Dogwood Tree, Week 3

Chances are good that one morning this next week I'll wake up, look out the window on my way downstairs, and discover that the dogwood tree has lost all of its leaves.  Of course, that its beauty is fleeting is what makes fall such a pleasure.  

PANDAVAL!

For Halloween this year, JT decided to be the Kung Fu Pandaval.  Who's that?  He's a hitter for the San Francisco Giants, Pablo Sandoval, whom the fans nicknamed the Kung Fu Panda, sometimes just shortened to be Pandaval.

 We rolled with that, primarily because this costume combined face paint and baseball, two of JT's favorite things.

He wore the costume to the middle school dance last night (and reports are that he danced!) and will wear it again on Sunday in order to score some candy. 

Halloween never loses its charm for us; it's one of the best nights of the year as far as we're concerned.  We hand out the best candy and if we know you well, there is a special treat for your Halloween bag.

 Happy Halloween!

Food Friday: Ranger Cookies

In light of the World Series, and our loyalties, JT feels that we should call these cookies Giants cookies.  Call them what you will, they are yummy.  This is yet another old-fashioned cookie recipe scored from my grandmother. 

1 cup butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup brown sugar, packed

2 eggs
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups rolled oats

2 cups cornflakes

1 cup shredded coconut

Cream butter with granulated sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in eggs, 1 at a time.

 Sift flour with baking powder, salt and baking soda.  Stir into butter mixture.  Add vanilla extract, oats, cornflakes and coconut.  Stir until blended.

  Drop a generous teaspoon onto ungreased baking sheet. 

Bake smaller cookies at 375 degrees F for 8 to 10 minutes.

Yield 4-5 dozen cookies, providing you don’t eat volumes of the cookie dough.  Not that I would do that or anything. 

Thankful

We've been having a lovely fall around here, day after day with chilly mornings followed by warm days and clear skies.  We received enough rain in September to green up the grass and the trees have suited up for their usual glorious display.

On Monday, we had a professional development day.  JT and I loaded up the car, plugged in JoJo, and headed north to George Washington's winter encampment at Morristown, a place called Jockey Hollow.  Though I've been to most of the local Washington sites in New Jersey, I hadn't been here before.  I'm teaching about the Revolutionary War right now and the timing was perfect.

Washington and his troops wintered here for several seasons.  The location, on the spine of the Watchung Mountains  and just 30 miles from the British winter camp in NYC, was chosen because it was secure, with plenty of space, and mountains high enough to offer Washington a vantage point from which he could watch British movement in the city.  Having learned the lessons of Valley Forge, the camp at Jockey Hollow was a great deal better in terms of hygiene.  Cabins were built on the crest of hills, to avoid flooding and swamps.  The encampment was large ----- when occupied it was the 7th largest city in the colonies ----- but it was hardly luxurious.

 Soldiers stayed in bunks built to contain twelve men.  Cozy, if not spacious.

Line officers stayed in a slightly roomier space.

Washington and his fellow commanding officers stayed in surrounding houses, taking over whatever housing space they could find (and eating the proceeds from their summer gardens).

The soldiers suffered from hunger and cold.  The worst winter ever in the history of New Jersey happened during one of the winters that the troops stayed at Jockey Hollow.  That year, 1780, they endured more than 20 snow storms.  For weeks in January and February the temperature never rose above freezing.  And yet they stayed, treating the cold and hunger as the price of liberty.  A price they were willing to pay.  We're fond of talking about the ideas and the sacrifices of our Founding Fathers and no one doubts the skills of George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson.  But the hundreds of nameless men and boys who struggled through the winter of 1780 at Jockey Hollow also deserve our praise and our gratitude.  Their names may not be known but their sacrifices earned our liberty just as surely as their more famous leaders.

Gift Giving

At my school this year, I am a Senior class advisor.  Part of my job is to help the Seniors plan their class gift to the school.  At the moment we're raising funds for the gift.  The funds we raise will determine just how much we have for the gift.  At the moment, we're a bit short of cash.

The class treasurer suggested we just go to the Dollar Store to buy the gift.  This led me to have visions of piles and piles of cheap crap wrapped haphazardly and presented to the school.  To restore order, Student H suggested Smencils.  And then I was off an running.  Our Senior class gift will be Smencils scented like the school.  Those scents include:

 - rancid lunch, left a little too long in the lockers

- post Taco Bell haze, from the Seniors and their-out-to-lunch privileges

- locker room funk ('nuf said)

- downstairs bathroom at the end of the day (I trust I needn't say more?)

