Full Heart

My heart is very full right now. I helped an unsteady grandma walk to the bleachers and as soon as we got to the bottom of the steps, ALL the male 7-8th graders (previously sitting to watch the game) IMMEDIATELY stood up to help the grandma up the stairs. Not only that, right after school got done, two of them took it upon themselves to clean all the windows in school. Wow. What fine young men we have at this school!

On the other hand, the 5-6th graders have some growing to do. This is the story of the great jersey drama...

The games tonight are co-ed and two of my students have the same number jersey. The boy wanted to wear his regular jersey because he likes his number and doesn't want to change. The problem is the extra jerseys are way too big for the girl. He wouldn't budge. Finally I held a 'trial' to make sure we got to the bottom of both sides. She didn't want to wear a different jersey because it was too big and would effect her playing. The only jersey in her size was a B squad jersey, so she'd have to switch to an A squad jersey for the second game. Hassle. If she kept the jersey on, she'd look different than the rest of the team. Not such a big deal as a lower grader, but kind of a big deal as an upper grader. So for all these reasons I sided with the girl; she should get to wear her regular jersey and the boy should wear the spare.

Well, he didn't want to accept that answer. He kept trying to find jerseys that worked for her, or other solutions (safety pins, changing jerseys between games, just wear the big one) but none of them worked. Except... ten minutes after the final verdict, he uncovered a jersey closer to her size in the bottom of the jersey tub. Now the playing field was even. They agreed to draw sticks and whoever I picked got to choose which jersey to wear. I drew his stick. Ugh. I was irritated about that. But fair is fair; they even shook hands on it before I drew. 

Pen Pal Matchups

Best part of the day: matching up my kids with their pen pals. My partner teacher Mrs. S wrote me with her list of student names. I thought about randomly pairing them, but decided to send her my class list with a little blurb of interests to help with the matching. 

She wrote back later today with the pairs and I almost cried they were so good. Dancer with dancer, baker with baker (who also has two younger siblings), reader who doesn't know tiktok and a tiktock lover who doesn't love reading got matched with my tiktok-loving reader. Musician with musician. Gamer with Gamer. And two kids got paired with my die-hard farm boy because they'll ask him a ton of questions. So good. Thank you Lord!

Battle of the Books

Finally. After years of wanting to do it, we're finally having a battle of the books. Classes have selected their contenders, the books have been seeded, the bracket poster is being made. 

Here are the nominees:

1. Press Here (5-6)
2. Legend of Rock, Paper, Scissors (7-8)
3. The Napping House (PreK 4s)
4. Stuck (wildcard)
5. Moosetache (K)
6. Yeh-Shen (3-4)
7. Five Little Monkeys Wash the Car (PreK 3s)
8. Dragons Love Tacos 2 (1-2)

Each week we'll vote either once or twice between pairs of books, seeded just like a basketball tournament. I determined rankings based on the average rating on Goodreads. You can vote once per matchup, unless you win an extra chip by dressing up on Character Day. It's hard to say which one will win the battle. My prediction is #6-8 will lose right off the bat. If pressed to choose, my overall winner pick is #2.

In Order

This morning we worked together before school to put the books back on the shelf. I have lots of room now! There are a few more shelves to switch around to give the genres some wiggle room. I forgot I have a pile of 'don't judge a book by it's cover' books in the closet. Hmm, will there be space for them? I might need to clear off another shelf. There are some textbooks I don't use; maybe I can get rid of them. Or move them somewhere else. That would free up some space! A tomorrow project perhaps. 

One of my students has covid. Her mom will pick up her stuff tomorrow morning so she can learn from home the rest of the week. 

After school Mr. E and I made a school Amazon account. We're ordering a bunch of scrip cards so we can get money back for the school, and I have a bit wishlist started! I should share the list with other teachers so they can add things and link it to the school website so parents can buy stuff for us if they want. That's been on my to-do list for months and is low on the totem pole. Maybe now's a good time to bump it up higher...

Tonight I played indoor volleyball as a sub on my sand volleyball captain's winter league team. It was short notice. They only had three players and would have to forfeit if they couldn't find a fourth. She picked me up and everything so I would know exactly where to go. I had a great time! Now I wish I would've subbed more this season. She said I could play next week too, but their games are at 9pm. I'll pass. That's a little late to start playing. 

