this year is bound to be a whirlwind of different projects-not all school-related

so..on to a new project. i have never done anything stock-market-related. i will admit, i am becoming interested in it now. i just need to understand it better, so i have been doing some reading. when we get our little one-time bonus in october, i think i may be using it toward that end. (although i will be using a baby-chunk for a shelving mini-island for the apt. b/c i am low on space for pans and counter-prep area).

yesterday on the way home, there was a car next to me, and i did a double take b/c the driver had a pair of sunglasses on, and his seeing glasses pushed up on his head, then i noticed the other glasses hanging from the ceiling. what originally attracted me to the car was the open back window with an orange extension cord leading to the roof (there was something up there, but i am uncertain what it was).

it's a little difficult to see, but he does have a set on his face, one pushed up on his head, and 3 hanging from the ceiling.

this morning i was on my way out the door with the boys for our walk, and i had to walk back in and change out of shorts and grab a light jacket-i didn't realize the little cold-front was going to make it that chilly...of course in part because of the light breeze. it was refreshing!

this morning i went on a mission. i was out looking for half dollars. not all banks carry them any more, so it's kind of a hit or miss.

it's a little adventure i'm on.

well, i stopped at the boa on webb chapel, and i was the only white girl in the place. even the tellers were all hispanic. it reminded me of when i lived in HONDURAS, or even when i worked for the airlines and had to do a training stint in mexico city for a month.

then when i got home, i remembered that i needed to try something. so i got a lime out of my purse. yep, you heard me right. renee, our art teacher gave me one to try a little experiment at home. so i squeezed some of the juice out into a bowl and then proceeded to pour it into the syringe (the vet gives them to me for dog-meds)...then i made a design on the paper. it came out interesting-a bit splotchy because of the pulp and seeds, but interesting.

not a hairdryer. that's a very high-powered professional heat gun.

 then after making the design, i wanted to see if my heat gun would do the trick to make the chemical reaction take place quickly. it DID!

lime juice design-from the real lime

 then i wanted to see if i could get a more controlled look. i wasn't sure if the reconstituted lemon juice would have the same effect or not. it DID! anyhoo, so i will take the heat gun for renee to use at school on monday-it will make the process much easier.

that's me!

and so i decided to try one last experiment...i added a little bit of sugar-knowing what sugar does when it gets hot enough, it might be a neat chemical reaction....well, here is what i got:

you can kinda' see how it did harden up and glaze a little bit. cool effect.

oh, and yes, we did have our projects on friday and all but three groups brought theirs. they have the ultimatum of finishing by monday and getting a lower grade, or turning in a report on monday about their scientist. hope they do it! i wasn't sure they'd be able to do a gallery walk and grade each others work (with a rubric) or not, but we got it done! now i need to see if their grading fell in line with mine or not. smile. being the first time, it might be rough.

this week should be a bit more interesting.
julie