The past two weekends I have been freezing stone fruits, mostly peaches but some cherries too. I wanted to put the recipe up here so that I wouldn’t forget.

Process of Freezing Peaches:

1. Wash peaches off.
2. Remove skins by boiling in water for 45-60 seconds and then removing to an ice bath. Skins should peel off with little effort.
3. Once skins are removed cut peaches in half and remove pits. I should note here that there are some varieties of peaches in which the pits are easier to remove than others. The white peaches seem to have harder to remove pits. At this point, you can either keep the peaches in halves or cut them into slices.
4. Sprinkle peaches with citric acid or lemon juice (enough to lightly coat). When you stir the peaches up with the citric acid they should look shinier, sort of glossy. This will keep the peaches from browning.
5. Dissolve 3 cups of white sugar into 6 cups of boiling water. Let cool.
6. Spoon peaches into 1 qt bag (note it takes about 4-5 peaches to fill 1 qt). Then ladle enough of the sugar water over the peaches just to cover.
7. Place in freezer.

We have been buying peaches in 1/2 pecks (yes, a half-a-peck-a-peaches … say that 10 times fast), which is about 12-15 peaches and we are able to get three quart ziplock bags to freeze.

Update on the 50 Book Challenge: While traveling to Colorado and California I was able to finish reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver.  It was a really great read and has inspired me to try harder at keep our (Bryan and I) food chain as local as possible. Since we moved to a new house right in the middle of the growing season we do not yet have a vegetable garden. So, Bryan and I have been taking Saturday morning dates to the local Farmer’s Market. Bryan also brings home a couple of bags full of fresh veggies each week from the garden-farm he works at. I think my favorite so far has been the acorn squash we bough last week. Here is the recipe for the most amazing acorn squash I have ever tasted.

1. Take 1 acorn squash and cut it in half lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds and pulp in the center.
2. With a fork, mash together 1/4 c. soften butter (that is 1/2 a stick of butter), 1/4 c. brown sugar, a palm full of ground sage, and salt and pepper to taste.
3. Smear the butter mixture on the insides of each of the acorn halves.
4. Place in a baking dish and bake for 1 hour at 400 degrees F.

We have one more acorn squash at home and I can’t wait to make this again. It was so delicious!

Updated list of books read so far this year:

here is my updated list:

1. The Shack by William P. Young
2. Omnivor’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan
3. Two for the Dough by Janet Evanovich
4. Three to Get Deadly by Janet Evanovich
5. Four to Score by Janet Evanovich
6. High Five by Janet Evanovich
7. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
8. New Moon by Stephenie Meyer
9. Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer (link)
10. Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
11. Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
12. Dead Until Dark by Charaline Harris
13. Hot Six by Janet Evanovich
14. Seven Up by Janet Evanovich
15. Hard Eight by Janet Evanovich
16. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

I was talking to my 14 year old cousin this weekend and found out that she is not taking English this year. This shocked me. “Don’t you have to take 4 years of English in highschool?” I asked. “No, you only have to take 2 years,” was her response. WHAT?!?!

This freakin’ blew my mind. Seriously? Only 2 years of English. I was in such disbelief that I actually had to look this up on the Tennessee State Education website to confirm it. Sadly, it is true. After reading through various parts of the website, it would seem that the state needed to increase various numbers, like the proportion of students that actually graduate, so there solution was to lower the standards. This is abombidable! No wonder I get freshmen students in college who cannot write a complete sentence, let alone a paragraph. I argued with my cousin about the requirements. She thought it was a good thing. Her reasonign was that she already knew how to speak English, so why take English classes. I argued that in reading the classics you develop critical thinking skills and you broaden the depth of your own knowledge. This argument, of course, held no merit in her eyes.

In reading through the Tennessee Education website, I also found out that you only need 14 units (1 semester of 1 class is a unit) to graduate from high school. You need the 4 English units, 3 units in Math, 3 units in Science, 3 units in Social studies, and 1 unit of Physical Education. Now, when I was in highschool, we took 6 classes a semester: 6 units x 2 semesters a year x 4 years = 48 units. So, I wondered where the other 34 units of time were going. Then I found out that they only take 4 classes a semester: 4 units x 2 semesters a year x 4 years  = 32 units. This still leaves 18 units unaccounted for. That is more units than are needed to graduate. Are those all electives! What is happening here?

