While the Sun Smiles

On the eve of our trip to Montana I leave you with this. If a bunch of pasty-white Irish guys can dance and carry on about the sun like this, then it might bring some sun to this bleak, rainy landscape. Enjoy.

This is the last you'll hear about it here...

...but in 1985 you never could have told me Farrah Fawcett would have had a larger positive impact on humanity than Michael Jackson. I thought the moonwalk would change the world. I prefer to think of him as the ten-year old singing "I Want You Back". I suppose there was a lot of inappropriateness in his life.

And then, there was Farrah, whose greatest contribution seemed to be her hair, until she contracted cancer and was a gracious voice of awareness for the world. Life, and death, is strange.

I forgot how much I like taking pictures.

It was a rainy Sunday afternoon, I had just charged the battery for my digital camera, and I thought to myself "Hey, I haven't taken any pictures of plants lately"...

the first to catch my eye was one of the irises...


then it was on to the garlic (yes, I'm still offering a garlic primer in the fall, and I'll likely blog the harvest and some of the preparation again this year...)


On to the daisies, which have just popped out recently:



And finally, out back to the garden. I like the geometry of the beans. I took some interesting ones of pea blossoms, too, but my camera's resolution isn't the best so I've left them out. I'll use Rach's camera next time so they'll look good even close up.

Wonderlick's "Topless at the Arco Arena"

I've waxed not-so-eloquent about Too Much Joy, and, to a lesser extent, Wonderlick from time to time. Wonderlick's new album is streaming on their website right now, and pre-sale has begun. You can check it out here for free, and if you hate it that's fine. But if you like it enough to order it, could you tell me 'cause I'd love to know that I'd converted someone.

07.08.09

So today we were taking water samples in class, and I was explaining how important it was for the information my students wrote on their data sheets to be accurate. The idea is that I am starting my students on periodic testing of the same stream that borders the schoolyard, and all of their entries need to have the proper date and time to keep them valid.

That is nowhere near the point of this post.

I told them the date, 6/8/09, and noticed, "Hey, that's almost 7/8/09! Next month we're going to have to celebrate 'Why was 6 afraid of 7? Day' " A couple of kids got it. Then I explained it, and I couldn't believe there were kids who: a) didn't get it or b) never heard the joke before. So in case you missed it the first time, here is the 2nd grade joke:

"Why was six afraid of seven?"
"Because seven ate nine!" (7, 8, 9 or 7/8/09...and the kneeslaps ensued.)

So, spread the word. A month from today is National (or International) "Why Was Six Afraid of Seven? Day". I won't be around to blog it, as I'll be fending off grizzly bears in the wilds of Montana, while prying T-rex bones from the unyielding ground. So spread the word, and join me in starting a movement that honors both juvenile humor and math at the same time.

There's no crying in baseball...but there's dancing!

This is just all kinds of awesome. If the whole world ran like (gulp) the Big East Baseball Tournament, life would be just about perfect. So yesterday (Thursday, 5/21) was supposed to be the winners bracket game between the UConn Huskies and the South Florida Bulls. Except the weather didn't cooperate, and a bunch of college-aged young men were sequestered together in a stadium with time to kill. Presumably they had no access to alcohol at this time. And there were no women in sight. Somehow it is comforting that this is what ensues when combatants, in the face of battle, come face to face outside of the battle. Enjoy.

Oh, and disregard the little ad at the beginning. I promise it gets better (check out the redheaded guy on South Florida...he's got some SKILLS!)

Playing Catch Up

I've been feeling pretty guilty about my lack of posts lately, and checking back on my posts by month: oh, look, not a single post in April!

Here's what's been up: April 1st was my wife's birthday. It was dandy. On the Friday before April vacation, I finished my class on Earth Systems Science, which has been the best online class I've ever taken. Baseball season started. Track season got into full swing. Association stuff got in the way. I got lazy. It was pea-planting season. Weather during vacation was wicked sweet, and I didn't want to spend my time blogging. I started using Facebook, and got my fix there. I became a full paying member on Sons of Sam Horn. Girly had her first gymnastics "meet". My 41st birthday (what a weak number, 41...I liken it to vanilla-flavored mashed potatoes) was April 30th. The family spent many hours rehearsing for the recital, and I spent many hours being a dutiful, supportive dad. I'm sure there were plenty of other things happening in April, too, but I have conveniently forgotten them at the exact same time I got tired of coming up with excuses for not writing. Serendipity is a cool thing.

Anyway, the school year now holds 30 more student days. A quick look at the calendar shows there are five Mondays remaining: five. That's just enough to fit on one hand. We have reached the milestone where we can say "only one more_____________left in the school year", i.e., "only one more complete month left in the school year".

Not that posts like this will make you clamor for more, but I do hope to be a little more regular this month, and in the coming months. I'd hate to get deleted from your Google Readers.