Staycation - the rest of the days.  I kind of fell behind, and now I'm on a different vacation - so I will try to cover everything just a little bit.  Last Thursday for our Staycation we walked at Walnut Grove Park.  That was a pretty shady walk which was important last week (100+ degrees)!  Friday we had supper at Taxi's (half-price bottles of wine) - I had the penne pasta with vodka cream sauce.  YUM!  Must figure out a way to duplicate that!  We went to the Old Market to walk around a bit - and that was pretty much the end of the Staycation.  


As I mentioned earlier, I am now on another vacation with three dear friends.  Sue is from Chadron so we drove out yesterday - we'll stay here for a couple days - then we're going up to the Black Hills and we'll stay there for a couple days.  On our way out yesterday, we stopped in Gordon to visit Sue's Uncle Mike and Aunt Loretta.  What a delightful couple!  They served the best baklava that I've ever had - made by their daughter Judy.  It was a fun time.


Today we started out at Toadstool Geologic Park.  There are all kinds of strange geologic formations - not to mention the surrealistic landscape.  It truly feels like you're on a different planet. 

 

 

Here is more of our walk into the rock formations.  Margaret, Mary, and Sue are walking ahead.  If you see someone carrying a stick, it is because we needed something to scare the rattlesnakes!

 

 

 

 

 

There's also a sod house at Toadstool.  Many of the plants on the roof are cacti.

We also stopped at the Hudson Meng Bison Boneyard.  We met a lovely young lady named Mariah Cook who is a godchild of a friend of mine and who also happens to be Miss Nebraska!  We had a nice visit with her and she told us a lot of interesting things about the bones that have been discovered at that site.

The next stop was High Plains Homestead for lunch at the Cook Shack.  Best quesadilla ever!  Also - Best chocolate pie ever!  

 

 

There's more but I'm fading fast - I will have to finish tomorrow. . .

Staycation - Day 5.  Not much to report - Gary and I walked at Chalco Hills for about an hour this AM - after that, I napped.  Gary hung cabinets in the basement.  I went to Barnes & Noble for about an hour and got home about 2 1/2 hours later (I can't stay at Barnes & Noble for just an hour - who am I kidding!)!  I called 8 restaurants looking for a place for us to eat and nobody was open - so we ended up going to Whole Foods and bringing it home.  Spanakopita and Greek Potatoes - pretty yummy!


Here are the cabinets that Gary hung this afternoon.

Staycation - Day 4 - We went to Lincoln to catch a show at Mueller Planetarium, but that didn't work at all.  We got lost, we were 10 minutes late - and, of course, they can't let you into a planetarium after the show starts.  We decided that we don't like Lincoln streets!  We went down to the Haymarket, had some ice cream, found a place with wifi which helped us find a theater in the area and we went to Moonrise Kingdom.  Good movie.  Then we went to Vincenzo's for Italian - it was good.  We got home and noticed some almost-red grape tomatoes  Go tomatoes!

Our vacation plans fell through this year - we were going to go to the Colorado Springs area and stay at a cabin with some friends.  Because of the fires, that didn't happen - and my heart goes out to all the people who are dealing with that terrible disaster.  My cancelled vacation pales in comparison to what they are going through.  But - back to our vacation - after some discussion, we decided to stay here in Omaha and have a "staycation"!  Our plan is to dine out lots, visit local sites, and just relax.  


Day 1 was Sat Jun 30 - 
Not much going on - we just started our mini adventure and we haven't made a lot of plans.  To find some new places to eat (I refuse to cook during our staycation!), I went to Urbanspoon and looked for places that we had never been, and that scored 90% or above.  Tonight we ate at Blue Planet across Center Street from Aksarben Village.  It was really good.  Gary had a burger, I had a black bean burger, we both had fries and everything was awesome!  They don't deep fry their fries - they put them in a convection oven - and they're really good. 


Day 2 was Sun Jul 1 -
We made reservations at a lodge room out at Mahoney State Park - just for one night.  Mostly we sat on the deck, drank wine, read, and chatted.

