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Google Drive on the iPad is pretty unacceptably slow these days. I was so excited when I found it the first time because it's PERFECT for grading my students' stuff. My "grading" consists of critiquing a self-reflection done by the student after the clinical day. There are 9 intended outcomes of the clinical experience they need to meet, and I help them evaluate themselves on each of them throughout their rotation with me. This means a ton of feedback so I can see if they change their approach as I evaluate them weekly. Essentially, I am critiquing their critique of themselves. It's a lot of typing. My computer has seriously limited battery life anymore, so I was really digging on the iPad+keyboard case for this...but with Google Drive so slow to freaking update my files, I have to sit here for 10 minutes while all 6 self-reflections become available to me on the app.
I am spending these 10 minutes updating LJ from my porch, otherwise known as my favorite room in the house. Just sent this photo when Bryan asked what I was doing:
The tent is "Ganon's". It's the tent we took to Bonnaroo. We decided one of our problems with it at 'Roo was that it's tiny & not fun to hang out in. We got a 5 person tent for this year's Wakarusa, mostly just so we could stand up in it. So Ganon gets to play with this one in the backyard. We accidentally left it up in the rainstorm last week, and I was surprised to find the inside dry except for one spot, which had a few tiny drips. The grass is growing & we need to get it mowed. There's a giant plant growing in my flower bed & I think it is actually a weed, so I should probably get rid of it. There's a man mowing the yard of the house next door to us, which always seems strange to me (another paragraph on that in a second). I brought my mug, incense & iPad out here, so there's music & coffee & it smells amazing. It's going to rain soon so I'll have to go back inside then, but for now, it's awesome. Even my headache is gone.
The house next door is an oddity I don't think I've ever addressed. The houses in my neighborhood were built mostly in the late 70s to mid 80s, by the look of the architecture (mine was built in 1979). The house next door, however, looks older. Daddy estimates it was built in the early 60s, making it likely the first house built in this subdivision. It was probably here before there WAS a subdivision. Adding to that theory is the size of the back yard. The front yard looks much the same as the rest of ours, but when you look from my back yard, you see that all the fences from all the other houses touch this big, empty space. Then you look behind the house next door & realize there is no fence behind it: the big empty space extends entirely from that yard. Literally every house on this block of my street and on the street that backs up against ours is bordered by this one, massive yard.
The other thing about it is that no one seems to live in it. No one comes & goes, no lights are ever on except a small one by the front window which seems to be on a timer. The garage door opens & closes sometimes, revealing a gray car of some kind (I've never gotten close enough to look). There's also a bunch of unusual, mismatched stuff in the garage: a Dr. Pepper machine from the glass bottle days, some yard tools, several large foot locker type things, and a large collection of glass Starbucks Frappucino bottles (empty) in the 4 pack cardboard things.
Rumor has it that the owner of the house inherited it from someone, but currently lives somewhere in Asia for work. If that's true, they obviously pay to have the house maintained, because it's always mowed. Someone did something to the roof last summer.
Maybe I should ask the guy who is mowing the lawn. I almost don't want to; the speculation is so much more fun. :D
We have been changing our eating habits back to things we like in the summer. This spring I find myself on a kick for tea sandwiches of all types. Started out with the old tuna salad/chicken salad standbys, but I got some seafood salad from Harps & that wasn't bad, and now I am thinking of making my own sandwich spreads for tea sammiches. :) I found a recipe for bacon olive salad that sounded quite delightful, and I would also like to try my hand at Benedictine spread.
One new thing this spring is boiled eggs. We don't usually eat them, or at least we never have. However, with me getting into grad school, I'm trying to figure out cheap, easy foods I can make in batches & eat for a few days. Eggs are protein, too, and if I could figure out a protein that Ganon liked, so much the better. He loves helping me make the boiled eggs in the microwave (we have a microwave egg cooker, which is one of the very few single-purpose kitchen gadgets I love) and he loves them with salt & pepper (though he hates the yolk, which is okay).
The farmer's market opens the first Saturday in May! I'M SO EXCITED! But I work. THAT PART SUCKS. I can't wait for baby lettuce first, then berries, then peaches & tomatoes & OMG FREAKING PRODUCE. And also home-baked bread from 3 Birds!
HEY WHOA the guy mowing the yard just stopped to talk to me! He asked if smoke bothers us because he needs to burn some leaves next week. I wondered at him burning them because i didn't think that was okay in city limits, but he looked familiar, and it turns out he's a firefighter! I know most of the firefighters, and certainly all of them that have been with the department for more than 10 years. Uncle Aaron was the chief for a couple of years, and he was in the department for MANY years before that (since about 1974). Once I figured that out, I asked him the story: why no one lives there, but they don't sell the house. Drama!
Mr. Joe, the original owner of the house, died about 6 years ago. He was an eccentric college professor (wish I could've known him!), and he married a Chinese lady who was not very fond of his family, nor they she. There was huge drama, but when he died he left the house to her. She moved back to China, but kept the house for sentimental reasons. Mr. Tim worked for Mr. Joe for a long time, and the Lady kept Mr. Tim hired on to mow & keep the house looking livable. He does far more than that; the house looks so good that it LOOKS like someone lives there. It creates an illusion that kept our curiosity piqued, because it looks very kept up but you never see PEOPLE. He says the inside of the house is extremely dated; "it looks like you're stepping into the 70s!" That makes me want to see the inside even more; I LOVE that look. <3 She does NOT pay him enough for what he does, let me say. It makes me like Mr. Tim. Many people (most?) would do the bare minimum she asked for, but he keeps the house looking very nice because of the fondness he had for Mr. Joe. About a month back, the garage door kept being open at odd times, and I thought it was on a timer. Mr. Tim said he thought maybe someone's code was very close to the empty house's, and it kept opening because of it. He left me his number & wants me to call if I notice it happening again.
HOW COOL IS THIS? I was just wondering about all this stuff!
Posted via LiveJournal app for iPad.
