I Hope I Get a Letter

In First Grade today, we did one of my favorite lessons. We have a letter carrier go around the circle while the class sings. The letter carrier gives a choice of envelopes to the person where they stop, and the student looks inside the envelope, reads the number written on the valentine, goes to the drum in the center of the room and looks at the various rhythms on the board and chooses the one matching the number from the valentine. They play that rhythm and chose a student to guess/say which rhythm was played. If they say the correct one, they are the next letter carrier.

Orffin'

On Saturday, in the rain, Lynn and I attended an Orff workshop geared for teachers of the youngest children. We had lots of fun, and here I am dancing down the alley with the presenter.

Hey Blue!

Hal got called at the last minute to ump a NCAA D-3 double header this afternoon, and it was just down the street at Pomona College. The Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens played the Patten University Lions. I left the game scoreless as I had to leave to teach my Monday string classes, but it was great to be out in the sun.

Super Bowl - Super Chili

As per Hal's request - Chicken Chipotle Chili for watching the Superbowl. I added a Fat Tire Beer (brewed in Fort Collins, CO) to complement my bowl.

Video Stores

I wonder how long video stores will be around. And yet, I found myself at Claremont's Video Paradiso today. Season 3 of The Tudors came out in December, and we watched the first disc from Netflix. Since then, the second disc has been listed as Long Wait, even though it has set atop the top of my queue. I got tired of waiting, so I set foot in this brick-and-mortar store and got my instant gratification.

Ted

Need some inspiration? Got some time? Log onto ted.com. Technology, Entertainment, Design. TED is a private, non-profit foundation which holds conferences focusing on ideas worth spreading. Videos from these conferences are available on the website on a wide variety of ideas. Last night I watched this one: "Graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister takes the audience on a whimsical journey through moments of his life that made him happy -- and notes how many of these moments have to do with good design."

Book Club Book

Next week our book club will discuss the bestselling book, The Help, by Kathryn Stockett. We usually choose books out in paperback, but the buzz about this novel was so great, and some have been itching to discuss it, so it rose to the top of the list. Although it's over 400 pages, it didn't take me long to finish it. I had to find out what would happen next. The characters are real and compelling, the issues seem fresh, even though it was set in the early 60s. My mother's book club spent their whole discussion of race relations and didn't even get to the book. I know our discussion will be great.

Similar Words

So, we were chatting with my daughter this weekend, and we told her how well our lettuce was growing. She wanted to know what kind we had planted, and I said that one of the varieties was mesculun. Huh? She said, that sounds like peyote. I knew it wasn't hallucinogenic, so I finally looked it up. We planted a mesclun mix, and mescaline is peyote.

Mariana Cook

Ansel Adams' last protégé, Mariana Cook, spoke at the CMC Atheneum tonight. Although she also enjoys landscape photography, she spoke tonight about her portraits, a number of which you can see at her website. Her work is quite inspiring.

A Great Valentine Gift

Look closely at the blue bumper sticker that I see when I come home from the gym. Should I get one for Hal for Valentine's Day?