Day 3 - Mon Jul 2 -

We took a walk this morning in the woods; then we went to the Ruth Musil Giger Memorial Waterway; then we stopped at the James Family Conservatory. When we left Mahoney, we went to the SAC Museum which is next to the park. It was very interesting and it was fun to look at the planes.  After the museum, we went back to Omaha and got some lunch at Abelardo's a little north of 90th & Maple.  Really tiny and a little bit on the "dive" side - but really good food - and not very expensive.  The drive-through is open 24 hours - this is a good alternative to Taco Bell and the food is lots better.  We went to Jazz (15th & Farnam) for supper tonight - I've been there before but Gary wanted to try it.  I really like their food so I was happy to oblige - red beans and rice, cole slaw, and cold beer!  Yum!

I read a book earlier this year called "The Vegetable Gardener's Container Bible" by Edward Smith.  In it were instructions for making a self-watering container with a plastic storage container.  My husband made 2 of those containers for me and I planted a tomato and some lettuce in one and a tomato and a cucumber plant in the other one.  The lettuce didn't work out so I pulled it out.  The tomatoes are growing like gangbusters - so much so that one of them covered up the cucumber and I didn't think that would make it either - but Gary devised a brilliant trellis (with a little help from me) and I think that the cucumber may have a fighting chance.  See below -

Let's see - what else am I doing on my summer vacation?  Well, I painted our bedroom and bathroom.  Same color (blue) but lighter and a little grayer.  The pseudo-curtain is just temporary.  

I've also been sewing some things for my quilting group - 

I've been reading too - Eating Animals by Jonathon Saffron Foer; Black Cherry Blues and Heaven's Prisoners by James Lee Burke; Murder in Havana and Murder on the Potomac by Margaret Truman.  I think that's it.  Actually, I'm done with only 2 out of the 5, but I will get the rest wrapped up here pretty soon.


We're heading for Colorado next Saturday - hope the fires don't get us.

My daughter is putting together a very fun blog about their garden at The Brownersens.  Gary and I helped them do some gardening when we were in Minneapolis for Mother's Day weekend.  They've got a nice looking plot.  I've set up a couple containers with tomatoes and a cucumber - pretty humble next to Shawna and Derek's garden in Minneapolis.


School is out - the last student day was last Wednesday and I've been putting in some more time the last couple days.  I usually need extra time to wrap things up in a more leisurely fashion.  The next thing is to make a summer list.  It'll probably include sewing, reading, yard work, and painting (walls, that is).  And then the 10 weeks will be past and it'll be time to start another year.  There will be new challenges what with 2 fewer classrooms and many fewer paraprofessional hours.  But we will be positive and effective - kids will be safe, they will learn, and we will have fun!

I've spent the last two days looking at apps and sites that I learned about during NETA.  There's a wealth of information and activities available.  Thanks to Tammy Worcester (tammyworcester.com), one of our presenters at NETA here are some of my favorite sites to use with an IWB -


 - Drawzit - http://www.drawzit.com/
 - Draw A Stickman - http://www.drawastickman.com/
 - Kisstunes.com - http://www.kisstunes.com/ (requires a download - turns your computer keyboard into a piano keyboard)
 - Cookie - http://www.cookie.com/
 - Fuel the Brain - http://www.fuelthebrain.com 
 - Pauly's Game Page - http://www.paulysplayhouse.com/paulys_playhouse/game_page/game.html
 - Sugar, Sugar - http://www.bartbonte.com/sugarsugar/
 - Capstone Kids - http://www.capstonekids.com/games.html (matching and word search games)
 - PBS Whiteboard Games - http://pbskids.org/whiteboard/
 - Scholastic's Whiteboard Activities - http://teacher.scholastic.com/whiteboards/languagearts.htm
 - Merriam-Webster's Word Central - http://www.wordcentral.com/games.html
 - Traveler IQ Challenge - http://www.travelpod.com/traveler-iq/usa
 - Clock - http://www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/mentalmaths/clock.html
 - Grapher - http://www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/mentalmaths/grapher.html
 - Class Dojo - http://www.classdojo.com/

Welcome to our blog!  I was inspired to try this by attending the NETA (Nebraska Educational Technology Association) conference in Omaha this Thursday and Friday, April 26 & 27, 2012.  I have done a little posting previously.  Since I'm a Teacher Librarian I teach technology skills in an elementary school, and I've had kids post to a blog in the past - but it always seems to fall by the wayside.  Also, I've authored a family website using iWeb - but one of the presenters at NETA mentioned that MobileMe is going away this summer.  I decided that now was a good time to shift over to another format and share some news this way.  We're glad you're here!