Rays of the Sun

I stayed late grading in my office today.  When I finally left (after it got too hot in my office), it was just around sunset.  I had planned to find an air-conditioned location to continue grading, but as I walked to the car, I noticed the rays of the sun filtering through the clouds.  I decided to make a brief stop at home to take some photos.  I got slightly distracted by a neighbor, but here are some of the shots I got when I finally made got to take the photos...

My Messy Corner

I spend a lot of my time in this corner (when I'm not online anyway). I grade papers in this chair, watch TV, eat dinner (sometimes) and often fall asleep in it...

New Desk Waiting on Assembly

I bought a new desk (and hutch) online recently and now it's just waiting to be assembled!

What I'm Reading

Since taking on the Support Your Local Library Challenge this year, I've found I've been reading more young adult books. This is the one I'm currently working on!

New Office Chair

I recently bought a new desk and since I can hardly stand at the desk, I needed a new chair to go with it. I wonder how long this one will last. The last one I bought my sophomore year of college and it lasted close to 10 year (though it probably shouldn't have!)

Mouse Pad Collage

A desperation shot today (that's happened a lot during summer school). This is a mouse pad that I made for my family at Christmas of our past pets.

Hotel Sunset

As I walked up to the hotel to meet my dad tonight, I decided to take a photo of the sun setting over the freeway between these two palm trees.

Fulton Estates

The sign at the entrance to the development I call home...

Fake Plant

Here's a fake plant in my dad's hotel room. He's in town visiting...

On the Nightstand

As I was frantically looking for something new to take a picture of, I stumbled on this. I'm not sure why this picture is still on my nightstand rather than hanging on the wall somewhere.

One Little Piggy...

I bought this pig statue at Home Goods with the garden solar lights and a vase. I just couldn't bring myself to put it outside, so he's currently just inside my sliding glass door.

New Garden Lights

While my mom was here visiting, we bought these solar garden lights at Home Goods and set them up out by my water feature!

Western Ranchman Store

I drove by and noticed the horse out in front of this store once before. I thought about stopping to take a picture on my way back after an errand, but by that time, they had brought it in for the day. Today, I went by in the afternoon and luckily the horse was still out front!

Sundial

This sundial is back behind the Avondale Civic Center Library. There's all kinds of coll stuff out by the Civic Center. Anyway, I stumbled upon the sundial while investigating photo ops after visiting the library. Here's what the sign next to it says:

To Use The Sundial:
Stand on the current month with your back to the sun. Your shadow falls across the "hours" to show the time -- with surprising accuracy! If your shadow doesn't reach the ellipse, raise your arm over your head to add height.

Across the Street

Here's the view from my driveway looking across and down the street...

What We Learned...

In class today, we discussed a homework activity I had my students complete. At the end, I always ask them what they learned from the activity. It surprises me how different and varied the answers are from class to class, semester to semester. Here's what my summer class came up with today:

Another Prius Commercial

Here's a shot of yet another Prius commercial. They never come out quite how I want them to...

Whiteboard Markers

A random shot of some whiteboard markers I have on-hand for my classes...

Coffee Table Books

A sample from my collection of books (though they aren't on my coffee table)...

Exercise On Demand!

I discovered today that you can get all sorts of stuff (for free!) on the On Demand channel via cable. I knew about free movies since I've watched them before, but there are entire categories (other than movies) that are available. One of the categories is Exercise TV! I've wanted to get back into exercising for a while, so I decided to start at home via On Demand...