Zoo Faces

Another day of sitting around in the heat, reading lab manuals, checking blogs and facebook for news from Europe, watching Chula Vista's kids win the Little League World Series, sweating out a few cups of water just sitting on the couch ...

I decided it was time to go out and do something, even if nobody wants to go with me. Susan was content sitting at home and taking dips in the pool now and then. Matt and Jess always seem content, and having slept most of the day, Matt was eager to continue the reading and homework he had to do for school. So, late in the afternoon, I drove down to the zoo. The I-15 carpool lane was open, surprisingly, so I took it past some pretty slow traffic moving past the incessant construction contraptions and barriers. (I love having a hybrid car.)

So, here are a few pictures of faces at the zoo. Hippo, Takin, and Giraffe. I've got a few more photos from last night's zoo visit on facebook. Being at the zoo brings back fond memories of the fun days we had there with our kids when they were little. It was one of the last days the zoo will be open for Nighttime Zoo, so I'm glad I went.

Beach Frisbee

It was a hot day today, a good day to visit the beach and cool down in the sea breezes. We stayed home all day, though. Once in a while, a breeze would waft into the window. Mostly it was just hot. I got my grading done, and got ready for next week's classes. Didn't do much else. Spent a lot of time in front of the TV with my laptop, watching coverage of the Kennedy funeral and surfing the net. It would have been nice to be on the beach throwing a frisbee, but it was nice just hanging around with Matt, Jess, and Susan.

This is a photo of Scott and Tom playing frisbee on the beach in Maine this summer.

Internet Cookbook

Matt and Jess made dinner for us last night according to video instructions that they found on the Internet. Matt told me what it was again today, but I have no idea how to spell it. The food was good, though. It looked like something in Mexican mole sauce poured over noodles, but it wasn't mole. It was some sort of seasoned bean paste, with zuccini, sweet potato, pork, and other things in it. It was good, and something I had never seen or imagined. Our refrigerator and cabinets are full of foods I've not previously encountered, plus the usual things we have in there all the time. Most of the food just sits there untouched, while we wonder what to eat for the next meal. That's how it's always been. Now we have more foods to wonder about. Fortunately, Matt and Jess have lots of fresh ideas and are willing and eager to spend a lot of time in the kitchen on food preparation. I love to see them working together on things. Susan is usually more curious and willing to get involved than I am, but I still enjoy the process, and the fact that they're here with us for a while. I also enjoy tasting the new foods. This one was quite good. Maybe I'll polish off the leftovers for lunch today.

Soccer: Year 4

Soccer season started on Wednesday with a 1-0 win over Madonna University of Michigan. This is my fourth year as the unofficial photographer for the girls team. In August of 2006, my first semester teaching here, on my second day of class, four freshman girls in the front row, with big smiles on their faces, asked if I was going to be at their game. I asked, "What game?" and "Where?" and they explained that they were on the soccer team and they were playing their first game on the soccer field on that afternoon.

So, I went to their game and brought my camera, because I always take my camera to sports events, thanks to Scott's volleyball and basketball adventures in high school. The girls played very well and won their game easily, 6-0. One of my students was the goalie, another was a midfielder who hustled like crazy and ended up with grass stains all over her uniform because she was diving and sliding so much. Another girl ran all over the place along the front line stealing balls all the time. And the fourth girl in my class scored three of the goals in the game! I was very impressed and ended up with a few good pictures, which I posted on facebook for the girls to see. Soon I was getting emails from parents and grandparents thanking me for posting the photos.

The girls from my class are seniors now. One of them has graduated early. I'll be sad and glad to see them graduate. Several other athletes have been in my classes since that first year, and I've become quite involved in the sports program and am serving as a board member of their sports boosters association. Today I'm helping out in the hospitality room for a volleyball tournament. One of the volleyball players is in my class this semester, so maybe I'll start going to volleyball games along with soccer, basketball, track, softball, and baseball.

Dana Chemistry Hall

My home for four years a long time ago: the Dana Chemistry Hall at Bates College. Scott and I visited here a week or so ago during our stay in Maine. Unfortunately we couldn't get inside to visit anyone because it was a Sunday and the place was all locked up. We enjoyed walking around the campus, though, and Scott got to see where I went to college.

This week I'm starting a new semester of teaching. It's strange thinking that many of the students are younger than my own kids. Seems just a little while ago that I was about the same age, or younger than most of them. When I started teaching in San Diego, I'd often sit in one of the seats on the first day and talk to the students before the class started. They were surprised when I got up and walked to the front of the room and started the class. Nowadays, I don't even try that little trick.


I'm teaching seven labs this semester, for the first 8 weeks. In October, I'll pick up a lecture class and two more labs. It's an odd schedule, brought on out of opportunity and the need to balance my time between two colleges. I like labs because I can get to know the students better, but when I'm not also teaching the lecture portion of the course, it's harder to keep their attention, even if I offer myself up as a free tutor for the lecture class, and work closely with the lecture profs to keep the lab connected with the material that they're covering in class.

With so many labs, and most of them in the afternoon and evening time slots, I'm expecting to be quite tired, especially after my 8:30 am three-day-a-week lecture starts up. To battle the fatigue, I've signed up for a "Lifetime Fitness" class at one of the colleges, so I can take advantage of their brand new fitness center and pool. I'll be taking a tour of the equipment tomorrow morning. Should be fun. :)

The Temple

After almost three weeks in Maine and Massachusetts, I should feel ready for the upcoming semester of teaching. It seems that I'm ready, the syllabus has been written, checked, printed, checked again, edited, and posted online. I just need to print it out tomorrow morning before class. They'd prefer I just make it available to the students online, but I would prefer to make sure that the students hold it in their hands and read it, so there's no question about what I expect from them.

