Joe is here

We went to Seoul House, a nice Korean restaurant, on the way home from the airport. He's an expert on this food compared to me; I know what rice is, and kimchee (don't ask me about the spelling), but that's about it.

Pickled radish, bean sprouts, cucumber, kimchee, fish, black beans.

This is a kimchee pancake. And tempura veggies.

It’s a three hat day

I finished three UFOs (unfinished objects), gave them bath, and here they are out to dry. 

Sasha says “I think the pockets are too close together. “

I started this sweater last month, and really had some intense knitting weekends to get it this far. The hem has a provisional cast-on, the front center will be steeked (cut open with scissors) and the yoke is only about half finished today. I'm thinking the six days left of vacation are not enough to get this project done. 

But there's no rush. 

The pattern is called Blaithin, by Kate Davies.

Merry Christmas to all!

ESOL kids and teachers

This is one of my favorite 7th graders, and Miss Hill.

This is Fatuma and Miss Clayton.

This is Lul; she's in first grade.

In these last two pictures, they are trying to braid my hair, which of course falls right out because my hair is so slippery. 

This is Abdi, the 4 year old. He was very curious about my hair. Why is it so white? Why is it so soft? 

Christmas gifts from school number four

These are some of our ESOL students, getting a nice Christmas welcome from our School #4 family. 

Finally, the shortest day of the year

AND, now the light will begin to come back.

Woodland sunrise

Winter sunset in Rush, NY

Pet-sitting and house-sitting again

Liza has a Charlie Brown Christmas tree. 

Our Door

Just Stop

Wednesday brunch

Shizuka made mini frittatas.

Jon made pancakes.

We had mimosas, berries, chicken sausage, and tater tots. 

Its was a celebration of thanks for friends.

Thanksgiving things

My demonstration on the right, Hafsa's drawing on the left.

My eighth grade students, with Miss Clayton, my wonderful office partner, in front of our ENL bulletin board.

Mur is two years old!

Anna’s big birthday

We went to the Daily Refresher to celebrate Anna's birthday. It's a weird name for a weird bar. If you want food, you have to go outside and buy it from their food truck. Weird.

Potluck

Dog sitting

This is Mur. Google Caucasian shepherd dogs to see more about this breed.

The dogwood tree votes for fall

The steek is cut.

So, this is how the cone shaped object turns into a triangular shawl. This is the biggest piece of knitting I've ever done. The cut edges are on the left and bottom of this picture.

Finished!!!

These 8th graders worked on and off for over a week on the Donut Puzzle. It has 300 small pieces. This is a difficult task for a bunch of kids who are experts at video games. Slowing down our brains, and w-a-i-t-i-n-g so long for this result wasn't easy for them. They had to work together and help each other, which is not the norm for their usual school work. I love their happy faces!

All time record!

This was the day of the school open house. I was exhausted when I got home.

Cherry tomatoes on the vine from Liza’s garden

I think she got tired of picking the tomatoes one by one! Here's my weekly lunchly dose of vitamin C.

A 36-piece puzzle

They put it together in 20 minutes. With much discussion. These kids are from Tanzania and Puerto Rico.

I Can Write My Name

Hafsa is from Yemen. 

Writing on a board is much harder than on paper.

Potluck September

Okay, so, this month we had dinner at Jon and Shizuka's. She made the fixings for sushi, but we rolled it up in the seaweed ourselves.  

Anna and Matt

Shizu and Jon

She's got some really cute chopstick rests.

I brought this fruit salad to toss over angel food cake.

Here's the little pan in which Shizuka makes the scrambled egg sticks all the exact same size.