Saturday Matinee

While Hal is out all day in the land of Ultimate Umpire Geeks, I have a quiet day at home. Thought I would peruse a movie that I put on the Netflix "Watch Instantly" queue. It was recommended to me a number of years ago, and I finally had the 2 hours and 10 minutes to watch.

Stone Reader is a movie for people who LOVE books. This documentary follows a man who searches for two years for a one-hit-wonder author, Dow Mossman, author of Stones of Summer.

On Cafeteria Trays

Yesterday on Facebook, the Carleton College page posted a video blog entry about traying- a time-honored winter tradition. Ah, yes, "borrow" a cafeteria tray and use it to slide down the big snow-covered hill. Much fun!

I commented, "I wonder if Carleton will go the way of other colleges and stop using trays in the cafeteria. They say that it reduces waste from people taking more than they can eat, plus it saves water by not having to wash the trays. If Carleton does go that way, perhaps they can assign trays to each dorm room. So, each student gets 1 bed, 1 dresser, 1 tray."

Carleton answered back that they had tried some trayless days, but it hadn't gone over very well. (I'm surprised they didn't comment on my great suggestion about standard room issue.)

So, today I went to eat lunch at the Harvey Mudd cafeteria which has already implemented traylessness. (I ran into a prof who brings his own tray - a gift from his wife with his name written on it.) I think I do actually take less food when I have to revert back to my waitressing days and carry two plates (one salad, one chicken fettuccine), one fork and a cup of water. And I don't need a tray for sledding since we have no snow, or hills, around here.

Check out the article at the NYTimes about this issue.

More Mathemagic

In December, this blog reported on seeing Art Benjamin, HMC math professor and mathemagician at Hollywood's Magic Castle. Last night, Art was the guest on The Colbert Report. For the next few weeks you can see the show on hulu. You can still see his show on Ted.com.

Sangria Ate Ham

The title of this post is an anagram for "I Hate Anagrams." Every Sunday I listen to the Puzzle Master, Will Shortz, on NPR. Some days I do pretty well playing along with the contestants, some days, not so much. The days I really do poorly are the anagram days. Hence, the title of this post.

I watched Word Wars today (streaming on Netflix), and now I know why I also don't enjoy Scrabble. It's a game of anagrams. It's also a game of knowing many, many words (without necessarily knowing their definitions). I enjoy other word games, such as Apples to Apples, Categories and Dictionary, so I've always wondered why I don't like Scrabble. Now I know.

Claremont Concert Orchestra

Tonight was the first rehearsal of the Claremont College Orchestra for spring semester. This group consists of students from Scripps, Pitzer, Harvey Mudd and CMC as well as members from the community. It's good to get back into playing mode. On the docket for our first concert - a taste of Vienna. Overture to Der Freischutz and Clarinet Concerto by Weber in addition to Beethoven's 6th Symphony (The Pastoral).

U2Charist

Last night the Claremont UCC held a U2Charist - a church service with communion set to the music of the rock band U2. The chapel was filled with people of many ages, and a group of children read portions of the "I Have a Dream" speech of Martin Luther King, Jr. The offering went to the African Well Fund which builds wells in Africa so that people can have access to clean water.

This is the second U2Charist at CUCC, the first one was in September.

A Break in the Rain

Since Monday, it has been raining and raining and raining on the West Coast. This weekend we get a break from the gray and wet until next Monday night. Here are some pics of the result of the over 6" we have gotten in Claremont.

Our garden lettuce and broccoli look pretty happy.

The mushrooms grew like crazy.
So did the weeds.
Through the clouds you can glimpse the snow on Mt. Baldy (from the Costco parking lot).

On a Mission with Sushi

Our tradition, over the past 7 years, has been to take our daughters out for dinner the night before they return to college for a new semester. We started out going to China Star, but after it changed hands, the food got worse, so we went to various places.

Since Claire leaves for her final college semester this afternoon, she chose to have sushi last night. Now, I've had sushi, but probably not particularly good stuff. We tried Hayato Sushi and Grill on Foothill in the Supercuts strip mall. It was delicious. I especially enjoyed the Spider Roll (which has soft-shelled crab), but this Fire Roll (pictured) was also yummy.

Claire has given us the directive to try out a variety of sushi places and report back our findings!

West Coast Swing

Tonight we started our second semester of social dance. Last semester we learned the Cha Cha, the Blues, and Salsa. We're starting off with West Coast Swing, and tonight we learned the sugar push and the cross-body turn.

Deluge

Although we really need the rain that has been pouring down (there has been so much rain that the Claremont Library is closed due to flooding) on the West Coast this week, I wonder if I somehow caused it. Over winter break I planned a lesson centered around the familiar children's chant "Rain, rain, go away" for just this week with the first and second graders.

I pulled out every xylophone, metallophone, or barred instrument that I have in the music room so that every child could sit at one (alone or with a partner). For 20 minutes we tapped the bars with our fingers, played with mallets, and sang the song over and over.

At the end of one of the classes today, little Chloe looked at me and said, "You are the best music teacher!"