operation "eat the stuff in my cupboards" part 1

Food experiment 1: cauliflower with marinara sauce

Rationale: had cauliflower in fridge from veggie basket, it's about the same colour as pasta, and it *seems* like it might be one of those starchy type vegetables? Kind of like a potato? So I don't really know about that, and no, I haven't bothered looking it up. Other rationale: it was 9pm, I was hungry, and that seemed like the easiest and fastest thing I could make for dinner.

Method: steam head of cauliflower, hack into pieces, pour sauce on it directly from jar (the cauliflower was hot enough to warm the sauce as far as I was concerned).

Result: surprisingly delicious! Although I'd also say that my 9:30pm level of hunger might have me slightly biased.

Geology Club, Solar Ovens, San Andreas Fault & Wind Wolves Preserve

This semester the Geology Club has taken the school by storm. They are awesome, so here's a little overview of what they've been up to (with, or without, me).

giant human mudcrack on genuine mudcracks

Last fall, a time that longs to be forgotten, BC got the photovoltaic carport system installed. In order to make some degree of effort to inform the school about solar energy (not at all done by BC), I convinced the Geology Club that they needed to do something.

homemade solar oven expo - what you can build with less than $5 worth of material - they cooked cup o' noodles for any students who came by during "Spring Fling" week

you can't help but feel a little special when jumping photos are done in your honour and absence

1 of two field trips this semester; the first going to one of the usual hot spots, the San Andreas Fault. The trip was supposed to go to Montana de Oro, however the tsunami that occurred over in Japan also happened to trigger waves on the California coast, and consequently resulted in the beaches being closed... on the very day of my plate tectonics field trip. Oh, the irony.

Much earlier this year I trekked up to Wind Wolves Preserve to "train" park volunteers in their local geology so that they could... well... actually teach geology during their geology program.

turritella!

...and I've been making stuff too.

Engineery and I have been working off and on (mostly off) on a totally awesome Pi quilt. Unfortunately, despite meticulous measurements and CAD drawings, we are still having issues. The Pi quilt will become a Pi floor cushion when we finally complete it.



I used a pretty neat tutorial to make these "tea wallets" for the Geology Club to sell at Garden Fest for fundraising. I still have a couple of them left, so if you want one, let me know. You may get lucky!



I FINALLY ground the punties off the remainder of my glass pieces that I made... oh, maybe 3 years ago? They're all so functional now, it's great!

In case you're wondering what the heck that even means, this might help clarify, but then keep in mind that novice glass blowers tend to be a little too generous with the punty, leaving behind a large wad of glass on the bottom that needs to be ground down.

Assessment, or something.

I received the following e-mail today: "We have a large, blank posterboard where we can display the exciting ways we are assessing our students. This is due April 15th. If you can get it to me by 4pm Thursday, I would appreciate it. ... Anything you can contribute would be appreciated. Remember, use colors and big fonts." Well, I have no idea what they are looking for - but having recently seen a super cute faux Ikea instruction sheet for Stonehenge, I decided that was what I was going to do. During my lab this afternoon, in between helping students figure out rates of motion of various dinosaurs, I drew a bunch of cartoons. Note that I managed to not accomplish the "use colors" part of the vague instructions. To remedy this, I handed off the drawings (after scanning) to a student to colour during the geology club meeting. Mission accomplished. I can't wait to see what the administrators make of it.