5/13/08 Thanks from Block 2

How sweet is this? Today was our Celebration for each of the two cohorts of students involved in Practicum. We call them "Block 1" and "Block 2" because they take 4 courses in a "blocked schedule" and there are two sections. Section 002, had a thank you card signed by all the students and a potted plant for each of us (Dr. Grace, Beth, and me). :-)

5/10/08 Asparagus Anyone?

I have no photos of this silliness, but tonight was our fourth Games Night. Allison started it back in February, Mike and Karen picked up March, MRM and I hosted April, and Clyde and Michelle hosted tonight. We've had 8-12 people and played different games each time. We tend to re-write the rules of whatever game we're playing to turn each one into a non-competitive, cooperative event where the focus is on the fun and the conversation that ensues. Tonight was no different. Clyde and Michelle just moved to a new rental house in Wilton that is an older home with a connected barn. They gave us a tour and we just kept going and going and going. Attics connecting to different rooms, a barn that has all kinds of attachments, a silo, . . . it was very fun!

At last night's new-faculty party (Clyde and Michelle were part of the "not-new" group that was included), we were talking about their new place. Michelle mentioned how much "stuff" there is in the house left by the previous owners and they can rearrange but not really change anything. In the front room is a hideous wallpaper border that she can't stand that's got bunches of asparagus on it. I kidded (but not really) that we could use post-it notes and create little costumes for her asparagus and at least cover it up since she couldn't take it down. She just laughed.

So somehow she was surprised when I showed up with a basket filled with all different colors and sizes of post-it notes and a bunch of scissors and markers. My favorite part of the evening was that everyone contributed at least one asparagus decoration!

We also ate a lot (a requirement of the appetizer and dessert potluck crowd), drank a little, and played games. Tonight it was Taboo and Guesstures. Guesstures is pretty universal but considering that we have 2 people from South Africa and one from Portugal, you have to be careful about games that rely on ones command of the English language or knowledge of American idioms and culture. Fortunately, all 3 of them have a great sense of humor and are pretty clever. Often, they end up doing better at this than those of us from the US!

I'm already looking forward to the next Games Night!

5/10/08 Big Mouth Burritos

I had lunch today at a new restaurant with a new friend. The new restaurant is Big Mouth Burritos. It wasn't very Tex-Mex but it was VERY delicious. I had a beef burrito with rice, black beans, and tomatoes but it also had Adobo Cream Sauce which was spicy and delicious. I also had homemade lemonade that had other things besides lemon in it. Mmmmm it was delicious and refreshing.

Over lunch I learned a way cool fact: Rangeley (which is just 40 miles north and I've been to several times and have written about . . . Smalls Falls is on the way to Rangeley) is exactly halfway between the north pole and the equator!

5/9/08 end of semester party

An annual event at UMF is the end-of-year party for new faculty. I'm a part of the 2007-2008 new faculty cohort, so I was invited. There was a Cinco de Mayo theme this year. . . lots of good Mexican food plus margaritas and mojitos. In addition to the new faculty, there was a nice group of not-so-new faculty in attendance. It was actually quite the party. Children were invited and they had as much fun as the grown-ups, though it was a different kind. After playing in the yard and on the swingset until sundown, they got to roast marshmallows over the firepit after dark. They were pretty wound up and at some point, a bunch of them went a little crazy with the TP.

5/8/08 a movie and a concert

You gotta love being on a college campus--there's always so much
going on! Tonight I went to a documentary film on History after 1945.
It was made by the students in a history class. On the first day of
class they were told, "You're going to make a documentary film" and
they spent all semester doing it. There was a very large crowd there
to share it with them. They even had popcorn and drinks available.
That was from 7:00-8:00 and then I ran across campus to the Sole
Expression concert. Sole Expression is a student acapella chorus.
Three former students of mine are in it. When I arrived it was
intermission (concert started at 7:30) but the second half was
phenomenal. And it was another full house. Very fun evening.

5/6/08 Remember these?

Remember this sign of spring from March 21, 2008?

