NO-meo and Juliet and Ronnie

John and I celebrated Valentine's Day by going to see Gnomeo and Juliet. The few funny parts from the film are covered in the previews. Its one saving grace is the Elton John music throughout (He's the executive producer.). To add to the irritation was the running narration provided by the people sitting behind us. To give you an idea--I thought perhaps someone in their party was blind... they read EVERYTHING! EVERY sign-- "Montague and Capulet-- ha ha ha" "or thereabouts-- ha ha ha" and announced every event-- "they're throwing blueberries" or "she's stuck"... so rotten-- be quiet!

After Gnomeo and Juliet we went for sushi. We visited a place our Anchorage hair stylist recommended-- Ronnie's Sushi. So far, the best sushi in Anchorage by far! The rice and fish are fresh and the rolls are very thick. Yum :) It made up for the movie! (As a side note, the restaurant walls are filled with pictures of customers with head sushi chef Ronnie. The 2 "featured" pictures were of Ron Jeremy, the porn star, and Lisa Murkowski, the senator.)

More than anything-- John and I got to spend Valentine's Day together.

We both hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day.

Battle of the Books-- from the news

These aren't my students, but the Anchorage Daily News covered Battle of the Books.

Idioms

Idioms are tricky... and sometimes we make them tricky.

Yesterday while I was at Battle of the Books, my sub had a little difficulty with one of my students. (This was the same student who was almost $2 poorer and a mustache richer.) Anyway, she told him to glue his butt in the chair for the rest of the day.

My ever-so-creative student, who knew perfectly well what she meant, decided to put glue all over his chair. The sub caught him before he sat in the glue and had him clean it all up. So, it was mostly a wonderfully good laugh for me the day after. Needless to say, the sub characterized her choice of words as "regrettable".

Home Alone

Remember the movie? The scene where Marv struggles to walk down the slick stairs?



Our stairs are so, so icy... it's the first time they've been seriously icy. I had the image of that stair scene going through my head. Thank goodness the roads aren't nearly so icy!! Anyway, we both managed not to fall. I went back out and used our table salt on the stairs (we didn't have any other salt or sand). I wasn't sure if it would work... I was pleased to see, on the Morton's website, that apparently it does.

Battle of the Books

Phew. Today we had our Battle of the Books competition. It was super stressful from a logistics standpoint, but it all went smoothly. My kids had fun and I learned a lot. Kind of reminds me of Oktoberfest... except for with kids and without beer... but the fulfilling exhaustion that follows. We'll celebrate next week :)

Wet Floors

In Arizona, if a bathroom floor is wet, I (if possible) go find another bathroom. Not in Anchorage. It has taken me 2 months to adjust to the fact that a wet bathroom floor most often just means people traipsing in with snowy boots. It's funny how conditioned we become ;)

The Postal Service

Apparently Nelson is trying to mail himself. I've explained that a shoebox (particularly one he doesn't fit in) isn't an appropriate mailing box... but he doesn't seem to care. Perhaps he's seeking warmer weather??? Little does he know that this doesn't typically go real well. [Here's a story that features a picture of Kyle and Tracy's dog, Taro (although he's not related to the photo)... don't worry it doesn't end badly, thankfully!]

Here's Nelson's "too-cute-not-to-share picture"...



And... this is Hayden's "what-about-me picture"...

Barnes and Noble Groupon

I know I mentioned Groupon before, but right now there's a great deal in the Anchorage Groupon. It's $10 for a $20 Barnes and Noble gift card. We definitely purchased one for ourselves and are looking forward to spending ours on a new game :)

The Northern Lights

Last night John and I almost drove out of town last night because we heard it was a great night to view the Northern Lights.

It's actually more complicated than that... It was a very clear night last night, which would make it *perfect* to view IF there was anything to see.

Fortunately we checked the Geophysical Institute and saw that there was a very low probability of any aurora action.

What are the Northern Lights? Here's some information from The Northern Lights Centre in Canada.

What are Northern Lights?

The bright dancing lights of the aurora are actually collisions between electrically charged particles from the sun that enter the earth's atmosphere. The lights are seen above the magnetic poles of the northern and southern hemispheres. They are known as 'Aurora borealis' in the north and 'Aurora australis' in the south..
Auroral displays appear in many colours although pale green and pink are the most common. Shades of red, yellow, green, blue, and violet have been reported. The lights appear in many forms from patches or scattered clouds of light to streamers, arcs, rippling curtains or shooting rays that light up the sky with an eerie glow.

More information from "Everyday Mysteries" and the Library of Congress.

Vega

We saw Suzanne Vega perform tonight. (This was the subject of a few comments this summer.) It was a great concert. I got to hear 2 favorites...



and



Though I have to say learning that "Blood Makes Noise" is about a panic attack sort of dimmed my juvenile joy on this one.


...but missed the third.



Of course, much to John's disappointment (but not surprise), she also played "Tom's Diner".

We felt it...

Last night about 8:30pm there was an earthquake. The details are below... but (and very thankfully) so far, when we've felt earthquakes we always think it's something else. I thought Hayden was scratching herself and just kicking the couch. So you can imagine the feeling. My sincere hope is we never have to feel anything stronger! (To give some perspective on this map, the epicenter was 36 miles SSW of Anchorage.)

The Weather

I never, ever expected that it would be colder (or, at least, as cold) in Phoenix as in Anchorage. NEVER! And yet... this was Wednesday's forecast. Burrr. The sun is the big clue that the top is Phoenix.

Reservation to talk about weather

I'm definitely coming back to talk about the crazy AZ vs. AK weather... warmer here than there!!! But, I've got a really rotten headache and had a fever last night... so, I'm holding my place to talk about this later. Hope you're staying warm!

Groundhog's Day

...apparently doesn't mean a whole lot to Alaskan kids. They evidently don't care whether a glorified rodent see his shadow or not. At first I thought it was because winter is what it is here and for as long as it wants. But then, I remembered that Arizona winter is relatively meaningless on the other side of the spectrum. (Except for today... more later.) So, what gives? Unclear... but interesting anyway.

$2

Tom (pictured at left) is our school's music teacher. My students had music today. As we're walking out of music class, one of my students turns to Tom and says, "I'll give you $2 for your mustache." Needless to say, Tom didn't take him up on the offer... even though I warned him he wouldn't be getting an offer like that again soon ;)