Quick Successions: New Mexico Edition

I went to Washington DC the second week of October and I was there in the middle of a heat wave. It was still 90 degrees. The hurricane hit just as I left. When I returned, it was fall break. Hannah wanted to do a superhero camp at the local children's science center. It was superhero themed. Here is she is as we dropped her off.  Then, there was the balloon fiesta. We went to a part of town where you could see balloons but didn't have to fight for parking and then ... out for pizza. That Saturday was a pumpkin festival and so off we went. It was still pretty hot outside. Here we are trying to look aloof and cool. We had decorated for Halloween several weeks ago, but I finally got around to getting some pictures. Hannah was a police officer this year. We went to the Autumn Festival Fundraiser at her school and she went through her first Haunted House and played games for candy and prizes. As the big day closed in, we painted...

For this girl, school started in July. She took a job as a bus driver to help pull her weight around the house. :)  Then we all have our birthdays. I worked on mine and then came home and ate a sandwich and took a nap. For Brian, we went to eat steak and he got a birthday dessert. When we are not at school we hang out with friends. This is the daughter of one of my college roommates. We get together for dinner and occasionally do other social stuff. This time we made cookies. The fall is a prime time for ballooning in the Southwest. They launch balloons at local schools and we went one early morning to see it. Fall is also a good time for picnics. There is a duck pond on the university campus. We had sandwiches and then frolicked.  It is great to have such good weather.

I got to a biennial conference in southern England in the summers. So, I get to see a lot of "1066 country." I try to see something new every time I go. This time I went to Battle Abbey with a group of my colleagues. It was a very warm that day, but we managed to get around the see the Abbey as well as the town. Behind the Abbey is the Battlefield where the Normans conquered the Saxons. Inside the Abbey there is a souvenir shop in the bottom, a place of worship at the top, guest quarters on the backside with large windows, and to the side was the place where the monks lived and trained. 

Not long after school got out we went to Utah to see family.  The first week of June, Hannah had summer camp. She went to a bilingual science camp called Crazy Colors. She learned lots of Spanish as also did stuff with the physics, chemistry, biology all related to colors. Before dropping her off to camp, we picnicked in a lush green space downtown. Huge grassy areas are rare to New Mexico and therefore, all the more treasured.  Here is the camper on her first day. She really had a ton of fun and we plan to look for something similar in the future.  The week after her camp, I taught a class on campus. It was about assessment. I have taught this sort of class before, but not for several years because I was assigned research in graduate school rather than teaching. The teaching did was all linguistics. But I had a lot of fun with the teachers in the class. They were kind and hard working even though 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. for a week is a grueling ...