Plumbers, Training, and Persimmons

Well adventures in plumbing. I called the landlord and the plumber and his assistant arrived. They discovered my landlords had wisely poured concrete over the mainline to the house. So they thought they  might have to remove the toilet to rotor-rooter. Well, they discovered that wouldn't work. Also the water shut off to the toilet was frozen. So back to the basement they went and thought they may have to cut the pipe to get the job done. Then they found a clean out. Not where a clean out should be but none-the-less a clean out. They then cleaned out. It took quite awhile longer than I suspected it would. They did get it done and we turned on the shower, sink, and washer and it all drained as it should. Turned out there were tree roots in the line. So there ya go. Then I had to clean the bathroom. I threw out my shower curtain and went and bought a new one. Because welll.....back up water. 'nuff said.

In other news another elementary school in our district spent their funding on mathematics professional development for their teachers. It was a webinar with a presenter I had seen the last two summers at the trainings I went to down south. Some of it was a repeat of what I had already learned but some of it was new information. The information I had heard before it was good to hear again. It might sink in this thick brain if I keep hearing it. It was very kind of their administrator to invite teachers from other schools. Only two of us attended from the other school. I was grateful the invite was extended. I really enjoyed the opportunity to learn more. It clarified some information for me. I hope they will invite us to the next one because it was great. What is amazing to me is that I have learned so much about teaching math these past three years. I am way more successful at teaching math to students than I am reading at this point. I always thought reading was my strong suit. However, because I felt math was my weakest teaching area I sought out every potential math professional development opportunity that was extended to us. I am very glad I did this. Not that I don't need to learn more, I definitely do.

So my Friday was spent in training and with plumbers. I know... super exciting. I started cleaning house today and put most of my recycling in my car to drop off at the recycling center. I hoped to make it there today but that didn't happen. My little buddy next door came over and "helped me" vacuum and shred paper. His sister came over and wanted to make banana bread. So we made that and I popped that in the oven. In my last basket from bountifulbaskets.org  I received persimmons. I had only read about persimmons in books. I couldn't have even described a persimmon. So I decided to attempt to make Persimmon Bread. I have NO idea if I will like it hate it or will feed it to the birds. It is in the oven right now.  I will let you know how that turned out. If it is good I have enough persimmons for another batch. Here is the recipe I used from Food.com.

Persimmon Bread: 

Makes 1 loaf

• 1cup persimmon puree (from 3 -4 Fuyu persimmons)
• 2tablespoons water
• 1/2cup butter, softened
• 1cup granulated sugar
• 1teaspoon vanilla
• 3eggs
• 2cups all-purpose flour
• 1teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Grease a standard loaf pan
2. Cut out the stem of each persimmon and cut into chunks. Puree the persimmons in a food processor or blender with 2 Tablespoons water.
3. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add vanilla. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the persimmon puree and beat until thoroughly combined. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda. Add flour mixture to batter and beat until smooth.
4. Pour into a loaf pan and bake at for 50- 60 minutes, until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool well before slicing. Well wrapped, the bread will keep for a few days.