She Blinded Me With Science

A little over a month ago, Kristen's husband Vince asked me to help throw a science-themed birthday/costume party for Kristen.  I jumped at the opportunity!  I think I scared Vince a bit with all my party-planning, because not too soon after, he spilled the beans to Kristen and she and I took over the planning.

Decorations:  We went for a combo Halloween/evil laboratory theme.  Ya know, because every laboratory has flasks with colorful liquids in them.

Food:  Kristen took care of the appetizers, I took the desserts, and we both helped with the main course (tacos).

Appetizers: jalapeno popper dip, tortilla chips, assorted salsas, pita chips, artichoke spinach dip, jalapeno poppers, and petri dish jello shots.

Petri Dish Jello Shots: kid-friendly jello with body part gummies and adult-friendly jellos

Desserts: Candy corn centerpiece, chocolate cupcakes with pop rocks, chocolate pretzel "creatures," peanut butter balls, and science-themed candy

Candies: starbursts ("supernovas"), smarties, pop rocks, and nerds

Costumes:  People were asked to dress in science or sci-fi costumes.  There were several (Shaun from "Shaun of the Dead," Freddy Krueger and his victim, vampire and a vampiress, Star Trek officer) that I didn't get pictures of, but here's the ones I did:

Jason and I went low-key by dressing up as Coke and Mentos (Unfamiliar with what this has to do with science?  Watch Mythbusters describe the science here)

Kristen and Vince went all out by dressing up as a dissected frog and a skeleton.

Clint and Kelly cracked me up with their homemade Beaker and Dr. Bunsen Honeydew.

We had a really great time, eating way too much food and telling Enthalpy "horror" stories.  I miss these girls!

More pictures to come...

Touring the Triangle

Last month, when Jason and I toured Larry's Beans (see previous post here), we decided to walk around downtown Raleigh.  I have to confess, I don't get really inspired downtown.  Sure, I love the museums, but that's about it.  Here are a few pictures that I did find to take.

Raleigh Memorial Auditorium (or whatever it is called these days)

Sculpture at City Plaza

New murals covering the eyesore of a parking deck

Photus

No, it's not a typo... that's what Jason and I call pictures/photos.  I wanted to share a couple that he's taken in the past couple of months.  For more, you can go here.

Tiny lizard hanging out on a yucca plant

Early-morning dew 

Dew on a sleeping bug

I've Got One Hand in my Pocket...

and can't believe everything that's in there!

Today's edition of "You Know You're a Teacher When" is about the things I currently have in my pocket.

1. A teal ink pen.  Students are constantly getting me to sign bathroom passes or notes explaining why they were absent, so I always have a pen on me.

2. A wad of keys that would make any custodian jealous.  I inherited all my keys from my classroom's previous owner, and wow, she had a lot of keys!  I can lock my room, my desk, my file cabinet, as well as get into the three science stockrooms in my building.  The other ones... yep, no clue what they go to.  FYI, I usually don't keep my keys in my pocket since they're so bulky, but I just got back from the faculty lounge, and I need my keys to get in there.

3. My PowerPoint clicker.  Without any question, this is my favorite teaching tool.  I can advance my ppt (PowerPoint) slides from anywhere in the room, which helps me walk around, quiet down chatters and wake up sleepers.  On days when I didn't have my clicker (it went home with me one day unnoticed in my pockets, its battery died another day), I felt like I had lost an arm or something.

4. My iPod.  This is the first day it's been to work with me, but I am playing songs for them today for them to rewrite relating them to weather.  It's in my pocket because it's asking for trouble to leave something like that out for all to see.

5.  My volume remote for my speakers.  I don't want to blast out my students!


Yep, all of that is in my pockets right now.  Another essential thing today -- a belt, to hold up my pants!  Everything in my pockets are weighing me down!

You Know You're a Teacher When...

~ You wake up in the morning with the "Bill Nye The Science Guy" theme song in your head --  "Bill!  Bill!  Bill!  Bill!  Bill!  Bill!  Bill Nye the Science Guy..."
~Your "zoning out" or "daydreaming" consists of coming up with activities/labs to do next week
~You have multiple pens and pencils stuck in your hair, and you're not sure how long they've been there
~You have three minutes before you need to leave the house and you decide to grade some papers
~You are hiking at a state park, see a sign about hurricane damage, and ask your husband to take a picture of you beside it because you're teaching about hurricanes this week and want to incorporate the sign into your lesson

Wordless Wednesday

How Many Photographers Does It Take?

The other day at Duke Gardens, I spotted a bird and showed Jason so he could take pictures of it.  

Eventually, I became less concerned about the bird and more entertained with how many people had showed up to take the bird's picture.  How many photographers do you find?

Dew Drops and Mums

For the first time in a month, Jason and I had a free weekend.  How were we going to spend it?  Taking photos, of course!  We headed to Duke Gardens (probably our favorite photo location) as the gates opened at 8am and found everything covered in dew.

We also saw signs of fall.  There weren't too many color-changing leaves, but there were mums everywhere!

Goodbye summer, hellooooo fall!

Walk It, Girl, Walk!

Just a teaser shot from Addison's first birthday party.  Look at that big girl strutting around!

Larry's Beans

Jason and I are constantly looking for fun, free things to do around Raleigh.  I stumbled across a free coffee tour at Larry's Beans.  We went on September 24, and had a pretty good time.

We arrived to the smell of freshly-brewed coffee and a band playing.  Confession time: Jason and I don't drink Larry's Beans coffee, but we sure did that day!  We sipped some coffee and started off the tour by meeting Larry and hearing how he created the company.  Confession 2, we didn't take any photos that day (I know!  I was shocked, too!) so I got these online.

Then, we took the first half of our tour, learning all about how they roast their own beans.  The roasted a batch while we moved on to a coffee-tasting.  

We took a break and ate lunch.  That's right... free lunch... at a free tour.  Yep, they treat us well at Larry's Beans.  It was delish Greek stuff, pitas and cheeses and dolmas.  Tasty!

The second half of the tour was learning more about how they are an environmentally-friendly company.  I'm not the most environmentally-conscious person (I guess that's Confession #3), but I found everything they're doing very practical and logical.

They deliver in a vegetable oil shorty bus they ordered at an auction.

They bought these two buildings and only minimally remodeled.  Over on the far-right building, you can see a bunch of windows.  This is called a clear story, so they use less electric lights on sunny days and the sunlight heats up the building during the winter.

 So that's just a really quick synopsis of our coffee tour.  It was a fun way to spend a Saturday, and it was free!  I'd say that's a good way to enjoy life.