Yay! I have family members visiting!
My dad, mom, sister and her kids arrived in Baltimore yesterday around 1pm. Harold comes today. He had to keep teaching yesterday, so he had to come later. When everybody arrived yesterday, they decided to come right to my house. They arrived shortly before 3pm. I told them where I hide my spare key. They looked for it, but it was GONE. D’oh! So they waited on my porch for twenty minutes until I got home. I wish I would have taken a picture of them. It was kind of funny.
I had a few little toys waiting for Tara and Tim. They loved them, which was very gratifying. They had a good time playing with them. I wish I would have taken a picture.
Tara and Tim like Max. I think Tim might have been a little scared of him at first. When I held Max, Tara stroked him gently and said: “It feels like meat.” I wish I would have taken a picture.
After having missed all the wonderful picture opportunities, I needed something to record my family’s presence here. I quickly took out my camera and got a picture of the nearest family member. It was Tim. He was ready for bed.
I should have posted about this yesterday, but I was so excited about my new shoes I had to write about them instead.
This past weekend I finally tasted something I’ve heard many endorsements for: King Syrup. I made pancakes for the occasion. The syrup was very thick. It reminded me of corn syrup. I liked the thickness because that meant it didn’t run off the pancake. But I didn’t like the flavor.
Maybe part of it was that I’m so used to a maple flavor when I eat pancakes, but part of it was definitely that I didn’t like the flavor of King Syrup. It’s kind of a molasses-y flavor (which I like), but it tasted sort of anise to me as well (which I don’t like). And for all the times I heard King Syrup was sweet, well… it just didn’t taste sweet to me. At least not as sweet as maple-flavored syrup.
I don’t know of any other way to eat syrup except on pancakes, so I’ll have to say King Syrup is a “no” for me. Sorry, people who like King Syrup.
I never found any teacher shoes that I liked this year, so I’ve been wearing last year’s shoes. Recently, the left shoe has shifted so that the edge of the insole has been under my heel. It was very uncomfortable and required an emergency shoe purchase.
I only went to one mall. And only two stores. The first shoe I looked at in the first store was the one I got. The store is called The Walking Company, and is supposedly all about comfortable shoes. The brand I got was Bass Clarks. Brady has been recommending this brand for a while, so I thought I’d give it a try.
I got a slip-on shoe this time. I’ve had shoelaces for two years now. There’s something not quite Bradlike about the shape of these shoes. It both disturbs and delights me.
One of my favorite things about these shoes is a little detail that no one will ever see. There’s kind of a honeycomb thing on the back heel with orange inside of it. I think it’s really cool, but my pants will forever be covering it.
While I was mowing my yard for the last time of the season yesterday, I discovered that my camellia plant is blooming. I was going to say how shocked I was that I never posted about it before, but I couldn’t find THESE two POSTS about it because they weren’t (until now) in the “Gardening” category, and because I was searching for the word “camillia”. Firefox’s spelling checker solved the mystery.
Anyway, I’m very excited my camellia is blooming. If there are no terrible freezes while my family is here, I will have beautiful pink flowers for the duration of their visit. I may even cut some flowers and bring them in. Camellias make nice floated flowers.
Dang, I uploaded the pictures before I changed their file names. Now they’re misspelled for eternity. Or until the end of the internet.
I have been drinking Carnation Instant Breakfast for lunch at school regularly. With a busier schedule this year, it’s nice to just get sustenance out of the way so I can get back to work. If I could skip eating all together, I would. But I’m not Michele.
I have learned that I must rinse my milk storage cup and my Carnation mixing cup immediately after use. When I’m on lunch supervision duty, like I was yesterday, that means rinsing in the cafeteria kitchen. This kitchen is only superficially used. Groups who sell lunch for fundraisers usually order take out. But there is a freezer there to keep frozen hot dogs in or something. The signs on it are hilarious. I had to take a picture. I can only imagine what caused someone to go to all the trouble of making and posting these when they say such obvious things.
