My Addiction

I can't believe how much I missed blogging. My husband has pointed out my addiction, but I was always in denial. Now, I can no longer pretend it does not exist. But, unlike other addicts, I will embrace my addiction and go forth with it.

We got in about 8:00 this morning and I insisted that we hold on to our luggage so we could be the first ones off the ship. I forgot how slow T is and how incompetent she can be when it comes to packing (I love her and would travel with her again in a minute) and it took us quite a while to get off.

I'm home now, T is with her family before she flies back to Texas and R went home hoping to find her house and her son in one piece. I am back to blogging.

The poor waiters on the ship work like dogs and to top it off, they are forced to entertain the passengers in the dining room. Posted is the video of one of their events. (Not a video I am proud of but it does show how these poor workers suffer.)

Cruise Advice

Two words--Elastic Waists

I Don't Know

Is it possible to trust someone whose political leanings are totally opposite to yours?

Saw Ridge Inn

We decided to save some money and stay at a lesser hotel in Jasper. As I've said before, this was our favorite hotel. It was much smaller and more intimate. The staff was terrific. When I requested a room change (ours was an inside room opposite the ice machine), the young woman at the front desk went out of her way to get us a better room. The luxury hotels were a great experience, but any future trips will involve a stay in a place like this.

Fairmont Palliser

We ended our first class vacation with a night at the Fairmont Palliser in Calgary. What a magnificent old hotel (with all modern conveniences) and it is right in the heart of Calgary, one block from Stephen St., the main shopping and touristy street in the city. This is the kind of hotel I always like to use the bathroom in and never dreamt I could stay in.

Coming up: Pictures of the Sawridge Inn, the place we stayed in Jasper. It is not nearly as classy and fancy as any of the Fairmonts, but believe it or not, it was our favorite hotel of the trip. These swanky places are nice, but they are not me. In the future, I will stick to visiting them but stay somewhere else.

Compatability

A college professor once told my husband that the most important thing you should look for in a spouse is someone you are thermatically compatible. Being young, stupid and in love, we ignored this advice. I like the cold air and never mind wearing a sweat shirt around the house and sleeping with extra covers. My husband likes it hot. In the car, he turns on the heat and I open the windows. Even with our dual controls, I make mine so low that it out powers his.

This professor never warned us about sharing a bed. I tend to be all over the place while my husband ends up in a little corner, barely keeping himself from falling onto the floor. I know he would love sheets like the ones above to keep me in my place. He's not winning with the thermostat, but that bedding might just do the trick and help him sleep in peace.

Mt Edith Cavell

Valley of the Wild Flowers--If you come in July you can really see the flowers in full bloom. It is so wierd--glaciers and flowers within yards of each other.

The flora in High Line Park must be based on the Canadian Rockies. At least NYC got that right.

The only trees I have ever been taller than.

Glacial lake and the glacier.

More glaciers and lots of clouds

Lake and glacier

Vacation Three

This building is featured in the June/July issue of American Craft in an essay about architects and glass. I was thrilled to realize I had taken its pictured and marveled at its structure way before I read the article.




Thursday I hit the high seas with my two closest friends, the people I have known and grown up with since junior high school.

We are leaving NYC, having a fun day at sea, a day in St John, another day at sea and then home. Two of us live in the NYC area and the third is flying in from her home in the deep south. I'm really looking forward to picking her up a the airport tomorrow when her flight arrives.

The three of us have not spent any real time together since our senior trip in high school. This one will be better because it includes drinks. My husband told me not to get in any kind of trouble as he does not want to come to Canada to bail me out. I told him not to worry. If I get arrested, my first duty is to call the school and apprise them of the situation.

I won't have internet access on the ship. They charge way too much and I am way too cheap to pay. I have scheduled posts to pop up on the days away. Meanwhile, above are some pictures I took on High Line this past weekend.

