American Gods

Connor had to read some books over the summer to prepare for his Theory of Knowledge class this fall. 

Basically, his teachers just prepared a list of the books that they should be aware of in order to have intelligent discussions. There were no assignments other than reading the books.

He selected a few from the list, and I ordered them for him. He chose The Scarlet Letter, The Jungle, Brave New World, and American Gods.

I decided to read American Gods, too, because I love Neil Gaiman.

Opening line:

Shadow had done three years in prison.

I am thinking of watching the TV adaptation, but I'm still catching up on The Sandman. 

The Latest Greatest Movie List

What movies have I seen recently?

(And by recently, I mean since the Christmas movie-watching season ended.)

A list, in no particular order:

Amsterdam

See How They Run

The Menu 

M3GAN (Kevin and I went to the movies!)

Parasite (again, so Connor could see it)

The French Dispatch

All of these movies were excellent and fantastic and I highly recommend them all, each and every one.

As far as TV shows go, I have been watching the Vampire Diaries again. 

I started with Season 1, Episode 1, and I'm currently on Season 5, Episode 4.

I've also been watching Too Hot to Handle Season 4 with Connor.

What I have been watching lately

The best things I have seen lately include two fantastic movies, and two prequel series.

They, are, in no particular order:

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Everything Everywhere All at Once

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

Game of Thrones: House of the Dragon

More Muppets

My mom gave me some more Muppet Lego mini figures when I was visiting!

Look!

It's Gonzo, Janice and Miss Piggy!

I brought them home and added them to the gang:

Now I have 7 of the 12 Muppet mini figures available.

Just 5 more to find.

The Things I Say

As an English tutor, I get paid to have discussions with students who are learning English as a second language. In order to facilitate these conversations, we often both read the same article before class. Then, the student can choose from a question pool to indicate what they would like to talk about in more detail.

Sometimes, the students ask for my opinion on various subjects, in order to have another example of how someone might answer these questions, or for listening practice.

Here are the answers I provided to some of these questions earlier this morning.

If you could go to the future in a time machine, when would you like to go visit? What is the reason?

I don't want to see what happens in my life, because I am afraid that I won't like it. So, I want to go far, far in the future. Maybe I will set my time machine to go visit 2222. I hope that I will find a peaceful, highly intelligent, very technologically advanced world of caring humans with cool gadgets. I would be devastated to find a desolate planet that humanity had ruined.

If you were to go back to the past, which period would you like to go to? Is there anything you want to change if you can? Why do you wish so?

I would want to visit the Regency Era in England. This time period is from about 1810 to 1820, and it is when the rich people in England had so many fancy society parties. I would want to be rich and wear beautiful dresses and go to balls, like I was in an episode of Bridgerton or a Jane Austen novel. There isn't anything I would really want to change about that time, and I would probably get tired of it after a while because it was before electricity.

As far as going back in time to change something, I think I would go back to 2016 and help stop Donald Trump from being elected President of the United States.

Oh, and while I was there, I would make sure to buy myself lots of Bitcoins.

(This next one is from a different class, with a much younger student.)

If you were to get a set of LEGOs as a gift, how would you feel?

I think getting new LEGO sets is really exciting, and building the LEGOs makes me happy because I can see the LEGOs come together to make something new. It is very satisfying.

Muppets for Mother's Day

We went out for brunch to celebrate Mother's Day this year.  We went to one of my favorite Southern style kitchen restaurants, Apron & Ladle.

Raspberry Bellini Champagne Cocktail for Mom

Chicken sausage biscuit with scrambled eggs and cheddar

Mother's Day Selfie
(Selfie Grade: Ridiculous, but Whatever. Mother's Day is about Me!)

I sent cookies to my mother and sister-in-law, so I had cookies on my mind. 

So, Connor and I ended up baking chocolate chip cookies that afternoon.
(We watched Forrest Gump while we baked.)

But, Connor had cheesecake on his mind, so he had talked Dad into ordering cheesecake for dessert prior to the cookies, which later got delivered after the cookies.

And that's how we ended up having chocolate chip cookies for dinner and cheesecake for dessert on Mother's Day 2022.

At least Kevin made strawberry sauce for the cheesecake.
(The fruit balanced out the crushed Oreos. Maybe?)

The boys got me a six pack of the new Lego Muppets Minifigures!

I got Animal, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, Fozzie Bear, and Kermit the Frog!

