Pictures

These are just random photos, so there is no narrative to weave throughout the entire post drawing the whole collection together. I daresay if I were a better writer, or even slightly motivated, I could make up a plausible story here, but guess what: I'M ON VACATION.

Here are the polar bears. They are very attentive here because they think my phone is a treat.


They're Great Pyrenees dogs, and if you watched Nickelodeon in the mid-80s, you might remember a show called Belle and Sebastian, which starred a cartoon Pyrenees (Belle) who was helping a boy (Sebastian) get home. I think. The 80s was twenty years ago. I hope you all feel old now.

Here they are in their native habitat: the backyard.


They're very good and docile dogs, although at first I was a bit frightened by their size. My aunt and uncle have had Pyrenees forever; I can remember a time when they had four great big 'uns, all living in the house. I don't know where they put the people.

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You may remember that my drama students did a load of work for me before school was dismissed. Here is some of what they did:



This was done with the old image-projected-on-the-wall trick, which I obviously was unable to figure out, since those old-fashioned projectors are outside of my technological prowess, I'm not joking. I push the transparency right, the projection goes left; I can't handle it.

Anyway, the nice thing is that I didn't have to do it myself, which is why I attempted it in the first place. It's not quite finished; one of my students, who is a brilliant anime artist, drew an anime Shakespeare, which we'll add before school commences again. And by "we," I definitely mean "people other than me."

Also, you may have noticed that the wall is purple. That is yet another lovely job by my drama students, completed last year. Three of the walls of my classroom are a lovely sandy cocoa-ish brown, and the back wall is a light purple. The colors go together wonderfully, and many, many people have complimented my room this year. I find that I feel an incredible sense of calm when I walk through the door, all welcomed and warmed by the beauty of my domain, instead of feeling like I'm stepping into the electro-shock therapy room at a 1920s mental institution.

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The UPS package I was waiting for last week held six books.



I'm reading these as sort-of research for my freshman reading class, to see if I want to use these books for literature circles or read-alouds or something.

The seventh book, the one on the bottom, is a murder mystery that I bought because it was advertised as taking place at Colonial Williamsburg. That is false advertising, because I'm on page 78, and they've only just gotten to Willamsburg (it's a tour group). And nobody's died yet. I don't read mysteries for character development and literary allusions; I read them so I can use my negligible detective skills to figure out whodunit.

I've read four of the other books, and I've reviewed them all on my Goodreads page (link on the right). They're pretty good, but I think I can only use two of them in class, maybe three. I definitely will add them to my classroom library (they'll double the circulation) and recommend them to students for outside reading.

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I will close with this little tootie who, according to my mother, is having a great time at the beach. Well. She WAS, until she swallowed one-third of the ocean, and now she refuses to go into the water. Smart kid.