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| Recycling at its best |
The month started with both Igor and Nikita celebrating new decades. Igor turned 50, and enjoyed the Georgian roast lamb and Puerto Rican coffee. Nikita got a delayed Laser Tag birthday party for turning 10. The party went smoothly, and the late arrival of the pizza meant that the veggies got eaten. The boys also got surprisingly crafty: they made masks and other adornments (right) with the tablecloth. After the party, Nikita had an impromptu playdate with his best friend (they tried to make a compost in the yard) before assembling the toys he received. I'm touched he still asks me to help.
June was quite a busy month for Nikita because school and extra-curricular activities were ending. At school, he presented telemarking as the thing he learned this year, and he was so excited to receive deodorant at school as part of their module on sex (this
article will help supplement the information). One weekend was super crazy: Saturday, he had 5 hours of dress rehearsal for a Russian play, followed by a piano recital; his piano playing was not as good as past recitals, but at least he got through it. He triumphed, however, the next day as the lead in a play based on Victor Dragunsky's
Adventures of Dennis (translation
here). Below is the video of the following stories (and start times): The Mystery Clears (5:25 - Nikita's first scene); House on Fire, or an Icy Rescue (12:02); Red Balloon in a Blue Sky (22:00).
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| More laurels for the shelf |
Ivan had an eventful month as well. He played flawlessly in his piano recital, and got 1st place in his first horse show (video
here; Nikita got 2nd place - right). We enjoyed watching "Thor: The Dark World" and "Strictly Ballroom," but he preferred playing soccer to watching the World Cup. And at our end-of-the-school-year Vietnamese lunch, he discovered he likes tripe!
Although classes ended for me last month, I certainly didn't sit back and relax. First, I graded and commented on essays written by incoming MIT frosh. The grading session was quite informative. I learned about the necessity of bringing needlework, the yumminess of collard greens sauteed with garlic and scallions, and a cool headstone quote: "Ephemeral, in perpetuity." The best quote, however, goes to my colleague for this gem: "Do Germans want to be happy? Their art suggests: No."
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| With StevenBe and chandelier |
At the same time, I was preparing for a conference for writing teachers. In addition to putting together my talk, I had to pack up my office for a move, and bake freezable treats (cashew butterscotch bars and mint brownies) for the receptions after the piano recital and Russian play (I arrived from the conference after the piano recital). The conference was very good: the audience for my panel was large and engaged, and I got to attend a free play ("Crimes of the Heart" at the Guthrie) and talk extensively with Judith Swan (whose
article is commonly used at MIT). I didn't have as much time as I would have liked to explore the city because of other work I had, but I did get to meet the fabulous StevenBe (right) and eat some pretty good food: Caspian Bistro for Persian, Punch Neapolitan Pizza for 90-second pizza, and Al's Breakfast for blueberry & walnut flapjacks plus conversation with the current owner, Doug. According to Doug, sports is sublimated warfare, and dance is sublimated sex. So true!
The rest of the month was taken up with commenting frosh essays, but the California-like weather (warm, dry) made it bearable. I also thoroughly enjoyed
The Silkworm (after so
many duds) and a reunion with my former colleagues at Virtual Text (no link because the ergito website no longer exists!).
I'll end this post with something else I learned on my trip: the Delta in-flight safety video is actually worth watching.