- Cafeteria French Fries, a smell that can linger for days

- Overheated lounge, a smell made more pungent when adults yammer on and morning meeting lasts too long

Other options will certainly be considered.  We plan to make our mark with this gift and I'm looking forward to seeing the look on the Headmaster's face when we make our Smencil gift announcement.

Dogwood, week 2

 The dogwood tree in my backyard is going strong, celebrating fall in a way that makes me smile each morning when I catch a glimpse of the red-orange leaves.

 Lovely.

JoJo is Our Co-pilot

This week I finally broke down and acquired a GPS.  Living in New Jersey, the item will come in incredibly handy.  Roads out here are laid in a plan best understood by 17th century colonists, which I am not.  I usually figure out where I need to go, but it isn't always pretty.

So I finally caved in and  JT and I have joined the 21st century.  We've named our GPS JoJo and she's a helpful assistant as we wander the roads of the state.  The only problem that I detect is that the two of us really like to jack with JoJo, following a route different from the one she recommends.  She's quite patient when we travel off the grid.  But I can see that her lot will be a difficult one with the two of us behind the wheel.

Sorry, JoJo.

Dear Rupert Murdoch: Bite Me

JT and I live among the unlucky 3 million folks affected by the current News Corp - Cablevision dispute.  So, while Rupert Murdoch and the jackasses at Fox try and shake down the cable company (who's not totally guiltless, either), we suffer from a lack of Fox programming.  Though we don't watch a lot of TV, we do watch sports.  Specifically, we were all sorts of excited to watch the National League Division series.  But it airs on Fox and we haven't had Fox since last Saturday.

Grrrrrrrrrr.

Our substitute plan is to watch the game via ESPN game cast.  Not bad, mind you, but nothing near as good as actually watching Cody Ross and Buster Posey at work (game cast provides details….lots of them, but no images).  And as the actual World Series approaches, JT has assumed a panicked attitude: what if Fox and Cablevision don't work things out before then?

Unthinkable.

And yet.

Yesterday, I discovered an easy, cheap solution to our troubles.  It seems that Major League Baseball will send you a satellite feed of all playoff games, including the World Series, for the bargain post-season price of $9.95.  You get the Fox or TBS broadcasters (depends on the game you are watching) and you choose the camera angles.  The images lag behind the audio, but by just a second.  We can still get the stats and counts details from ESPN and there's no adverts.  As solutions to our baseball viewing troubles go, it's a pretty good one.

Now we just need the Giants to win!

Real Life Conversations at School: Dress Code edition

The backstory:  My school has a dress code.  Both the students and the adults are expected to abide by it.  Among other rules is a prohibition on jeans.  For some years, the prohibition only applied to blue jeans; black jeans were permitted.  Over the last few years, the students took advantage of the loophole, coming to school wearing grey jeans, white jeans, purple jeans…..pretty much any kind of jean which could be painted on.  This year, no jeans of any kind are permitted.  So it was that I had this conversation in the hallway.

Ms. Sassafras:  S, those look like jeans.

Student S:  They may be.

Ms. Sassafras:  No jeans at school, S.

The comeback was quick.

Student S:  Okay, Ms. S.  But no sweatshirts either.  (Note: she's correct….no sweatshirts may be worn in school)

I was wearing a shirt made of knit fabric, with a hood and a zipper.  Suspiciously like a sweatshirt.  Touche, S.  Touche.

Doing the Right Thing

JT bought lunch at school today.  I sent him to the cafeteria with a $20 bill and instructions to bring the change home.  It helps that he's just the sort of kid who can keep track of his things and so I wasn't worried about the change disappearing,  And my confidence was well-placed.  He came home with the proper change.

And a story.

Mr. H, the man who works the register in the cafeteria, accidentally gave JT two ten dollar bills instead of one.  And when JT got back to his seat and realized that a mistake had been made, he returned to the register, explained what happened to Mr. H, and returned the extra $10.

Between that story and the B grade he earned on today's grammar quiz (hereafter known as the predicate miracle), I'm a proud mama tonight.