(no subject)
Things are really good these days. :) Last weekend, I jetted out of school right at 3:30 to head up north to New Hampshire. Taryn and I met in Hanover, which is a really nice town with lots of great restaurants and such. Had dinner at a fabulous Asian place that has a lot of vegetarian options and had delicious General Tso's tofu. :) Then we went over to the co-op and wandered around looking at all of the amazing food before heading to Orford. We opened up some wine that she had because it was from New Jersey...but I pointed out that I had never heard of Jersey wine before, haha. It didn't really taste like wine: it was more like juice. Oh well. We enjoyed it while making delicious rainbow cookies, which had to be layered and then pressed overnight. Watched some Margaret Cho and then headed to bed. Lovely evening!
We got up in the morning and made this simple and delicious yogurt thing for breakfast, along with some challah we had bought at the co-op the night before. I forgot how much I like the smell of coffee in the mornings. :) Got ready for the day and headed out to the Ben & Jerry's factory!! Before arriving, we made the most fantastic detour and bought some Reese's at Shaw's, which we had been talking about needing to do. Glorious. :) Meanwhile, it was Winterfest at Ben & Jerry's last weekend, so we were able to have free samples of ice cream, Vermont cheese and bread, free cups of coffee/tea, free food from area restaurants, and free sugar on snow. The tours were also free, which was excellent. It was a good time! We tried to go see the flavor graveyard, but apparently it's down for the winter. We didn't know this, however, before walking through a bunch of mud, slush, and snow to get there. Oops.
After the factory, we drove over to Burlington, where I had never been before, and walked up and down Church St., which is an entirely pedestrian area with lots of cute shops and restaurants. Had a delicious lunch of soup and tasty sammiches, got some chocolate to sample, and just generally wandered. It was really lovely. We headed back probably around 6, so we didn't get back to Taryn's apartment until 7:30 or so. We were totally exhausted, but managed to stay up and get chocolate on the cookies, finish the wine, and watch about half of Reefer Madness before totally crashing. :-P
Sunday was a completely lazy and fantastic day. We had leftovers for breakfast and for lunch and did almost nothing, and it was wonderful. However! I DID buy my plane ticket to France, so now I'm officially, officially going. I'm so excited!!!
The week at school was generally uneventful. I'm feeling as if I'm in a bit of a rut with teaching these days. It's not that I'm teaching poorly, but I feel like the kids aren't as responsive as they were before. I'm also not feeling particularly inspired with lesson planning. :-\ I do what I need to do, but...yeah. I have plans to do tonight and I brought home some materials I haven't used in awhile, so maybe I'll find some inspiration in there. :) I'm looking forward to next year when I'll be able to be much more efficient in my teaching, as well as have some plans to pull from. I'll be able to take the best stuff and re-do the stuff that was just okay. It will be good.
So Taryn came over here on Wednesday night, which was unexpected and lovely. We went to the gym and came back and made burritos for dinner! Relaxed and watched a bit of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which I hadn't watched since high school. So many memories, oh my lord! I forgot how much I love that movie! And how much I remember of it, holy crap. :-P A moose once bit my sister...
Friday night, Michelle and I hung out and got pizza and a DVD. We were both so fried that it was an experience trying to order and pay at the pizza place...oops. We had JUUUUUUST enough cash to pay for the pizza, once we added in a dollar of change. :-P We rented Definitely, Maybe, which neither of us had seen. I did like it, and it was just the kind of movie I wanted that night. I think it would have been better if it had ended about 10 minutes sooner than it did...but oh well. It is a chick flick, after all. It has to have a happy ending, not a thought-provoking one.
Saturday I was very productive! Went to the gym, came back, showered, got a haircut, went grocery shopping, cleaned out the fridge, cleaned up the apartment...good times. Taryn came over at night on her way back from the MENC conference (gosh, aren't you shocked?). We made a delicious zucchini, tomato, and basil frittata and buckwheat blueberry pancakes for breakfast, yum. Then we went up to Manchester to go maple sugaring! The weather was GORGEOUS. It was fun, and Manchester is such a cute little town we drove and walked a little bit before heading back. Came back, went grocery shopping, and cooked delicious (healthy) eggplant parmesean for dinner. Miss Italian made tomato sauce from scratch, yum. :) She headed back north, and I crashed on the couch at 9pm, woke up at 9:45, and was in bed and asleep by 9:50. Slept right through until 6am, and I was totally exhausted today. Still am, so I'll definitely be headed to bed early again tonight.
