I can cook!

Cook, I say!

I cooked enough for thirteen people and still there were leftovers :)

Artichoke chicken, and tons of appetizers, none of which contained lactose. The chicken is very nice on a small scale, but on a large scale it meant I spent quite a bit of time in front of the stove. Baking recipes next time. The appetizers, however, were awesome and could all be done ahead of time, leaving me free to play Settlers.

Lu helped - she made soup and squash. The squash was yummy - baked. I have never had baked squash before but it was delish! And this morning when I got up, all the dishes were done, which is perhaps the best part :)

A few student stories:

In a good vocab lesson a few days ago, the kids picked up the words and started riffing and making with them: Ms. Cardone, can you DEFER our quiz? You wouldn't want to become our ADVERSARY! Maybe we could have a PARLEY about it? Quiet, you VERMIN! (one kid to another kid, not me to the kid.) Guys, we need to TRANSCEND all this!

Once the first kid got going, it steamrolled. I only wish this had translated into better quiz grades.

In a not so good lesson on satire from a week or two ago, I wrote the word "satire" on the board, asked a student to define it, and wrote the definition on the board. One girl in the front woke up and said, "Hey! That's not what satire is! Satire is something you WEAR!"

*headdesk*

One thing I still need to work on, obviously, is getting students to raise their hands, not call out.

Another thing I need to work on is the mountain of grading that I perpetually seem to have. Smaller, more frequent assignments, may be one solution - I tested this out last week, and it worked out well. I graded the small assignment in one night, because I knew it was not going to take too long to do. Essays, on the other hand ...

Recently read

Mystic and Rider by Sharon Shinn. I was looking forward to it because I enjoyed the Samaria books (I still have to track down a copy of The Alleluia Files), but I can't say I enjoyed this one much. For one thing, Samaria was very originial, while Twelve Houses is very ... not. It sounds like a one-shot LARP. So there are these Twelve Houses, see, and some of them are plotting rebellion, and then there's this cult ... yes, I think I've played this before.

I also don't care much for the main character. I find her more than a little annoying and a very impractical spy.

The Silver Pigs by Lindsey Davis - a bit long-winded, but if you go slowly, is quite enjoyable. Set in ancient Rome and Roman-occupied Britian.