Sunday, May 4, 2014

May the 4th be with Micro-adventures




Good morning, Don! And may the 4th be with you! I needed R2D2 to remind me! How could I forget such an auspicious day!
Did you see the Riddle Contest? What do you think? And our riddles over the last year have been published! What does it feel like to see your name as the author of a book? Even if it riddles? 

I so understand your daughter's instances of what I call Head Smack or Twitchy Face. I have come to the conclusion that there are always going to be those who are compulsive in their need to be jerks and they are driven to prove it to the world. My sympathies to your daughter. I hope she continues to teach anyway.

I found your description to how UOIT has defined how instructors and students interact with each other to not be much different than my own school.  My school requires everything go through the school network which I think is a good idea – and a bad idea. I like the fact that everything is accessible in case of any questions as to appropriate behavior -   and it is a bad idea because everything is accessible.

So Sunday's are my day to cook the weekly vegetable soup that we love for lunch every day. (I actually found a soup mug that can go from fridge to microwave so now I can take soup to school.) So I'm cooking away, soup begins to bubble and boil, I'm cleaning the counters, and decide maybe this is the day to spiff up the stove. Have you ever had one of those times where a good idea kind of goes astray? One thing leads to another, to another, and yet another... the kitchen is now clean – except under the fridge which I couldn't pull out. Another day.

I've discovered that a lot of what I do each day could be classified as a micro-adventure. Case in point: a friend told me about a mushroom growing kit that was for sale at the local natural food store. So getting the kit became a micro-adventure as I had to make my way through 5 o'clock traffic, shop with 5 in the afternoon shoppers (people aren't as nice at 5 in the evening as they are earlier in the day), then figure out how to get around the major traffic jam to get home. That in itself was quite the adventure! And I arrived home with my oyster mushroom growing kit tucked under my arm and a smug smile on my face. I scored!

Watching the mushrooms grow has been fascinating! As we eat a lot of mushrooms, this caused me to investigate whether or not I want to become a mushroom farmer. There is a lot of information out there, and for the most part, it all looks fairly easy. But our little oyster mushroom kit has only supplied 2 meals of mushrooms – which makes them mighty expensive mushrooms. And watching out for contamination takes mushroom gardening to a whole new level. We'll see.

In the meantime, I found a book on container gardening which I think is a great idea for us. We used to have a large 12 x 15 foot garden that we babied and spent hours in –  but we got wiped two years in a row by hail in July and in August. We eventually lost our desire to garden. Plus, our dogs decided that being vegetarian was great! They cleaned out our squash and tomatoes. I think they'd have gone for the beans if they hadn't gotten caught. 

So containers might be the best way for us to go. Small, movable, out of reach of the dog; my husband is thinking of building a grape arbor set up that will help shield the plants that need shade, plus it provides a growing frame for our favorite flowers: morning glories and sweat peas. And I found seeds for both yesterday. I'll keep you informed as to my gardening adventures – or not.

Oh, and before I get too far off – graphene could turn into being the answer to a lot of the questions being posed as to how to transfer and store information. Try PBS – Making Stuff; Nova with David Pague; Making stuff smaller. The series also looks into making things stronger, cleaner and smarter. It is fantastic! That whole series is something to watch!

Before I forget, the web developers got the new Transport 31 up Friday. They have done a great job redoing the site. It is clean, easier to read. Our Riddles, Don, are published this month! And Colby provided a great new Stay-at-home Shaman story. I talked to Colby a couple of weeks ago. It looks like it is a go to put the Stay-at-home Shaman series into a collection. We're hoping it will be ready by December.







Riddle Cave! Your key words...

Green fruits, toasted nuggets, start the day...

I was thinking coffee. But the nuggets are actually rosey red.


My riddle:
Carrier of information or entertainment
Round large or small
Special equipment needed
Renders ideas into pictures

Have a great week everyone! And may you ENJOY your micro-adventures!

Carolyn 



Images downloaded from Google Images
Figure 2 – Your team was just offered retrieved from www.reddit.com
Fig 3 – Cosmopolitan Identities retrieved from e49i.weebly.com
Fig 4—How to grow oyster mushrooms from home retrieved from grownyourownmushrooms.net
Fig 5—Anything grows for container gardening retrieved from lifeonthebalcony.com
Images 1 and 6 manipulated and created by LVarvel 

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