Skip to main content

Adventure week

Well, adventure week is over. All that is left is to finish the "Travel Journal" Eleanor will turn in to her class about what we did.

Adventure week is what I called spring break to distract Eleanor from the fact that, unlike most of her friends (it seemed to her, anyway), she was not going on a big trip this past week. One of her friends went skiing, another to Disney World... She asked the mom going to Disney world if she could come along with. The mom said that she didn't know if there would be room in the hotel. Eleanor replied, "I could bring my sleeping bag and sleep on the floor!"

It was also a way to convince myself that staying home during spring break wasn't a bad thing. I think we took one spring break trip while I was in school, down to Florida. The other kids in my school went to Sanibel or Cancun, and came back tanned, while I spent every break in "Sunny Minnesota," reading and wishing the weather would get nice.

Plus, we had a lot of trips I needed to go on that we couldn't do during school, but would be too busy during the weekend. We went to the science museum, the kids museum, the zoo, the park with the carousel and the train... We also got the kids haircuts, which is the trip that Amanda remembers most. ("We went to Snip-its! They have lollipops. a movie, mirrors..." "What else do they have at snip-its?" "hmmm. I don't remember." "Do they cut hair there?" "Oh, yeah, they do!")

Luke was a trooper through the whole thing. Mostly for him it meant eating poorly, no naps, and sitting in the stroller or car for long periods of time when he'd rather walk. I think the part he liked most was watching the baboons chase each other around. The other nice part was having his sisters to adore him (or chase him away, depending) for the whole week. Hmm, do you suppose there is a connection?

It is a relief to have the girls both at school. I'm about to put Luke down for a nap and have some time to myself for what seems like the first time in a long time. I'm trying to decide whether I write blog posts or clean the kitchen... =)

Comments

Anonymous said…
I support writing the blog posts rather than doing anything with the kitchen!

Mom
mathmom said…
Hi Mom! Well, I talked to my sister instead (also very useful). =)

Popular posts from this blog

Why you should study the history of math

  Why you should study the history of math In the mid 1300s a fad made its way around Italy. Mathematicians would challenge each other to “mathematical duels”. They would post problems for their opponents to solve, sometimes along with their solutions in coded poetry. The winners would get support and funding from rich patrons, the losers would descend into obscurity. One such contest, between Fiore and Tartaglia, involved a new method for solving the cubic. In order to win, Tartaglia worked day and night to find Fiore’s method---unfortunately, Fiore did not do the same and only knew his own method and no others. (*Recall that the formula for solutions to quadratic equations of the form use the quadratic formula, Giorlamo Cardano---physician, philosopher, astrologer and mathematician---convinced Tartaglia to share his method and promised never to reveal it. Then Cardano figured out a more general method, and wanted to share it, but was blocked by his promises. Fortunately (for Cardan

Southern butter mints---vegan edition

After the last post, we started to be able to see what the fuss was about.  The ones made with twice the butter were the best candy I have ever tasted.  Ever.  So then we started experimenting.  How long do you pull it?  Longer than you think.  And then pull a minute or two after that.  Suddenly every single batch was creaming, pretty much right after we would cut them. I tried adding less than double butter and I think they taste much better (more delicate, according to one taste tester). The latest experiment we did involved using Earth Balance instead of butter.  It cooked pretty much the same as usual, although I was distracted right at the moment I had to pull it off the stove so it cooked maybe a bit longer than usual.  Amanda and I each pulled a quarter, while Luke pulled the bigger half.  Luke's really wasn't turning very fast---perhaps because it was too hot when he took it off the marble.  Mine was turning faster than Amanda's so we traded for a while.  Aman

Southern Butter Mints part 1

Some friends of ours have a granddaughter getting married (and she's a friend of ours as well) and so I agreed to help out with the shower.  Apparently this is to be a "southern" shower, full of tradition and elegance, but not too far over the top. Among things that are needed for a shower are punch with great grandma's punch bowl, sandwiches with cream cheese and green pepper jelly, and southern pulled butter mints.  "Ah, nobody can make those anymore.  We used to know someone, but the tradition needs to be passed down."  Like a fool, I said that I'd be happy to give it a try.  I suffer greatly from "I got a PhD in math, how hard could X be?" where X is something like gardening, or quilting, or cleaning, etc.  It's always harder than I think it will be. "We'll call Mrs. X who makes these, maybe she'll pass down the method.  I hope you don't hate me!"  I was actually planning on doing research online, watching a fe