newenglandcross.com

more friends

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 08:41:00 -0400

So. My Gmail account was hacked by some Nigerian folks who sent out an email to all my contacts saying I had been to London and mugged, and could some of my friends send me $2400 so I can pay my hotel bills and come back to the States.

They also changed my password, changed my user info, then deleted all my contacts. What a super fun way to spend the day. Fuck you Nigeria, and the spammers and scammers that live there.

I spent the majority of my day canceling things, changing passwords and disassociating credit cards with various online things. Google got me my email account back in a few hours, Western Union put me on an international watch list. Good times, good times.

After all that, I had to get busy getting ready for hosting Friend Dinner. Since everyone’s weekends are busy as hell, we were doing dinner on Tuesday, and since I’m currently enjoying summer break, I volunteered to do the whole dinner instead of having potluck. My new issue of Martha had come (DON’T LAUGH) and I pulled out the handy dandy dinner cards and went to town.

I took Martha’s plum skillet cake recipe and made it gluten-free and vegan by substituting coconut flour for white flour, 3/4 banana for an egg, vegan spread for butter and agave for sugar. It was DELISH! With that in the oven and baking, I got onto making the sweet corn, beet and basil salad. WOW, what yummy summery tastes! Then I cooked up the bacon for the bacon, avocado and sprout sandwiches. And whisked up the tangiest, tastiest dressing for the salad. I love you, Martha!

The Coady’s arrived with the sangria, and we were off. . .or at least I was. Damn that sangria was good. I may have been a little over-served on the sangria and began the “I love you, man” as I commented about how much I love and appreciate friend dinner. Such great people, such good times. Thanks friends!

GrandFundo

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 16:48:45 -0400

When Jeremy Powers started promoting his GrandFundo, I was pretty stoked about Fundo-ing with my friends. The pre-reg list included some of my favorite people who ride bikes, most of whom I don’t often get to see unless it’s 40 degrees and raining. It was also a ride I suggested my friend Ron do as a “shakedown” ride for his PanMass training.

Things didn’t start out super great--most of the Huppers I had anticipated showing up early and eating pastries didn’t show, which means I had two dozen pastries sitting in my fridge. So great for the strength to weight ratio. But with each hitch comes a nice surprise: Michele Smith did make it out early, and we shared some quality girl time.

Chippy and Mark showed up at the last minute with just enough time for Chip to leave his shoes at our house, but again, this hitch turned out okay. He got back to the start and took a short-cut to find the main group again and flowed right into the ride.

Me? I flatted within the first mile, then panicked when folks stopped with me. Here I am again screwing up other people’s ride. ARGH!!

We waited for the SRAM neutral car, and BAM! what does he pull outta the car?? A deep-dish carboney ZIPP! Wow, that wheel felt different! It accelerated quicker, it rolled better and just felt amazing. Momma like-y!

Our little group made an effort to get back to the main group, which was silly b/c the group was LONG gone. L O N G gone. Eventually JD, Michele and I settled into a nice, steady pace and pedaled on. We caught up to Ron and Matt Brewster on the first dirt road--Fomer Rd. Ron was struggling a bit, but pedaled on. I encouraged him to eat and drink a lot, he encouraged me to ride on with JD. Ron blasted by us on the next downhill, then we passed him on the next uphill. I’m super proud of Ron--this was his hilliest, hardest ride ever, and he didn’t take the shortcut, or fade out at the end. He pedaled on and didn’t finish that far behind us! I hope that builds a ton of confidence for him for PanMass.

As our little group pedaled on, we picked up a few more people. One of whom was the ever strong Cathy Rowell who had to boot her tire, and eventually get a rear wheel for her bike.

The rest of the ride was perfect. We linked up with Marky-Mark, Chip and Stephen Jabs for a while, then with some nice NEBC ladies. Michele was amazing--this is her longest and hardest ride since giving birth the beautiful Elliot. She was worried at one point, but again, she didn’t want to shortcut it, and she got a second wind toward the end and just Rocked the Ride!!

Some photos.

Marky-Mark rocking the B-sample.

Scenic roads!

Michele!

Cathy!

JD and I courtesy of Lyne at http://www.podiuminsight.com/

The Ice Cream Ladies! courtesy of Lyne at http://www.podiuminsight.com/

After the Fundo there was the Food-O. And damn was it good. You see, the thing that is SO unique about Al Donahue and Mukunda Feldman is that all well as being kick-ass bike racers, they are AMAZING cooks. Pig, cole slaw and baked beans were on the menu, as was High and Mighty beer. Oh the yum. . . .I’m salivating just thinking about it. . .

