First Day of School

1 five year old girl

1 melancholy little brother

1 oblivious little brother

1 large backpack

1 new outfit

1 school-the same school her Grammy attended

=Good luck this year sweetheart!

Summer Daze

Beppina starts school tomorrow so I guess our summer is officially ended…over before it begins it seems. Ah well, I try not to complain to much and I do love the Autumn. Here is our last Hurrah for summer!

Summer Hurrah:

Water

More water

A handful of neighbor kids

One smallish climbing tree

Stuff to haul up the tree

Some more water, please?

Good bye summer!

Excuses, Excuses

So I must have made some sort of secret pact with myself to never make excuses. It's starting to wear on me, so here's my excuse. I have had one crazy summer and that is why I'm not defending my dissertation before school starts. If I could tell my department chair this, it would ease a little bit of pressure here at work, but I guess I can't make excuses. So in the spirit of self-absorbed blogging, I give you:

One Pretty Good Excuse of a Summer
1 Invitation to a visiting position
1 Hiring Freeze (= one "rescinded" visiting offer)
40+ Job Applications
0 Interviews
1 Prospect of being a student for another year
1 More invitation to a visiting position
1 Trip to Santa Fe
1 Monkey internship
3 Very important interviews
1 Very sick father
1 Father's funeral
1 More term in the internship office
1 New semester
1 Week of meetings
2 Courses to think about (including one new prep)

Trip to Toronto

So I spent the first part of August in Toronto and I thought since, hey, this is a blog!, I ought to tell you about the trip and share some of my observations. Now, I've been to Canada a few times before, so this wasn't the first trip. But I'm not sure I was quite as old the last times I went, so obviously I was looking at Canada from a new lense (by the way, today is my 30th birthday - see, I'm wise now). So here is the narration of my trip in pictures:

To save money (and it did save money), me and my buds flew into Buffalo and drove into Toronto, which of course, necessitated a stop in Niagra Falls. Here is Dr. O neatly framed by the ugly American falls and the wondrous Horseshoe falls. If you've never been to Niagra Falls, I'm not going to say you should go, especially for your honeymoon - it is likely the biggest tourist trap in the world, next to Venice. But if you're amazed by lots of water going over a tall cliff and you're in the area, you ought to stop.

Here was our next destination: the 8 hotel with lots of Chinese writing on the front. We didn't really know what the hote was, but we decided to stay there cause it looked cool. And, no surprise, we were in the middle of Chinatown Toronto, down by Kensignton Market.

Okay, so I can't help making this joke since I was in Toronto for the American Psychological Association annual convention. As a psychologist,

one is permitted a quota of dirty Freudian jokes every month and I have yet to use my quota. So I took some pictures of downtown Toronto to

show that, over the course of history, men have been driven by the power of their own...well...members, as Freud would say, and it is manifest particularly in their architechture, both old and new.

Oh, and if you look real close at the picture on the right, I'll give you a little tip for driving in Toronto: don't drive an ugly car; you're likely to get hailed as a taxi. I was quite surprised at all the ugly cars driving around Toronto - then I realized they were all taxis. So a tip for the tourist.

Toronto, as you know, is a large city in a socialist country. I've got family members who are afraid of socialism here in the states and I'm famous for letting them know that if the US were to turn socialist, things probably wouldn't look much different. It's not like we'll just turn socialist over night, right?

Well, I think I'm probably right. Toronto didn't seem a whole lot different. In fact, here's a picture of a beggar in Toronto:

Wait: I thought socialism was supposed to take care of everyone. So why are there beggars in Toronto? Maybe cause that cop is giving him a ticket for begging and his socialist paycheck doesn't cover the ticket.

Well, that's about all I saw that was too interesting. I did go see the Toronto Blue Jays play, but that wasn't too interesting, since - hey - it's the Blue Jays. But I did get to see a man playing the bagpipes. I love big city street performers.

One good trip to Toronto

1 Funky Chinese meal (only as daring as eel)

1 Almost-Americanized Vietnamese meal

1 Almost-Americanized Italian meal

2 Delicious street dogs, just outside the Toronto Convention Centre (Center)

3 Visits to the gelataria

A love Letter

Giovanni, my four year old, received his first love note last week. The picture is drawn by the lovely Miss Emily, a fellow pupil in the turtle class at swimming lessons. Here's how the exchange went:
E: "This is for G."
G: looks blankly at the picture
Me: "Oh, how nice. Say thank you G."
G: mumbles "thank you."
E: emphatically "It's because I love him!"

I took the picture as my mouth formed a silent "Oh". Emily's mom quickly added "But only as a friend."
"Of course..." I said. Emily rolled her eyes. Quite the grown up.
As we made our way to the car we were bombarded with Emily's 'hello's' and 'goodbyes' directed toward my son. Giovanni remained silent. Beppina and I repressed our giggles. I suspect this might be the first of many...

Fish!

I made fish the other night...Oh, how I miss living on the coast and the easy, cheep and yummy fresh fish. Since being so far inland I used to just avoid fish, but in my longing for seafood I have ventured into the unknown world of fish buying and cooking, and surprisingly my kids and even my anti-fish husband seem to like it. I've developed a recipe that even works well with the fish that make their way up to Utah Territory. Here goes!

• 2-3 fish fillets (I don't really worry about what kind, I just look for fish that is fresh, local, unfrozen, and without added color. When you buy fish cook it the same day.)
• juice from 1 lemon
• 1/4 cup of feta cheese
• 1 package Italian dressing mix (I like Good Seasons)
• 2 Tbs butter
  

At least 1 hour before baking, squeeze the lemon juice over the fish and return to the fridge. The lemon juice takes away much of the "fishy" taste that fish acquire from sitting. When you are ready to bake preheat the oven to 425. Grease your baking dish with butter. Place the fillets in the pan and add a little more lemon juice. Sprinkle the dressing mix over all the fillets. Sprinkle the cheese over the fillets, as much or as little as you like. Dot the top with butter. Bake for 7-10 minutes depending on the thickness or until the fish will flake away with a fork. Check often and try not to overcook as this will dry out the fish.

How to While Away...Take two

1 five year old girl
1 new box of crayons
1 old coloring book (there is always plenty of room in the margins)

Something is magic in a new box of crayons...