Mac and Cheese Triumph

Had some students over for supper. We had many adventurous dishes, but the students also wanted a classic American (and maybe other countries) comfort food, Macaroni and Cheese. Here is the one I made from a recipe from Alton Brown's Good Eats, The Early Years.

SNOW

After Fall, inevitably, comes the snow of Winter. We've had, so far, about 145 inches and the season is young (I'll leave to any Maltese to convert to centimeters...it's a LOT). I've gotten out skiing a couple of times, hope to go today.

Covered Road in Fall

Near my town is an old railroad bed that now serves as a rural road. It's called Covered Road for the trees.

Fall color in my yard

Here are some Sept/Oct photos of my yard in the fall.

Fall color 2010--Houghton and Keweenaw Counties

I finally downloaded some photos!

New Semester begins Monday

Time flies. Winter break is almost over and our "spring" semester begins on Monday. It might be spring by the end of the semester. I call it winter semester.

My courses didn't seem too popular, so I have a grand total of 11 students. I hope to pick up one or two more...or, at least not lose the ones I have. But, my plate is piled high with other forms of work, so this may be a blessing.

The courses are:

Theories and International Relations. This one is a readings course and directly tied to my teaching about IR theories at Malta. I'm revising a book on the topic, also a result of Malta. I will torture myself and my students with drafts of the new chapters. They get the old book, however, for free!

Environmental Diplomacy and Law. Last year I got a perfect "5" on my course evaluation "overall I would rate this course..." I'll be interested to see what happens this time around. I am changing a few things in light of what the students suggested last year. My husband points out that this is a pretty crazy strategy on my part. This one has 6 undergrads and 1 grad student. I think I may have to put the course on the "distribution" in order to make our normal minimum class size of 10 in the future. On the other hand, it is now on a number of our majors and has been added to the grad certificate in sustainability. I won't be teaching this one again until Spring 2013. The "distribution", in case anyone from Malta is reading, relates to the general education all students must take. At Tech, they take a core 4 courses [plus maths and sciences] and then take 15 hours (5 courses) of other courses in the social sciences, humanities, some business, some fine arts.

In any event, I'm looking forward to both of them. I'm only a little nervous about the small size. 8-12 in each would be better.