Go Dog Go

When I was little, my dad was in graduate school. My mom finished grad school before I was born, but it really leaves you with a certain mentality. The mentality that you must cite EVERYTHING! So when my parents would read me books they would state the author's name along with the title. After all, they needed to cite who wrote the book. It is a tradition that has stuck with our family. So my kids know that Mary Pope Osborne writes The Magic Tree House books. When we were at Borders the other day to get a new book in the Boneville series, they knew that Jeff Smith was the author/illustrator.

Anyway, I was reading a post on a forum about children's books, and I knew immediately that Go Dog Go was by PD Eastman, not Dr. Seuss! (Do you like my hat? Yes, I LOVE that party hat. Goodbye. Goodbye.)

By the way, if you read this before tomorrow afternoon, please think good thoughts for my son Alex as he goes to call backs for Seussical, Jr. It is his first time trying out for anything like this, and I am so excited for him.

Funny thing at school...

The school choir went to a nursing home to perform this week. It had a profound effect on a few of my students, which I thought was cool. Anyway, two of them returned to my last class of the day singing. It started with "I Can See Clearly Now the Rain is Gone." So I sang along. Imagine their surprise that the algebra teacher knew the words to this song. Then they went into "Bridge Over Troubled Water," another song I know. After a few more songs, I finally realized that they had no idea that these had been popular songs in the 70's. At least they knew the Beatles sang "Let it Be." And I totally impressed them with knowing that the Fugees remade "Killing Me Softly" and I could sing it like the Fugees. (One of the saddest things about Howard Dean not becoming president was that he was going to make an executive order for the Fugees to start performing together again!)

Fabric Dyeing Class

I took a wonderful fabric dyeing class from Stacy Michell at Fiber on a Whim on Saturday. These are some of the fabrics. (Pictures courtesy of my 6 year old...)

The class was awesome. Stacy is a great teacher, and I am so glad she shared her expertise with me. If anyone is in the Atlanta area, her studio will be open for a tour the weekend before Thanksgiving. I plan to go see it, as it has been over ten years since I last saw the studio. She says there have been many wonderful changes.

One aspect I loved about the class (and now you will know that I am the geek you always suspected) was her telling about the chemistry that goes on. I just think it is so cool that the dye actually forms a covalent bond with the fabric. She even has pictures of carbon rings on her handout. I am pretty sure the rest of the class thought I was nuts when I talked chemistry with her. (Of course, I was the youngest by a number of years.)

I am working on the little houses that I started ages ago. I have them all quilted now. A couple of weeks ago, Fiber Art Fusion met at Rubber Stamp Fantasy and had a great evening of learning and playing. I got really enthralled by shrink plastic. (You remember Shrinky Dinks? This is similar to that.) So now I want to make buttons out of shrink plastic to embellish my little houses. Maybe a surf board? Or some trees or flowers? Anyway, I just need some time to get back to Rubber Stamp Fantasy and pick up my supplies.

That is all from this corner of the world. Back to planning algebra class for tomorrow...