Wanting something for nothing. . .

So Nick created this graph after tons of frustration grading papers. Yes, we know there is a typo in the "green" description. It should read CHOICE not COHICE. But his buzz for the day is this graph (today) made the front page or main page of the website he loaded it to. It is on: graphjam.com

It is very sad to hear how many papers he is finding are lifted right off of the internet without putting in their own words, without citing the source AND without changing the font to at least match the one they are using in their paper! Fortunately he just found a nifty little tool he can use when the course starts up next session that will force the students to run their papers through a plagiarism checker before turning it in. It will give them a chance to decide if they want to change it or risk failing. :) Too many lazy students thinking they can get something for nothing. I think that they can be assured to get NOTHING instead.


more music charts

Bagels – I never knew. . .

Sixteen years ago a family moved into our neighborhood. They came from out of state and had retired from one job and decided to open a bagel shop. I remember thinking wow how do you go from one career to a starting a totally different business in a different state just like that. Where did they learn to make bagels?? I’m just a little slow too often. It finally dawned on me this past week that maybe I could actually make my own bagels. So today after gutting the front entry closet to search for Sam’s glasses without success, other than having a cleaner closet, I decided it was bagel time! I searched the internet, read comments and got to work. I opted for the recipe that said 90 min from start to finish. Is also said Authentic NY Bagels. Every comment gave it top ratings and even their own adjustments for this or that. I learned there are two schools of forming a bagel. There is the “snake and pinch” or the “ball and poke”. No, those aren’t official terms but my take on the process. If I had a kitchen aid it would have been much easier but I found my little hand mixer still did a great job with my bread hooks for most of the kneeding. Kneeding is not my favorite thing. I hate cleaning dough off my fingers. But bagel dough is stiff so wasn’t too bad. In fact I was having fun because it wasn’t sticky and messy. Basically I mixed, let it rise, divided, formed into bagel shapes (I opted for the ball and poke as I was doing this part with one hand while talking on the phone), let rise again, boiled them, dried them, egg white wash (to make extra crispy and golden brown) and baked. So I thought morning bagels from a bagel shop were good. Now the truth is known. I don’t need a bagel shop. I could open my own!

UPDATE: There are requests for the recipe. CLICK HERE
Also note that I did not have malt syrup and used brown sugar as one advised. Someone sayd you can use Molasses. The recipe does not call for doing an egg white wash. This really does make it look better. Simply use 1 egg white to 1 TB water. It goes a LONG way. Also if you use parchment to cook on be sure to cover VERY well with corn meal or they will stick. I might try cooking on a stone next time!!

It’s a real mystery!

Back in December when Sam got his first pair of glasses we were mostly worried about the cost of them being damaged or lost. Anyone who knows Sam knows that this worry is warranted. Aside from him biting off the nose pad the very first night he has taken care of them so well. He doesn’t put them on until his things are tucked away in his locker at school. The case is kept in a special place. He takes them off and puts them in the case when he goes to recess. They do come home very dirty every day but that’s OK, they wash up well. Never did I consider back in December that the person to most worry about would be ME!

The last 10 minutes before walking out the door in the morning is usually a huge flutter of activity and this past Monday was no different. The kids were bundling up and Nick was getting his things together. I had several things to take with me so I could run errands after dropping the brood off. I was so organized for the day that I had even washed Sam’s glasses the night before and the case was sitting on top of my stack of things to take with me. I put the glasses case in my coat pocket and contemplated giving them to Nick as he sometimes keeps them until we get Sam into the classroom but I didn’t. I should have! Before walking out the door Nick asked “do you have Sam’s glasses”. YES and he saw them. Soon we were in the car. Upon arriving at the school (a little late) I pulled into a rarely available parking space right in front of the school. I unbuckled and put my hand on the coat pocket that was now EMPTY! Sam’s glasses were no longer there. Hmmm surely they just fell out and would be in the car. NO such luck!

Over the last few days we have retraced every step I took between the last sighting of the glasses and the parking lot of the school. The door never opened between our house and the school so I must admit I have not walked our busy road to find them. I just don’t think they are there. We have searched the garage, the outside of the house between the front porch and garage. Nick has looked under and behind every piece of furniture in the house. I have picked through every piece of garbage that we had at the time. I have checked the coat pockets a million times thinking I just didn’t notice that it really was there. Every corner of the house has been probed. I am so frustrated and feel like I’m going crazy. No doubt after I write this they will show up in some obviously simple place and it will be confirmed that I truly am going crazy! But that’s OK. Right now I would rather have to admit to being crazy than have to get another pair of glasses!

Planning your future

So much has been said recently about Dan, I figured it was time for us to hear about Sam. I learned this past weekend that Sam is planning out his future. He decided that each year he will change to a different favorite color. When he was 4 it was in fact Green and when he turned 5 last year it became his current favorite, Blue. He has decided that when he turns 6 in June it will become Yellow. Age 7 will be Red and age 8 will be Tan. He isn’t sure beyond that but he appears to have his life planned out for a few years. I wish I could plan my next few years that easily!

