Random blogging miscellanea while my students take their finals

I love to cook. The last couple weekends I have been a cooking fiend thanks to my students. We got into a conversation about balance of life, school and work and I encouraged them to find one thing that they love that they don’t think they have time for and to do it for themselves even if it is only for a short time. After we discussed this for awhile a student said to me Ms O you are a student and you work full time what do you love that you are not doing? So I told them about cooking and they challenged me to practice what I preach (I also think they are hoping on scoring baked goods). I have cooked all sorts of things since then, stuffed green peppers, meatloaf, cardiac referral potatoes, lemon bars, spicy fried chicken thighs; oven fried chicken breasts, Spanish rice, green beans. This weekend I am planning on making pumpkin cake with cinnamon cream cheese frosting and pork roast with baked sweet potato fries. Next thing I need to do is make some friends down here so I can invite them over for dinner, ‘cause I really love to throw dinner parties.

Hello, my name is Christina and I am addicted to audiobooks. For the past several weeks I have been listening to the audiobook of “Atlas Shrugged” as read by Scott Brick. Before that it was “Jane Eyre” as read by a woman with a lovely English accent who’s name escapes me at the moment. I listen to it every day, on my dive, before I fall asleep, when I take a nap, I am strung out I tell yah. When I was a kid I loved being read to, as an adult I find a distinct lack of people willing to read to me, so enter the audiobook, now if only I could get it to rub my back.

I have finally decided what I am going to put into my 75 gallon acrylic fish tank. I have been agonizing over this for weeks. I use agonizing but really I have been delighted to do the research on the fish I am considering and their individual requirements. I am setting up a biotope tank. A biotope tank is one that mimics a little slice of the natural environment where your inhabitants come from, everything from the same sort of dirt and rock to water parameters to fellow tankmates. I am going with a Brazil Amazon river tank. I am going with Geophagus Brasiliensis, Geophagus Jurupari, Red Heros Severum, perhaps some apistogramma I really haven’t decided on the exact species yet. I am getting excited though. The next step is setting up all the driftwood and plants then letting the tank run for a few weeks and then FISH, whoo hoo!

I need to go out dancing soon; I think I forgot how it has been so long.

Alright, my students are finishing and the brain smoke is clearing, bye for now!



Because I always have to throw in a picture, here is a look at my very empty fish tank