Love Notes

Yesterday was my last day teaching music in Kindergarten for the year. I received some very sweet notes from the children. You can tell which words were written for them to copy and which they spelled all by themselves. Here are pictures of just a few of my favorites.

Some of the drawings were quite involved.

Coke V Pepsi

The first part of this post is short. I noticed two weeks ago that Costco has switched from Coke to Pepsi products.

The second post is a little funny (to me). Awhile ago, H bought a Polish sausage at Costco while umpiring and didn't drink the Coke, so he brought the cup home "to save for later". And save and save and save, and I was about to throw it out, but we took it with us on Saturday and filled it with Pepsi. Is it legal to put a Pepsi product in a Coke cup?

*Disclaimer*

We rarely drink sodas - maybe once every two-three months or so.

Salad Days

The weather has turned hot - really hot yesterday at about 100 degrees. Time to have a salad for dinner every night. Time to find new recipes. I have been following a local blogger (see Blogs I Follow and find What's For Meat?) who sprinkles stories from her life at home with three little girls with recipes. The other day I looked through her salad recipes and copied a bunch and have tried two so far.

Tonight we had Butternut Squash with Lentils and Goat Cheese. We will have it again, and next time I will make sure we have enough mint leaves in the pot in the yard. Since I just knew we had a whole bunch, I didn't look before I went shopping, and when I went out with the scissors tonight, I harvested about a teaspoonful. 

Thoughts on Mother's Day

I think it is funny that people associated with the colleges will remark that Mother's Day ALWAYS falls on graduation. This is year is one example where the two did not coincide.

When my girls were little, and mothering consumed most of my waking hours, what I wanted most for the holiday was a clean house (done by someone else!) and a little quiet time to myself. Now that my children are grown and independent, I relish the chance to connect with them on Mother's Day. I had a nice chat with one daughter on the phone and shared dinner with my other daughter who brought over some delicious blackberry tarts for dessert.

In-between-time in the afternoon, I did manage to have some quiet time to myself, and although the house was not perfectly clean, it was clean enough for me to enjoy.

Farewell to Brandon Johnson

Yesterday was a very sad and difficult day for many people in the CUSD. Brandon Johnson, the El Roble instrumental teacher, as well as beginning band teacher in the elementary schools, was called from the reserves to active duty as Army Chaplain at Fort Hood. 

In the five years that Brandon has been with us, he has grown the El Roble music program, brought great innovations to the elementary program, given us great friendship with grace, humility and humor. In January 2011 he was honored in the school district for Spotlight on Excellence. Although he had many, many things on his plate, I never once heard him complain, but always framed everything in the most positive light. 

You can read his farewell letter to the community here.

The EIMP music staff had a farewell lunch for Brandon yesterday, just hours before his family started driving east to Texas for their next life adventure. Here are a few photos from the luncheon.

Gone Girl

May's book club choice is the best-selling Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, and I'm sure there will be plenty to talk about. Discussions abound on the web about the ending, and I will not post any spoilers here, but I will say that I was disappointed in the third section of the book.

The plotting for the first two sections is very clever, and though it ranges over 400 pages, it does read fairly quickly. Yet, it is one of those books in which none of the characters are likable. I am not averse to character flaws (I particularly liked Tony Soprano, mob kingpin and particularly bad guy with some redeeming characteristics), but there has to be something about some character that makes me care.

I know that many people will like this book, but I would not reread it.

Field Trip to the Getty Center

For the past X years, H has taken his students for a behind-the-scenes tour at the Getty Conservation Institute at the Getty Center. This year my schedule was clear, so I took up the invitation to join the students, as well as some alums on this private tour yesterday.

First we learned about some past projects that the Institute has been involved with, including ancient cave paintings in China, a recently re-revealed mural on Olvera Street, and mosaic on a cathedral in Prague (just three examples of hundreds).

Here are some pigments used in paintings

Then we toured some of the labs and learned about different scientific methods used in conservation research.

Here is a painting which imitates Jackson Pollack's work so they can see how the paint splatters, depending upon the method (dripping or flicking, for example).

This little experiment show different stages of what happens when sodium sulfate in limestone leads to the deterioration of the limestone. We watched a time-lapse video of the process, and it can all disintegrate within just 30 days.

Lizard Music

Continuing on my mission to read books I have on my shelves (and then to pass them along), I picked out the children's book Lizard Music by Daniel Pinkwater. I must have bought it at the Upland Public Library since it is a discard from there.

Pinkwater can sometimes be heard chatting on NPR, (although not recently) and I particularly like his obscure, out-of-print, book Blue Moose that I used to read to 2nd graders at the Vista Library. Pinkwater has a definitely quirky sense of humor, and Lizard Music reads like something from a kid's mind. Victor is left at home for several summer weeks by his folks, under the charge of his sister who runs off with some hippies, and Victor is happy to fend for himself. He notices that there some very strange shows on tv late at night featuring a band with lizards. Then he keeps running into the Chicken Man with a multitude of aliases, and soon he is off on an adventure with Chicken Man out to a floating island where he meets many lizards.

So, yeah. It's weird.

Saladfarm

It is our tradition to go out to eat on Sunday whenever the Claremont Concert Orchestra performs. Yesterday after the concert we tried out the newest eatery in Claremont - Saladfarm. It's so new that this location isn't even on their website yet. This one is on Bonita next to Taco Factory. The space used to house the short-lived King Wrap and Quiznos, and now with the two spaces merged, it is pretty spacious.

The people were friendly and apologized when the tuna panini that H ordered took a little while to prepare. I had the California salad, and it was so big that I am having the rest of it for lunch today. The food was pretty tasty, and we will probably be back.

High School Students

Here are two photos from this weekend to show that high school spring rituals are alive and well in Claremont.

Gathering before prom for photos

Self-explanatory