My mom brought a Victoria Holt novel called "My Enemy the Queen." Z just ran into the room with it, exclaiming, "Victoria ( Read more... )

And after 12 hours of flying with no fewer than three layovers (JFK, Reykjavik, and London!), I wasn't about to make her endure a city bus ride, and then a 40 minute train ride--not to mention having to buy train tickets in a foreign language. So I had my first long-distance driving adventure in France. And in Luxembourg. And, for about 10 ( Read more... )

I could see it from the road, a tall, pointed tower rising over the tops of the winter-bare trees. Past the wooded slope, a patchwork of fields stretched out nearly to the horizon. If I wanted a closer look, it wouldn't be in the car ( Read more... )

We were invited to a birthday party for one of Z's preschool classmates, and in attending discovered the Southern Train Museum in Duluth. It was a hot, muggy day for climbing in and out of a lot of antique trains, but what a lot of fun!


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I made Z pause Bob the Builder this afternoon so he could watch the President being sworn in. He was unimpressed, but I figure 10 years from now it might matter to him. The inaugural address interested him not at all, of course, but I was mightily impressed with some bits. For the sake of posterity, yes, Z, you really were there when Obama took ( Read more... )

Having decided to pick a new element for this year's DragonCon parade, I then had to choose my new chemical identity. I'd gone for carbon and aluminum before, figuring they were recognizable and fairly easy to costume for. But after seeing all the wonderful puns people came up with (barium in a bear suit, iron in an Iron Man mask, Hafnium dressed ( Read more... )

The students I'll be meeting tomorrow are from Bhutan, but the Bhutanese government wants nothing to do with them. Bhutan takes great pride in placing "Gross National Happiness" over Gross National Product, while simultaneously justifying the expulsion of over 100,000 ethnic Nepali citizens since the late 80s.

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(Warning: gun violence)

43 years ago today some insanely brave men landed a tin can held together with spit and chewing gum on an airless ball of rock some 238 million miles from home. Today I showed Z this video. He asked "Can I go to the moon when I'm an astronaut?" I sure hope so, son.

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With only 12 3-hour classes to get through all 100 questions on the US Naturalization Exam, I have to be pretty selective about what goes into a lesson plan. The curriculum follows a similar pattern to what I observed in my own high school history classes--we spend a load of time addressing the Revolutionary and Civil War periods in great detail, ( Read more... )

Z's new favorite song is the Preamble to the Constitution. This developed, as you might expect, from our July 4 viewing (and re-viewing and re-re-viewing, etc) of the School House Rock "America Rocks" videos. He's got "taxation without representation" down, and is looking for a new challenge. His version goes something like, "We the people... ( Read more... )