3 of 10,000 lakes

The story of our weekend in lakes:

Nokomis- We ran around this lake twice, all before 9am on Saturday. This was part of a 10K that we did with our friends, Nick and Shannon, and Megan and Hans. We all made it! It was perfect weather and we tried to stay occupied for the hour by telling good stories- I'm pretty sure we were entertaining some around us as well. We decided to reward ourselves with delicious brunch at the Longfellow Grill-yum.

Harriet- Later that day we headed to Lake Harried for a day at the beach. We've had idyllic summer weather all weekend (mid 80's, low humidity, and beautiful clear blue skies)- so we have tried to take advantage of it! I'm pretty sure this was our first time all summer to go to the beach- putting us well below the "average Minnesotan lake-time" for the summer. We tried to at least improve our summer's "grill-to-regular-eating ratio" with a cookout at the Golden-Wilson residence. Both of these measures can be improved upon on our part, so we really need to get on that in August! Our trip to Grand Marais will definitely boost the lake-time, and since it is the biggest lake in the country- time there counts as double.

Snelling- Beach time continued on Sunday at Fort Snelling State Park. Mosby came with us and hung out in the shade while Will and I relaxed, swam, and played some catch. Not too shabby for a weekend in town!

Until next time,

Kirsten

High School Hockey fanatics

Steve's Wedding this summer

Will's 2nd Minnesota Winter...and still smiling:)

New Years in Seattle - I especially enjoy the contrast between the above pic and the one below.

Gettin all Minnesota - Working in the boundary waters.

Spring break hot spot? More like Spring Break flash flooding...Texas.

Good old Ballard days.....

The ties that bind

Yesterday was our 4th Wedding Anniversary! In my nostalgia, I was looking through old pictures- which I primarily find amusing because of the changing hairstyles and degree of facial hair (on Will, not me). Unfortunately, the pics from our dating years are on a disk somewhere, so you don't get any really old ones. We have loads of fun together - love you Weeeeeeell! (as his cousin's son Ben used to call him).

Kirsten

Unseen the tie that binds us
Unknown the path before us
Unclouded the sky above
An unbelievable love

-Storyhill

Teaching Part 1

I gave my midterm today for the course I am teaching, Race, Class, and Gender. I cannot believe the term is HALFWAY done already! So I thought I would reflect on what I've learned about teaching so far (I did teach last summer as well, but this time I am working with more soc majors and a larger class):

1) I love, love, love it! I think I'm definitely in the right field in terms of work satisfaction:) I was working on my lecture the other day and was actually sad that I had to stop working because I enjoy putting together a good class. It is so exciting to see my students interested in sociology and applying it to the world around them. I glanced through their exams today and it was so great to see that they are able to write about major issues in our nation like ecoomic inequality and racial inequality and to use current research to support their ideas. Of course, that is my goal setting up the course, but to know that they will leave my class understanding these social forces more than they did when they came in the door is awesome!

2) I have a lot to learn! Pretty much after every class I have a bunch of mental notes about things I should or shouldn't do next time around. Luckily this doesn't get me down, but just motivates me to make it better next time. It will just be nice when I've taught for 30 years and I actually DO know everything (right???). Also, even though my students sometimes ask questions that I don't know the answer to, I'm just glad they are engaged and curious, and continue to ask questions (so they must not have given up on me completely as a source of knowledge:).

3) I try to cram too much into each lecture. It is really hard to decide what things to focus on and what to just let go. People have devoted their lives to research in all of these areas, and their findings are so fascinating and important that it feels like an injustice to NOT tell my students about them. Unfortunately, that can result in lectures with too many concepts or too much info, and not enough time to digest- this is something I am working on.

4) I lucked out with my students. They are really engaged and take part in the conversations and are willing to share their personal experiences as well as their opinions. I've actually had to learn to find ways to keep the class moving at a good pace! I am working on trying to find a good balance between letting the students do their own reflection and conversation, and taking the conversation as a teaching opportunity. On the one hand, I want to let them participate in their own learning, but at the same time, I do want to keep the conversations informed and based in sociological research or theory.