That's about it! Maggie will be here this coming weekend, Mom comes up for my concert the weekend after that, I have concert #2 the first weekend in April, and then I go to France for a week! Woo! :)
We got up in the morning and made this simple and delicious yogurt thing for breakfast, along with some challah we had bought at the co-op the night before. I forgot how much I like the smell of coffee in the mornings. :) Got ready for the day and headed out to the Ben & Jerry's factory!! Before arriving, we made the most fantastic detour and bought some Reese's at Shaw's, which we had been talking about needing to do. Glorious. :) Meanwhile, it was Winterfest at Ben & Jerry's last weekend, so we were able to have free samples of ice cream, Vermont cheese and bread, free cups of coffee/tea, free food from area restaurants, and free sugar on snow. The tours were also free, which was excellent. It was a good time! We tried to go see the flavor graveyard, but apparently it's down for the winter. We didn't know this, however, before walking through a bunch of mud, slush, and snow to get there. Oops.
After the factory, we drove over to Burlington, where I had never been before, and walked up and down Church St., which is an entirely pedestrian area with lots of cute shops and restaurants. Had a delicious lunch of soup and tasty sammiches, got some chocolate to sample, and just generally wandered. It was really lovely. We headed back probably around 6, so we didn't get back to Taryn's apartment until 7:30 or so. We were totally exhausted, but managed to stay up and get chocolate on the cookies, finish the wine, and watch about half of Reefer Madness before totally crashing. :-P
Sunday was a completely lazy and fantastic day. We had leftovers for breakfast and for lunch and did almost nothing, and it was wonderful. However! I DID buy my plane ticket to France, so now I'm officially, officially going. I'm so excited!!!
The week at school was generally uneventful. I'm feeling as if I'm in a bit of a rut with teaching these days. It's not that I'm teaching poorly, but I feel like the kids aren't as responsive as they were before. I'm also not feeling particularly inspired with lesson planning. :-\ I do what I need to do, but...yeah. I have plans to do tonight and I brought home some materials I haven't used in awhile, so maybe I'll find some inspiration in there. :) I'm looking forward to next year when I'll be able to be much more efficient in my teaching, as well as have some plans to pull from. I'll be able to take the best stuff and re-do the stuff that was just okay. It will be good.
So Taryn came over here on Wednesday night, which was unexpected and lovely. We went to the gym and came back and made burritos for dinner! Relaxed and watched a bit of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which I hadn't watched since high school. So many memories, oh my lord! I forgot how much I love that movie! And how much I remember of it, holy crap. :-P A moose once bit my sister...
Friday night, Michelle and I hung out and got pizza and a DVD. We were both so fried that it was an experience trying to order and pay at the pizza place...oops. We had JUUUUUUST enough cash to pay for the pizza, once we added in a dollar of change. :-P We rented Definitely, Maybe, which neither of us had seen. I did like it, and it was just the kind of movie I wanted that night. I think it would have been better if it had ended about 10 minutes sooner than it did...but oh well. It is a chick flick, after all. It has to have a happy ending, not a thought-provoking one.
Saturday I was very productive! Went to the gym, came back, showered, got a haircut, went grocery shopping, cleaned out the fridge, cleaned up the apartment...good times. Taryn came over at night on her way back from the MENC conference (gosh, aren't you shocked?). We made a delicious zucchini, tomato, and basil frittata and buckwheat blueberry pancakes for breakfast, yum. Then we went up to Manchester to go maple sugaring! The weather was GORGEOUS. It was fun, and Manchester is such a cute little town we drove and walked a little bit before heading back. Came back, went grocery shopping, and cooked delicious (healthy) eggplant parmesean for dinner. Miss Italian made tomato sauce from scratch, yum. :) She headed back north, and I crashed on the couch at 9pm, woke up at 9:45, and was in bed and asleep by 9:50. Slept right through until 6am, and I was totally exhausted today. Still am, so I'll definitely be headed to bed early again tonight.
That's about it! Maggie will be here this coming weekend, Mom comes up for my concert the weekend after that, I have concert #2 the first weekend in April, and then I go to France for a week! Woo! :)