The BioSITE year is almost over. Today we measured shade density and tree height. It's kind of difficult to explain the concept of percentages to third graders, but we muddled through it somehow. One girl just had to fish a large, very dead crayfish out of the water, and was walking around holding a claw when I reminded her that it was rotting. She put it down quite quickly. Another student had to sit with one of the classroom teachers because he had tried to push a fellow student into the street on the way to the museum. One of the boys in my group spent some time telling me about how all of his cousins are in gangs. I often think it's a shame that we have so little time with these kids each week, because things are so rushed when we try to fit everything into the time we have. I always like to go off on tangents and spend time simply exploring things when I'm leading a group of kids. Experiencing any type of natural phenomena shouldn't have to happen in city time. These kinds of lessons need wilderness time, where things are allowed to unfold without the intrusion of clocks or calendars.

At home, The Dickens screamed for ice cream, Willow played in the dirt, the boys got new bouncy balls, and Jen and I decided that when we own a house (positive thinking here) we're going to paint the walls of at least one room in sunset colors, with sun colors gradually merging into a night sky with stars and a little crescent moon near the ceiling.

And here's a pathetically short list of the books I've managed to read this year (and late last year):

Sculpting In Time - Andrey Tarkovsky
The Perfect Storm - Sebastian Junger
Hosts - F.Paul Wilson
Tithe - Holly Black
High & Mighty - Keith Bradsher (SUVs suck, here's why...)
The Experiences of Flaxman Low - Kate & Hesketh Prichard
The Pleasures of a Futuroscope - Lord Dunsany
Bed of Nails - Michael Slade
Shadows Over Baker Street - edited by M. Reaves & J. Pelan
The Big Rumpus - Ayun Halliday
No Touch Monkey - Ayun Halliday
Deep Fathom - James Rollins
Ice Hunt - James Rollins
Tales of the Grotesque - L.A. Lewis
The King's Bastard - Count Stenbock
Refinerytown - Charles Delint
Seven Gothic Tales - Isak Dinesen

If I had a Typepad account, I could put little pictures of the book covers up too, except for the ones that aren't in the system for whatever reason. I'm still in the middle of the Isak Dinesen book, and so far all of the stories revolve around mistaken identities - very mistaken identities. Quite good, all of them. In fact, I'm going to go read now. It's free (well, once you have the book, anyway) and it's good for you.

cds I listened to while dispensing the news from a swiftly moving vehicle: The Angels of Light "New Mother", Sol Invictus "Brugge", and Molasses "A Slow Messe"