Saturday, July 05, 2008

Happy Birthday, America

For the 4th of July, Sarah and I went over to the San Jose America festival and caught the fireworks in the park near the Steingruebl pad. Most importantly, I got to try out the fireworks setting on my camera:













Don't you love that we celebrate our independence by mimicking the explosions of war?

Ah, Summer

So you would think that with absolutely nothing to do, I would have taken the time to update this blog with all the things that happened in that last ridiculous quarter at Stanford--our trip to Angel Island, my students letters to math, the final days of teaching, reflections on my students, Oprah's graduation speech, my teaching plans for next year, etc. etc. But why would I do that when I can do all the things summer is meant for?

In the past two weeks, I've been taking advantage of living in suburbia (my extremely generous supervisor is letting me and an another STEPpie house-sit). So I've taken some bike rides, visited the library, read on a lounge chair in the sun, gone swimming, and just sat out on the deck watching the hummingbirds.

And then there's the cooking. I kind of feel like I'm playing housewife because my roommate works everyday, and I've been doing a lot of cooking for us. We have a fabulous kitchen, plus a garden with fresh herbs, rhubarb, squash, tomatoes, and beans.

Rhubarb muffins:


Baking powder biscuits:


Mushroom asparagus tart:


Asparagus chive quiche:


And proof that I really have too much time on my hands, homemade hamburger buns:


Don't worry, my roommate has fallen into his traditional gender role and does the grilling:


I could get used to this teacher summer thing.