Heifer Ranch Trip

I took some kids to learn about the Heifer Ranch and all the good they can do. We also want to build our own herb bed so we looked at theirs to get some ideas. The kids want to buy an animal for a family in a poor country. We also want to raise our own chickens. Here is the herb garden. The beds were made from the rocks in the area.
Can you see the red-headed bee?
One of the kids said, "I bet they don't kill that one. He has Afleck."

Now, all I could think of was Ellen and this camel kissing her daughter and you know what I didn't have any sanitizer on me.
Darcy was a champ and took it like a great adventurer that she has. I laughed out loud. Of coarse, I did it first.
If I would have seen this first, there would not be any kissing going on. The funny part: Here is the kicker. Here was all of this beauty, running water, handmade gardens and all of the kids on focused on the man-made toilets and the manure.

Hot Springs Conference

I am not going to say much about the EAST Conference. My students went and we didn't do too well. I was disappointed that I couldn't hear the presentation and see if that is what messed us up. All the pictures I took, except these three, had students in them and I couldn't put them on line without parental permission.
This is a plan for the park my students adopted behind the school. I hope someday we will have the finances to make their dream a reality.

New York, New York

I got to go to New York this time. It was my first time to be in the city for fun and not for business. I had a great time. To give you my favorite would be crazy. The whole trip was fantastic. The people, the air, the buildings, the culutre, the language, the entertainment, the food...it was all great. The mask for women who were accused of gossiping. They had to wear it around town. It was their husbands that decided if they were gossiping or not. Just call me "porker".
Our first night in Time Square. We arrived and it was cold, windy and heavy rain. Why does it never snow when I go up north. However, by the end of the night it had stopped and the next few days were beautiful. By the way, the day after we left. It snowed.
Our last day and Bryan and I were not happy about leaving.

We stayed at the W in Time Square. It was nice. It was smaller and not as classy as the W in Chicago but it was downtown and the location was worth the price. Plus I like it when I have a doorman hail me a taxi. I feel posh.
A client of Bryan's lives in New York and she invited us to the bar she works at on Amsterdam and 109th. You must go to this place. It is so cool. The name of the bar is Sip. It was started by two friends. One of the friends had a grandmother pass away and she left him a ton of pennies. In the pennies was this one that was really old and worth a lot of money. They used that money to buy the bar. All over the bar and on the walls and the tables are covered with the pennies he got from his grandmother with a clear laqure on them. This is a picture from that bar that I just loved. I loved, loved, loved it.
I met my friend Ann in New York. I teach her son back home. She was there visiting her brother who lives on Long Island. He took us to the Turkish Kitchen. The food was fabulous and the waitstaff was HOT.

When you first walk into the W, this is a wall and ceiling of running water under glass running all around.
I loved this sign. If this sign was in Arkansas, 3,000 church fanatics would file a petition and raise so much bullshit. I love New York. I actually saw two guys kiss, in public, people watching and they did it 3 times and no one even blinked.

Look how happy my man looks. He was having so much fun and he was so relaxed. We are very lucky in love to go to places like this and share our time. I love him so much. He is the greatest. We want to visit in the summer and maybe move there.