Category — Show and Tell

Show and Tell is wasted on elementary schoolers. Join several dozen bloggers weekly to show off an item, tell a story, and get the attention of the class. In other words, this is Show and Tell 2.0. Everyone is welcome to join, even if you have never posted before and just found out about Show and Tell for the first time today. So yank out a photo of the worst bridesmaid’s dress you ever wore and tell us the story; show off the homemade soup you cooked last night; or tell us all about the scarf you made for your first knitting project. Details on how to participate are located at the bottom of this post.

Let’s begin.

Perhaps you know you have been blogging too much if you start to think of everything in terms of computers.

My brain, in my old age, bears a striking resemblance to Norton Anti-Virus. First and foremost, I had to pay a great deal of money to obtain said virus protection. It also came with an installation plan that stretched over a long period of time (but was held in 50 minute segments). Now installed, it blocks worm intrusion attempts with surprising accuracy. And, also, like my copy of Norton Anti-Virus, it crashes my emotional hard drive every time it blocks a virus.

Are you still with me?

I am going soon to a place I associate with needing to install said emotional virus protection on a week where I have been doing a tremendous amount of virus blocking. Viruses, of course, are simply thoughts of the viral variety, with the intention of controlling or demeaning another person’s machine (sorry if I’m making this more difficult than it needs to be on a Saturday night).

I find myself figuratively holding up my hands and deflecting the words. It’s not that it doesn’t affect me emotionally; I still find myself thinking about each situation long after the other person has probably forgotten their words. I’m not great with compartmentalization, I tend to carry all thoughts with me at all times and on a particularly bad day of virus blocking, I may drive with a cacophony of ideas bouncing around in my brain.

At the same time, I’m excited to return to this space that I associate with the installation of the emotional anti-virus software. It’s not where it was actually installed, but it was the place where I finally put my foot down and said that I needed to gather some new software. A computer becomes infected without the right protection programs; it doesn’t run as well, can even be compromised if the right virus takes hold. And a person too cannot live without a strong operating system, one that has reasonable defense mechanisms in place. You don’t want to keep out everything; just the destructive stuff that serves no purpose other than to infect the system.

Until you get the full story, you can guess where I am going in the next few weeks. Here are three pictures taken about 8 miles apart. I think it was autumn. To help you narrow it down, the place is either in North America or Europe.

What are you showing today?

Click here or scroll down to the bottom of this post if this is your first time joining along (hint: link to the permalink for the post, not the main url for your blog and use your blog’s name, not your name). The list is open from now until late Tuesday night and a new one is posted every week.

Show and Tell is wasted on elementary schoolers. Join several dozen bloggers weekly to show off an item, tell a story, and get the attention of the class. In other words, this is Show and Tell 2.0. Everyone is welcome to join, even if you have never posted before and just found out about Show and Tell for the first time today. So yank out a photo of the worst bridesmaid’s dress you ever wore and tell us the story; show off the homemade soup you cooked last night; or tell us all about the scarf you made for your first knitting project. Details on how to participate are located at the bottom of this post.

Let’s begin.

Josh and I were having lunch with a friend. When our bowls of soup arrived, I pulled out my camera and started snapping pictures. She didn’t really understand what I meant by “this is perfect for Show and Tell!”

My favourite soup. It’s a vegetarian pho ga with tofu instead of chicken and a garlic broth. It is so damn good. What is your favourite kind of soup?

What are you showing today?

Click here or scroll down to the bottom of this post if this is your first time joining along (hint: link to the permalink for the post, not the main url for your blog and use your blog’s name, not your name). The list is open from now until late Tuesday night and a new one is posted every week.

Show and Tell is wasted on elementary schoolers. Join several dozen bloggers weekly to show off an item, tell a story, and get the attention of the class. In other words, this is Show and Tell 2.0. Everyone is welcome to join, even if you have never posted before and just found out about Show and Tell for the first time today. So yank out a photo of the worst bridesmaid’s dress you ever wore and tell us the story; show off the homemade soup you cooked last night; or tell us all about the scarf you made for your first knitting project. Details on how to participate are located at the bottom of this post.

Let’s begin.

Last weekend, everyone in the family got to choose an activity that everyone else had to do too. I chose returning to Shepherdstown to get tea since we never actually got my Assam black the last trip. Was it worth an hour-long drive for scones and clotted cream? I think so.

This is the teahouse below. It’s this wonderful, Middle Eastern themed teahouse complete with red gauze curtains and a fabric ceiling. You feel as if you are inside a tent rather than a West Virginian town.

