A handheld, cordless vacuum that is. $35 at Sears. The Shark, baby. (Mine's green).

Look out, small pieces of food and stray hairs. There's a new sheriff in town!

Also, an apology for the lack of recipe directions last time. I'll do better next time.

The first two are from this year, my students.

I wrested control of the camera from Miss Bee one day last week and took the following photos of my students. To introduce:

Been a hot minute since we had a good food post here, so I'll go two for one. First up was Miss Bee's contribution to Friday morning staff breakfast on the first week of school. She made whole wheat flour blueberry biscotti. I made some organic Ethiopian coffee to go along - the full 12-cupper!

The biscuits turned out really amazing.


Next was another Miss Bee creation: Belgian endives with quinoa, helped out by lots of spinach and Cheddar cheese. Lots of photos.

First the endives were sauteed a bit to soften them up.


Then the whole mess was baked for a while.


I'm not sure that any of these photos make the food look as delicious as it tasted. So you'll have to take my word.

Here's the best part:

I think the following rules will cover most cases:

i.	Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
ii.	Never use a long word where a short one will do.
iii.	If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
iv.	Never use the passive where you can use the active.
v.	Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
vi.	Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

These rules sound elementary, and so they are, but they demand a deep change of attitude in anyone who has grown used to writing in the style now fashionable.

From "Politics and the English Language". I encourage everyone who writes words for others to read to peruse this short essay. Here's one link: "Orwell's Politics and the English Language".

In an effort to clear the Inbox on my desktop along with a desire to prove that we do in fact leave the house, here are a few pictures of us hanging out in public places.

At Papago Brewing Company:


With our recently departed-to-grad school in Colorado friend Alex:

Back to Papago, where we mingle with other patrons, brawnily belt out drinking songs, get into the occasional dust-up, and of course do the crossword puzzle.


This was at Rosie McGaffrey's Irish Pub, where the sign above the door said "Best Fish n' Chips in Phoenix". I had to know, so I got them. It's not true.

Beautiful photo, I'm aware.

Classroom pictures to come. I never remember to take any.

New album out by the original g's, Mssrs. Brian Eno and David Byrne. This track is a free download, available at their website here. I like the song a lot, I'm sure the album will be nothing but the best. Catch up to date.

There are some photos of our new apartment on Miss Bee's blob.

Here's one of her:

I had sort of been planning on posting some of the "old apartment" pictures here, but there's a lot so we're going with a Picasa set instead. Click here for some pictures of our old place and a few from our trip to Des Moines in July.

We've got some from the new apartment coming soon, and I'll take some pictures of my classroom once I get more settled. Cheers.