Really need to post more often, eh?

Happy April, everyone! This winter has flown by, the latter part of it hurried along by a 3 week trip to Costa Rica, and a 5 day trip to visit Victoria in LA. Both trips were wonderful, but very different.

This time in Costa Rica we focused mainly on the northern (touristy) bits of the country, seeing the Arenal Volcano (not currently spewing fiery rocks anymore), Monteverde cloud forest (amazing, I spotted a quetzal!) and the Nicoya peninsula (very laid-back). We also spent a few days in Manuel Antonio, which was monkey-tastic (seriously, close enough to touch), and a very ill-advised night in Palo Verde, the one big failure of my trip planning ($260 + 2 days of traveling + grubby bunk beds + we were lucky not to get heat stroke + K got too sick to do the guided tour-- surely you get the picture). Other than the one bad experience and a few bus mishaps it was a wonderful trip, and my wee bit of Spanish served us well. Also, this is the first time we met up with friends on vacation, and I can definitely say it's a very awesome plan! (Hey A & S- we need to plan a vacation to Kauai- Verne's agreeable!)
I'm trying to put the album up as the bottom-of-blog pictures, but it's being difficult. If you want to see photos, email me.

The knitting has been going well, I finished my Waterloo project: the blanket for my Mom I began in 2008 and quickly gave up, since it was too advanced for my skills (and Sisyphean, being a blanket). I knitted a shawlette/ kerchief while on vacation, and have since finished another one and some hats and cute little toys (like a tiny, tiny piggy and a "Despicable Me" minion.) I am officially on a yarn diet now though, as my yarn stash is getting out of hand. Although it is my birthday in a week, so if you feel the need, I won't chastise you .... ;)

I feel like I haven't worked much this winter, but so far this spring has picked up a bit. I got to work several days this last week, including teaching how to balance chemical equations, which I love! It's one of those rare teaching moments where you get a kid to go from "This sucks, I can't do it, it's too hard!" to "Ohh, now I get it, it's easy!" It doesn't happen often, but when it does, it's supremely gratifying. Maybe there's hope for the future after all!

In other news, I'm in a play! A friend informed me of a group of actors who occasionally perform at her church (not having a real theater to use) who needed an extra person for "Our Town." So if anybody wants to go, the performances are the 8th, 9th, and 10th. Come see me on stage! (well, sort of a stage)

That's all for now, I promise to make an effort to post more often though! Off to start knitting myself a birthday crown, later!