Thanks, Hil! I was ri-ight.

Yes, a regular loaf of sandwich style bread. There's no such thing, is there? Alas. Nothing is soft and fluffy like wheat.

There may well be such a thing, but it may not be available at a market. Maybe a specialty bakery? I'm thinking the real challenge isn't the nice texture (I do a lot of gluten-free baking at home) but the yeast.

Yay! Didn't you go back to the same stylist?

Same place, but that stylist wasn't available. I was actually quite nervous, because they were colouring my hair too and we disagreed on which colour it should be. It looks fine, but it isn't quite the same colour as last time. But I'm okay with that.

But what was really horrid was when she thought she'd finished cutting my hair, and I was all "...er, but it's not finished!" Because although I'd clearly indicated that the lowest part of the bob was supposed to be somewhere between mouth and chin, she'd got the whole thing Too Fucking Long, and I felt like crying when I looked at my reflection. But when I explained, she sorted it out, and now I like it. But it doesn't make my heart sing quite as much as it did when the other guy did it.

shrugs

Lovely to have it short and neat again, though - it was a mess.

Meanwhile, I'm happy to say I knew what bemused meant. Go Team Me! But I can see that the definition you'd come up with is a sensible enough one, if one's having to hazard a guess from context and from what it sounds like. It's all good. (But I don't think we're at a 'prescriptive/descriptive' level here - I think y'all just didn't know what the word meant.)

Cracking tattoo, Meara!

...aaand now I'm pondering getting another. Hmm...

eta

Meanwhile, today I went to the Crocodile Farm and Zoo with my colleague to suss it out, as that's where we're taking our kids for a school trip.

Man, that was depressing as fuck. Thailand's approach to animal care is...well, in a lot of ways it's like being in the west 60 years ago, I guess. We didn't even go look at the Crocodile Show or the Elephant Show, because they will be A Very Bad Thing for sure, but even just looking at the poor beasts in their wee cages was thoroughly depressing. However, that's what it's like in this country. We're studying plants and animals, and it will be great for the kids to get the chance to see real animals.

So what we'll be doing is working a lot beforehand on what animals need, and then when we go there the kids will be looking to see whether they actually have what they need - adequate space, shelter, water etc etc. And when we're back at school, we can use some of our Building Learning Power/We Can Do It lesson time to work on designing our own zoos, taking into account what the animals actually NEED.

So although I have very mixed feelings about this (I mean, they have tigers chained up that you can have your photo taken with. I am quite sure they beat them, having seen similar things happen at the Elephant Park), I think that it can be a good educationally valuable experience, and can be channelled into raising their awareness of how to care for animals.

Gosh, but it was depressing, though.

Also, the crocodile farm bit - now that wasn't so bad (although it was an ENORMOUS number of crocodiles - but they had quite a lot of space) but it is a bit scary, thinking of taking 40 6 year olds to this place. If we were in the UK, doing risk assessments...well, I don't think that it would pass. But it's Thailand. It'll be fine.

I am ashamed to say I had to skip 900 messages. I hope all is well with everyone.

We are home from the UK. We go back to work tomorrow, as well as starting class, and various exercise things. Something new and exciting every day.

So tired. But I should probably stay awake so that I can get used to 1) Eastern time zone schedule and 2) getting up early for work schedule.

I think a quick trip to the bakery is in order.

Welcome back, Nora & Tom! I hope the trip was wonderful.

Zen, I'll ask my sister if she's discovered any decent bread. Both she and my nephew have celiac disease.

Welcome home, Nora and Tom. A trip to the bakery should always be in order.

Speaking of cast iron skillets (what? We were!)... I seasoned mine with olive oil because it's all I had and it had been a while. That's OK, right? My cornbread isn't going to taste all funny now is it?

Morning, all. This weekend has been less than fantabulous, as I was tired as hell all week, went to bed around 8 and then all day yesterday I spent getting/fighting/having a really painful headache. Not quite a migraine, but close. I had to cancel on a friend's bday party, and was asleep thanks to Ambien at 9:30.

Now I get to clean, do laundry, grade and lesson plan. I feel so unweekended.

Thanks, Sparky! Burrell, what's the problem with the yeast? I thought the only problem was that some people were allergic to it, which AFAIK I'm not. (Wouldn't be surprised though - I'm becoming allergic to more and more things. What's up with that?)

I have somethings to do. Why sit I at computer instead?

I have somethings to do. Why sit I at computer instead?

Because it's much, much easier.

Kristin: I have insent a request to attend NCTE to my boss. If I get approved, I'll probably be going with co-worker, but hey, maybe she'll be ok with getting a single and me shackin' up with you!

Cross fingers! And yeah, Kozol, Tan and Esmerelda Santiago!