Die, No Matter What You Do

Henry Christophe, King of Northern Haiti, ordered his guards to prove their loyalty to him by marching over a 200ft-high cliff. Those who obeyed plunged to their deaths; those who refused were tortured and executed. Christophe eventually ended up shooting himself.

(courtesy of Bizarre News)

(I bet Bloomberg would be a fan of this guy if he didn't kill himself)

I Know You Won't Cry For Me

(glaciers at Juneau, Alaska)

...but it's hard packing for a cold climate with the sweat dripping down my forehead. It would be smart to turn on the AC, but I guess I am not smart enough for that.

Reptiles Amongst Us

Ms. H and I were trailer buddies around the time of Columbine. Although I am tough on the outside, our vulnerability out there began to bother me and I requested that she lock her trailer door when her class was over and she left.

Ms. H told me she couldn't do that. She had another class right after the trailer that happened to be opposite the Principal's office. She refused to be late for that one even though it meant letting her trailer class leave 8 - 10 minutes early or just leaving the kids in the room when she left.

The kids that stayed behind were quite rambunctious. When I spoke to her, she shrugged her shoulders and said there was nothing she could do about it.

Needless to say, I was not happy. A door connected the two rooms and anyone could enter hers and then waltz into mine without any problem. The noisy kids she left behind were also an issue.

I told Ms H that I would speak to the administration as her problem was jeopardizing my class and my safety. She told me to do what I had to do and I did just that. the next day she was removed from the trailer.

Ms H no longer speaks to me, although this incident happened many years ago. I'm sure she considers me a snitch, but I have no problems being called such a thing. This time the shoe fit and I wear it proudly. (In case anyone is wondering, Ms H is not a dirty talker. I bet no one is surprised to read that.)

Dirty Talk Needed

I used to teach in a tough school, a really tough one. The school was one of the first one closed when the city started doing that to bad schools years ago. We taught with locked doors and avoided certain stairwells between classes. Kids were often found with weapons and more than one fire was started during a fire drill. (Our kids liked the real thing.)

In spite of it all, I loved that school. I loved the kids and I loved the teachers I worked with. I only left because of its distance from my house. Having two babies, I needed to be close to home, available for emergencies. I also did not have time to travel.

Packemin HS was a country club in comparison. I felt that the first minute I stepped in to interview with the principal. I thought, surely I had found the perfect place and was thrilled to be hired on the spot.

Unfortunately, my happiness did not last long. The teachers were not as friendly as the ones I had worked with in my previous school and although no one was mean, I just felt out of place. And then the reason for my unhappiness hit me--NO ONE TALKED DIRTY! I'm not talking about sexual harassment or pornography dirty, I'm talking about innocent flirtations, sentences with double meanings and a few off color jokes. In the few years I stopped working to be a full time mom, things changed. Political correctness was the new thing and everyone worried about saying the wrong thing and being brought up on charges.

It took me a long time, but I found my crew, the group as warped and sick as I am. I found the group I can have my dirty conversations with and not worry about anything. I finally found myself at home at Packemin.

Let's Play Pretend

Let's pretend that we want to help the students of NYC by offering them summer school to repeat courses they failed.

Let's put 40 kids (or more) in the class and make sure many have behavior problems. Let's also excuse excessive absence. Don't worry even though the majority of them got under 40 on the regents they took in June. Cut summer school to 4 days instead of 5. (This cuts down on Friday cuts and improves attendance.)

Now, ask the teacher why his regents results were so poor. Ask the teacher what can be done to improve them. I know he will have some answers.

Now, will you listen and do something about it?

Butterfly

I would love the freedom but not the short life span.

Not Everything In NYC Is A Bed Of Roses

Anyone who reads this blog knows how much I love this city. But, there are things I dislike about it as much as I dislike Bloomberg. Right now, parking laws are my number one pet peeve.

