I would recommend giving this article, "Why Bother?" a few minutes of your time. I haven't yet read Michael Pollan's recent books, but I very much enjoyed this article. I remember The Botany of Desire selling like crazy, when I worked at the Bookstore(tm).

Here's a tidbit I like:

"....Measured against the Problem We Face, planting a garden sounds pretty benign, I know, but in fact it’s one of the most powerful things an individual can do — to reduce your carbon footprint, sure, but more important, to reduce your sense of dependence and dividedness...."

It was really warm this weekend! Mum said it even hit 97 degrees on the peninsula! That's crazy talk. I spent a lot of time on Sunday placing and settling our stepping stones in the front yard. I got up early and got a lot of weeding and most of the stepping stone project laid out in the morning before it got too hot. I still managed to get a little sunburned (which was stupid). Look how awesome our front yard looks now. It's all finished! I may put in some annuals here and there, but that's just fun stuff, nothing on the "change the entire front yard" list. Yay! We're still finishing laying the wall rock and moving the rhubarb on the south side... but it's really close over there, too. I'm awfully excited about it.

In other news, if it stays this warm and nice, we'll plan on having a bbq on saturday.

Edit: Holy Crap! Did you see how many people turned out for the Obama rally on Sunday? 75,000 people! That's awesome and amazing for such a hot day.

I've got all my kids picked out for next year's yearbook staff! yay! I have three (count 'em!) boys and it's not a a load of white, cheerleader, senior, girls! yay!

I'm really hoping that I can get most of the kids to go to yearbook camp this summer. My publisher is hosting a 2 day (overnight) event in Salem. If we sell all our books, then I could afford to pay for the majority of the fees. Man, that'd be awesome. I've love to have this group bonding together and getting really excited and prepared for the next year. They would spend some of the camp putting together the cover, the theme and the endsheets. We'd be at least a month ahead of this year when school starts again in the fall.

I'm a little worried about our last 3d-2 project. We're going through a 7 chapter tutorial, and should be finishing chapter 4 on Friday. I have kids that are still on chapter 2. sigh. We don't really have any time for them to dillydally. We'll finish chapter 7 and then we'll be pretty much done w/ school.

3d-1 went well. We just finished the fish races. I'll need to upload some of the coolest videos for everyone here.

Tomorrow's the first all staff meeting of next year's yearbook kids. It should be exciting. I've got so much more figured out this year. yay!

As nerdygirl would say, "oh, snap!" I didn't even hear this happen, but was told by a student. There were 8-10 news vehicles outside the school and multiple cop cars. Someone is in a h-u-g-e amount of trouble. I'm sure I'll find out all about tomorrow.

This is a list of six Etsy things which I have put in my favorites. I will have to do this more than once, as it was hard to limit myself to six items. So much amazing stuff on Etsy. I can't recommend it highly enough. (Items are numbered starting at the top left and run clockwise.)


1. I love this bag. I adore that it has pink lining. Pink and grey are one of my favorite color combinations. I can't resist a cute & clever handmade bag.
2. These earrings feel very winter-early spring to me, especially with the extra cold days we've been having. I love how frosty and delicate they look.
3. Oh, crap! I love Alexander Calder, and this is almost a replica of his work, but small and done in glass. there's a giant one for $450... for the people who have that kind of money. I sure don't. I need to stick with the mini for $25.
4. These prints are fabulous. I love the black and white, halftones. I love that they're printed on old book pages (re-use!). Very striking.
5. I've had two of these rings so far. They're gorgeous, fun and extremely fragile. She recommends on her listing that one shouldn't wedge clay while wearing the rings. That was me. I also advise against carrying a bag of groceries. None-the-less, I love these rings, especially the koi, tigerlilies and the cherry blossoms.
6. This seller has a multitude of amazing shirts. I really like this one, as it has the scoop neck, and it's got an underwater theme. I like that she doesn't use American Apparel, because they force me to buy ridiculous sizes (I am NOT an XXXL!!), which then don't fit right anyhow. Bella does a much better job, and the material wears for a while longer, too.

I've been working on all the small details in the kitchen that hadn't been finished yet (the cutting board edge, the molding around the sliding door of doom, etc.) yesterday. In between painting sessions, while the paint was drying, I've been sucked into a new time waster... Oregon Trail is on Facebook. I've been hunting buffalo, stealing from my sister's wagon, tending to my trailmates with typhoid or tobacco withdrawals, fording rivers, and paying local Indians to help me out with broken axles. I think I have an Oregon Trail problem.

Three things for today:
1. I only had to wasl today... my wasl duties for tomorrow were cancelled! Yay! It was super, super boring. Except for the twitchy, immature, wrestling kid. Gargh.

2. I don't think I'm enjoying the change to the blog. I may have to switch it up again.

3. Waltzing Stop-Motion Cupcakes, they make me happy.

I think that proctoring for WASLs are in here somewhere, too.