School Days~Deja Vu

I had an interesting and unique experience on Monday.  As I’ve mentioned on many occasions, Ralph is a wonderful artist.  I’ve shown examples of his work.  He was invited to teach a class in drawing to a group of 6th graders in our local grade school.

This was interesting on several levels.  This is the school I attended as a child and I just realized that I don’t think they call them “grade” schools anymore.  I think the accepted term is “middle” school.  Hmmm.  Old am I.  The school has changed a great deal over the years.  It has always been a highly rated school and my sister and Ele both felt we got a very good education there.  Many people in our town complain about how high our taxes are.  I’m among them but when I think of the fact that much of that goes to the school system, I shut up and remember my School Days.

I’m not going to reminisce about that too much at the moment.  One other interesting point is that the art teacher who invited Ralph to conduct the class used to be the Mayor of our town.  She conducted our wedding ceremony almost 12 years ago now.  Pretty Cool!

I had fun learning to use my little video camera that I purchased a few weeks ago.  I was able to capture most of the presentation, but I still have no clue how to upload the video here, so all you get are photos.  I had a hard time trying to get pictures unobtrusively from the back of the classroom without getting little faces in the photos, but I’ve done my best.

(I’m hoping this is posting properly because I’m having really weird issues with WordPress today.)

That’s Ralph doing his thing showing the young ones how to do fabulous things with pencils and markers.

Ralph, after the presentation…

He did all kinds of demonstrations and the kids were very attentive…for 6th graders!  He did a great job, as always!! It’s very funny in the video I took…because of the white board…White Board?  When I went to school, we had blackboards!  Anyway, because of the white board and the fact that he had a white shirt on…in the video he looks like a tiny disembodied head moving back and forth across the screen.  At least we have an record of it.  

He loves to teach children to draw and he’s so good at it.  I keep telling him he should advertise drawing/art lessons for children and adults.  He has so many good ideas about how to make it easy and fun for people to draw.  I keep saying I’m going to sit down and draw something based on what I’ve learned just from listening to him all these years.  I might be fun to try!

Due to the issues I’m having with WordPress today, I’m going to keep this short.  Hopefully, the internet elves with get this all fixed and it will be working better tomorrow.  

Happy Tuesday!!

Fun Day Out and Around

Since I had Weight Watchers Saturday morning I couldn’t go to breakfast with Ele, Jim and Little Michael, so we planned on going  to lunch.

We settled on going to our old favorite, In A Pickle.  Sadly, it was closed.  No sign saying if it was just closed for the Easter Weekend or Closed.  I hope not because we’ve come to really enjoy it.  I’ll have to check during the week to see if they’re open.

We decided to head to Pat’s Pizza in National Park.  I had their Wally salad again with Lettuce, Grapes, Cranberries, Apples, Avocados, Walnuts, mandarins, Croutons and Gorgonzola Cheese.  I had it with their balsamic vinaigrette.

Looks Yummy!

Do you think I enjoyed it?!? 😉

Ele, Jim, little Michael and Ralph!

Ele, Jim, Me and Ralph…portrait courtesy of our resident 8-year-old stupendous photographer!

He couldn’t be cuter if he tried!  Michael likes it when he makes guest appearances on BCDC.  I told him he can be part of it any time he wants!

After lunch we were off to Barnes & Noble where we planned to meet up with Kristen.

Michael and Ele.

Jim and Ralph

Ralph drawing…as always!! 😉

Kristen and Me, taken by Me!

Me and Krisen, taken by Michael!

My HUGE Iced Coffee!  I asked for the cinnamon dolce flavoring and it had the feel of the Frappuchino without the Points.  Because I used real half and half, I gave it 3 points.  I think I was safe with that.  It was so good and I think it will be my B & N drink for the spring and summer!

Michael as a Pirate!

We sat and chatted for a Long time!  I was proud of myself because I didn’t buy anything, not a single book!  That’s not easy for me.

Speaking of books, because I woke up at 2am and tried for an hour to go back to sleep, I started reading at 3am and finished my book, The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen.

I always enjoy her books and this was no exception.  She always tosses in a bit of magic and I like that.

I then started A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness.

Very intriguing so far.  I think I’m hooked already.  I like when a book grabs me and doesn’t let go.

Today is Easter Sunday.  It looks like it will be a sunny day and weather reports say it will be warm.  Dinner at Ele’s today.  I have a big salad to make and I believe there is macaroni and cheese in my future. 🙂  We’re hoping that our cousin LuAnn will be able to join us.  It depends on how she’s feeling after her surgery.

Wishing a Very Happy Easter to you All! 🙂

The Head of the Class

I apologize for not posting yesterday but…it was one of those days.

Ralph and I were up and out of the house by 6:30am yesterday.  We had an interesting experience.  As a retired police composite artist, he was asked to speak to a law enforcement class at Cumberland County Technical Education Center in Bridgeton. 

Ralph is truly a wonderful teacher and in my opinion, he should have pursued that after retirement.  He spoke for about an hour and a half.  He explained some of the basics of drawing and how he would go about creating a composite. 

I wasn’t able to take any photos during the lecture because I didn’t want to be flashing and distracting him and the students.  I did take a few of the drawings he did as demonstration.

When we were leaving, the gentleman who organized the lecture gave us these…

It was a very interesting experience and the students who are all high school students were attentive and asked very good questions.  They seemed to enjoy it a great deal.  I was fun!

Having had no time for breakfast prior to leaving the house, we were both starved!

We headed to the 7 Star Diner in Deptford.  This is a diner that was recently taken over by new owners.  I hadn’t had breakfast there since the change, and it was a pleasant treat.  They have a new menu for omelettes.  I ordered a BTO omelette.  It had fresh basil, tomatoes and sliced red onions.  It was delicious!

I really enjoyed it.  We were shocked to learn something when Ralph ordered a “large” glass of milk.  Our server told us that an 8 ounce glass was considered a large and it cost $3.29!! We were shocked.  Ralph had said he still wanted it because he didn’t realize what she meant.  Sometimes restaurants are really outrageous with their prices.  This is a perfect example.  The other prices are reasonable there which is why it didn’t make any sense.

Of course, while we waited for our food, Ralph kept himself busy…

…a bunny for the server!

Some of you know that I will be walking in the Relay for Life for the American Cancer Society on May 20-21, 2011. 

I will be talking more about this soon.  If you would like to donate to support our team you can go to my Relay page.  Thank you for your support.

Looks like it will be another busy day…Happy Wednesday!