picnic "lunch" at the beach

This is why you don't leave a beautiful yellow banana and homemade sandwich in a darkly painted vehicle while you go to church. If you must make that mistake, at least bring a tea bag for your water. (The banana was even hot to the touch. No, I haven't eaten it yet. Maybe I'll cook with it...? Or throw it away?)

Instead of having grilled cheese with peanut-butter (why hadn't I left the peanut-butter off), I got a donut/some kind of sweat bready treat and milk, but I continued with my picnic plan.

I went down to the lake and found a nice spot beneath a tree.

Beautiful!

Before, there was more sandy beach where there is water now.

See the snow still on these mountains? From what I've heard, melting mountain snow is causing the high water.

I put my feet into the water, which was cold.

(This is the first time I remember this uploader automatically turning something - and this picture didn't need rotated. Oh, well.)

(It worked again! This time it rotated a picture when I wanted it too!)

Anyhow, I had a nice time reading, etc. A lovely time on the beach - lakeshore.

A Saturdayish Friday

It is very nice to have my second semester finished. Today I still woke up barely in time for breakfast (as in, I wasn't very ready for breakfast, but I showed up for most of the time). Then I drove the car that is not mine but that I drive quite often to the person who fixes cars. The radiator is cracked. No great suprise, but intimidating. Then I worked for my Dad. That was pretty interesting in a not too interesting way; typing and computery work that I can do without fully understanding what he does. So that was fun.
Then I called about the job I interviewed for on Wednesday. I wanted a yes or no answer, but instead got offered a working interview. So I guess that is good, but I still didn't know about the car....
I talked to another person who might hire me...
And then I drove the truck. The truck has a manual transmission. I had only driven it in the country and out of a town with a flashing orange/red light intersection. Today I actually drove it to a bigger town of three stop-lights (and drove through two stop-light intersections). The success was delightful. It outweighed the horn of an impatient driver behind me when I missed turning on the green light because I couldn't figure out for a moment how to get started...
Now I have (get) to go to work.
Bye

What I did on May 2.

On the evening of May 2, my youngest two brothers and I left the house. We had to

hurry so that hopefully the youngest wouldn't be (too) late for bed. My brothers led me through the woods to a place with lots of snow left, and we rolled the snow balls. My brothers were better at it than me. They made the two bigger balls and helped with my ball. I was suprised at how well the snow still rolled into balls. And we made a snowman! On May 2nd! I think it was somewhere around 50 degrees when we made it; it was evening and cooling down.

Catching up on my blog

So I meant to put up more Puerto Rico pictures. Maybe I'll just randomly add them for the next year. We'll see.

Sunset on the beach. It was so pretty.

Pinchos with Teresa.

Jen and Alfalfa... why did I miss printing that when I picked out pictures to print? (I think that I didn't actually get all of the pictures onto that CD of pictures I burned in PR... But I think the rest were still on my camera.)

It was something of a cold welcome (from the weather) when I returned to the States.

It even snowed a thin new layer. Can you see it on the path?

But at my college, there were crocuses. (The crocus pictures appear to be from the day after the snow pictures.)

Friday, I went to visit a university. I don't think the car liked the interstate travel, (and I know I didn't like part of it,) but she did make it the whole way there and back. The worst part was trying to find the college, and then finding the visitor center and then getting parked where they wanted. After that, I went with a group of people on a tour of the campus. This would be my third tour of a college, and the group size was the best (the first time, there were three people total, the second there were alot, and this time, there were a good amount. Truthfully, the size of group two and group three could have been similar; I might be more used to that kind of group now). After that I got to talk to a lady from the Education department. That was the best part. On the way back, I got to see a mountain that I grew up seeing from my favorite side (at least to look at). In the area I live now, we get to see the back of the mountain. Just not as nice as the front. And there were fields. Probably wheat fields. I loved them growing up. I still like wheat fields. They can be beautiful, especially on the right side of the mountain. Bias. So biased. But I did live on that side of the mountain longer than I lived here.

Then I returned to the city of my current college. I went to a Fiesta. That was fun. I got to listen to the announcements given in both Spanish and English. I got to make a paper flower. Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of the paper flower - it's big - and I'm not going to take one right now.

Yesterday, I went to a workshop on teaching math and science to young children by playing with blocks. It was a lovely time. So much of Education seems to be caught up in knowing how to label things ("Actually, though it looks like they are just playing, they are really learning about..."). Of course, the Preschool teacher must be taught how to label (when the student does this, they are demonstrating understanding of the concept of concervation) as well as teaching the preschooler to label ("Wow, that's a nice arch you put into your building"). And the process of teaching people to label is called education. So when I get educated, am I being labeled? (No, you are being taught to label. But doctors get their label by being educated, right? Anyway, I had fun.

Today, I drove on this stretch of road for the first time in a long while. You remember the picture I put up earlier about "road closed due to snow?" The snow has melted. I think some vehicles were getting through last week or the week before, but today, I drove the car through. It was a very happy moment.

Then this afternoon, I went wild flower hunting. These little ones (above) were pretty. There were many of them, though probably there will be many, many more.

The avalanch lillies were harder to find, but more rewarding.

The goats - they weren't hard to find. But can you find the brown goat in the shed eating busily?

Uh-oh. I'm afraid that I missed an online math quiz. Quiz 11. Yup. I see for sure. It was due last Tuesday. I got confused when I looked at the assignments, and I thought there was only an exam and no quiz that week. Until today when I suddenly remembered they can both be due. Oops. But at least it was an honestly missed assignment (let's overlook the fact that I don't know the material the quiz was to be on very well).

So if I really want to study... my suspicion is that if I "waste paper" and print out the math "lectures" (online class), maybe I will actually get through them! Computers are so distracting. The fact that I'm writing this now should be sufficient evidence (even if I did decide it was okay to write on my blog now).

My recent hobby is backing into parking spaces. Of course, I choose spaces without cars close on either side. Maybe I should have perfected (i.e. gained confidence in) parking forwards in solo spaces with a car on either side before I decided to back into spaces.

Spring Break

(Can you see the spitting turtle - not live, he's a garden decoration.)
Beach!

Penny-Penny! Finally I can see you again.
And Esmirilda, who has grown and bloomed alot.

Filling in for sick student.

boating

I've been driving the roads between my house and the highway, and I have thought of taking pictures, but then I thought, no, I won't unless I get stuck (if I stopped in the wrong place, I thought I might get stuck). I did get stuck one night, and my dad said it would have made a good picture, but I didn't take one. My car was leaning to one side (when I opened the driver's door, it swung out near to the mud puddle). Thankfully my boots were in the car. I had gotten one front tire stuck in the snow on the side of the road. My dad helped, and I got out. Headlamps are great, by the way. I used one when I was digging out.

Last Sunday, I went sailing boats with my dad and siblings. The mud puddles were great. Some of the road is drying up now.

(Hurry! Go to class or you'll be late!)