Vikings History

We made it to our field trip! It was kind of a rocky road though. New Ulm called a two hour late start last night due to the cold this morning. That means ILS is two hours late. Except I have to be at school at the normal time for the Nicollet bus riders. Since we had a field trip, should we still go? Could we collect the NU kids even with no bus? After a few phone calls and many texts (and a not great night of sleep), we determined that yes, the field trip would go on. The New Ulm parent driver (who was already going to pick kids up from the bus stop before they headed for Immanuel) agreed to pick up the other passengers. Two of the four were her kids. One was on the way and another got dropped off in town. Perfect.

I found out later that one of them (the one on the way) thought school was two hours late/the field trip was cancelled, so she wasn't ready to go! Thankfully, a classmate called her to make sure she was awake and on time for her ride. She was! Whew!

The rest of us packed up and left pretty much right after the bus dropped them off. I just left my car running between my school arrival and field trip departure. The temp was -20, not counting wind chill. Brr! But we made it to MLHS right on time. 

The speaker was on the Vikings. This is a new talk and I could tell. He wasn't as familiar with the content and read right off the powerpoint a bunch, although he tried not to. My kids commented on that afterward. "Yes, we noticed Miss H. We thought for sure you'd be mad about that!" I will admit, it's a big pet peeve of mine; I always tell students presenting NOT to read directly from the presentation. Usually your audience can read for themselves, so it's a waste of time! 

I did learn a lot. And there were some cool interactive parts. Mr. E was picked to put on the Viking armor. He wasn't too happy about that, but he was a good sport. Then about 30 kids got picked to 'row' a Viking ship. That was cool. He ended the talk with some Viking games, which is a little like the Olympics. All the kids split into two groups. Teachers picked which ones to match against each other. I looked the most like a teacher (or he recognized me from past years), so I got to pick the kids from my team for the events. 

One of my students got to duel with a kid from another school. They had shields and swords (both foam) and goggles to protect their eyes. My kid won all three rounds. Then there was archery (shooting rubber arrows at stuffed animals). My team didn't do so well there. I picked kids from other schools to be fair, but they've never shot bow and arrow before. Shucks. Should've done mine. They all have experience from Camp Omega! But I'm glad I was fair about it. The third task was a tug of war, which we won. And the final tie-breaking event was the clan's battle cry. My team won that too. 

We ended our field trip with a trip to Pizza Ranch for lunch. I cobbled together a whole 30 meal at the salad bar, but I supplemented it with walnuts from home. One of my kids noticed me eating them and gasped, "Miss H! You brought your own food here! ...But I guess that makes sense since you can't eat much besides the salad bar." At the end of the school day another kid commented, "You're getting close to being done Miss H!" Except I'm not. Even though Feb 2nd is the end of my 30 days, I'm doing the reintroduction diet which goes for another 15. Oof. I'll be glad when it's done.

End of Quarter Two!

As of today, the school year is officially halfway done. There was a bit of a scramble to get everything turned in on time, but we made it! All but two of the 7-8th graders left at noon to get ready for the Lakefield tournament. Only two of my seven left, so we're having class as usual. 

If all my planning yesterday wasn't enough, I planned another field trip today too. This one is an opportunity through Junior Achievement. We're doing lessons as usual, but afterwards, there's a career day at FarmAmerica. Sweet! So I don't have to do much planning with that (for now) besides sign up.

I also got an email back from the teacher of our class's pen pal. We were matched up with a class of 5th graders at a school on Staten Island, New York. Wow do my kids have stereotypes of people in New York. They think all the people who live there are rich and stuck up. Ha. I'm hoping to shatter those views over the course of our letter writing. 

It's their first time having pen pals. Their teacher seems awesome and we're going to get along great. She's 32, loves music/disney/books/plays violin. Her teaching specialties are special ed and music. She has eleven 5th graders in her sped class and hopes to get them to be better writers and show them there's more to life than screens. Most of them did distance learning and are kind of addicted now... I haven't told my students that their pen pals have disabilities, and I don't think I will. I don't want stereotypes to play an even bigger role in their letter writing. 

Planning up a Storm

Bells today, sight reading a new song.

6th grader: It's 80 beats per measure, right Miss H?

8th grader: What? No way! That's like a whole church service!

For the record, he meant 80 measures in the song...