A different kind of inauguration celebration

A different kind of inauguration celebration is taking place today. Daniel turned 10 yesterday. He had a great day of celebration and we were able to spend it all with him because there was no school for the boys and a holiday for the University. The University holiday was for MLK but for Dan’s school it was “teacher prep” day. This turned out well for us. We decided to throw him a birthday party which we haven’t done for a few years. I will say more on the party in a minute. Since living in Michigan Dan has taken one of his favorite special treats to school to share with his classmates for his birthday. He claims to have a reputation for bringing the BIG raised glazed doughnuts from a local bakery. I must admit they have the best doughnuts around and one in particular is better than any Krispy Kreme I have ever had! These are not the size of a standard grocery store or Wal-Mart doughnut. They truly are LARGE. When we realized he would have to choose an alternate day instead of his birthday to take his treat he quickly chose today knowing it is Inauguration Day. So in light of that he quickly determined that the large “O” doughnuts were very fitting this year. They have now been named DoughBamas. Dan reports that they did in fact get to watch at school and he thought it was very exciting. Now nothing to do with the birthday but he also thinks it’s cool that the person chosen to deliver the religious message before the inauguration picked a scripture from DANIEL to base his thoughts as well as ended his talk with something the guys 14 year old son would say “May the force be with you!” Dan being a Star Wars nut was thrilled.

As for the birthday festivities we were given an interesting challenge. We gave Daniel some opportunity to request what he would enjoy. He is very into a new book series called 39 Clues. He is anxiously awaiting the arrival of the 2^nd book (update, arrived today at school with the Scholastic order!) so we can all plow through it and do more sleuthing (he is now in chapter 4). No adult should read it thinking they are going to find an intriguing literary masterpiece. One should keep in mind it was written for someone in the age range of 8 – 14. It is a fun read and promotes interesting conversation with Dan. We all look forward to the many more in the series. The books are full of adventure, suspense, and clue finding but also teach history, geography among many other worthy things. Therefore Daniel wanted a “39 Clues” birthday. We quickly determined that having party requiring attendees to find 39 clues might take a LOT of planning we opted for 10, his age and the number of books in the 39 Clues series.

The party began with the invitation itself. The house was a crime scene and they were invited to investigate to find the clues leading to missing birthday items. They went crazy and appeared to have a good time. Some clues were easier than others. For a full picture view of the craziness check out the online photo album (link on right of this page). If you need the password let me know. We celebrated more with friends last night. Dan was generously given some gift cards and money from family living far away and of course is thinking of ways to spend it immediately. It was a memorable few days for Dan. It is hard to believe he is 10.

This year is off to a good start for Dan

Despite the fact that Dan often thinks everything goes wrong for him, I think that this is his year. He mentioned tonight that he has a “good luck” window. Since it is 2009 and he is 9 he feels it is good luck to be the same age as the last two digits in the year. However, he wonders if his good luck will come to an end when he turns 10 next week. For now we will thrill with him at his latest excitement. Today Nick and I both attended an assembly for the 3rd and 4th graders for the school Geography Bee. Dan would be participating because he won his class competition last week. Two winners from each class participated in today’s final competition making twelve contestants. We felt a little out of place with no other parents there. But in hindsight we wouldn’t have missed this for anything. It was a lot of fun to watch, especially when the principal gave him a medal as the winner and congratulated him! Now that he has won the school competition he will be taking a test that will then be scored along with all the other school winners within the state. The top 100 are then invited to Washington DC to participate in the National Geography Bee. He will be competing against students up through 8th grade. We feel no need to pressure him on this test even though a trip to Washington DC would be so fun for him. We are just excited for his accomplishment. He is too, which is apparent by the wearing of his medal all day and everywhere we went.

For those interested in the question or for those surfing the web looking for answers to questions for the test it was:

“Cowpokes, a nickname for cowboys, work outside of Flagstaff, which is in what state.”

He didn’t necessarily know what state Flagstaff was in. However, he thought that if it deals with cowboys it has to be in the desert somewhere and Arizona has a lot of desert. Good thinking!

It looks like the 4th of July in my kitchen!

I was going about my normal activity of working on a task only to be distracted mid-task by some other much higher priority task. This can go many levels deep until the 10^th task in eventually takes me back to the original. It kind of reminds me of the Give a Mouse a Cookie or . . .Pig a Pancake or . . .Moose a Muffin books. I was in the kitchen to find some lunch around 2pm. Kind of late but I had been distracted by too many other little tasks prior to that. Then I realized the special popcorn salt needed to be put away. But when I opened the cupboard to put it high on the top shelf I realized that shelf was disorganized. So I decided to clean it up. In the process of pulling down a container, a very LARGE bottle of red white and blue sprinkles fell upside down onto the counter-top, popped the lid off and blew the container onto the floor. I was surrounded in festive sprinkles. It sounded cool but wasn’t so funny at the time. But I’m laughing now. The bottle was nearly full when it fell. It would have taken me a lifetime to use that many sprinkles anyway. What was I thinking? Now I’m left with maybe a 15 year supply instead.