Dizzy Domestic

I am trying to do a weeks' worth of chores in one day ... but as you see, I am taking a break with my blog and a cup of chocolate truffle coffee. The coffee smells great...but I smell like wet dog, as I just bathed my two doggies. Before that I was weeding and wacking and cleaning the patio so you know I am looking and smelling my best...

Two weeks into the school year and I feel swamped with paper work already. I love teaching, but I am not a fan of all the documentation attached to it. I will get ahead of it all soon, no doubt.

I finally decided on the play for the spring stage production, Radium Girls. It will be very challenging to produce on my postage-stamp-sized stage, which does not have theatrical lights. It has a low plaster ceiling with a few strip lights. Anyway, I will make it work. After reading plays all summer, this one was by far the best of the bunch.

Well...my cup is empty..back to the chores. Still so much to do.

Moth visits

This moth hung out on my back porch all weekend. It looks like a White-lined Sphinx moth, but the marking are not quite the same.

One week down...

I spent the weekend...

Writing lesson plans and such for classes.

I read the play Waiting for Godet.

I would like to see it done.

I went to the movies with friends to watch Julie and Julia.

It was the best laugh I have had in a long time...fun!

Didn't get to work in the garden, but the movie was worth it.

Did the regular domestic chores: clean, laundry, market, mail.

Cooked food for this weeks lunches.

Took pictures of a moth that was hanging out on the back porch.

I haven't downloaded it yet, I'll share when I do.

I have a super busy week ahead...

I will acclimate soon, so I will get back to posting more often...

I hope.

I do keep up with all of your posts.

That is good.

Feeling Better

After many trips to the chiropractor and several massages I think that I will live. I am almost pain free, free enough to get back to exercising, which is, at my age, the biggest help. It's true--use it or lose it. Exercise is hard to fit in during the school year so I will have to incorporate short sessions. The weekend gardening, though intense, is not enough.

Here are a few more pictures from my yard. Have a great week everyone.

Back to work

Summer break is over for me.

I returned to school today for freshman orientation.

Great bunch of girls this year, as always,

and a very productive day was had by all.

It was nice to see the returning students

who came to help, even a graduate,

because they love the school.

I hope all of you love your jobs as much as I do.

Here are a few photos of campus.

My Little Corner

Just a little peak into my world...the top of my dresser.

15 Books

Name 15 books challenge.

I am playing along with Allie, but I will not be passing this along. Not my style.

I did this in about four minutes...I thought of the first book in my youth that I remembered then moved forward in time. I stayed away from classic works, except for Midsummer, which I read in sixth grade.

The Instructions: Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you’ve read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes.

1. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

2. The Good Earth - Buck

3. Cheaper By the Dozen

4. A Midsummer Night's Dream - Willy

5. Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut

6. The Illustrated Man - Ray Bradbury

7. Hawkline Monster, a Gothic Western - Richard Brautigan ( I count too)

8. A Clockwork Orange - Burgess

9. Mists of Avalon - Bradley

10. Hatrack River - Card

11.Newford Books (all 16 plus) - Charles de Lint

12.The Farseer Trilogy, Liveship Traders Trilogy, Tawny Man Trilogy - Robin Hobb

13.Outlander Series - Diana Gabaldon

14. The Black Jewels Trilogy - Anne Bishop

15. The Sevenwaters Trilogy - Juliet Marillier ( love all her work)

Zorba

I have just finished the book, "Zorba the Greek," by Nikos Kazantzakis. It was very earthy...makes me want to see the old B&W movie with Anthony Quinn again, now that I have read the book. My friend, Roxanne, said she wanted to see the movie before traveling to Greece, but the story has very little to do with Greece. It is more a character study between a pagan/peasant and a Christian turned Buddhist/intellectual. The book has a lot more grit. It was written a year before I was born.

I posted recently about designating Mondays as a snippet day, then preceded to read two books that presented no snippets, a very rare thing, though they were interesting period pieces. (Well...it's not Monday, I know, but I am snippet-ing none the less. I think I am too loose for designated days.) Zorba, however was full of snippet-able lines. Here are two.

I think this snippet captures the essence of the 'Boss' character very well:

The stars were traveling round, the hours were passing—and, when I arose, I had, without knowing how, engraved on my mind the double task I had to accomplish on this shore: Escape from Buddha, rid myself by words of all my metaphysical cares and free my mind from vain anxiety; Make direct and firm contact with men (humankind), starting from this very moment. I said to myself, “Perhaps it is not too late.”

Earthy as Divine:

The imperishable force which transforms matter into spirit is divine. Each man has within him an element of the divine whirlwind and that is how he can convert bread, water and meat into thought and action. Zorba was right: 'Tell me what you do with what you eat and I will tell you who you are!”

….

I am off to the Chiropractor today to work on hips that have gone astray, which are giving me a pain in the neck, literally.

Happy Tuesday to you all.

Beautiful Day

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood...hot but beautiful.

Just a walk around the yard today...and pictures.