It only took a month and a half, but this is what that same garden looks like today:

5/6/08 More signs of spring/summer

Did I mention that the peepers are back? I hear them at night when I walk past the creek by the Education Center. Ever since I came back from spring break, they've been peeping.

And here's a batch of Johnny Jump-Ups. Well, that's what I'm used to calling them. I should ask around and find out their name around here.

But no matter where you're from, I think these spring "flowers" are pretty universal.

5/6/08 Border Patrol

I came out of WalMart tonight and saw this truck parked next to my car. Now it's going to take you longer to read what I was thinking than it actually took for me to think it. It only took less than a second, but this is the order of my thoughts: "Border Patrol?! Wow. They're far from home (thinking of the Texas Border Patrol that patrols the Texas/Mexico border). Oh wait! There's another border! This must be the Maine/Canada Border Patrol." I figured it out right away, but I cracked up that my initial thought was still a Texas reaction. The Texas border is 7 hours (shortest trip) from Richardson where I lived. The Canadian border is only 2 hours away from Farmington. And yet when I think border, I think of the Texas/Mexican border.

LOL! The first time I wrote this I actually wrote, "This must be the Texas/Canada Border Patrol." That's gotta be some kind of Freudian slip. Fortunately, Lindsay caught it. So I fixed it on 5/11/08, but I wanted to hold on to the original notion, too. :-)

5/5/08 They're at it again

I haven't seen them all winter but the chickens are back outside in their yard and this morning, they were crossing the road. Is THIS the true sign of spring?? What is it with the birds?! First the woodpecker, then the crows, now the chickens crossing the road!

Here's traffic stopping for the chicken. Right after I put my camera away another one crossed the road and this time a school bus came to a stop for it!

5/3/08 A little ale with that lobster?

I spent Saturday and Sunday at Old Orchard Beach working with Grace on school stuff. We had lobster rolls for lunch! YUM! She had some of this in her fridge:

Well, what could possibly taste better with a lobster roll than some lobster ale?! So I tried it. It's very yummy. It claims to be a red ale and though I'm not sure what that mean, I'm pretty sure this wasn't made with lobster.

5/3/08 Would you like fries with that?

"Would you like fries with that?" is a classic American fast food chain question. But at Tim Hortons, the question is, "Would you like a donut with that?" Tim Hortons started as a donut and coffee house in Canada in 1964. It now has an expanded menu and outnumbers McDonald's in that country nearly 2 to 1. Karen and I first met Tim Hortons on our trip to Ontario in 2005. We went in for dinner and were just plain "weirded out" at the idea of a donut with your sandwich.

This weekend I was in Old Orchard Beach to do some work with Grace and we went to Tim Hortons for lunch while waiting for my tire to get repaired* and that flood of memories came rushing back when I saw the menu. Now you can substitute either a cookie or an apple for your donut.

*Tire story: I had a tiny sliver of metal in my tire which gave me a slow leak . . . I must have picked it up on Tuesday on the way to Dixfield for my graduate class that I teach because I usually only drive on Tuesdays and Saturdays. I had AAA come put on my spare on Friday and was going to get the tire fixed at WalMart first thing Saturday morning (they're open 7 to 7, 7 days a week). First thing Saturday morning, 4 other people beat me to WalMart and there was a 2-3 hour wait. Then I went to VIP, a local auto supply chain store, but they only had one guy working all day and he was booked. Who knew you could make an appointment for your tires? So I drove to OOB and got it fixed at Sullivan Tire near Grace's condo.

5/2/08 You know you're a geek when . . .