Boy my brain is worn out! Too much planning, and more is yet to come. Usually in January, we're invited to MLHS for a history speaker (my favorite history presenter of all time). It's always a last minute thing because both Mr. E and I forget about it, until I remember to ask and then it's a frantic scramble to find drivers, etc. Guess what... it happened again. 

The speaker is next Tuesday at 9am. No school Monday because it's the end of the quarter. That meant if we were going, we had to send permission slips home TODAY so they can be returned tomorrow. Thankfully, finding drivers was easy. A parent with room for six in her car happened to be in the hallway before school (I asked, she said sure). Another parent with a flexible work schedule volunteered with a hearty YES. Those two plus Mr. E and me equals enough seats. I had a permission slip saved from two years ago, so with a few minor modifications, that was ready to go. 

Then we had to plan where we were going to lunch. Subway or Pizza Ranch. One of my kids reminded me kids eat free on Tuesdays. So that's where we're going. Not all get a free meal, only with adult purchase. Then we had to plan seating arrangements in vehicles. Then plan if Mr. E and I are switching classes when we get back (no). There's a tournament this weekend and some of the 7-8th graders are leaving early. Are we still having class? (yes) Can Mr. E's leftover kids come in my room at 2pm so he can get ready to leave? (Yes). I'm going to the tournament too, but I don't have to get there so early. It's the Lakefield tournament, so I can pop over to Fulda for the rest of the weekend! The only bummer is the girls play twice Friday (probably) and the boys don't play until Saturday. So I'll only see the girls play. 

Along with all that, I need to plan food. I'm guessing there aren't many Whole 30 friendly foods at the tournament. Sack supper it is. I'm also bringing a few Whole 30 ingredients/meals along while I'm at my parents' house, just in case their fridge isn't packed with fruits and veggies. Although maybe I should stop at home after school so the food isn't sitting in my freezing car all day. For the field trip Tuesday, I checked out Pizza Ranch's menu and I should be able to cobble together some sort of Whole 30 salad. Whew!

Now all that's left is to plan lessons for next week and correct spelling. 

Flooring update: both bathroom floors were replaced and look nice. My things weren't disturbed too much, although I had to hunt for my drying rack that's usually behind the door (that and the garbage can were relocated to my bedroom). Today he's doing the kitchen and entryway (I moved the kitchen stuff out of his way). I forgot my lunch at home today and had to go back and get it. He was already there, starting to move things around. I'm glad this is only a two day project! It'll be good to have my apartment back!

Strange

This is a day of strange occurrences. Yesterday it was in the 30s temperature-wise. Today, it is one degree with a -25 wind chill. Tomorrow is cold too, then Friday it'll be back in the 20s. 

More strange things... I got my pen pal packet in the mail. It's a project sponsored by We Are Teachers and the USPS. There are cute envelopes and cards to write on, and I was supposed to get matched up with another classroom. Nope. No info. The "get help" email address on the card doesn't work and there are a bunch of broken links on the main project page. Hmm... I wonder if the project never got off the ground. Update: I tried sending the help email again (copy/pasting it from the main website) and this time it worked. They said partner info will be sent next week. Okay! Progress!

A non-teaching strange thing... Last night when I got home, I found a bunch of floor laying tools on my porch. Inside my living room there were three long rolls of vinyl flooring. Huh? No news from Amberfield about people being inside my apartment nor was there a work order paper. Of course, the office was closed when I called, so I left a message. Maybe a wrong apartment? 

This morning leaving my apartment I bumped into the guy who was there to install the floor. Nope, my apartment was the one he was supposed to do it in. He's been scheduled to do it for a while. So I called Amberfield after I got to school/their office opened to see if that's actually the case. Yep. They forgot to tell me. I still have all sorts of stuff on my kitchen floor I don't really want them moving on their own. It'd probably be fine, but back when I had a mold problem they told me they weren't allowed to move anything that belonged to me. I ended up giving them permission to do the two bathroom floors today. They can't get it done in a day anyway, so they'll do the kitchen tomorrow. At least, I hope that's how it will go. Sigh. Housing stuff is giving me grief!!!

Read-aloud All Day

We had our class prize today, read-aloud all day! My voice held out thankfully and we only have 30 pages left of our book. I find it wonderful that this was their unanimous prize (chosen over watching a movie or having extra recess or getting treats). They are super strategic and chose today because it wasn't the beginning or end of the week when we have lots of things to do. And not on a Wednesday because of chapel. Not Thursday because spelling is due. I love the brainpower of this group!

