Training Log Archive: barb

Isabel's birthday party.

to school then DD. so slow. At school the 1st & 2nd grade class presented me with a lovely booklet full of drawings and writing thanking me for the orienteering and science activities this year, along with a gift certificate for a bookstore. This is how the teacher ensures that I keep coming back year after year.
Later, home from work.

Watched an excellent movie yesterday with the kids & Dave: The Story of the Weeping Camel. When they went to fetch a violinist to perform a ritual to solve an animal behavior problem, I was thinking, silly primitive Mongolians - they need an animal behavior specialist not a musician. But I was so wrong. Or right, but not understanding where the knowledge was. It's amazing how effective it can be to acknowledge and be with someone else's pain, whether they're a child or a camel, or at least that's how I was interpreting it.

C • So, did you find the whole mov... 5

With Isabel to Harvard zoology to drop off some 3D glasses to Jessica Rykken - but we weren't able to get into the building. On the way back we stopped for ice cream (Isabel) and iced coffee (moi). On the inland side of Memorial Drive where the walkway is wide, we rode side by side and Isabel told me about how she was playing four-square at recess with David (it's unusual that the siblings play together at recess) but Francibel threw the ball hard at her face and her braces cut her lip and she was spitting blood and went to the nurse.

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At the gym with Ilene. My right knee regularly is painful when I do squat-like things, which Ilene has us do a lot. It also hurts some when I bike, or the day after a lot of biking.

Commute

Well, in celebration of today's news out of the Massachusetts Legislature, I guess I'll post this photo. Note my shoes.

abcdef by the skin of my teeth

Milk run

To school for 6th grade class breakfast, which included some seriously tear-jerking speeches from the kids. I'm impressed with how open and thoughtful they are, and how much they clearly value teamwork and friendship. They didn't shy away from talking about the more difficult things that have happened - a couple of them mentioned recent drama in the classroom around some anti-gay slurs that were used in the playground, and also some boy-girl stuff that's been going on. But mainly there was heartfelt appreciation for the teachers and each other and the shared experiences of the year, and speculation about 7th grade.

Well. I want to get back to the alphabet, and I'm going to try to start today.

I want to be sub-G again. I avoided the delicious looking coffee cake at breakfast, though I spent an inordinate amount of time thinking about the coffee cake, turning it over in my mind and imagining the cinnamony sugar melting in my mouth, and the crunch of the pecans.

OK, a lame start to the E part of the alphabet, but a start nonetheless.

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On eating: I'm focusing on avoiding sugar (D) and caffeine (C), but otherwise no restrictions. And even with C and D I'm not being too strict: the occasional decaf coffee and muffin is officially allowed. So if I want to get sub-G I'm probably going to have to add a letter at some point.

Bob Reddick sent me this:

C • Hey, nice photo. I assume it's... 3

Work commute.

To Boojum and back. Then work and back.

Setting controls, picking up controls.

A successful field trip for two classes of 4th graders, including one English immersion class. The kids arrived at 9:30, and did a white course in 6 groups of 5 to the lunch spot. Then each group did a different off-trail course, again finding puzzle pieces in envelopes. They also logged evidence of erosion that they saw, and took photos. In order to be sure that they'd find some erosional activity, I visited the control locations ahead of time (yesterday), unlike for David's field trip. [In re-reading this I realize it sounds like my visit to the control locations may have *caused* some erosion, but that's not what I meant...] The maps and instructions and erosion logging sheets were also a bit more time-consuming to create.

Forgot to have the kids assign roles within groups for the navigating and for the science piece. :-(

I think it was geared to the right level; one kid asked why I'd made it so easy, and a couple groups struggled - but everyone made it out of the woods to meet the bus at 12:45. All but one puzzle piece were found.







(Photos by Isabel)

Some serious poison ivy (hopefully no one contacted it) and noticeable mosquitos. We saw one really big dark brown snake, curled up under a rock.

As I was heading out of the house to go to work, I stopped to say hello to my neighbor Ann-Marie who was talking to a new neighbor, Hannah Kim, who lives a few houses down on Pearl Street. Hannah teaches 1st grade at the nearby Morse school, so without wasting any time, I got right to telling her I'd like to take her class to the woods next year. She seemed interested, but what else could she do in the face of my proselytizing onslaught?

Motala at the Blue Hills. This was really fun. 3 loops, mass start, 6 different orders in which people took the loops. It was not White-Yellow-Orange at all - but 3 good sprintish loops requiring fine navigation. Way more fun than I had imagined.

To Boojum and back

Setting controls for tomorrow's field trip