More summer!

Went to the beach yesterday for the first time in ages. Drove down Highway 84 through the beautiful redwoods to the coast, then drove south on 1 until we found the sun.

Getting a lot of sun lately. Spent last weekend in shorts and a t-shirt at Disneyland. I was pretty impressed! The old attractions (Pirates of the Caribbean, the Disneyland Railroad, Space Mountain, the Jungle Cruise) were as fun as ever, and the new stuff was awesome.

What impressed me the most was in California Adventure, which I didn't want to even bother with at first. Most of the attractions there have sort of a carnival feel, nothing that overwhelms you with glitz or branding. Yet the roller coaster had so much unexpected punch! And there was something special about the ride that spins you around on a swing (or maybe it was just the way the ride operator talked ... "Aw wight, Bumbobees! Weady, set, go!!"). The "Soaring Over California" attraction was definitely something else, though. The seats glide through the air, while fans and little spritzes of scent give you the distinct feeling that you're flying over the forests, fields, and oceans shown on the most amazing screen I've ever seen. It was bowl-shaped, so even when I looked straight down, there was no indication that I was in a theater; I saw the tops of trees, waves, whatever was being projected ahead of me. Then there were the fireworks. Really, really well orchestrated with music and themes to match attractions at the park. I didn't expect much out of this trip, but it turned out to be almost worth the $70/ticket.

It was great to see Jarrett, too, and that made the whole trip worthwhile. It reminded me of the time we went to Alcatraz and saw another side of Matthew (the criminal side!!). Jarrett led us all around the park, filling us on in all kinds of details about park history, guiding us to the things we wanted to see, and getting us lots of discounts. :) It was really wonderful.

I'd like to thank you for reading my blog. And I'd like to thank my legs for always supporting me. And my arms for always being by my side. And my fingers and toes--I've always been able to count on them. (Lines from our guide on the Jungle Cruise, always campy, and always fun.)

Summer

It's finally here! I'm done with every responsibility until August (except for all the moving stuff). My week teaching summer school was hard; three-and-a-half hour classes were a bit much for me and the students, I didn't have much of a curriculum (so I was making stuff up again, which never comes out that well), and managing the boisterous ones continued to be a challenge.

I've been spending some time as a visitor in other people's summer school classrooms, and I really like that. Maybe Uncle Dennis' hint was in the right direction, and I'll soon be back in school. The classroom is a really rich environment for research; there's so much to observe. What are the teachers doing? What are the students doing? On a social level? On a mathematical level? What's working, what's not, and why?

I am looking forward to Chicago, though, and teaching there.

I should attach some photos of my parents' kitchen. But I don't have any yet. I'll work on that. The remodel was a huge improvement! The whole space is much more sunny and welcoming. I was home last weekend on July 3. Had a little fall while biking in the morning with Dad and Patrick, but seems no major damage was done. I scraped my knee, and there's a big bruise on my leg, but nothing that won't heal. What's really amazing, though, is my head. I guess I didn't break my fall very well with my hands, because my face hit the ground kind of hard; there's a huge scratch on my sunglasses, and a couple of little cuts on my lip--and bits of asphalt ground into my front teeth. I went to the dentist (good old Uncle Anson, what will we do without you in Chicago??), and he x-rayed it and checked for fractures. Didn't see any problems (whew) but said I should come back in a couple of weeks to have the tooth cleaned. ;)

Speaking of July 3, July 4 was pretty neat. Had a picnic with some friends, then came back to the apartment and since we're on the 8th floor, we could actually see really good fireworks from our balcony. At one point, we were watching fireworks in three different locations, all at once.

I saw Batman Begins a little while ago. It was a lot better than the latest Star Wars. But I didn't enjoy either of those movies as much as Russell Peters (thanks, Mike) or the campy Kung Fu Hustle that was made even more enjoyable by the non-subtitled admonishment before the movie (which I got from my dad on two clearly bootlegged discs) to refrain from illegal copying of this very good film (the speech ended with a yell of "Zui hao dianying!!! Yeah!").

Happy day.