Funny how things work out...

eeeeeee!!!!!! LOOOK! An ipad! 

and it's in my possession! and it didn't cost me a penny! Ah - finally - the love of teaching has paid off. As the last minute class I am teaching is for freshmen, I too am supposed to have an ipad! The college made a some sort of arrangement with Apple and not only do all freshmen (and associated faculty) have an ipad, there is also a bundle of apps we are supposed to get as well. We are supposed to experiment incorporating them into the classroom. Happy sigh.  I can't wait to be proficient with this thing! Just fyi - the fine print reads that I have to give this back when the college asks for it. OK fine. So let's hope I have a class again in the fall so that I can keep it all summer. But in the meantime - I get to do whatever I want with it!!! OOOhhh so many plans.....

Number one on that agenda is to figure out how icloud works.  Because what I really really want to be able to do is take images of books and bindings at work and send them directly to my students. I am also dreaming up their final project which I really want to involve a physical book but also the Internet... somehow. QR codes? on an ipad? Done. Yay!

It is the perfect weekend to have a new piece of technology - when I left the college it had started snowing. Finally. I love the snow. I don't even mind the slushy aftermath... because it's worth it during the initial beauty. The echinacea flowers all had little snowy hats on by the time I got home.

There was still daylight so Jacques and I went outside. I had to salt the sidewalk anyway. I love to see the snow falling. This snow accumulated rather quickly and since it has been so cold for the last few days, it stuck.

 

It is so quiet when it snows. 

 

Update on the bees - mine are the only colony to have survived. My co-worker told me someone had broken into where his other two colonies were, and taken the lids off of the hives right before it rained.  I'm glad my bees are hidden and so far are doing fine.

 

Jacques came outside with me, you know, places to go people to see... (read: cats to chase and dogs to tease), but he wasn't interested in staying out for long. 

 

While we were standing there he went to the back door, as if to let me know - he was really ready to go in now.    

So we did. And I checked the mail. The first few pieces from the mail art exchange I'm doing with several friends have started arriving. Today Melanie's came...

 

Sunshine... on a snowy day.