It was a busy few weeks back East, and relaxing at the same time. Lots of driving around to various places, eating out, eating in, sitting on the porch in Maine, poking around at home in Worcester. It was nice visiting, experiencing life and the music scene around Boston, kayaking the lake in southern Massachusetts, playing disc golf at five different courses, ... did I mention relaxing? Now I'm not quite sure I did much of that.

I've signed up for a "Lifetime Fitness" class at the college where I've been teaching for the past 19 years. It's about time I learned what students go thru when they apply for admission to a community college. It didn't take much, just some information over the internet and I was admitted within about 10 minutes. I then was able to sign up for an ID number (which turned out to be the same number I use as a teacher) and then register for my classes. Three steps; I thought it would be just one. $44 for one unit plus a health fee. The class is taught by a good friend who's in the biology and health sciences departments. It's not really a class, just a general admission to the new fitness center, which I've heard is pretty nice.

If I can exercise a few times a week for the whole semester, I'll be in good shape for my upcoming operation in December. Maybe I can start eating right again as well. I managed to lose 20-25 pounds this summer by eating better during June and July, but gained about half of the weight back during the vacation back east. Now that I'm home, I've still not gone back to the "food" diet (see Michael Pollan's "In Defense of Food") that allowed me to wear old T-shirts that I had been avoiding due to "shrinkage in the laundry" for 10-15 years. I blame it on the excess amounts of tempting junk food around the house, but that's not entirely accurate. I avoided those same foods before the vacation. Somehow it's not happening now that I'm back on the left coast. Maybe I need to re-read Pollan's book. It motivated me once, perhaps a refresher is in order. We'll see.

Today's photo shows the Temple at Ocean Park, one of my favorite places. I guess I'd call this my home church, even though my visits are rare. Still, I've been going here all my life, so it's part of me and vice versa. Tomorrow I'll head over to the Chapel at Point Loma, where I will resume teaching on Thursday. I'll welcome new students and old, and think about religion and society, and wonder how people think the way they do.

Mom

Mom
Originally uploaded by pipilo

Being in Maine and Massachusetts this month was not the same without Mom. In fact, it was downright difficult. This photo is from December 2006, less than two years before she died. It's been almost a year now and I don't know why she had to go so quickly. At 76, she wasn't old at all, until the last few months. I don't ever want to forget how much she cared about people, not just the people in our family, but guests and friends who came to Maine with us, people from the church and quilting groups, people on the train ...

I like this photo because she always liked the color blue.

Matt, Scott 1994

Matt, Scott 1994
Originally uploaded by pipilo

Not much to say today except that it's been a good week. Three days of good school meetings. Well, mostly good. When we talk about teaching and learning, it's good. Administrative stuff, and realizing that we'll be turning away dozens of students for each class at the community colleges, is not good. They even went into procedures to follow if the students get unruly or worse (i.e., call campus security). The situation at the private college where I teach is much better: enrollment is up, classes are full, and students are already returning to campus and moving into their dorms. I'll be teaching all labs, seven of them, until October, when I will pick up a lecture section and two more labs. Should be an interesting and fun semester.

As I was browsing iPhoto and looking for a way to upload photos to blogspot directly, I came across this photo of Matt and Scott, taken about 15 years ago. It made me happy ... well, happier.

500 Days of Summer

Dad and I went to see a movie at the new Showcase Cinemas today. The theater is out near where I used to work during my last couple of summers of college. Norton Company is now some French company, but it looks about the same. Lots of old brick buildings all together with smokestacks, cooling towers, railroad tracks, and bag houses. I couldn't remember which building I worked in, but it had to be one of the taller ones because I remember the 4 or 5 flights of stairs that I ran up after riding my bike over there. They were good summers, with games of horseshoes with the old workers at break time and swimming in the Greendale Y pool during lunch hour.

We saw "500 Days of Summer" today at the cinema. I got some Whoppers and a coffee, and have promised myself to going back to eating better again when I return to San Diego. It was good during the first part of the summer, but I've gone back to old habits during the two weeks here and probably have put back at least 10 of 25 pounds that I had lost during June and July. The movie was good. Romantic comedies are some of my favorite movies. This may not be among my favorites but it was enjoyable, funny, and had a nice ending. Dad seemed to enjoy it as well. It was nice spending time with him and even nicer getting out of the 85-degree heat.

This morning we visited the "Art in the Park" exhibit at Elm Park. We were able to find 17 of the 20 exhibits and I've posted some nice photographs of the art and the park on facebook. This one was my favorite. It's made entirely of piano parts, presumably from a single piano. The frame forms the door, and the strings are wound up into circles that line the edges and are filled with the hammers and other parts. Quite fascinating.

It's been a good day. We're having fresh salmon for dinner. We walked over to Tatnuck Sea Food yesterday morning; it's the same place Dad's been buying fish for the past 41 years. The man at the counter has probably been working there that long, and his father was working there before that. Dad says he's the only one there, and that they had another guy behind the counter, but he had offended too many customers, so the owner let him go and is now the sole proprietor, so to speak.

East 2009

It's been a nice visit in Maine and Massachusetts this year. Mostly relaxing on the porch in Maine so far.