(Actually, I got two Animal and Kermit Minifigures, so I'm gonna have to trade.)

Monday Muppet Selfie

(Selfie Grade: Muppetational)

It's time to play the music
It's time to light the lights
It's time to meet the Muppets on the Muppet Show tonight.

...

On the most sensational
inspirational
celebrational
Muppetational
This is what we call the Muppet Show!

Happy Mother's Day!

What have you been reading lately?

I read Station Eleven before I knew that it had been made into a TV show. 

I had even mentioned to Kevin that I didn't think I would like it if it was a TV show, because it would be too sad and traumatic.

Then, we found the show on HBO and started watching it.

And it was as if someone read the book, then got really drunk and told their very drunk friend about the story, and then that friend tried to recreate the story from their drunken memory. The same things happen, but to different characters or in different places or at different times. Some new things happen that weren't in the book at all. It is the same, but totally different. 

And I liked the show, too.

So, I read another one of her books:

It was really great, too!

I have already preordered her next book, which is coming out during the week of Spring Break.

Good Omens

I finished reading Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophesies by Agnes Nutter, Witch  by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman today, and it was a fantastic book about Armageddon. 

I wanted to read the book before I started watching the television series, so now that I have completed the first step of my plan, I can proceed with the second step. 

Everything is going according to plan. 

*insert evil laughter here* 

What I have been watching so far in 2022

Venom: Let There Be Carnage

James Bond: No Time to Die

I; Robot

The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley

Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts

The Great (Season 2)

The Book of Boba Fett 

Mother/Android

Men in Black: International

Morgan

Encanto

Marvel Eternals

Hot Ones

Do you watch Hot Ones? The YouTube show where celebrities eat progressively spicier wings while answering interview questions?

This show is very popular in our home. Lex decided that we needed to order some of the sauces. So we could eat the like celebrities eat. 

They both survived.

I'm going to need to buy more milk, though.

Movies! TV shows!

What good movies have you been watching?

I have recently watched, with great enjoyment, and in no particular order:

1. 101 Dalmatians (1961)

2. Cruella

3. Archive

4. Chaos Walking

And, even though it isn't a movie so much as a short series:

5. Loki 

And, since we are talking about TV:

6. Lego Master Builders

7. Jeopardy (when it was hosted by Mayim Bialik, she's the best)

I'm also planning to watch when LeVar Burton guest hosts in July.

Story Map of Ireland Puzzle

After dinner (bangers and mash with a side of cabbage) on St. Patrick's Day, I sat down to watch Riverdance on TV and work on my new puzzle.

Lunar New Year!

Tonight was the Lunar New Year in China.  A lot of my students stayed up until midnight and chatted with me on the internet.  It was super late for them, but only 11:00 AM for us here.  

We watched the Spring Festival Gala on TV together.  They helped me figure out what I was watching, since the entire program is in Chinese.

I really liked this performance.  His name is Lay Zhang.

The ballet and opera pieces are my favorite, because they are self-explanatory.

This performance was amazing!

For lunch today, we made Sichuan Hot Pot.  Oh My God! It was so hot! So spicy!

There was chicken, too, but for some reason none is on my plate at the moment.

Happy New Year!

Christmas Eve 2020 - A Play in Five Acts

Act I: The Advent Calendars

Harry Potter Funko Pop



Darth Vader is wearing a Death Star Christmas Sweater!

Just like in the Lego Star Wars Holiday Special.

Lego Star Wars

Act II: The Pies

Spinach Quiche

Pecan Pie



Apple Pie

I made so many pies we now have a pie table.

Act III:  The Dinner

Roasted Rack of Lamb

Act IV: The Cookies

Where do you keep your 50 lb bag of pandemic flour?

We keep ours in the cooler.

It's not like we are using the cooler to go anywhere...

Act V:  Here Comes Santa Claus

Cookies for Santa

Merry Christmas!!

Nap on a Lap

It might just be me, but I think she is so adorable when she is sleeping.

Redstone Academy Updates

Connor and I read two classic stories of isolation and survival.

We have been watching Aerial America on the Smithsonian Channel.

We put together the USA puzzle during the Georgia episode.

Someone talked me into making cookies during school.

It wasn't a hard ask.

I love cookies.

This is a great printable chemistry game.

There were only two game boards, so I had Connor design another one so that Lex could play with us, too.

Also, Lex has finished 5th Grade Science.

Happy Homeschooling!