5) Writing a test is hard. We'll see how they do on this test, but it is tough to write questions that aren't too easy, but aren't too hard. I feel like they were concentrating throughout the test, so I'm hoping that it required a degree of studying to do well, and they seemed to have done decently based on those I looked at, so hopefully it means it was manageable. We'll see! It is funny because as the teacher, it seems like everything is easy (because you obviously know everything you are teaching), so it's hard to know what an average student can recall...

Overall, I think the term has gone as well as I could have hoped as my first class at the U (knock on wood). No major issues, they seem to be interested and engaged for the 2.5 hours for the most part (some days are more interesting than others), and I feel like the class has a good participatory feel to it. Let's hope it continues that way for the 2nd half!

Until next time,
Kirsten

Can't get enough of Summer

Just a few reasons Will and I can't get enough of summer:

A plethora of city events to choose from: A few weekends ago, we went to the Stone Arch Bridge festival and checked out local artwork, bands, and got to spend some time around St. Anthony falls- an old favorite from our Minneapolis days:) Then last night we headed over to Harriet Island for the Taste of Minnesota. The music was great (Minus the Bear, P.O.S., Atmosphere, etc...), and you can't beat the location. I would say that compared to the Taste of Chicago, the food selection was more generic- more fair food and fewer local restaurants- but we stuck to the local spots (we sampled ribs, pork tacos, soutwestern corn on the cob, sushi, and Bridgeman's ice cream) .

City Parks: Eating at the Tin Fish on Lake Calhoun is one of Will's favorite summer activities (see pic below of a beautiful evening walk around the lake). What says summer more than sitting in adirondak (sp??) chairs with a view of the sun setting over the lake, while eating fresh fish? When we stick closer to home, we go to a lot of the parks along the river. Last year there was a fair amount of beach alongside the river, but this year the water levels are too high! Although, we have significantly less middle-of-the-day free time this summer for sitting on the beach (Will was looking for a job last summer and I taught nights), so it's not a huge loss.

BBQ's: I'm pretty sure we grilled at least 3 times a week in the summers when I was a kid. I could eat burgers, brats, watermellon, and corn on the cob for every meal in the summer and never get sick of it. Our cohort was able to get together for a BBQ recently at Nick and Shannon's gorgoeus patio (they put it in themselves) to welcome Ryan, Elizabeth, and Santiago home from their year in Honduras (Ryan was doing his dissertation research there). Santi was about 6 months when they left, so it was fun to see how he had grown- he was walking all over the place, checking out the yard:) We are glad to have them back! We also headed down to my parents' house last weekend and of course grilled a couple of times and played plenty of bocce ball, catch (my wrist is close to normal again!), and frisbee with Mosby in the backyard. We have had plenty of rain this year, so the corn and beans are growing like crazy, making the countryside all the more gorgeous (and a perfect backdrop for said outdoor activities). Stephen and Kirstin also had the weekend off, so they were able to come down and hang out, and Kirstin's parents came for dinner on Sunday. On Friday, we checked out the baseball team in LaCrosse with our friends Matt and Sarah. The Loggers team is made up of college baseball players that want to keep playing over the summer, and they bring in an average of 3,000 people a game (pretty impressive for a town that size). My favorite thing was that they actually had police directing traffic at one intersection (questionable if this was truly necessary); oh yeah and also that Ronald McDonald sang the national anthem. Priceless. It was a great night for baseball, and it is fun to be so close to the action (because it will probably be 20 years until we can afford tickets that close at Target Field). It was such a relaxing and fun weekend (despite the depressing U.S. loss to Ghana).

The only sad thing about summer is that it is going so fast!

Happy 4th!

Until next time,
Kirsten