So RBF's little brother emails and asks if we're going to watch Game #6 against the Hawks of the Celtics run for the championship. Sure! So he comes over a little before the game starts and we get to talking iPhones and MacBooks (we've done this before). The next thing you know, it's third quarter, MRM (in her Big Baby Davis #11 jersey) and RBF are waaaaay into the game, and Rodney and I are still talking iPhones and MacBooks. Now add Facebook to the mix and there's not enough time to cover it all. He and Melanie were talking about Myspace and she decided she wanted a Facebook account, too, so he sets up a Facebook account for her on her computer which is why we had a third MacBook at the table. My computer battery finally runs out of juice (I had my work computer at home) so I go get my home computer and we're up to 4 laptops and 2 iPhones at the table. Now there's a commercial break between the third and fourth quarters and MRM looks up and starts laughing. This is what she saw. Well, add another iPhone to the picture (it's not pictured in this photo 'cuz it's being used to take the photo) and you'll have an idea of what was going on. Where else would you have a 3:1 computer to geek ratio?

Fiddlehead Ferns

Look what's growing in MRM's back yard:

That's a Maine delicacy called a fiddlehead.

According to Better Homes and Gardens Complete Guide to Food and Cooking: An illustrated Reference for Successful Cooking, a fiddlehead fern is "the young, edible, tightly curled, green shoot of any species of fern. Most commercially grown fiddlehead ferns are form the ostrich fern. Fiddlehead ferns are 2 to 5 inches long and 1.5 inches in diameter. Their texture is similar to green beans, and their flavor is like a cross between asparagus and green beans. They can be eaten raw in salads, stir-fried in oil for about 1 minute, or steamed for about 1.5 minutes."

According to the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, "Harvest the tender little rolls of fern almost as soon as they appear within an inch or two of the ground." They go on to give recipes for cooking them and warn what can happen when they're not cooked properly. I guess these fiddleheads in the backyard are too big.

5/1/2008 OMG!

You might remember that last year, I attended the annual faculty/staff appreciation dinner, held each year by the Campus Residence Council which is basically all students on campus. It was so much fun last year that I decided to go again this year. Imagine my shock and surprise when they announce the Faculty of the Year Award for faculty who've been at UMF for zero-five years! That's me with Becca, one of my students this semester who is on the Executive Board of the Campus Residence Council. She made the award announcement on behalf of the student body. All recipients of the awards received certificates but I was the only one to get flowers because those were from Becca herself. :-) Inside the rolled up certificate was a note that said, "Plaques are being shipped; you will receive yours shortly! :-) " So I get flowers, a certificate AND a plaque!

What an incredible honor! First of all, it's voted on by students. How cool is that to have students decide that you're a good faculty member! And secondly, there are a ton more faculty who've been here 2, 3, 4, and 5 years who are my peers in this category and I received the award with being here only 1.5 years. I am blown away. I am so excited.

The card on the flowers is pre-printed with "Congratulations!" To that Becca added, "You deserve it! Thank you for everything."

Becca read her speech (a copy of it is below) and then after I received the award, she gave me the paper that she was reading from. At the bottom of the page was a sentence in parenthesis that she did not read outloud. It said, "(Dr. Grace is taking pictures so you can blog about this tomorrow.)" LOL! Do my students know me or what. Wait, blog about it tomorrow?! No, I'm blogging about it tonight!!

Grace had originally told me that she wasn't coming this year and then later told me she had changed her mind. Becca had contacted her and asked her to take photos. So Grace changed her plans and did that. What a friend! She got Rod, our department chair, and his wife Margaret to come, too. All 3 of them were sitting at my table and no one spilled the beans.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Here's what Becca said:

Good evening ladies and gentlemen. It is my honor and privilege to present the Faculty of the Year Award to an outstanding member of the UMF community and to someone who has played such a large role in my future as an educator. This person is one of the kindest and most caring individuals that I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. She has so much energy and is just a delight to be around. There is never a dull moment in her class and she teaches with such conviction because she truly believes in everything that she conveys to her students. She knows more about technology than any human being I have ever met. In the wise words of John Keating as quoted in the movie Dead Poet’s Society, I say ‘Carpe Diem’ which means ‘seize the day.’ Thank you for all of your hard work, dedication, and caring as you seize each day. Thank you for being a dynamic part of this unique community of UMF. A million thank yous to Dr. Theresa Overall for making our lives extraordinary.

4/28/08 Spring is Really Here!

It's our first day back from spring break and look what's blooming by the library!