Shortcuts to Gourmet Cooking

Yes, I know. It's been months. Life gets busy, what can I say?

My second cousin Fran Schaffer has a fab cookbook out, complete with some of my own family history and favorite Italian recipes. Check out her blog for great recipes and how to order the book.

So long summer...

After a whirlwind national tour to San Fransisco and Dallas, I'm officially back into the school business. Our opening ceremony for South High is on Monday, and its meetings, meetings, meetings! And then students! Yikes!

Here's a few pics of my trips. Mum has one of my great aunt Helen, which I'll have to add at a later date.



San Fran:

This was a first for me.

Going under the Golden Gate Bridge. There are actually people who paint this thing full time!
The living roof at the Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park.

My awesome butterfly pic taken in the indoor rain forest at the Academy.

Mom and me at the Academy.

View of the City from Sausalito. My mom once worked in the tall black building on the 40 somethingth floor. Crazy!


Mom looking out from the top of Coit Tower at Telegraph Hill (no parrots anywhere)

Muir woods, home of the giant redwoods. My absolute favorite part.

And now Dallas. Visiting uncle Mike and aunt Cathy with my cousin Micah:

Eating Swedish cinnamon rolls in front of IKEA in like 105 degree weather. Micah and I both love IKEA. What a cool teenager.

Micah by the ancient Mexican frogs at the Dallas Museum of Art. Sweet.


Room made of entirely cardboard at the Museum. Complete with chandelier.


Getting ready to go to the Bodies Exhibit. Dead people, here we come!

Micah pointing to the 6th floor, where JFK was shot from. They have a great museum up there. Living history is only way to go.


Cathy and Micah in front of the JFK memorial in downtown Dallas


Micah and me at the Denver World Aquarium


Chillin with the sharks. (It was Shark Week this week on Discovery Channel. Me and Mike watched it everyday, and this just brought it all together)


Love this pic. We took pictures for like 20 minutes in this thing.

A fashion show we happend across in the Galleria Mall. Sign said: "Model search: middle school-high school. Girls 5'7"-5'11". Guys 5'10"-6'2" ".


The four of us at a Japanese hibachi restaurant.

Fun stuff! Now it's time to focus.

Old Spice meets New Spice at BYU

My friend Jannifer posted this video on her blog, and it is the greatest thing ever. (For those of you who don't watch TV much like me, it's a take off of the new Old Spice Commercials)


BYU commercial:


Original Old Spice commercial.



And my other friend Steph just showed me this NPR blub on the same topic.

It's manly marketing mania!

Hardhats + Textbooks = Progress

The Mystery is no longer!

The contractors gave the World Language Department permission to enter the mysterious South High and unpack boxes and boxes and boxes... of textbooks. It was 5 hours of 82 degrees (no AC on) and pure anticipation of what next year will look like.

It was great to finally see the classroom and office set-ups, which are very different from where I was last year. But, can I say "BLING!" Super Fancy. Kind of sterile, but I'm already thinking about how to humanize the place a little.

Highlights were our very own department recording room (for district and other speaking tests), and our very own World Language kichenette. Shazam!

Here are some pictures:

My new World Language Dept: l->r: Me (Spanish), Sarah (French), Jenny (Spanish), Sue (German)

Front Entry

Front doors

Commons area/cafeteria

Ceiling:)

Hallway, they all look the same. I'm going to get lost...

Stairs right by my room

My room!

Other side of... my room!

View from my room: Jr. High across the street

Our office space: four of us will have desks in here

Our kitchenette

What? There's crying in soccer?

Ok, so I have to confess that this morning, sitting all by my lonesome in my parents' family room, I shed a few tears of joy and jumped around like a maniac for the U.S. soccer team who, after 91 minutes of no score, finally got a well-deserved break and landed a goal, setting them at the number one position in their group and onto the segunda ronda!!!



I don't know where this soccer fanaticism has even come from. Well, I guess it all started with playing soccer with the Argentinians in South Beach, followed by listening to my Spanish host dad yell at the TV every night in Madrid, followed by teaching a whole unit on it this year...And to cap it off, sitting with all of the Latino custodians from my "former" school (Carey Jr. High) yesterday and shooting the breeze with them for over an hour about why it was pointless to root for any European team when an "American" team was playing in a World Cup match.

I've asked several people today about the game, and no one yet has even had a clue. This is only the first time the US has won in its group since 1930!! The World Cup is only the most watched sporting event in the world!!!...Yet on my parents' TV the only channel that carries it is Univision, the Spanish channel.

Next game for the US is this Friday at 12:30pm.

Fish becomes a Painter

Just got back from the wedding of my dear friend Lisa. Had a great time and love being with the whole Fisher clan. Congrats Lisa and Coulson!

Viking Craniums and a New Car

Two things of significance in recent days. First, my daddio participated on the "Bar-barians," a team of like 8 lawyers and 1 plumber who rocked the house at the Cheyenne Rotary Cranium Bowl. They competed against 10 other teams, and not only won a giant trophy for knowing the most random information, but they also won the golden apple award for team spirit. My father, of course, started out a little shy, but by the end of the night, was out of control. One of the head lawyer ladies leaned over to him and said, "Ernie, we've voted you as the most surprising team member."

Here's a pic of their brilliance.



And secondly, I bought a new car!!! When I was a missionary in Florida, I remember thinking "when I buy a car one day, I'm going to buy it from the LDS mission in the area." And that's exactly what I did. I got a great deal, a nice looking vehicle, and got to hang out in the Colorado Denver North Mission Office while an Elder Kitchens and his wife told me how they used to sit on slabs of cardboard in BYU classrooms during the 1950's. Overall, an excellent car-buying experience.

Here's to missionary vehicles (that have replaced trunk hoods, of course.)

Tornado in the Basement

Yesterday, I was working with some of my students after school when the tornado sirens went off and Lori in the main office said "This is NOT a drill. Everyone to the basement." So I escorted my students, yelled at several others who started to panic and run through the hallways like out-of-shape banshees and with several other faculty (about 80 of us total) spent the hour in the smelly basement of Carey Jr. High. With my hurricane shelter training I immediately remembered and started instructing students to not use their cell phones, as it would overload the cell phone companies. Of course that's impossible for jr. high students. Most of them didn't believe me, but today in paper, you know what I read? "A spike in cell-phone use briefly overwhelmed the Verizon cellular system..." At least I know I'm wise.

The tornado touched down for about 20 minutes south of Cheyenne, so no biggie. Here's a picture my mom sent me:


And here's one I swiped from the paper's website:


And just added: a Youtube version:

Home Utah Away from Home

Over my spring break I was able to visit Provo and Salt Lake, which I hadn't visited for several years. It was a wonderful time, and I wish Cheyenne and Provo were closer to each other! Much love to all of my Utah friends, especially the "Fishers". (In quotes because the spouses and new last names are included)


Lisa, the student teacher!


Lisa's Utah History classroom


The Happy Couple: Lisa and Coulsen. Getting married soon!


Receiving her World Dance Minor



At Courtney and Paula's Home:

Lucy: Bekka and Eddie's daughter


Noah, Lucy's bro


Me with Ben, Bekka and Lisa


Courtney


Paula

And some pure silliness for old time's sake:




Last, but not least, some other Utah friends I saw:


Mission President and Sister Hemmert


Humanities BYU Professor Handley


And the surprise...former roommate Beth and her family. It was totally an accident that we ran into each other in the MOA. I hadn't seen her in SEVEN years. It was hilarious when her husband Justin said to their 6-year old daughter Paige, "you know that picture of Mommy and Daddy from their wedding? Becca took that."