The pig! courtesy of Lyne at http://www.podiuminsight.com/

Ed Hamel, whose property hosted the event and will host the Cycle-Smart cross camp, said the Fundo was so great, he’d like to see it return there next year. I hope so too!!

extending the family

Fri, 9 Jul 2010 08:20:12 -0400

A few weeks ago the Campbell side of the family joined us in Western Mass. Linda is JD’s mom’s sister, and this was the first opportunity Sammy and I had to meet JD and Christopher’s three cousins.

I rolled up late to the family gathering; returning from Cambridge two days into the clan reunification, but I caught up quickly and got to know cousins Scott, Eric and Kristy better. I had followed Kristy’s blog as she did her Peace Corp work in the Gambia, so I felt I knew her a little better then the boys. She was also staying the longest with us, so I still feel more strongly connected to her.

JD and I took Aunt Linda and Kristy on a hike in Wendell. The bugs were alarmingly awful, but it pose a good intro to how Kristy handled living in Africa. She spoke of bugs and bowels--the two things most Peace Corp volunteers battle, and we laughed easily over talk of bowel movements being there, or not there.

We had the fam over for dinner that evening, and celebrated both my and Kristy’s upcoming birthdays.

The conversation flowed easily, as did the wine and beer, and the vibe was lovely. In all things there is a balance, I suppose. Doris’s passing has opened the door for the cousins to reunite, and I sincerely hope we are able to maintain this extension of family. It was good for us all.

Kingdom Trails

Tue, 6 Jul 2010 12:46:49 -0400

About six months ago, Heather and I booked rooms for July 4th weekend at our favorite B&B in the Northeast Kingdom. It’s for sale, BTW, and at a turnkey rate of 499,999, I’d like to see some of you Eastern Massers, who pay that for a one bedroom walkup, buy it, mmmmk?

We even invited our husbands along this time, and some other friends too.

I’ve been looking forward to this trip for quite a bit. I felt like I needed to redeem my pathetic ass from our trip to Utah, and this trip would come on the heels of a week in Cambridge that wasn’t quite as intellectually stimulating as I had hoped, so no pressure, but this trip better rock.

In short, it did.

The vibe was relaxed, the weather perfect, the trails on the drier side, and the breakfast food awesome. We met up with one of my favorite OG Huppers, Jimbo. Jim is so great to ride with as he not only holds a solid pace, but has a sharp wit. He had us cracking up all day. I rarely get to ride with Jim, so it was a special treat to have him come up and partake. Thanks Jimbo!

We got drunk and ate ice cream cake.

Then took the army men off the cake and got philosophical about things.

I don’t have any pictures of us riding bikes. PETE SEND ME THE ONE PICTURE YOU TOOK SO WE LOOK COOOOOOOOL, but we did ride bikes. Promise.

We came home to find that Matt Green had taken wonderful care of our kitties, and he hadn’t burned the house down. Thanks Matt!

And lo! We have watermelon.

We actually have four or five baby H2omelons, and if only one survives the gnashing teeth of the groundhog, we’ll be happy.

The tomatoes are heavy and big on the vines, but still green, which is annoying. We did harvest a head of broccoli! Gonna cook her up tonight!

I’m trying to get back into the swing of riding after so much time off, but it’s hard, or I just suck. Whichever. Today I’m going to try to ride up hills slowly. sigh.

brainwaves

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 20:07:39 -0400

School may be out for my students, but not for me. I’m in the middle of a week-long technology institute in Cambridge, MA. When I signed up for the institute, I was pretty darn excited. Cambridge! MIT! Microsoft Research and Development! New Literacies! Ph.d Programs! Geek geek geeeeeeeeeeeeeek! I squeaked.

Two hours into the first day I was pretty defeated. Cutting edge? I discovered the resources covered in 1995, the second year I ever taught. New literacies? The web has been around long enough that it doesn’t count as new, and evaluating students on how well they communicate tone via email really isn’t any different from teaching kids how to communicate tone via a hard copy memo.

Listen, technology doesn’t just equal the web. And it doesn’t just equal free. Honestly, it doesn’t just equal student-centered, either. How about looking at quality back-end systems that more effectively links students, teachers, administrators, and parents? How about round-table discussions of what is working in schools currently and what the next steps are?

It’s hard, I know. I understand that I’m ahead of the curve. That I go home and nerd out on the computer downloading trial software, seeing how I can use it in class, and then either buying it or deleting it. Most people don’t do that.

But, why does every institute/conference/professional development revolve around the entry level? Where is the sport or expert class training sessions?

I’m so annoyed that so much time has to be spent on teaching people how to access a WiFi spot, or how to set up accounts, or how to download software. Here’s another idea--if you know your work computer is completely locked down, why bring it to a tech conference and suck up our valuable time trying to fix your problem when we can’t?

Grump grump grump.

I want to explore ways to increase students’ ability to read critically, write fluently and think broadly, but here we are still glossing over the depth. I think I need to purchase The Shallows and dig deeper.