Sunrise, Sunset

Last year about this time, I posted in my evanstonsabbatical blog about the small amount of daylight at this time of year. Here in Claremont today, the sun rose at 6:45 and set at 4:41. That's about 10 hours of daylight, about 1 more hour than Evanston, IL had today. Though I do not ever wish time away, I WILL be glad when the 21st rolls around and we can start lengthening the daylight hours again.

30 Years...

Here is the HMC Chemistry Dept. at the Panda Inn. Tonight we celebrated Bill's 30 years of service to the school. The food was very good and the conversation lively. My fortune said that good luck would come my way at the next full moon. (Does that mean I won't see students then? They are always little rascals during the full moon.)

'Tis the Season

It's the time of year to get my beginning strings at Vista into gear for their first performance - Jingle Bells at our Winter Sing next week. We will play it twice - once with pizzicato (plucking), once with the bow. They are a little nervous, but they'll do great. There is safety in numbers, and we have 19 beginners!

Second Sunday of Advent

It's December, and Advent, so Sundays seem to fill up with activities very quickly. First thing on my agenda today was giving blood for a friend of mine who is going through treatment and surgery for mutiple myeloma. However, the donation person said that since I had been to Belize this year, I was unable to donate right now. I'll have to wait until I've been back in the states for one year.

Second Sunday of Advent means Advent Workshop at church - a place to go make crafts for Christmas. I volunteered to man a table, and I was assigned the treat cans.


Last on the agenda was a string quartet concert given by my friends, the Lemonwood Quartet. This is the group I played substitute viola for this summer. In the concert, Chris (first violin) put together a powerpoint slideshow to help illuminate the various musical themes. She used photos from her trip to Austria, and I found the whole experience quit enjoyable.

Sweat Equity

Hal and I spent an hour this morning battling photosynthesis. It may win yet, but the war is not over. Here are the before and after pictures of tearing down the dead honeysuckle. We need a few more weeks to complete the project since we only have one green recycling bin.

See the full green bin and Hal working on pruning the Santa Rosa plum tree. I asked him to make it shorter so we have a better chance of reaching the plums next June. It's good to have one tall person in the family (and a ladder, too).

Friday deserves some cuteness

I heard about this on an NPR podcast this week. Check out this adorable puppy cam. If the puppies are sleeping or outside (and the web cam is off), you can click on some of the past footage. Very cute!

Book Club Book

Burro Genius is a memoir by Victor Villasenor about growing up on a ranch near Oceanside, California in the 1950s. There are several things about this book that I hope we discuss at book club next week. One is the intertwining of the Indian beliefs of Victor's grandmother and Catholicism. Another is what lessons you learn from your family about life.

Photo on the Web

Last night I heard a message from the Botanical Garden on my answering machine. Ann in visitor services found this blog and saw the pictures I had posted from last week's visit. They would like to post this particular photo on the new version of their website (forthcoming). Scroll down and click on the second comment on last Friday's entry.

A Happy Sound

Today I made the kindergarteners giggle with glee. I played the Trepak from Nutcracker, and in the accented parts, we splayed open our hands as though flicking paint on the wall. They were enjoying that so much that we added a little jump when we did that.

Click and Enjoy

I have been listening to "This I Believe" on NPR, and last week's was my most favorite one. It's called "Singing: The Key to a Long Life."