project-y

Lately the neighbs has been really great about helping me come up with activities to do in my class. Case in point: my students were learning about reciprocal actions a couple of weeks ago (we kiss each other, they fight with each other, y'all scratch each other's backs, etc.) and he had the stroke of genius to have them make sock puppets and act out the vocabulary. Which went brilliantly, in case you were wondering.

Well, last week they had to study superlatives (the biggest/best/nicest/etc. in the world/room/family/etc.) and I had the idea that I'd make some awards and they could bestow them upon one another. So I enlisted the neighbs's assistance in choosing some household objects that seemed to suggest laudable personal traits and turning them into badges, medals, trophies, plaques and other commemorative trinkets.

After much cajoling, he reluctantly agreed to help me. All in all he was, again, a veritable fount of creativity, although we didn't see eye to eye on the aesthetic improvements I tried to make on the chosen household objects. He seemed to think the red pipe cleaners and aluminum foil I brought to bear on the matter didn't make the household objects any more award-y. I disagreed. There is nothing in this world so fine, I argued, that it can't be improved by red pipe cleaners and aluminum foil. I hope you will agree when you see the results of our efforts:



Despite this lack of vision on the neighbs's part, I decided that his patience with my off-the-wall, last-minute teaching inspirations deserved a reward of its own, so I came up with this one, for Most Supportive Boyfriend (please note the marked enhancements achieved by the addition of an aluminum-foil star and a red pipe-cleaner bow):



Yeah, I know. Not the most flattering picture. There is another one that better shows off his luscious ta-tas but I can't find it right now. Mysteriously he gave me permission to post this photo, though.

Now, I'd like to draw your attention to one more thing about the above photo: the light fixture above the sink. This is one of those eight-dollar craptacular light fixtures that go in the half-bathroom in the basement next to the water heater. Only it's in my kitchen, lucky me, so I duct-taped decorative paper umbrellas on bamboo skewers to the top of the fixture. Which worked great, until the bulbs burned through the bamboo skewers and/or the tape got too dusty and/or the umbrella heads fell off into the dirty dishwater. Which is why there are only two of them left in the picture.

Well, no longer. Because Red called me up the other day and said, I think I solved your light fixture problem, and she came over with some tools and other materials and we built this:



Which technically you can still see the craptacular original fixture underneath, but it's hidden by two layers of cool fabric from Ikea and now when you do the dishes you feel like you're bathed in a gentle canopy of green glowy light instead of about to get konked on the head by a flaming cocktail umbrella.

In short, life is good.