The 6th graders asked if they could highlight bell parts while I read. Of course! I just had to make copies quick... so they did their read to self round while I printed. Then we finished highlighting during the regular bell time. The 7-8th graders highlighted their parts (they're faster than the 6th graders anyway) and I read aloud the 7-8th grade story. My 6th graders got sucked into the story and now want to add it to our read-aloud pile (The Unteachables by Gordon Korman). We'll see!

Massage

Not school related, well, technically I guess it could be...

I got a massage gift card as a Christmas present. A friend who gets massages often advised me to schedule it right away because times book up fast. So while my kids were at PE I gave them a call. They had an opening tonight at 6:45 or the end of March. I guess I'm going tonight! They can work out all the knots my kids give me. 😉 That was my high and low for the day, that I'm getting a massage and that it's a last minute kind of thing. Hardly any time to look forward to it! They were all really excited for me. One girl just popped in to grab her things after basketball practice and as she scurried out the door she said very sincerely, "Enjoy your massage tonight Miss H!" I'm sure they'll ask how it went tomorrow morning.

Boy they had a lot of chit chatting energy! We had a ton to catch up on from last week's snow day. Memory work is the worst. Two of them still don't have it said even though I reminded them about it Thursday last week AND sent a reminder Sunday. Sigh. It's a good thing I sent the reminder Sunday. One parent thought we didn't have school and was going to be ice fishing! That student was still gone today, but at least I knew about it ahead of time. 

The end of the second quarter is this Friday which means there's even more to catch up on. The 5-6th graders have quite the list going. The 7-8th graders are doing better, just one worksheet from one student is missing. 

The weather is in the 30s today and tomorrow. I have a few outdoor tasks I need to do before it turns frigid again. My porch plastic is thinner than usual (I didn't read the package carefully enough before buying it) and there's a big hole in it that lets snow through. I'm going to patch it with another piece of plastic. Then I need to clean some dirt out of the water drain vent under my car's hood. Not very pleasant job to do when it's cold!

Snow Day Tomorrow!

It's pretty rare a snow day is called before the snow even starts falling, but that's what happened tonight! We're in a winter storm warning starting midnight tonight through midnight tomorrow (Friday). 5-9 inches of wet, heavy snow in the forecast. And then 30 degrees Saturday and Sunday. What a strange winter. We kind of knew the snow day was coming, so I had my kids bring home a book to read, just in case.

I'm wrapping up my lesson plan outline for next week and all I need to do now is decide if I want to spend the day catching up on school stuff or if I want to read/cook all day. Cooking is for sure; there's a whole 30 pie crust recipe I'm going to make into pasty pie. I'll use my new Christmas present food processor to speed things along, but I still think it will take a while which is why I haven't had the chance earlier this week. 

I restocked my library pile last night and brought a bunch to school for book commercials. Man they love book commercials. I should try taking a few books I've had for a while off the shelf and advertise them to my students. I bet I'd get takers. This time there were three books everyone wanted to read. So we drew sticks and wrote down the order. I told them to prioritize the library books over our class books since they have a due date (and some of them are books I haven't read yet and want to). There's still a big stack at home... maybe I should chip away at it tomorrow...

Other than that, school was pretty typical. We put our plants away from the PTL plant tour. The parent's were impressed with our garden. They laughed at the "don't touch" signs my kids added to their pots. "Do they really think we're all going to touch their plants?" a parent incredulously asked.

The 7-8th graders finally finished our first read-aloud book of the year (Escape From Chernobyl) and started our next one, The Unteachables by Gordon Korman, a favorite author of ours. They aren't 100% sold on the book yet. I'll win them over by pg50 though. That's my rule. Read at least 50 pages to give the book a chance before you abandon it. It's worked well so far!

Found!

I found a library book in a student's desk. Not such an outrageous occurrence, except this book had been lost. The 1-2nd graders thought they'd taken it back to the Bookmobile after reading buddies, but I checked my library card and it never got checked in... All my students claimed they didn't have it. But this one was under a mountain of loose papers in this 6th grader's desk. She also lost her snowman art project, which is what I'd been looking for originally. It's a shame because she spent a lot of time on that snowman. 

