-Soup-Recipezaar_8.  It's a pretty standard recipe, I know, but it was made with my own homegrown tomatoes so I was really excited about it.  I was hungry (and too lazy to cut 40 tiny little tomatoes) so instead of roasting them, I cooked them slowly in a big pot, popping them against the side as they got hot and ready to burst.  

More often, we have been enjoying the tomatoes in a tomato/cucumber salad seasoned with the obvious: olive oil, balsamic vinegar, fresh basil and salt and pepper.  Having an outdoors has improved my basil maintaining/growing abilities.  It’s so great with anything tomato-ee and with lots of other things too.

Unruly Recipes

This may seem like a trivial problem to you high achievers out there but I am struggling to work out the best way to store my recipes.  I only have a few cookbooks here (my fav.: Julia Child’s The French Chef), my good ones are mostly at home.  I like to use online recipe engines to find what to cook.  It’s nice to punch in an ingredient and come out with a bunch of different ideas.  The problem is that afterwards, I often think I’ll remember where I got the recipe or the words I used to search it and don’t bother making a note of it.  More often than not I forget.  Or even worse, I forget I ever made it! 

When I remember to, I store the web addy on our gmail account.  I have any number of cooking folders squirreled away on the two computers and in our email address.  Then there’re the ones I’ve written onto recipe cards, and into my spiral notebook.  Consolidation must be the key.  What a perfect rainy day activity (sarcastic snigger).  Any suggestions?

Columbus Day

Yesterday was a strange day.  We were supposed to drive to Indianapolis in the afternoon to look at pianos but there were no zipcars available at short notice.  This was kind of annoying seeing as we’d forgotten to book and were probably lazy about it because they’re always available on weekdays.  We’d been planning the trip for a couple of weeks now and what I’d thought would be a super busy day turned into a lazy, empty day. 

Because I was kind of bored, I kept checking the mail to see if it had come.  I generally see the postie rock up to our boxes and if I don’t see him, I hear him.  But I was giving him (or myself?) the benefit of the doubt and walked the few metres THREE TIMES, just in case he had come while I wasn’t looking or in hearing distance (I really do love getting mail).  On my last checking, I realised that facebook had informed me that it was Columbus Day.  Government holiday = no postie.   Maybe that’s why there were no cars available?  Except that the holiday hardly seems to affect anyone. Who knows, maybe the piano shops would have been closed.