This weekend is sure to be great! Start it off yesterday with a nice day in service with my parents, then lead into a sunny Friday today. Stop the presses, tonight Betsy and I have actually planned an outing…with other people. We’ve invited our siblings and a small group of friends out to see Ice Age 2. We plan to go get some great food at The Highlander then step right next door to our favorite theater, the cozy Midtown Art Cinema.

Then, on Saturday, we’re going to a concert! I think that the last concert we attended was Rufus Wainwright back on June 15 of last year. We’re going to see Josh Rouse down at the Variety Playhouse. He is definitely one of my favorite artists currently, particularly with his stellar new album Subtítulo (which I’m makes an early bid for my top albums of the 2006; Nashville made #8 on my list for 2005). You know that I can relate to a Southern guy who decides to move to Spain.

Exciting weekend!

Ice Age 2, Josh Rouse, Variety Playhouse, Midtown Art Cinema, Movies, Concerts

Finally got around to putting some of the Buffalo pics up on the photoblog. They are really good! Doesn’t Betsy just look adorable?! Now I have to sort through the pics from the other digital camera and put those, up sooner or later.

Oh, I painted this little memoir of our trip. I love getting opportunities to paint again.

Buffalo, Painting

Betsy and I have been waiting eagerly for Josh Rouse’s new album, Subtítulo, to come out. It’s really great!

We can’t wait to see him in concert this upcoming weekend at Variety Playhouse.

All of his albums are so laid-back and highly replayable.

I stumbled upon another highly replayable CD by searching Amazon for “Norah Jones.” Recently Norah Jones has just come out with an album as a member of a groovy band called “The Little Willies.” It is such a fun CD. You just want to bounce along to it.

Josh Rouse, Norah Jones, Music

Finally, something to blog about. Tonight Betsy and I felt like some typical Mexican food, so we head down Buford Hwy. We pulled into one called “La Feria.” The decor was very happy! There were traditional Mexican colors and cut-paper designs everywhere. There was a telenovela blasting, and some Mexican music pumping back in the kitchen. There were only two people there, but we thought it to be our best bet.

Upon opening the menu, we saw so many unexpected choices. Not your typical run-of-the-mill Mexican restaurant, but all kinds of specialities. I was in an adventurous mood, so I got the quail. I’d never eaten quail before, I don’t think. Betsy got a speciality called “Pollo a la crema” that was really tasty too. To top it off, the guacamole was so good that I had to order some to go to eat with some chips at home.

Mexican, Restaurants, Fun

Today I had a very wonderful class. We worked on our “Escritura” assignment for the entire class period. This was a very creative assignment that required a lot of pre-writing activities to properly prepare them to write, a fable. The class was abuzz with questions for their writing and it seemed that they really got the point of imperfect vs preterite past tense (the hard grammar part of the chapter).

To top it all off, every day since I’ve returned from SCOLT conference, we have done show-and-tell to end the class. This wonderful idea I got from John Conner over at Breaking the Barrier (thanks!). The students have really taken a liking to the event! That makes me happy to see.

Today a student brought “The Easy Button” for show-and-tell. Evidently it is fairly popular in commercials now, though I haven’t seen it since I have don’t watch much tv. She described it to the class in perfectly prepared Spanish! Then, upon leaving, she said that she wanted me to have it. A modern-day apple!!!

Show-and-tell, Easy Button, Class, SCOLT