After school I met with Mr. D to plan NLSW fun activities. There's a PTL meeting tonight, so we can ask for money to fund these activities and I want to have a ballpark estimate to request. Then, Mrs. B and Mrs. L and I practiced the duet we're singing on Sunday. Now I'm going to hustle into New Ulm to run my errands before the meeting. If I scurry, I can make it!

My kids are all set for the meeting. For entertainment before, I'm giving a tour of the plant jungle of 5-6th grade. This afternoon they labeled everything and set it out nicely so everyone can see all our growing things. My classroom hasn't been this clean in a long time! My kids wanted everything to look nice for their parents so it was their idea to tidy everything. They forgot the coatroom though, so I did a quick sweep just now. We're looking pretty spic and span. 😎

Water Filler

I think I have a mini-stalker. There's a 1st grade boy who's volunteered to fill up my water bottles every day this week and some of last week too. It started last week when he had to move my water bottles out of the way so he could fill his before school (I always set mine there to fill while I pass back papers to the 7-8th graders). 

The next day, we met at the drinking fountain at the same time. I told him to go first while I popped into the 7-8th grade room. He stuck his head in the room a few minutes later brandishing my full bottles. "I filled em up for ya, Miss H!" he proudly crowed. Of course I thanked him profusely, which probably made him want to do it again. 

Yesterday, the same thing happened, although another classmate of his wanted to fill one. So we compromised by letting the first one fill both and the second one screw on the lids. It worked great. 

This morning, my water bottle filler must've been watching for me or heard me coming down the hall, because when I got close to the fountain, he darted out of his classroom water bottle in hand, making sure he got to me before anyone else could (no one else even paid attention). "I'll get that for ya Miss H!" So, my bottles got filled yet again. Do you suppose it will happen tomorrow too?

Fixed

You'll never guess who called me after school... the IT guy. He actually fixed my printer! And since he was on the phone, I talked to him about the 1-2nd grade projector, which is so dim you can hardly see it with the lights off and the shades drawn. He had a billion excuses why it hasn't been fixed before now (it's been on the fix-it list for at least a year), but I think I have him pinned down to bring a replacement sometime this week. Hopefully tomorrow. We'll see. We've all heard that song and dance before.

Aside from that, it was a typical day at school. Frigid temps again, but my classroom held to 68 degrees all day (still felt really cold). It sounds like today will be our last day of subzero temps. The rest of the week will be around 30! Hooray! Just in time too. My car's coolant light turned on this morning. It leaks coolant one time a year, the week we have subzero temps. I had hoped my previous car fix would solve this problem, but I guess not. The student's dad who fixed my car last time said he'd look at it after work tomorrow. Now I need to decide if I refill my coolant in the cold dark tonight, or do it tomorrow when it's warm... 

In other news, my apartment water heater is FINALLY fixed! Now I can wash all the things that have piled up from last week. Exactly what I wanted to do tonight. Hmm, maybe the dishes can wait another day.

Historical Accuracy

The Mulan project turned out even better than expected! Well, we're only partway through the movie, but so far so good! They're really into it, writing down lots of things I didn't even think of. Not sure how easy it will be to research, but we'll cross that bridge when it comes. I should probably get the ballad of Mulan book from the library. The movie is based on the epic Chinese poem. 

My 5-6th graders did a bit more rearranging today. We moved the sink back to where it was originally and added another computer station next to the couch. They moved their chargers around and I discovered we're missing two chargers. Lovely. No idea how we're going to find them. 

The IT guys came last night and fixed my interactive board! Whew! That makes life so much easier. They replaced the printer too, except they didn't hook it up to my desktop computer so no one can actually print anything. Sigh. In other news, my apartment's hot water heater still isn't fixed. The parts they needed didn't come in today. Good thing I'll be in Mankato this weekend, so I can finally shower! My dishes and laundry can wait. Maybe Monday will be the day. 

Frigid

I hate these days below zero... my classroom is garbage at holding heat, so it's been chilly in here all day. Joe is hunkered under his heat lamp and he's not moving! He hasn't even come out to eat these past two days. Tomorrow doesn't sound much better. A high of 7 degrees with a -27 windchill. Blech. I wonder if school will be late tomorrow. Probably not since today was colder.

After school's cleaning session was not as productive as I'd hoped, but we did move the couch and the sink and the green house. I have half a lab table now; we condensed all the plants on one end and wiped the table off. Much neater! The computer station needs work still. I'm not sold on the couch's location. I also want to move the spinny book racks to where the couch used to be. That kind of cuts down on our bookshelf space though. Maybe I should get another spinning rack. Or I could get a short double sided bookshelf that they could sit on. I need to mull it a bit. 

