Things we're Doing

Keetah is snoozing on the doormat, Porkchop is reading Harry Potter (I know! Weird, right?!), and I just finished my class reading for this week.

That's right, I'm back in school!

I'm officially enrolled in MU's master's program in educational technology, with an emphasis on learning systems design and development. The first class is all about doing needs assessments, and then future classes will be about website design and development and learning theory. My goal is to get into the e-learning sector. We'll see what happens.

The program is all on-line, which might seem sketchy to you, but seems great to me. For one thing, if someone annoys me, I don't have to read their posts! And I don't have to attend 3-hour-long seminar classes. Brilliant! Sign me up! (Oh wait, I'm already signed up.)

Also, since it's through MU, I get to take advantage of a Tuition Settlement Scholarship. It's a long story about one of our fellow students suing the school for charging tuition disguised as "educational fees," when it was written into the university's charter back in 1839 that in-state students wouldn't be charged tuition. All this means is that I will receive $550 a year while taking classes. Woot.

Birthday Things
Porkchop turned 30 last week (as in August 21)! We had cake, lunch, opened presents, went to the zoo, grilled shrimp, and went to see The Time Traveler's Wife (better than I expected).

The cake was super delicious and from The Cakery (PS: their cakes freeze really well. We're currently enjoying a freshly defrosted piece):


I suppose Porkchop's favorite present is her iPhone:


I will begrudgingly admit that the iPhone does come in handy. Like when we're lying in bed and want to look up something on the internet, but we don't want to retrieve the laptop from downstairs. Now we just reach for the iPhone. So depending on how you look at things, it's either convenient or it encourages laziness.

Other Things
Over the weekend, I baked the tomato-corn pie posted on Smitten Kitchen. Can I say YUM! I love the biscuit crust (Porkchop made our crust)!


Last night was our neighborhood association's movie night. Just a few months ago, we never would have imagined that we would be hanging out watching Labyrinth with one of neighborhood's alderperson, but since I'm now the secretary for the association, that's exactly what we did!

I'm glad we're getting more involved with the neighborhood and meeting the people we live around (By the way, on the street behind us, there are three queer residences and there was another queer couple watching the movie. It seems we unintentionally moved into the gayborhood).

The movie was held in the front yard of one of the public schools that was recently closed. The closure of so many remarkable public school buildings saddens me so much. Here is the outside of the front entrance:


Apart from the A/C unit, how cool would it be to go to school with these gargoyles?! I looked around inside, and the school was pretty awesome. Amazing wood floors and built-in wooden cabinets and closets in the classrooms, and stained glass. Plus, this school is only four blocks from us! Now kids are being bussed who-knows-where.

Also attending movie night was the Fire and Ice Cream Truck!


A neighborhood couple turned an old fire truck into an ice cream truck, but they don't sell your normal ice cream. They sell Serendipity ice cream, Gus' pretzels, Fitz's sodas, and other local tasty items. You can also find the truck around the Arch grounds.

Well, another weekend has passed too quickly!