My dear Lady Disdain, are you yet living?

Yesterday was my last day of my Shakespeare class. Fortunately I am too excited about going to Japan to be really really sad that it is over. But I am sad it is over. It has been such a fun class to teach.

My students all enjoyed it as well.

As they were leaving, one said to me, "Oh, I just wanted you to know. I liked Much Ado About Nothing so much that I am keeping the book."

High compliment.

So here is our first favorite part of Much Ado: Benedick and Beatrice fall crazy and over the top in love based on a few well-placed rumors.

And here is our second favorite part:

(skip to minute 4:11)

What are you gonna do? Dice me, slice me, or peel me? There are so many choices.

Student writing:

"Gamers can become so addicted that they ignore everything, including personal high jean."

"Video games are most successful when they have built in merchant dice."

Just in case you need a translation:

high jean = hygiene

merchant dice = merchandise

Duh, it's like a totally famous quote!

I realized this past week that my life has become a reshowing of Clueless.

Scene 1:

I was driving out of my neighborhood, following a car that stopped at the stop sign. I stopped behind them. When they proceeded, I did too.

As I turned the corner, the responsible voice in my head said, "Yeah, you should have stopped."

To which the other voice responded, "I totally paused."

Scene 2:

In my Shakespeare class, we are working on Hamlet. One of the students was complaining about watching the Mel Gibson version and how it is not accurate to the text of the play. (Ok, and even though Mel Gibson has gone crazy, you really can't blame him. It would be a 4 hour play).

But naturally I just responded, "Well, I remember Mel Gibson correctly. And he didn't say that. That Polonius guy did."

Scene 3:

I was getting ready for church on Sunday, and realized that with the several meetings I had, I would need to know what time it is. I got out my gym bag and pulled out my watch. Then I looked at myself in the mirror.

"A watch doesn't really go with this outfit, Daddy."

You can always paint the roses red.

Summer projects continued.

I put my spare room back together after letting the paint dry for a few days. Then I hung some pictures up on the walls. I wanted to share some pictures, but I was actually waiting a few more days so I could hang the curtain and then show you the pictures. But then I decided I like the room better without the curtain. [To those of you who will be staying at my house in the rapidly approaching future, don't worry. I'll hang the blinds and curtains back up so you can rest comfortably here. Oh, the plan is even to get this bathroom a nice new showerhead too. I believe in deluxe accommodations.]

Now, before I share these pictures, I was working on projects yesterday and this morning in here. That is why there is a little bit of stuff hanging around... like the iron. Remember that what you are really judging is the color.

This week I worked for a while on a new temple dress. That went something like this:

Monday -- Cut out the dress. Begin sewing. Sew enough that it looks like a real dress. Try it on. Realize it doesn't fit at all.

Saturday -- Retry on dress. It still doesn't fit. Put pins in to make it fit. Unpick everything I sewed on Monday. Start again. Get it to look like a real dress. Now it needs a zipper. Realize the machine doesn't have a zipper foot. The end.

You can actually see the dress in the above pictures tossed over the black chair.

So since I wasn't able to finish the dress, I started working on a pair of pajama pants. To explain, my mom sews all of us pajama pants every Christmas. They are always fabulously plush flannel. But it's too hot for flannel. I have one pair of cotton pajama pants (still Christmas fabric, thus they have been dubbed my "Ho" pants, because they say ho, ho, ho). But they are looking a bit worn.

I thought to myself that since I am going to see my sister and her husband in Japan I should get a new pair of pajama pants that are good for the hot summer. Then I won't show up looking like a ragamuffin.

I found a patriotic fabric was on sale at Jo-anns, so I picked a cute star pattern and it only cost $5. Yesterday I cut out the pants, but chose to make them into shorts. Even better for the summer and I got them all sewn together.

My mom's are way better. Probably because she is smart enough to use a pattern. These are a little goofy.

An autographed picture would be nice

The Winter Quarters, Nebraska Temple

Hang the code, and hang the rules. They're more like guidelines anyway.

My students were working in groups the other day. Here's what I overheard:

"Everyone says that red meat is bad for you, but I brown it. So it isn't red any more, it's brown!"

In another group, one student was getting a lot of feedback about his use of commas. After being told to remove about 10 commas in one page, he declared himself the Comma Queen. One of the other students gave him a funny look, and he just smiled and said, "Yup, I'm coming out of the Comma Closet!"