Jill called my cell phone the other day hysterical. Her car had either been stolen or towed and all she knew was that it was not where she left it. She tried calling to see if it had been towed but could get no immediate answer. As her anxiety level grew, her fingers kept dialing and she eventually found out that indeed, it had been towed.

Now before I go on I want to say that Jill is the most meticulous person I have ever met. She checks and rechecks everything before she does anything and would never ever deliberately park illegally.

By the time I got to Jill, she had the exact location of her car and the credit card she needed to redeem it. I drove her to the hidden away pound between the LIE and the BQE where a Nazi security guard made me wait while Jill went in to pay her fine.

Five minutes, then ten minutes passed when suddenly Jill walked out shaking. It seems the credit card machine as down and they were only taking cash. Jill did not have $185 with her. Luckily for Jill, I never emptied my wallet after vacation and together we were able to scrape up the money she needed and was able to go back to claim her car. (The $175 ticket she gets to pay at a later date.)

Again, minutes passed. Only this time it took 30 minutes for Jill to reemerge. She then had to wait for a police officer to come and drive her to her vehicle. Again, only she was allowed to go in the car with him. I was forced to wait and worry.

Jill went back to the spot in question today to look around. The sign was very unclear. The yellow line painted on the curb was so faded that it could barely be seen with the naked eye. She took pictures and will go to a hearing to plead her case. Even if she wins,[she didn't win, didn't even get the ticket reduced] she has still suffered terrible stress and wasted a lot of time.

I always thought there had to be a grace period between when the ticket is issued and when the car is towed. I guess that is no longer true. Bloomberg needs money to keep the city running and he's found another way.

A Little Math Humor

A police officer arrests a man for stealing $2. The judge is not amused and sentences the man to 10 years in prison.

The man thinks.

Then he says, " Judge, it was only $2. Why don't you make it $10 for 2 years. Mathematicians say that the order can be changed without changing the result." The judge says "Seems fair. That is the commutative law of addition. I will commute your sentence to the honor farm and...

here is your $8."

(courtesy of the Hall of Science, Flushing Meadow Park)

Fitting Place

Mobs of people were at the Guggenheim today. This was shot from one of the spirals above the lobby. Ceiling--I got yelled at for taking this picture. I knew I couldn't photograph the exhibits, I thought it was okay to take the ceiling.
The gallery was built with the wide open space so people can view others as all the artwork is taken in.

The outside. Wright died before the building was completed.

The Guggenheim has an exhibit on the works of Frank Lloyd Wright.

What a fitting place to hold the exhibit. (Wright designed the building.) the man was a genius.

If you live in the NY area, try to see it. Go soon. It closes August 23.

Hall Of Science

My poor planning (not knowing that streets and avenues after numbers makes a difference in an address) left us at odds as to how to spend the day. On a whim, we paid a visit to Flushing's Hall of Science. It has been many years since we have been to this wonderful place and had no idea as to its growth. The kid in us came out as we played with all the interactive exhibits and explored some of the wonders of science.

Some of the exhibits were the same ones I remembered from the past but many were brand new to me. Of course, my favorites, pictured above, were mathematics. Years ago, this part of the exhibit did not exist. I may have to break down and take a class trip here. The things I saw were just too good not to share.

My favorite exhibit wasn't in the mathematics part, but in a part of the Hall and it was all about networks. I taught a course in the community college on networks and it was really cool seeing all the applications, including ant farms, dance floors and phone connections. It would be nice to share real life math with my students.

Calculus --This is an example of the model Archimedes used over 200 years ago to show that the volume of a cylinder is equal to the volume of a sphere and a cone. He did it by using slices, one of the ways we find volume in calculus.

We spend lots of time on minimum and maximum problems.

This one you have to see to appreciate.

A great example as to why every operation is not commutative.

The Mobius strip--not only explained, but with a little train running around to illustrate exactly what it is.

This one I really loved. Balls fell randomly and as you watched, the normal distribution really appeared. Unfortunately, I did not make it in one spot until it finished.