You may notice that I have stickers on my ears. These are my “earrings.” I allowed the ChickieNob to make me fancy before we left.

And because I had to pee in Urbana again, here is the sign that sparked our new favourite term. Apologies, it was taken out of our dirty windshield.

What are you showing today?

Click here or scroll down to the bottom of this post if this is your first time joining along (hint: link to the permalink for the post, not the main url for your blog and use your blog’s name, not your name). The list is open from now until late Tuesday night and a new one is posted every week.

Show and Tell is wasted on elementary schoolers. Join several dozen bloggers weekly to show off an item, tell a story, and get the attention of the class. In other words, this is Show and Tell 2.0. Everyone is welcome to join, even if you have never posted before and just found out about Show and Tell for the first time today. So yank out a photo of the worst bridesmaid’s dress you ever wore and tell us the story; show off the homemade soup you cooked last night; or tell us all about the scarf you made for your first knitting project. Details on how to participate are located at the bottom of this post.

Let’s begin. Children are mentioned in this post in case you want to skip down to Mr. Linky and add your own without reading mine.

On Wednesday afternoon, we decided to go house camping. We packed our backpacks with all necessary items (though only I was allowed to carry matches) including a tent, and then marched through the house, pretending each piece of furniture was a bit of nature. We finally found a clearing to pitch our tent and set up camp in the living room. Exhausted from our hike and tent pitching, we all collapsed in the tent and talked about what we wanted to do on our trip.

I was elected to prepare dinner since I am the only one in our camping party allowed to light matches or work the microwave. I made mud juice and sticks (fine, chocolate milk and pretzels) along with soy-dogs and carrots. After dinner, I took a candle out from my pack and we toasted marshmallows over the flame.

I know you’re probably sitting there thinking, “I never knew you could do that.” I only know that it’s possible because of a synchronized eating routine I choreographed for the Olympics at my old middle school where part of our routine included making smores in unison.

Marshmallows burned over a candle cannot be healthy for you–I mean, the blackened exterior should be the first heads up that something is not quite right. But they taste exactly the same as they do when they’re created outside. So…I’m going under the assumption that doing it one or two times a year can’t kill you.

We finished off the evening by climbing the stair mountain, swimming in the bathtub stream, and hatching those sponge capsules in the shape of insects. And that’s how we do camping.

What are you showing today?

Click here or scroll down to the bottom of this post if this is your first time joining along (hint: link to the permalink for the post, not the main url for your blog and use your blog’s name, not your name). The list is open from now until late Tuesday night and a new one is posted every week.

Show and Tell is wasted on elementary schoolers. Join several dozen bloggers weekly to show off an item, tell a story, and get the attention of the class. In other words, this is Show and Tell 2.0. Everyone is welcome to join, even if you have never posted before and just found out about Show and Tell for the first time today. So yank out a photo of the worst bridesmaid’s dress you ever wore and tell us the story; show off the homemade soup you cooked last night; or tell us all about the scarf you made for your first knitting project. Details on how to participate are located at the bottom of this post.

Let’s begin.

We spent Josh’s birthday last weekend at the newly remodeled Portrait Gallery. The last time I had been there had been right before it closed to show my students the Henri Cartier-Bresson exhibit (I cried when the docent showed us the Arthur Miller photo where he is sitting next to his divorce papers, cementing my title as freakiest teacher at the school).

The new Portrait Gallery is gorgeous. It makes me want to mail out invitations to everyone in the world to ask them to come to Washington just so they can see the building. When you walk in, at the beginning of the hallway to the left, is the original Hope poster.

What you can’t tell from the replications of the poster is that it is made with paint and old newspaper clippings and is a combination of printmaking and paint and cut-paper. It is so emotional to stand in front of it.

It has always been a gorgeous building architecturally.

But the latest addition is this enclosed courtyard.

The courtyard is huge. There are these low fountains on the floor and trees and a cafe. We sat at one of the tables and read until the room darkened. It is definitely one of my favourite places in the city. And it is completely free to enter and spend the whole day sitting in that courtyard or touring the museum. Reason #76298 to come to D.C.

My portrait of Josh at the Portrait Gallery. It’s the city in which I love you, as Li-Young Lee would say.

What are you showing today?

Click here or scroll down to the bottom of this post if this is your first time joining along (hint: link to the permalink for the post, not the main url for your blog and use your blog’s name, not your name). The list is open from now until late Tuesday night and a new one is posted every week.