The 7-8th graders weren't happy with their Africa test grades and don't like how it will effect their quarter two grades. Since I don't give out extra credit (do your work well the first time!), we came up with a few projects our ancient history class can do. One is to make a time travel brochure for one of the Asian empires/dynasties we've been learning about. They also convinced me we should watch the Disney movie Mulan (animated) and analyze how historically accurate it is. They were all on board, so we're going to give it a shot tomorrow. I did preresearch and found a blog post that points out some True/False bits of history in it. That'll be a good starting point for the movie. 

They also want to learn Russian history. Huh, okay. I never learned a ton of Russian history, so we'll be learning it together I guess. We'll probably save that for later in the year when we move on to Europe. Over the summer I wanted to revamp this ancient history curriculum to be project based. I ran out of time/energy, so if they come up with ideas, we can tweak the plan as we go!

Plans

Well, we had school today. The winter weather advisory was not as wintery as anticipated. I only checked the school closings page two or three times before giving up. 

My classroom feels cluttered and something's got to change! Tomorrow is Epiphany which means the decorations get put away. My kids and I came up with a plan for all the 'extra space' that leaves us. We're going to move the couch to make room for another book shelf. Then we're going to shift the computer tables around so we can put the sink against the wall. Maybe even get rid of our two remaining desktop computers. No one uses them anymore and we could use the space! We'll probably put away some of the plant things too. That will open things up. 

Other updates: No news on the water heater fix. Maybe no news is good news? But probably not. One of our janitors lives in my building and she said she called Amberfield and they wouldn't tell her an estimate of the fix time. Ehhh, that doesn't sound good. 

Last night I had a dream someone told me I smelled bad (since I haven't been showering in my cold water) and I ate a chocolate chip cookie without thinking and it ruined my Whole 30 challenge. Huh, I guess you can tell which two things are on my mind most this week. That being said, Whole 30 day three is going well. I made egg veggie breakfast 'muffins'... super delicious and filling. Can't wait to eat them for breakfast tomorrow too! I also found a bunch more breakfast recipes for when I get tired of eggs. 

Back

Wow, what a day. Frazzled is the word that comes to mind...

I swung by church to pick up the bells, tone chimes, and music stored there after the Christmas Eve service. At school, I looked over the notes from yesterday's sub (the piano teacher Mrs. O, it went great). I had a lot to catch up on from missing a day (this is why I don't take days off... more work to be gone than to be at school). 

When my kids arrived, we discovered the interactive board isn't working. Great. I tried all my usual tricks and nothing worked. One phone call to the IT guys and... they actually answered! Except then I was stuck on the phone with them for a half an hour. No solution. He was going to check on a few more things and swing by school after he finished a different appointment. Okay, well there's that. 

So school started late and we eliminated the interactive board part of our morning. Ugh. We can use the board, but you have to use the computer mouse to do anything on it. Not efficient at all. 

Aside from that, the rest of the day was good. We finished our read-aloud and started a new one, Prisoner B-3087, which has a ton of WWII history in it. We spent more time building background knowledge than actually reading today. One of our previous books this year briefly touched on the holocaust, so they know a little. I have a few picture books that introduce the topic, so we read one of those. Then I showed them a map of Poland and we looked at a few pictures of Krakow, the setting of the story. Man, I love this book!

The 7-8th graders are convinced we won't have school tomorrow. A winter weather advisory takes effect tonight, followed by 3in of snow and lots of wind. Lovely. Good thing I have lots to work on at home...

We had a two hour staff meeting after school. Now my to-do list is jam packed... National Lutheran Schools Week, February I Love to Read Month, Young Writers and Artists Conference, along with spending money from donations. Plus my regular school stuff. Maybe I should have a day off just to catch up! 

Other updates: The IT guys never came to school to fix my projector. Surprise, surprise. Day 2 of my Whole 30 eating challenge/experiment is going well. I have soup in the crockpot waiting for me at home! The water heater for my apartment building is still broken; it went out yesterday, and last night the water was barely tepid. They ordered one, and if all goes well they'll fix it tomorrow. Sigh. I'm afraid the weather won't cooperate with that plan...