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10. The streets in the neighborhood are beautiful, especially in autumn.
Yeah, the aging minivan would have been toast. Thank goodness I wasn’t working that day – and thank goodness I don’t drive to work very often.
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It’s not red, white, and blue, but it’s colorful. And strong. And downright patriotic.
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Well, gotta go. There’s a full day of work to be done before I can go over to my friend’s house and watch our Green Bay Packers start another great season!! >I used my big slow cooker, the 6 qt model, for this soup. One butternut squash yields a lot of squash! I may need to freeze some of the soup for later.
>We’re here! We have power! I did take a few pictures, and I’ll post them later. For now, I’m just happy that our neighborhood did not take the brunt of the storm, even though we were near the worst of it.
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Boxes of curricular materials, teachers’ manuals, tools and consumables for science and art. Below, see the hallways outside my cubicle. These are full, but may not be needed.
I spent a full morning sorting and taking inventory. This isn’t the full “after” shot; that will come later. It does, however, show progress. By now, I know what’s going on my shelves. 
I also left empty boxes for reuse, recycling, or disposal. I sure hope my new building is environmentally conscious. I predict these will be reused either by my own virtual charter school or by the media central office in the basement of our building. 
An after picture? Sorry, I don’t have one yet. Maybe after our first staff meeting I’ll have time to get it looking a little more welcoming. It won’t be home to twenty-some students like my old classroom, but it needs to look good and feel good – for me. >
Then we went to Milwaukee to visit La Petite on Sunday. On Monday, Amigo and I got up early for an appointment and the day just flew by. Tuesday, I had training all morning and an appointment in the afternoon. Wednesday, I had another appointment, one that dilated my pupils for the remainder of the morning. All this time, the big burlap bag sat on the deck. I really should have prepped it immediately, but it just didn’t happen. Thursday it rained. Friday afternoon I finally got the corn out of the bag, let it dry in the sun, and then husked the entire batch.
Below you’ll see about half of the result. 
Next step: blanch. A few minutes in hot water followed by a few minutes in cold water stops the ripening process so the corn will taste fresh when I pull it from the freezer in January. I spread the kernels as evenly as possible on a wax-paper lined pan and insert the pans in the freezer. What you see beside the sink is about one third of the entire batch.
I was too worn out to take pictures of the final bags. Rest assured, there are plenty of freezer bags full of corn (the vacuum kind with the air pumped out) in the freezer along with the beans, peas, and asparagus. >
Assistant, back from garden: Daisy, what do you call that kind of squash? Butter-chini? Zuchnut?
Daisy: Hybrid. Turns to director. Let’s take a break and watch a movie while the soaker hose does its work on the tomatoes. How about When Harry Met Sally?