Plants and Fun

We had another one of those "long/short" weeks...stuffing a great deal of activity into the days God gives us. Tuesday evening we had our annual Open House for parents at The Christ School, so GB and I commuted together, had supper on campus, and got home after the open house program around 9 PM. We gave two 25 minute presentations about what we do during the day to parents and used our technology. TCS is gradually converting all classrooms to high tech -- Audio Enhancement and Smart Boards. Parents are impressed; it's fun stuff and meets the kids where they are technologically. These are not silver bullets, but do bring the internet, PowerPoint presentations, and electronic versions of their texts to the front of the room via a digital projector. Our school head, Dr. Powell, highlighted these things at the whole group meeting that began our open house and noted that because of the cost per classroom ($4,250) we were gradually incorporating the technology. He invited casually invited parents who wanted this for their child's classroom to write a check and then moved on. Three parents did just that! So now, three more classrooms can get the new stuff. We have amazingly generous parents!
Friday evening we were treated to dinner by our friends Steve and Pat. We went to the Hawk's Nest at the Marriott down by Disney. We got there at 7:45 and didn't leave until 10:30! One of those relaxing, enjoy the courses as they come, talk all the time meals. The down side was I didn't eat again until 1:30 Saturday afternoon! Saturday evening we had my co-fifth grade teacher, Kathy, and her mom over for supper. Fun as usual with them; they are both good friends.
We are helping with the TCS golf tournament on Monday -- have to be at the Orange National Golf Center by 6 AM. GB and I will hand out goody bags to the golfers and then I get to use the school's new Nikon D40 (with a 55-200 mm lens!) to take picture of the golfers. I ride around in a golf cart all morning and shoot 'em up! We had to do the usual lesson plans for subs, but it is fun to be able to help the school.

We had a surprise yesterday; our Angel Trumpet has a flower! It is starting to set it's roots and grow. Our pampas grass is in full flower also; it looks rather jungle-like with the Rangoon Creeper in the foreground and one of our fishtail palms on the left. The plants are doing what I had hoped -- creating a green barrier between our back yard and busy Michigan Street. By the way, the water in the retention pond behind our house is going down nicely; just a foot or so of water left for the frogs and water bugs. I've also included a picture of the spectacular influorescence of one of our bromeliads -- it an aechmea blanchetiana. This is one of the few bromeliads that does well in full sun and is at the corner of the house by the deck in the back yard.
Just before Labor Day I traded in my Suzuki for a Kawasaki. I had been looking for something a bit larger and found a 2007 bike at the Harley-Davidson store. They like getting rid of the metric trade-in bikes so the price was right, and it only had 827 miles on it! It is about 125 pounds heavier than the old bike and a 1600 cc engine, so it has enough power to get down the road with both of us on it. It is very quiet--I do not like loud bikes!We've gone out together several times and enjoyed the ride, and I've been commuting to school on it just like I've done for the past year. It came ready equipped for touring with a windshield, passenger back rest, and saddlebags. We hope to take some longer day trips when the weather cools a little. Yes, we always wear our helmets!