All I have to say is that if the standards don’t change by the time my children (yet to be born) go to school, they will NOT be attending public school in Tennessee. Now, we may not be living in TN so it may no be an issue, but if we are, private school here they come. My children will take 4 years of English, 4 years of Math, at least 3 years of Science, a year of US History, a year of World History,  at least 2 years of Foreign Language, and at least 1 year of some sort of Art or Music class. This idea that children get the bare minimum in K-12 and that it is mostly baby sitting and everyone needs to go to college because they do not learn much of anything in K-12 is reprehensible. My children will be held to higher standards if my no one else than my husband and myself. You should be a well educated, well-rounded individual by the time you graduate from highschool. Even if you go into a trade and never attend college, you should be able to read and write intelligibly, talk about the government and politics with some knowledge of how the system works, have a idea of the basic principles of science, and an appreciation for music and the arts. I do not know what has caused our culture to shift away from valuing these types of knowledge, but alas …

Well, there is my rant for the day.

The resolutions are going pretty well.

1. I have managed to keep my sink clean every day since I started, and the cleanliness of the sink is slowly spreading out to other parts of the house. There was one little glitch last night though. When I went to bed, the sink was sparkling clean, as usual. However, I woke up to the shoke and horror of a dessert bowl and ice cream scoop befouling my pristine shiny sink. Dear Husband has been mostly on board with the cleaning thing, but I guess he slipped up last night.
2. As far as the knitting goes I got a lot done last week after an ovarian cyst ruptured in my left ovary. Quite a painful experience. So, I was forced to take it a bit easier last week which meant I got in about an hour of knitting each morning. I don’t think I will keep up at that pace, but I feel like I am back on track with my knitting.
3. Now, the sleep thing has been on and off. Last week I stayed up way too late most nights because watching the Olymics is just too much fun. However, last night I was in bed by 10:30 which is pretty close to my goal. And, I was able to wake up at 6 this morning without it being a positively horrid experience.

Those are the resolutions … now for the other stuff.

The fall semester starts tomorrow. On Thursday I start teaching. I volunteered to cover classes for two different people on Thursday (in addition to the two sections of my own that I have to teach). Sometimes I wonder about my sanity. It shouldn’t be that bad though. One class I am coving is a class I have taught before. For the other, the instructor gave me very clear, very explicit instructions abotu what to go over and such, so it should be so bad. I am very excited about my own class. I am teaching two sections of Math 113 — Mathematical Reasoning. This is the class that I taught over the summer. Despite how crazy it was teaching so much in such a short time, I really enjoyed the class and had a lot of fun with it.

I arrived in Toronto last night and I have to say, the city is making a very good impression on me. I love the cosmopolitan feel without the apparent grime and trashiness. The city is so clean and so green. It is lovely. They seem to be booming too! There is construction everywhere you turn. The city seems very pedestrian oriented as well. The sidewalks are full of pedestrians and on the main streets electric rail cars run up and down.

The weather is a little dull today, but at lunch the sun came out. It was lovely. I found this little Thai restaurant (Thai Paradise, if you are ever in Toronto) and sat out on the patio eating Pud Thai, drinking tea and watching the eclectic mix of Toronto residents walking by.

The conference has been going really well. So far, the talk that has left the biggest impression on me is one in which a group of research are looking at developing a publicly accessible global model of HIV/AIDS. Very ambitious, but would wonderfully advance AIDS research if they could get even the bare bones up and running.

Tomorrow I give my presentation. I’m a little nervous, but then I always am before talks.

My other update is on the 50 Book challenge: First, I realized I didn’t mention that I read Persuasion at the beginning of the year. Second, on the plane ride up here I finished Caliban’s Hour by Tad Williams. It was a good little novella. It is one of those books where you start off being annoyed by the main character, but by the end when you have a fuller picture of the character you come around to liking him. There is another character in the series Memory, Sorrow & Thorn by Tad Williams who is like this (though in MST the character grows and develops much more, hence the need for 4 books in the series). Anyhow, here is my updated list.

1. Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb
2. Persuasion by Jane Austin
3. Sense & Sensibility by Jane Austin
4. Digital Fortress by Dan Brown
5. Deception Point by Dan Brown
6. Caliban’s Hour by Tad Williams

I went poking around the Internet for this information a few weeks ago and couldn’t find it. So I am posting it here in hopes that someone in need will find it and it will be of some use.

So, if your institution has upgraded to Blackboard 8.x and you are finding it hard to do the normal things in Blackboard that were once so easy, join the club. Anyhow … one major flaw that I found was that I could no longer easily add extra credit. It used to be that you could set the points an assignment was worth to zero and then whatever scores you gave the students was extra. Simple! Now it is a bit more complicated. If you set the points an assignment is worth to zero, it won’t count the points … UNLESS … you do the following:

Click the double arrow dropdown for the column you are using for the total grade, then select “Modify Column”. At “Step 3 – Select columns “, instead of “all grade columns”, choose “selected grade columns”. Then add each of the columns to the area on the right (you can shift click to get them all). Essentially this is the same as “All Grade Columns”, but this way will include your extra credit column scores (even when the total points the extra credit item is worth is set to zero).

Crazy! But it works. I don’t deserve the credit for this. I emailed the tech support on my campus and the support person who emailed me back gave me this wonderful little tidbit.

Happy Grading!

First the sad news. My grandfather passed away on May 3rd. He was my mom’s father. He has been in the hospital for a while with cancer, strokes, and some other stuff, so it wasn’t wholly unexpected, but it is never the news you want to hear. I really wish I had known him and my grandmother better. Since they lived in Illinois and I grew up in California, we didn’t get to visit them all that much. My mom tells me they always wanted to be more involved as grandparents with my brother and I, but living on almost opposite ends of the country makes that a bit hard. And … back when I was growing up (does that make me sound old) people didn’t fly around the country as frequently. Maybe we will be going back to that with higher gas prices. Anyhow, I will miss my grandfather and always wish I had known him better. I am planning on trying to visit my grandmother more, especially since I think I am about done with the crushing part of grad school.

So this leads into my next bit of news. There are a couple of major steps along the path to the PhD. First you have to take some long (4 hours), painful (covers a year of material) written exams in some specialty subjects. In my math department you have to take two of those exams, and taking the classes for those exams and studying for those exams consumed my first two years of grad school. Next, you have to take an oral specialty exam. For me, this means presenting the research I have already done for my dissertation in both oral and written form, and laying out a plan for the remainder of my dissertation research. I give my presentation and then go up against the mathematics inquisition (a panel of professors including my advisers who will ask me tough questions about the mathematics I will be using in my research). My oral examination is scheduled for May 21st (that’s next week). After this exam I am a full candidate for a PhD. Woohoo. So, next year I won’t have to take an courses, just teach, do research and maybe take a seminar or two. The next year (or two) will be spent writing my dissertation, and then I am done!!!! Well, done in the sense that I have my PhD. Then I have to find a job.

Okay, enough of that, other news. I still have not found a home for the cat. I am waiting for a spot to open up in one of the no kill shelters. I have a new office at school, and it has windows (yey! I’m moving up in the world). Wedding plans seem to be going well. I have a massive excel spread sheet to keep track of rsvp’s and which reception everyone is going to. So far, the California reception is ahead with 41 people attending and the Tennessee reception is trailing behind with only 35 people attending. There are still a lot of response cards we haven’t received though. We sent out about 150 invitations. Yikes! Oh, the other exciting wedding news is that Bryan and I received our first wedding gifts. We received one from Bryan’s side and one from my side. Both sent us settings of the dishes we registered for, and the plates and bowls and glasses look even better than I expected. I will have to take some pictures and put them up here.

Alright, I think this post is getting to long already. So, I will stop for now.

Cheers!